Goals
- Describe these terms: basic vs applied research, peer review, laws, theories, IRB
- Explain the scientific method
- Create a sample operational definition from a given variable
- Contrast descriptive, correlational, and experimental research
Exam Questions
What is a law vs theory?
Principles that are so general as to apply to all situations in a given domain of inquiry are known as laws.
A theory is an integrated set of principles that explains and predicts many, but not all, observed relationships within a given domain of inquiry.
Research Methods
Observations -> Theory -> Hypothesis ⮌
From an observation about the world, craft a good falsifiable theory about the data, then create an experiment to confirm a hypothesis about the data and use that to form more conclusions and observations about the world.
Laws
Principles that are so general as to apply to all situations in a given domain of inquiry are known as laws.
Such as Weber's Law.
Theories
A theory is an integrated set of principles that explains and predicts many, but not all, observed relationships within a given domain of inquiry.
Good theories are falsifiable. sa. All swans are white. By observing a black swan you can prove that that statement is false.
Peer Review
When studies are reviewed by other members of a profession to confirm and provide credibility to research.
Institutional Review Board (IRB)
A group of regular people and scientists that make sure an experiment is ethical. Ethical meaning that the value to science is worth the risk of the study on participants.
Research Designs
Common-causal variables may cause both the predictor and outcome variable in a correlational design, producing a spurious relationship. The possibility of common-causal variables makes it impossible to draw causal conclusions from correlational research designs.
Descriptive
Describe current state of things.
The goal of these designs is to get a picture of the current thoughts, feelings, or behaviors in a given group of people.
Correlational
Observe relationship between 2 or more variables.
Cannot be used to draw inferences about the causal relationships between and among the variables.
Experimental
Independent -> dependent variable experiments.
Needs a control group.