PSYC 2245 4 - Key terms important for midterms and final PDF

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Key terms important for midterms and final...

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Chapter 2 -Social Psychology: the scientific study of the way peoples thoughts, feelings and behaviour are influenced by the presence of other people. oAn empirical science with well-developed set of methods to answer questions about social behaviour oBeing able to observe scientifically what is happening oMeasuring particular characteristics oSome sort of evidence needs to be available oScience: the study of the physical and natural world and phenomena, especially by using systemic observation and experiement oThrough a careful and gradual process, the truth is discovered -Hindsight Bias: when people exaggerate how much they could have predicted the outcome of something AFTER it has occurred -Theory: an organized set of principles that can be used to explain observed phenomena. -Hypothesis: a testable statement about the relationship between two or more variables oContinual Processes of Theory Refinement: -Develop Theory-Test specific hypothesis derived by theory-revise theory based on results—-formulate new hypothesis 3 Types of scientific methods: Observational, Experimental, Correlational. -Observational Method: observation of people and systemic recording of measurements in their behaviour. oEthnography: method that attempts to understand group or culture by observing it from the inside without imposing any preconceived notions they may have -Inter-judge reliability: Level of agreement between two or more people who independently observe and code a set of data; by showing that two or more judges independently come up with the same observation, researchers ensure the observations are not subjective opinions Correlational Method: technique in which researchers systemically measure two or more variables and asses the relation between them (how

much one can be predicted from the other...