Social Psychology and Science #
Confirmation bias is searching for or processing information in ways consistent with pre-existing beliefs.
Formulating Hypotheses and Theories #
Psychology is a scientific endeavor! You have to generate theories and hypotheses, devise tests, analyze the results, and present what you learned. And then… that’s right… you have to do it again.
Research Designs #
The Observational Method #
Basic observation is when you watch people do something and record what you observe.
Archival analysis is when you analyze existing records of behavior.
Some limits:
- Restricted to the observable
- May be rare
- May be subtle
- Doesn’t say why something happened
The Correlational Method #
The correlational method involves statistically estimating the relationship between two variables. Note that correlation is not equal to causation! Also, you need to be careful about extraneous variables.