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Research Methods

It is actually way more exciting than it sounds!!!!

Enduring Understanding:

• Psychologists use various methods to conduct their scientific research, each having benefits and drawbacks.

Research Methods Problems

Research Methods Problems:

1.) Hindsight Bias

2.) Overconfidence

3.) The Barnum Effect

Hindsight Bias• The tendency to believe,

_________ learning the outcome, that you knew it all along.

Monday Morning Quarterbacking!!!

Cubs FINALLY win World Series in 2016. AFTER they win, you said you knew they’d win all along. Really, did you? Or are you just telling a fib? Or is it hindsight bias?

Overconfidence

• 82% of U.S. drivers consider themselves to be in the top 30% of their group in terms of safety.

• 81% of new business owners felt they had an excellent chance of their businesses succeeding. When asked about the success of their peers, the answer was only 39%. (Now that's overconfidence!!!)

Overconfident driving skills

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The Barnum Effect

• It is the tendency for people to accept very ________________ characterizations of themselves and take them to be accurate.

Another fatal flaw…• Perceiving order in _____________ events.

• Flip a coin 20 times. What type of pattern do you think you’ll see?

• Random things (like a number coming up on the roulette wheel) are completely random. There is no real pattern. Ever.– In random sequences, patterns and streaks (like

repeating digits) occur more often than people expect.

– _______________________.

Critical Thinking

– “Smart thinking”

– Elements

• Examines assumptions

• Assesses the source

• Discerns hidden values

• Confirms evidence

• Assesses conclusionsThe Amazing James

Randi!

TesT Yourself…1.) Mrs. Yoder notices that the last four times she has been to Giant she has scored a parking spot right up front! She knows she is on a lucky streak!

2.) Brian is often called a Monday Morning Quarterback by his friends for saying he knew Nelson Agholor would be a bust.

3.) Janelle, a senior in high school with a 3.0 GPA, is filling out her college applications. When asked by her friends and family what schools she is apply to & which ones she’ll get in, she lists Princeton, Yale, Stanford, & Harvard and says she thinks she will get into all of them, except maybe Harvard, which is her reach school.

TesT Yourself…4.) Shrek & Fiona break up. Their classmate, Donkey, tells his mother that he knew all along the two of them were not going to make it.

5.) Janelle, a student in your class, is certain that Mrs. Yoder does not like her. For the last three class sessions, Yoder has not called on her to answer a question, even though her hand was raised.

6.) Carolina just took the latest Buzzfeed test online, the one about which drink you are most like, she feels like the computer read her mind because the results describe her perfectly!

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Applied vs. Basic Research• Applied Research has:

• YOU CAN USE IT!!!

• Basic Research explores questions that you may be curious about, but not intended to be _______________ used.

Research on therapies for drug addicts has a clear purpose.

Studying how kissing changes when you get older is interesting…but that’s about it.

Research Methods Terms

• A theory is an ___________________ using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events, often highly researched

• A hypothesis is a _____________________, often implied by a theory. In psych, it is a statement between or among variables. Ie – participating in class leads to better grades

Research Methods Terms

• Replication importance: If a result is true, it should show itself over and over. If a study shows that gratitude increases positive well-being, then replication of that study should show the same results. Replicated studies with the same results can lead to advancing our knowledge.

• Generalizability:

The PSYCH-nTific Method

• Develop a question

• Develop a hypothesis

• Design study and collect data

• Analyze the data

• Publish the findings

In Psych We Test Hypotheses & Refine Theories Using:

Descriptive methods: describe behaviors with case studies, surveys or naturalistic observations

Correlational methods:

Experimental methods: manipulate variables to discover effects and determine _____________

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How does a researcher choose which method to use? It depends on the research question. Each research method has advantages and disadvantages.

Descriptive Methods

Naturalistic Observation

Case Studies

Surveys

DISADVANTAGESADVANTAGES

Naturalistic Observation

• Allows description of behavior as it occurs in the environment.

• Allows researcher little or no control of the situation.

• Observations may be ____________.

• Ethical boundary – spying?

Observing and recording behavior in natural environment as it naturally occurs.No control - just an observer.

Beware of the Hawthorne Effect

• The alteration in behavior of the subjects in a study due to:

Whether the lights were brighter or dimmer, production went up in the Hawthorne electric plant.

DISADVANTAGESADVANTAGES

Laboratory Observation

• Allows use of sophisticated equipment.

• Allows researcher only limited control of the situation.

• Observations may be biased.

• Does not allow conclusions about cause and effect.

• Behavior may differ from behavior in the ___________ environment.

Case Studies

DISADVANTAGESADVANTAGES

• Provides in-depth information on individuals.

• Unusual examples can shed light on situations / problems that are unethical or impractical to study in other ways.

• Vital information may be missing, making the example difficult to interpret AND/OR the person’s memories may be selective or inaccurate.

• The individual may not be ________________________.

• Limits generalizability. • Time consuming & costly

____________ investigation of an individual, small group, or situation (typically over an extended period of time).

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CLASSIC CASE STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY

DISADVANTAGESADVANTAGES

The Survey Says….

