Why Do Research? • • • • • To make better decisions To test our intuitions To increase scientific knowledge To build skills To participate in a distributed community of researchers • To impress important people Questions • Who cares about these results? • Do you believe the conclusions -- What else could be happening? • How much can we generalize the conclusions? • How would you design a future study to make the results more credible and generalizable? The Effect of Codes of Conduct on Cheating Behavior Method: True Experiment • Students were recruited to participate in an experiment and were told that they would be paid according to their performance in a difficult quiz. Students were randomly assigned to two different conditions. Half of the students had to sign a code of conduct pledging not to cheat before doing the quiz; the other half didn’t. After the quiz, all students were allowed to grade their own quiz. Results and Conclusions • Student who signed a code of conduct cheated much less than students who did not sign such a code. This suggests that public commitment to certain ethical standards increases ethical behavior even when unethical behavior is private. What is Good Research? • Research questions: interesting, generative, answerable • Design: be where the action is, make meaningful comparisons • Measures: valid to build your “case” • Analysis: objective • Presentation of results: persuasive • Maintaining an open mind ! Building Your Case • A researcher builds a “case” with evidence, but critiques and alternative explanations will emerge (by reviewers, other researchers) • How good is your case? – How good is the fit between your measures and your concepts/constructs? MEASUREMENT – Can you credibly claim a casual relationship? CAUSALITY – Does your result generalize to other contexts/populations? GENERALIZABILITY • But..there is no perfect research study • Thus, researchers to work in different ways, using different methods and contexts. Two Types of Studies: Exploratory/Descriptive & Hypothesis Testing 1.- Exploratory/Descriptive Studies ~ Open ended questions (the end result may be a testable hypothesis) e.g. : “How do individuals feel about cheating? “What processes do companies follow to reduce unethical behavior?” 2.- Hypothesis Tests ~ Statements of correlation or causality involving at least two variables, e.g. : H1: Individuals are less likely to cheat if they committed publicly to not cheating. H2: Interning in a financial services firm increases the value students place on monetary work compensation. Your Group Project Assignment Two requirements: 1. Hypothesis Tests with Causal Associations (not just correlations) 2. Data Collection (not just existing data sets) Example: Hypothesis with Causal Association – “Signing a code of conduct causes an increase in ethical behavior.” Hypothesis with Correlation – “Graduates from top-10 universities get higher scores on their GREs.” Making a Case for Causality • How can we conclude that something (the independent variable) caused something else (the dependent variable)? • Covariation – if x, then y; if not x, then not y. (i.e., knowing one allows better prediction of other) • Time order – x occurred before y • Rule out plausible rival hypotheses – “true experiment” with random assignment – or strong comparisons that provide a pattern of results • For example, if grads of top universities have higher GREs, is this due to intelligence, education, motivation, more practice/coaching in test taking? True Experiments • • • • You manipulate your independent variable Random assignment Nothing else varies systematically across conditions, except for the manipulation. 1. Laboratory experiments 2. Field experiments 3. Natural Experiments Not always possible to manipulate and randomly assign, so… Strong Comparisons • Longitudinal study of the same cohort of students over time • Comparison groups of cohorts of students by gender, age, major, university • Multiple dependent variables to show distinctive effects • For example, comparing seniors with different types of internships and juniors with different internship plans, try to control for major, GPA, career goals, etc.