Intro to Psychology Methods Research

Intro to Psychology Methods/Research How did early psychologists help us develop varied approaches to studying the mind and human behavior? What is the biopsychosocial approach and why is it critical in framing the proper approach to psychology? How do psychologists conduct research today? How do we explore the mind? Insights from the early days Introspection: the examination or observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes Analytical School Basic Definition Structuralism Study of the elements of consciousness, conscious experience can be broken down into basic conscious elements Functionalism Concerned more with the capability of the mind than with the process of thought, focus on the function or purpose of consciousness and how it leads to adaptive behavior Gestalt The whole is greater than the sum of the parts Complete Levels of Analysis Handout • 1. Most people suffer from unrealistically low selfesteem. What is Intuition? Lets test it……. • 2. The opinions of 1500 randomly selected people can provide a fairly accurate picture of the opinions of an entire nation. • 3. The scientific finding that depressed people tend to have low self-esteem proves that depression causes people to be down on themselves. • 4.Often people think that psychological findings are common sense that people knew all along. • 5. Given the number of people who purchase lottery tickets, statisticians believe it is actually likely that somewhere, someone will win the lottery twice. • 6. Several psychics have been subjected to scientific tests of their abilities and found to possess real paranormal powers. Intuitive Thinking…………….. Hindsight Bias Overconfidence Perceiving Order CONFIRMATION BIAS Flaws of Intuition Scientific Method OPERATIONAL DEFINITION 1. Forming a question 3. Testing the Hypothesis 2. Forming a hypothesis 5. Drawing Conclusions 4. Analyzing the results Final Element: REPLICATION Case Studies ADVANTAGES • Good source of hypotheses. • Provides in-depth information on individuals. • Unusual examples can shed light on situations or problems that are unethical or impractical to study in other ways. DISADVANTAGES • Vital information may be missing, making the example difficult to interpret. • The person’s memories may be selective or inaccurate. • The individual may not be representative or typical. Naturalistic Observation ADVANTAGES • Allows description of behavior as it occurs in the environment. • Often useful in first stages of a research program. DISADVANTAGES • Allows researcher little or no control of the situation. • Observations may be biased. • Does not allow firm conclusions about cause and effect. Laboratory Observation ADVANTAGES • Allows more control than naturalistic observation. • Allows use of sophisticated equipment. DISADVANTAGES • Allows researcher only limited control of the situation. • Observations may be biased. • Does not allow firm conclusions about cause and effect. • Behavior may differ from behavior in the natural environment. Surveys ADVANTAGES • Provides a large amount of information on large numbers of people. • Cheap • Hits a lot of people at once DISADVANTAGES • If sample is non-representative or biased (Volunteer bias), it may be impossible to generalize from the results. • Demand characteristics: people respond in a way they know the researcher wants them to • The wording of surveys may be biased and participants are not always honest • Low response rate KEY TERMS: Populations & Samples ▪ Population: everyone who can be in a study ▪ 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: Subset 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 A random sample typically generates a representative sample ▪ Sampling bias: An error in the sampling process that allows some members of a population to be more or less likely than others to be included in a study. Correlations ▪ Shows how closely related two sets of scores/variables are to each other (A is related to B) ▪ How well does A predict B? ▪ No manipulation of variables in correlational studies so cannot prove causation ▪ A statistical measurement called a correlation coefficient (represented as r) describes the strength and direction of the relationship. ▪ A scatterplot is a type of graph used to display correlational data so that the relationship between two variables is visible Netflix & Not so Chill ▪ A positive or DIRECT correlation, shows variables that either rise or fall together ▪ V1: # of HW assignment turned in increases; V2: a person’s grade in Psych also increases ▪ A negative or INVERSE correlation, shows variables that go in opposite directions ▪ # of hours watching Netflix increases; a person’s GPA decreases Correlations ▪ Correlation coefficients range from +1.00 to -1.00 ▪The number (-.38) represents the strength 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 mean Causation Correlation Does not mean Causation Confounding (Third) Variables • Third variable problem: Positive correlation between murder rate and the sale of ice-cream. • Third variable which includes a confounding 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 Illusory Correlations? • Illusory correlation: A suspected relationship that doesn’t empirically exist • I saw a few very short students getting A’s on my quizzes in class, therefore, short kids must be smarter! Experiment ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES • Allows researcher to control the situation. • Permits researcher to isolate cause and effect and to distinguish placebo effects from treatment effects. • Situation is artificial, and results may not generalize well to the real world. • Sometimes difficult to avoid experimenter effects. When psychologists set up an experiment, they think, “If I do X, the people in my study will do Y.” X Independent variable Y Dependent variable In an experiment, participants are randomly assigned . . . . . . into experimental and control groups . . . which are then subject to independent and dependent variables. Random Assignment Controlling for confounding variables such as parental intelligence and environment Participants What does “blind” mean in research lingo? • Single-blind study • Experimenter knows who is in which group • Participants do not • Double-blind study • Neither experimenter nor participants know who is in which group • Eliminates experimenter bias What is the Placebo Effect? • An action or substance given to members of the control group; the fake treatment that has no benefit, but is administered as if it does • People taking the placebos often experience effects that are similar to those reported by the participants taking the actual drug or treatment Does my Experiment Test what it is supposed to test? What is validity? ▪ Internal Validity: How well constructed was the experiment to control for confounding variables? ▪ Content Validity: Learning Shakespeare, test questions on Shakespeare NOT Geometry ▪ 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 ▪ Face Validity: Tests appears valid to test taker ▪ Construct Validity: Self-esteem is a CONSTRUCT. What does it exactly mean though? Difficult to operationalize, need to be clear how you are measuring the construct What about……Reliability? • Refers to the consistency of a research study or measuring test. • If a person weighs themselves during the course of a day they would expect to see a similar reading. Scales which measured weight differently each time would be of little use. Central Tendency • 3 Measures of Central Tendency (OR single scores that represents a whole set of scores) • Mean: the arithmetic average • Add all scores then divide by number of scores (N) • Strongly influenced by outliers – gets pulled up or down depending on extreme data points • Median: the middle score in a distribution • Mode: the most frequently occurring score Measures of Variation (Variability) Standard deviation: Average distance from the mean for a set of scores • Higher the SD, the less similar the scores are • SD = 0 means all the scores in the distribution are the same • If our first test has a SD of 5, everyone scored similarly, if it was 50, our scores were not similar at all! Normal Distribution Of Scores • IQ Scores, heights, shoe sizes of large groups of people usually produce a symmetrical distribution; pattern of scores on one side are a mirror of the other side • Referred to as “Bell Curve” because of the shape • Data in a normal distribution fall around the mean in the same way each time • Percentile rank: Percentage of scores in a distribution that a particular score falls above 68 - 95 - 99.7 rule • In a normal distribution: • 68% of scores fall within 1 SD of the mean • 95% fall within 2 SD • 99.7% fall within 3 SD