•Provides a _____________ amount of information on a lot of people.

•Cheap / Easy

•Anonymous

•Can ask about things that aren’t easy to observe.

•Most ____________ type of study used in psych.

• If sample is non-representative or biased (Volunteer bias), it may be impossible to generalize from the results.

• _____________________: people respond in a way they know the researcher wants them to

• The ___________ of surveys may be biased and participants are not always honest

• ________ response rate

• Subjective self-report

Questionnaires and interviews that ask people

directly about their experiences, attitudes, or

opinions.

Population & Samples Population: ___________________________________

Psychologists would like to generalize what they learn to all

people but due to time and money, they have to pick a sample of the total population

Sample: ________ of a population who is actually IN the study

Random sample (random selection): every person has an equal chance of participating (names in a hat)

Representative sample: characteristics that are similar to those in the population (CB East kids; 10 kids from each grade)

A random sample typically generates a representative sample

Sampling bias: An ___________ in the sampling process that

allows some members of a population to be _________________ likely than others to be included in a study.

Abbreviations

• N = population size

• n = ____________ size

• Example: Of the students enrolled in Yoder’s AP Psych Course (N = 109), the most frequent complaint was “too much reading” (n = 58).

Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Studies

Cohort Effects:

Which descriptive technique would be best utilized in each case: a case study (CS), naturalistic observation (NO) or survey (S).

1. Mr. Lucabaugh wants to determine whether he should use the

building funds for a renovated student courtyard or a faculty

exercise room.

2. An army doctor wants to see how soldiers are handling the

transition back to civilian life.

3. A parent is curious to know how their child behaves when away

from home at school.

4. An animal researcher wants to prove that squirrels run in packs as

wolves do.

5. The Central Bucks School Board is trying to determine if teachers

and students feel the building facilities are adequate and safe.

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Correlational Research

*Important to note that surveys can also be used to

determine correlations.

Correlational Research

• Determines if a relationship exists between two things, how __________ the relationship is, & if it’s _________________________.

• Can NOT say that one variable CAUSES another.

There is a positive correlation between ice cream and murder rates. Does that mean that ice cream causes murder?

Shows how closely related two sets of scores are to each other

How well does A predict B? How well is A related to B?

No manipulation of variables in correlational studies so

A ______________ measurement called a correlation coeffiecient (represented as r) describes the strength and direction of the relationship. You will not have to calculate!

Correlational Research

RRRrrrrr.

Netflix & Not so Chill

A positive or _________ correlation, shows variables that either rise or fall together

# of HW assignment turned in increases, a person’s grade in AP Psyche also increases

A negative or INVERSE correlation,

# of hours watching Netflix increases, a person’s GPA decreases

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How to Read a Correlation Coefficient Correlations Correlation coefficients range from _____________

The number (-.38) represents the _________ of the correlation and the sign represents the DIRECTION

A correlation coefficient of -.70 indicates a stronger relationship than a coefficient of +.65

A correlation of 0 shows that the two sets are not related

Correlation Does NOT Equal Causation Illusory Correlations

• Illusory correlation:

• I saw a few very short students getting A’s on my quizzes in class, therefore, short kids must be smarter!

Correlations are useful for predictions and avoidance of unethical experiments where it is impossible to manipulate the independent variable

• Death of a family member and levels of depression the following year

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Third Variables

• Third variable problem: Positive correlation between murder rate and the sale of ice-cream.

• Third variable which includes a _____________________________ variable

• Weather is cold, fewer people are out interacting with others and less likely to purchase ice-cream.

• Hot outside, more social interaction and more ice-cream being purchased

• Weather is the variable that confounds the relationship between ice-cream sales and murder

Predict whether the correlation would likely be positive (P) or negative (N):

1. The number of fast food restaurants: the obesity rate in the U.S.

2. The average U.S. household income: annual gross profit reported by U.S. retailers.

3. The illiteracy rate: the presence of Head Start or early intervention education programs.

4. The number of hours spent commuting to and from work; the amount of dinners cooked at home from scratch.

5. Hours spent learning a skill; proficiency in the skill.

Experimental Research

Experimental Research

• Explores cause and effect relationships.

Drinking too much Redbull causes __________-like behavior.

EXPERIMENTS allow the investigator to CONTROL a situation & decrease the possibility that unnoticed, outside factors will influence the results. In an experiment, some event, treatment, or condition, is changed, controlled, or manipulated by the psychologist so they can observe the effects.

PRO - ONLY research method to:

CON - possibility of confounding variables & other problems with methodology

X Y

When psychologists set up an experiment, they think, “If I do X, the people in my

study will do Y.”

Independent variable

Dependent variable

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Independent Variable

• Independent Variable:

• Hopefully the independent variable brings about change.

• If there is a drug in an experiment, the drug is almost always the independent variable.

Dependent Variable

• Dependent Variable:

The independent variable (IV) is the CAUSE and the dependent variable (DV) is the EFFECT. If the dependent variable changes ONLY when the IV changes, we can conclude the changes in the IV caused the changes in the DV.

