Ch. 2 Research Methods
FYI: There are several video clips that
might not show up when you pull up
the power point. Under each clip there
is a web address for that clip. You can
either hyperlink or copy and paste the
address to view the clips.
Goals of Psychological Research
•
Description of social behavior
– Are people who grow up in warm climates different
from those in cold climates?
• Establish a relationship between cause &
effect
– Does heat cause higher amounts of aggression?
• Develop theories about why people behave
the way that they do
– We dislike Duke students to feel better about
ourselves
• Application
– Creating effective therapeutic treatments, more
successful negotiation tactics, and greater
understanding amongst groups of people
Terms used in Research:
• Hypothesis: we are moving from an
educated guess to expresses a
relationship between two variables.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.simplypsychology.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/hypothesis.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.simp lypsychology.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/aimshypotheses.html&usg=__NRh_zDntHhH4hvdURWKWFOXauEI=&h=384&w=428&sz=19&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=toLUNv3BSvDUhM:&tbnh=123&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhypothesis%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1T4ADRA_enUS376US377%26biw%3D1899%26bih%3D922%26
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Variables
http://tytusblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/engineers-make-better-models-of.html
are what you are manipulating in
your experiment.
Theory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw
•Aims to explain
Validity and Reliability
•Valid:it is accurate
• Reliable:
It can be replicated
• Placebo: “sugar pill” that is
given and the patient
believes to be the real thing.
SHHHHHHH
This lady thinks she
has been given and
antidepressant but
really she only got a
placebo.
Overconfidence
• We tend to think we know more
than we do.
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!!!)
Confirmation Bias
• A tendency for people to accept
information that confirms what they
want believe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc0tiNGi8jw&feature=related
Hindsight Bias
•
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nixlab.net/blog/IMG/Hindsight.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nixlab.net/blog/&usg=__ f8Bb5dXyhMSq_cgPTXQXgL
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The tendency to believe after the
outcome that you knew it all along.
Hawthorne Effect
• Just knowing you are participating in a
study can change the outcome.
http://www.propagandaposters.us/poster11.html
Experimenter Bias
• “Did you study for
your test?”
• “MMMM.. I think
he wants me to
say yes?!?”
Experimental vs. Control Group
• Experimental Group:
Receives Treatment
• Control Group:
receives no treatment
Double Blind vs. Single Blind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSP2OMiFxhg
Self-Fulfilling Prophesy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOSNGKYKgX4
Methods of
Research
Types of Research
• Descriptive
• Correlational
• Experimental
Experimental Method
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EjJsPylEOY
• Done in a lab.
• Good: You have control over your environment.
Naturalistic Observation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSiWXkOfHBY&feature=related
Good: Let’s you observe
in a participants natural
setting.
Naturalist Observation
BAD: you have to
avoid disturbing
what you are
studying
Case Studies
An intense study of a person or group. Diaries,
Tests, and interviews.
The Case Study
• Where one person (or situation) is
observed in depth.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of using a tragedy like
the Columbine School Shootings as a case study?
Survey Says…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iejf3YZboQ8
• We like Survey’s because:
– 1. They are cheap
– 2. you can get a large amount of
information quickly.
We don’t like Survey’s
because:
1. Danger of participants
putting the wrong answers.
Sampling
• SAMPLE is a group of
participants that
represent a POPULATION
six-sigma-material.com
http://mips.stanford.edu/courses/stats_data_analsys/lesson_1/234_0_a.html
A BAD SAMPLE
Finding the average height of men or
women by using basketball players for
your sample.
Longitudinal Studies
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cfr.nichd.nih.gov/images/children_linedup2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cfr.nichd. nih.gov/longitudinal.html&usg=__w_lHT2
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59
Data is taken from a group over a period of time.
