Theory development and testing
- Theories as organizations of observables
Constructs, Latent Variables, and Observed Variables
- Multiple levels of description and abstraction of observables
- Multiple levels of inference about observables
Latent Variables as abstractions of observables
- latent variables as the common theme of a set of observables
- central tendency across time, space, people, situations
Constructs as organizations of latent variables and observed variables
- observed measures
- manipulated measures
Theory as metaphors and analogies
- planetary motion
- Ptolemy
- Gallileo
- Einstein
- springs, pendulumns, and electrical circuits
- the Bohr atom
Business competition and evolutionary theory
- business niches
- adapation to change in niches
Learning, memory and cognitive psychology
- Telephone as example of wiring of connections
- Digital computer as information processor
- Parallel processes as distributed information processor
Examples of psychological constructs and their operationalization as observables
Love
Conformity
Intelligence
- multiple theories
- components of ability
Learning and memory
- Procedural --memory for how
- Episodic -- memory for what
Models and theory
- mathematical models
- dynamic models --simulations
Conceptual models
- as guides to new research
- as ways of telling a story
- organizational devices
- shared set of assumptions
Examples of theory
- Ratcliff -- diffusion model of reaction time - formal model
- Atkinson and Shiffrin -- two store model of memory
- Broadbent -- the Maltese Cross - an organizational model
- Sanders-Gopher -- energetic aspects of information processing
- links from psychophysiology to cognitive psychology
- Humphreys-Revelle -- personality - motivation - cognition
- conceptual organization of multiple domains
Personality theory
- Atkinsonıs theory of Achievement Motivation
- Eysenckıs theory of Introversion/Extraversion and arousal
- Bussı theory of sexual behavior and evolutionary psychology
Social Psychology
- Balance theory and cognitive dissonance
- Stereotype use and resource availability
Clinical Psychology
- Diathesis - Stress models of schizophrenia and depression
- Learned Helplessness/Hopelessness models of depression
Testing theory -- the role of design
- measurement or manipulations of constructs
eliminating or reducing threats to validity of construct
Part of a course in Research Methods in Psychology (Psychology 205) at Northwestern University, developed by William Revelle.
Back to the course syllabus.
Revised May 4, 2002