CollegeBoard LOVES independent & dependent variables.

Sugar, Sugar…You are my Null Hypothesis

• Null hypotheses: IV has no impact on DV

• Researchers work to

• "Hyperactivity is unrelated to eating sugar" is an example of a null hypothesis.

• If the null hypothesis is tested and found to be false, using statistics, then a connection between hyperactivity and sugar ingestion may be ______________.

Sugar has no impact -Yeah, right!

Operational Definitions• The definition of

behaviors or qualities

• Explain what you mean in your hypothesis.

• How will the variables be measured in “real life” terms.

Let’s say your hypothesis is that chocolate causes violent behavior.

• What do you mean by chocolate?

• What do you mean by violent behavior?

Operationalize This!

Create operational definitions for the following variables:

1.Happiness

2.Intelligence

3.Popularity

4.Good music

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Do Cell Phone Use and Driving Mix?

•Participants in an experiment who are not exposed to the treatment variable; this is the ______________ group.

Control group

•Members of an experiment who are ____________ to the treatment variable or manipulation by the researcher; represents the treatment group.

Experimental group

Experimental vs. Control Group

PARTICIPANTS FOR THE CONTROL & EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS MUST BE RANDOMLY SELECTED & ASSIGNED!!!!

Same, same but VERY diff!Random sampling is the first step in selecting

a population to study and will result in a test

group __________________ of that population.

Random assignment (which only applies to

EXPERIMENTS) is the manner in which

participants in the experimental or control group

____________________ and this should be

representative as well with each participant

having an _________ change of being in either

group.

Random AssignmentControlling for confounding variables such as parental intelligence and environment

Participants

Potential problems with experiments

1 - confounding variables

2 – placebo effect

3 - assignment problems

4 - bias

a.) experimenter bias

b.) demand characteristics (participant bias)

Confounding Variable

• The interference by a third __________ so as to distort the _________________ being studied between two other variables

• Could be the difference between the two groups other than the IV

• Example: Vitamin X vs. Vitamin Y. Group 1 run in the morning. Group 2 in the afternoon. Do you see a problem with this?

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Beware ofConfounding Variables

If I wanted to prove that smoking causes heart issues, what are some confounding variables?

• The object of an experiment is to prove that ______________.

• A confounding variable is anything that could cause change in B, that is not A.

Lifestyle and family history may also effect the heart.

Another Problem…• Placebo - An action or substance given to members

of the control group; the _________________ that has no benefit, but is administered as if it does

• PLACEBO EFFECT - the ________________ of performance due to the subject’s _________ about the results - For instance, the subject may feel better simply because they THINK they are going to. (the power of the MIND!!!)

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are needed to s ee this p icture.

ASSIGNMENT PROBLEMS

• Sometimes we CAN NOT randomly assign participants to a particular group. For instance, sometimes we will compare boys to girls or old people to young - these types of studies are called _______________________. There are potentially confounding variables with these.

Types of Bias

• Experimenter bias - (experimenter expectancy effect) - a phenomenon that occurs when a ____________________ about the outcome of a study influence the __________ obtained (may not even be aware he’s doing this)

• Demand characteristics - (participant bias) - the _________ the participants gain about the study suggesting how they should ‘respond’

Clever Hans Reading Analysis

• Did Hans know math?

• What was Hans doing?

• What problem do you think this may illustrate with conducting research?

Ways to control for biases & improve experimentation

• Random assignment

• Single & double blind studies

• Standardization

• Replication

• Reliability & validity

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Single & Double Blinds

• Single-blind study

– Experimenter knows who is in which group

– ___________________ do not

• Double-blind study

– __________ experimenter nor participants know who is in which group

– Eliminates experimenter bias

Ways to Improve Experimentation

• STANDARDIZATION - the __________ set of instructions & procedures are used so the experiment is exactly the same for everyone

• REPLICATION - MUST be able to reproduce experiment using different subjects & experimenters but __________ procedures & manipulations - _____________________ (similar) results in order to be considered reliable.

VALIDITY vs. RELIABILITY

How CONSISTENTLY individuals score on a test or research study.

Validity - Does my Experiment test what it is supposed to test?

Internal Validity: How well constructed was the experiment to control for ___________ variables? (think INSIDE the exp.)

Content Validity: Learning History of Pysch & Research Methods, test questions on this content and NOT Abnormal Psych & Treatment

IQ tests are strictly timed, may be a good measure of speed of processing. However, if researchers do not believe processing speed is an important component of intelligence, content validity would be questioned

External Validity: How well do the results of the experiment ___________ other settings or participants? (think OUTSIDE)

Types of Experiments

• BETWEEN SUBJECTS DESIGN -

• WITHIN SUBJECTS DESIGN - the behavior of an experimental participant BEFOREreceiving treatment is compared to his behavior AFTER receiving treatment*

•If two treatments are used, the order of them could cause an effect - ________________________ can eliminate this. Ex: