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Ask Questions: Be willing to wonder. |
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Define Your Terms: Key to Research |
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Be precise about what is being studied. |
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The hypothesis is the statement that specifies
(predicts) relationships between variables. |
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Operational definitions are the precise definitions
in terms of how the variables are actually being observed and measured. |
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Ex: Anxiety can be operationally defined as a score on a particular anxiety
test. The score is the operational definition of anxiety in this study. |
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Examine the Evidence |
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What evidence supports or refutes the argument being made? |
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Analyze Assumptions and Biases |
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We must be aware of how our assumptions might bias our conclusions. |
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The principle of falsifiability means that scientific
predictions are made to expose the hypothesis to the possibility of disconfirmation. |
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Avoid Emotional Reasoning |
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Emotional reasoning can replace clear thinking. |
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Don’t Oversimplify |
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Resist easy generalizations and “either-or thinking”. |
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Resist arguing by anecdote - generalizing from a few examples to everyone. Ex:
One dishonest student does not mean that all students will cheat on an exam. |
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Consider Other Interpretations |
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Formulate hypotheses that offer explanations of the topic. |
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The goal is to arrive at a theory which is a
system of principles that tries to explain the phenomena and their interrelationships. |
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Be careful not to shut out alternative explanations too soon. |
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Tolerate Uncertainty |
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Many questions have no easy answers. We have to be willing to be uncertain when new
evidence questions our conclusions. |
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Replication is important before firm conclusions can be drawn. |
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