1 / 8

Science and Psychology: odds and ends

Science and Psychology: odds and ends. Causation Operational definitions. Causation. Understanding = finding causes 3 conditions for inferring causation (JS Mill) The cause must precede the effect The cause must be related to the effect Method of agreement Method of difference

francesgrant
Télécharger la présentation

Science and Psychology: odds and ends

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Science and Psychology: odds and ends • Causation • Operational definitions

  2. Causation • Understanding = finding causes • 3 conditions for inferring causation (JS Mill) • The cause must precede the effect • The cause must be related to the effect • Method of agreement • Method of difference • Method of concomitant variation • Other explanations must be ruled out

  3. Operational Definitions • Scientific concepts must be tied to observable operations • Operational definitions state the means of measuring a concept • Example: STM capacity is operationally defined as number of digits remembered • Converging operations: having multiple operational definitions for a concept

  4. Developing a Research Question • Where do research questions come from? • Narrowing down the question • Sources of information • Textbooks and Handbooks • Literature searches • Internet searches

  5. Where do research questions come from? • Logically derived from theory • Developed to resolve conflicting research results • From case studies, observation, and other non-experimental research • Failure of a theory to explain things from your personal experience • Serendipity – finding things you were not looking for

  6. Narrowing down the question • It’s easy to have a question that is too broad, but hard to have one that is too narrow • “Metaphor” is too broad, but “metaphor comprehension by bilingual speakers” might not be

  7. Sources of Information • Textbooks and Handbooks • Identify important studies • Narrow down the topic • Literature Search • Computerized databases via the web • PsycInfo – search journal articles by author, title, subject • SSCI – search for articles that cite an important study, or find out what sources an article cites • Internet Searches • Search engines and meta-engines • Buyer beware!!! • Consider the source

  8. Examples of Literature and Internet Searches • PsycInfo • SSCI (Social Science Citation Index) • Internet search engines • Google – no payola to determine order of search results • HotBot • Metacrawler – meta-engine; searches output of several search engines

More Related