PSY 310A Experimental Methods

1
PSY 310A Experimental Methods

• Course introduction
• Research topic
• A scientific approach

2
Course introduction

• Find and review syllabus
• Questions?
• Discuss the textbook
• Collaborative approach

3
Research topic

• Forgiveness literature
• Finding sources
• PsychArticles
• PsychInfo
• Omnifile

4
A scientific approach

• Advantages
• Verification and consensus
• Control of biasing factors
• Self-correcting features
• Disadvantages
• Somewhat artificial
• Some very interesting questions are eliminated
• Controlled by questions asked

5
Assumptions of a scientific approach

• Nature is not chaotic, but lawful
• The laws of nature are deterministic
• Thus, they apply to everyone, if the situation is
  consistent.
• The laws are discoverable, at least in principle.
• Experimental methods apply these assumptions to
  human behavior.

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Assumptions of science

• Uniformity and determinism
• Reality in nature
• Rationality
• Regularity
• Discoverability

7
Characteristics of science

• Control
• Operational definition
• Replicability
• Objectives of science
• Describe
• Explain
• Predict
• Control

8
Science as epistemology

• Authority
• Empiricism
• Rationalism
• Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
• Inductive reasoning
• Deductive reasoning
• Intuition
• Charles Sanders Pierce (1877) Tenacity
• James Frazer (1890) Magic

9
Let this attitude be in you

• A key characteristic needed in people in science
  is the virtue of humility. Consequently, try to
  be
• Tentative
• Open to reason
• Impartial
• Open to correction
• Sensitive to others Do no harm (Hippocrates,
  5th century B.C.)

10
What makes an experiment?

• Equivalent groups
• Manipulation of an independent variable
• Measurement of a dependent variable