12/09/2016 Chapter 2: Hypotheses/Falsifiability The Scientific Method 1. Ask a question 2. Background research 3. Construct hypothesis 4. Test hypothesis with experiment 5. Analyze data and draw conclusion 6. Report results Where do research ideas come from? - Common assumptions, observations, practical problems, past research, theories Theory - Framework for organizing and explaining data from prior research - Spurs new research that tests boundaries of a theory Hypothesis - Tentative statement about something that might be true - Eg. giving leads to happiness in children - Data - Can 'support'/'fail to support' or 'be consistent'/'be inconsistent with' a hypothesis - Can't 'prove' or 'confirm' a hypothesis Prediction - Specific statement about the expected outcome of an experiment, given your particular method - Eg. children will smile more often when they give a treat to a puppet rather than when they receive one Parsimony Principle that if multiple theories explain the same phenomenon the simpler one is best Falsifiability - Principle that an idea should be able to be shown false, if it is in fact false - If a theory is falsifiable, it is scientific; if a theory is not falsifiable, it is unscientific Bowlsby's Attachment Theory (example theory) - Knowledge ( #1 Ask Question) - Children are predisposed to develop attachments to their parents - Children use caregivers as secure base to explore environment - Increases chance of survival - Framework for organizing and explaining related data ( #2 Background Research) - Orphanage studies (Spitz, 1945), deprivation study in monkeys (Harlow, 1962, 1964), Infants perform in the 'strange situation task' (Ainsworth, 1967)
- Generate new hypotheses and spur future studies (#3 Construct Hypothesis) - If attachment helps guarantee survival, we should also observe attachment between pets and owners (Hypothesis) - "Domestic cats (felis silvestric catus) Do Not Show Signs of Secure Attachment to Their Owners", "Is the dog-human relationship and attachment bond? An observational study using Ainsworth's 'Strange Situation Task" (Spur future studies)
Chapter 4: Variables and Operational Definitions Variables - Any event, situation, behavior or characteristic that can take more than one value - Independent Variable - variable that is the cause, that you manipulate expecting to cause a change in the DV - Dependent Variable - Variable that is the effect, that you you measure as it is expected to have changed from the IV - IV > DV = Cause > Effect 1 Confounding Variable - Variable that is intertwined with another variable in a study 1 Situational Characteristics of the environment Response Response or behaviour of participant/subject ? Participant Characteristic of participant/subject Mediating - Psychological process that occurs between situational variable and response variable Operational Definitions 1 Definition of a variable in terms of the techniques used to measure/manipulate it Relationships Between Variables - Strength (ranges between -1 and 1) of relationship measured by correlation coefficient r - Positive linear - Perfect positive correlation (1), high positive correlation (0.5-1) , low positive correlation (0.1 - 0.5) 1 Negative linear (-0.1 to -1) - Perfect negative