1.Measurement & Description: Measure ways under study and to understand behaviour
2. Understanding and Prediction: using
hypothesis
3. Application and Control: Gathering information that goes with solving everyday life problems
Steps in a Scientific Investigation
Step 1. Formulate a Testable Hypothesis. Translate a theory into a hypothesis, and to be a usable hypothesis
it needs to be a operational definition. Which allows the action to be measured or a controlled variable.
Step 2: Select the Research Method and Design the Study: Putting the hypothesis into an empircal test and getting participates to participate in the experiment
Step 3: Collect the Data: is required for the experiment
Step 4. Anallze the Data and Draw Conclusion: Reasearchers use statistics to
analyze their data
Step 5: Report the Findings: The last step is for researchers to share their data and get positive
feedback to improve their work
Advantages of the Scientific Approach
First is the clarity and precision which is specifies in exact and the second is relative
intolerance of error and the ideas are brought to empirical test.
Independent and Dependent
Variables
Independent Variable is where the experimenter is in control and
manipulates the variable also consist of the experimental group
that also get special instructions
Dependent Variable is where the experimenter does nothing with the group
they observe as is, and the controlled group is where there is no specific group
given.
Naturalistic Observation
Naturalistic observation is where
researchers study people without
distrupting their environment
Researchers are able to learn
how people can go about
doing their daily lives
without having to change
anything, they can get a more real answer.
Case Studies
Investigating certain psychological
disorders and providing researchers
with real life theories.
Surveys
Allows researchers to
ask questions and do
interview as part of
their studies to collect
specific behaviour
Descriptive Statistics
that organizes and
summarizes the data
The median, mean and mode are used to find
the exact scores, averages and most frequent
scores within a survey.
Sampling Bias
Its to collect data
from a much larger
population
Representative population
involves an empirical
research of the population