Cross-Sectional Studies
• Data is collected from groups of
individuals of different ages and
compared.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://goodhealth.freeservers.com/Indonesia_kids_smoking.jpg&imgrefurl=http://snusnews.blogspot.com/2009_06_07_archive.html&usg=__oeZOXLzTwb1zO0kgdosS5qe_rCU=&h=351&w=468&sz=29&hl=en&start=132&zoom=1&t
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http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lindsayheller.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/cigar_smoking_oldladies_0.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.lindsayheller.com/%3Fpaged%3D11&usg=__FkMm0dRST9c9tJNK7B_LT22sqOE=&h=580&w=704&sz=70&hl=en&s
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Correlation
The measure of a relationship between
two variables
=
This would be a positive correlation
• Correlation
• Weight Gain
Drinking Café
Mochas from
Dakotas everyday
=
This would be a negative correlation
Correlational Research
• Detects relationships between
variables.
• Does 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?
Why do we have
Ethical Guidelines?
During WWII the Nazi’s conducted some
very unethical studies. Many of their
subjects died during theses experiments.
What you need to know is:
1. These people were denied the
principles in the Belmont Report including
being asked to participate.
Willowbrook
• Due to overcrowding, children were denied
entrance to the Willow brook State Mental
Hospital unless parents enrolled their
children into the less-crowded hepatitis
ward. Geraldo Rivera did a story on the
horrible conditions there. The children
were not clothed and forced to eat in three
minutes. It was horrible.
Tuskegee Syphilis Study: In
1932, the Public Health Service enrolled
several hundred syphilitic black males to
document the effects of the untreated
disease over time. Tuskegee was chosen
because approximately 40% of the male
population of the town was infected with
the disease. Treatment was withheld from
study subjects when penicillin was
accepted as the treatment for syphilis in
1943. This study was stopped in 1973 but
not before many subjects became seriously
ill, transmitted their disease to others or
died. This study exemplifies unfair subject
selection practices (syphilis can potentially
affect all human beings and is not limited
to African American males), denial of
informed consent and excessive risk in
relation to study benefits.
• Milgram Study (1963): The Milgram study
involved instructing subjects to administer
electric shocks to a study confederate in
response to poor performance. The subject
believed that he/she was involved in a study
about learning and memory with each shock
intended to affect the learning process. The
confederate pretended to be hurt by the
shock - in some cases, to the point of losing
consciousness; however, he/she did not
really feel any shock. The study objective
was to assess obedience to authority. This
study resulted in significant psychological
stress for some subjects including sweating,
trembling, stuttering and serious seizures in
three subjects. However, in a postexperimental interview, about half of the
subjects expressed that they were glad to
have participated in the experiment. The
question of whether this study was ethical
remains open to debate among scholars
today.
The Monster Study
• A Speech Experiment where Wendell
Johnson rounded up some orphans
and separated them into two groups.
The first group received positive
reinforcement all of the time. The
second group was constantly
critiqued. He wanted to see if they
would start stuttering.
http://www.highestfive.com/mind/5-unethical-psychexperiments/
• Stanford
Experiment
• A group of men
volunteered for a
study and were
given the roles of
prisoners or
guards. In a short
time the guards
took it upon
themselves to start
trouble with the
prisoners and the
experiment got out
of hand. Lesson in
“the Lucifer”
Effect. How good
guys turn bad.
Stanford: The Lucifer Effect
• When Good People Do Bad Things, Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H47hhWxlP5A
Ethical Issues in Research
• Respecting the rights of human research
participants involves:
– Informed consent is an explanation of a study and the
responsibilities of experimenter and participant
– Deception involving the subjects must be justified
– Confidentiality of study information must be maintained
– Debriefing refers to explaining the research process to
the subjects at the end of the study
• Animal research must be justified and must
minimize discomfort to participants
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION,
7E
• Who has to approve ALL
research???
•IRB
• Institutional Review Board
(IRB)
Statistics
• A branch of math that summarizes and makes
meaningful inferences from the data.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://pix.motivatedphotos.com/2009/8/26/633868570471027490STATISTICS.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.motivatedphotos.com/%3Fid%3D34720&usg=__v2u198pP5mA5uxBs2v5cCmV4Szo=&h=600&w=800&sz=70&hl =en&start=70&zoom=1&
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Normal Distribution
 Mode
Statistics
 the most frequently occurring score in a
distribution
 Mean
 the arithmetic average of a distribution
 obtained by adding the scores and then
dividing by the number of scores
 Median
 the middle score in a distribution
 half the scores are above it and half are
below it