Tags: #notes
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Psychological Science

Define Psychology

The study of human mind and behavior

Misconceptions

A. Psychologists cannot read minds
B. Psychology is not just common sense

True or False activitey

TRUE:

• Freud was not a psychologist or psychiatrist
• Hypnosis can be used to relieve pain
• Couples who live together before marriage are more likely to divorce

False:

• Average person uses 10% of their brain

Psychology as a science

Goal of Science: Discover truth by observation
Scientific Method: 3 steps:
Step one: Hypothesis (prediction which can be tested)
Step Two: Test the Hypothesis (experiment)

• a common way to find subjects is students from universities

Step Three: Analysis (using statistics)

• More subjects = better results
• I.E. Bigger Sample size
• Find if the difference between samples is big enough to not be "chance" or "error"

Methods in Psychology (Types of studies)

Depends on goal

A. Goal: To determine if two factors are related.

• Method: Correlational study
  • statistical measure of relation between two or more factors

Example
Educational level and income of a subject.
With a few outliers, the higher the education level the higher the income. Thus, these two correlate.
Three possible outcomes
Positive Correlation
Negative Correlation
No Correlation