empirical questions
measurable through data, observations, experiments, etc
social psychological questions
measurable in terms of relations with people, the individual in social contexts, and the individual themselves
confirmation bias
searching for information that aligns with preconceived notions about something you believe to be right/ wrong
theory
integrated set of principles that explain or predict observed events
hypothesis
testable proposition that describes a relationship that may exist between events
- MUST have a failure condition, there has to be the potential for your hypothesis to be wrong for it to be tested
personal observation
looking at prior theories/ research that already exists. usually newer researchers build upon previous research this way
archival analysis
looking back through artifacts to observe what a specific behavior was like in the past
pros to archival analysis
allows us to see how social psych has changed over time
limitations to social psych
restricted to observable artifacts
not as good as direct observation (in real time)
correlational method
statistical estimate as to whether or not there is a relationship between two variables
positive correlation
increase/ decrease in one variable is associated with an increase/ decrease in the other
0 < r ≤ 1
r value
correlation coefficient
what does it mean when r = 1
there is a perfect positive correlation between the variables
- this never occurs in psychology, values can be very close to 1 however
what does it mean when r = 0
there is no relationship between the variables at all
negative correlation
increase in one variable is associated with a decrease in another variable
what does it mean when r = -1
there is a perfect negative correlation between variables
(remember that -0.5 is a stronger correlation than 0.2)
limitations to the correlational method
correlation ≠ causation
- if you want to know WHY something happens, you cannot use a correlational study
