Advantages of scientific approach
- Clarity and precision
- Intolerance of error
Goals of scientific approach
- Description (summarizing data, makes relationships between them understandable)
- Prediction (use research to identify what will occur)
- Understanding (identifying the factors that led to the result)
Theory
Systematic way of organizing and explaining observations
Hypothesis
A tentative statement about the way to or more factors interact/impact each other
5 steps of scientific method
Theory Hypothesis Test Evidence Conclusion
Experimental research
- Cause-effect
- Manipulate variable (independent variable) under controlled conditions and observes whether changes occur in a second (dependent variable)
6 steps in an experiment
- Hypothesis
- Variables
- Standardized procedure
- Participants
- Statistical techniques to data
- Conclusion
Independent group design (between-subjects)
Different participants are exposed to one level of IV
one measure “per person”
Within-subjects design
One participant is exposed to all the different levels of IV
repeated measures for one person
Mean, median, mode
Average, in the middle, most frequent
Inferential statistics
- interpret data + draw conclusions
- tells if the hypothesis was supported
Generalisability
Internal and external validity
Descriptive statistics
organize and summarize
Extraneous variables
Other variables than IV that can influence DV
Confounding
When two variables are linked together, and makes it hard to separate their specific effect on DV
Descriptive Research
- Case studies – in depth-study of the behavior of a small group or person
- Naturalistic observation- in-depth study of phenomenon in its natural setting (good generalizability)
- Survey research- questionnaires/interviews. Asks large number og people questions
- Can’t imply causation
Correlational research
- When variables cant be manipulated
- Exists when two variables are associated with one another
- Correlation coefficient indicates strength and direction of the association
Ethics in experiments
- Informed concent
- Welfare
- Voluntary
- Conficentiality
- Avoid deception
- Fair treatment
- Ethics approval
