02 Research Methods in Psychological Science F25.pdf

The Scientific Method

Psychologists are empiricists, meaning they base beliefs on systematic, objective observation of the world.

Scientific method

• It’s a Process of basing one’s confidence in claims based on systematic, direct observations of the world.
• usually by setting up research studies to test hypotheses we get from theories
• Theory is a set of propositions explaining how and why people act, think, or feel.

Examples:

However:

Pseudoscience / Bad Science

Not all things that look like science are actually good science. In this new information era, we need to develop our own sense of critical thinking.

One of the big example is the flat earth theory.

“Nowadays, human intuitively they are not trying to make the correct decisions. we tend to find data to support our claim instead of use data to find a theory.”

Which one of the thing that as example is like last class we talked about the confirmation bias.

Case Study: Autism and Vaccination

In psychology, our variable is some characteristics that a group of people have. Such as how outgoing a person is and how is it correlate to other person.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

is a neurodevelopment condition, it’s often as showed:

• Differences in social communication
• has shown patterns of interest or behavior that can be narrow or highly focused

And there is persistent, widespread and false belief that autism spectrum conditions are caused by vaccines (specifically, the MMR vaccine)

A recent Gallup poll showed 46% of US residents least ‘unsure’ if vaccination causes autism.