SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
CH02_RESEARCH METHODS
IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
D R . S İ B E L Ç A L I Ş K A N
s i b e l . c a l i s k a n @ b a u . e d u . t r
AGENDA
WHY do social psychologists do research?
HOW do social psychologists do research?
• Social Psychology: An Empirical Science
Empirical research allows us to test the
validity of personal observations and folk
wisdom.
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: AN
EMPIRICAL SCIENCE
1. Hindsight Bias is the “I-knew-it-all-along”
phenomenon.
= Tendency to exaggerate prediction of an outcome after knowing that it
occurred
Anything seems commonplace once explained.
why we cannot rely solely on intuition and common sense
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: AN
EMPIRICAL SCIENCE
2. Overconfidence: Sometimes we think we know
more than we actually know.
 We overestimate our intuition. Therefore
scientific investigation is needed.
FORMULATING HYPOTHESES AND
THEORIES
• Inspiration from Earlier Theories and Research
Science is cumulative and people often
generate hypotheses based on previous
theories and research.
• Hypotheses based on Personal Observations
Personal experience, current events, and
literature can provide a source of
hypotheses to test.
BASIC CONCEPTS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
THEORY
A body of related proposition
intended to describe some
aspect of the world
RESEARCH QUESTION
SIMPLE
TESTABLE
FALSIFIABLE,
BUT CAN
NEVER BE
PROVED
HYPOTHESIS
A prediction of what will happen
under particular circumstances;
prediction of how particular
variables will be related.
INDEPENDENT VARIABLE (IV)
It is the variable that is expected
to be the CAUSE of a particular
outcome. In experiments this is
the manipulated variable.
DEPENDENT VARIABLE (DV)
It is the variable that is expected
to be the OUTCOME ; it is
expected to be affected by the IV
and measured in experiments.
RESEARCH DESIGNS IN
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Method
Focus
Question Answered
Observational
Description
What is the nature of the phenomenon?
Correlational
Prediction
From knowing X, can we predict Y?
Experimental
Causality
Is variable X a cause variable of Y?
- What determines this choice?
Social psychology relies on three types of methods -observational, correlational, and experimental -- to
provide empirical answers to questions about social
behavior.
How research data is gathered
• Data gathering techniques are
– Observations
– Self-report (surveys, questionnaires)
– Archival information
• Research can be conducted in research
laboratories or in natural settings (field
research)
THE OBSERVATIONAL METHOD
• The technique whereby a researcher observes
people and systematically records measurements or
impressions of their behavior.
–Goal is describing social behavior
Examples:
• Ethnography: Description from an “insider’s point of view”
• Archival analysis: Researcher examines accumulated documents (archives)
• Participant observation: the observer interacts with the people being observed
Limitations?
INTERJUDGE (INTERRATER)
RELIABILITY
• Accuracy of observer
• Do you see what I see?
• Important to establish reliability when observation is used
Interjudge Reliability: The level of agreement
between two or more people who independently
observe and code a set of data
THE CORRELATIONAL METHOD
The technique whereby two or more variables are
systematically measured and the relationship between
them (i.e., how much one can be predicted from the
other) is assessed.
• Goal is predicting social behavior
• E.g., Surveys (they can also be used for
observational / descriptive methods)
THE CORRELATIONAL METHOD
Correlation Coefficient
A statistical technique that assesses how well you can predict one
variable from another
GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTION
You hear a news story describing the following
research finding: the more fast food children eat,
the lower their scores on reading, math, and
science tests. Even though this study was with
kids, does it make you want to cut down on the
amount of fast food you eat?
LIMITATIONS OF THE
CORRELATIONAL METHOD
No random assignment
 self selection bias- select themselves into a group
 confounding variables cannot be controlled
No causal interpretation possible; correlations are not
causation!
Three possible interpretations:
1. A  B
2. B  A (reverse causation)
3. C  A & C  B (third variable)
Correlational Research


Cannot establish causality
Vulnerable to problems of interpretation
 Reverse causality problem
 Does low self esteem cause depression, or does
depression cause low self esteem
 Third variable issue
 Does another variable such as violence in the
family cause both depression and low selfesteem?
SURVEYS
Information is derived by simply asking the population
of interest. Surveys can be either interviews or written
questionnaires.
– Representative sample of people asked about attitudes or behavior. Random
selection can ensure that a sample is representative.
–Goal can be both describing and predicting social
behavior
Limitations?
The correlational method often relies
on surveys, as well as on
observational data. Surveys are
used when the variable of interest is
not easily observable.
Surveys and Representativeness
Population
Unrepresentative
sample
Sampling procedure
Representative
sample
The correlational method identifies only
whether two variables are associated, and
not why they are related.
Only the experimental method, which
systematically controls and manipulates
events, can determine causality.
THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
• An independent variable (IV) is manipulated
• A dependent variable (DV) is measured
• Many basic experiments consist of two levels of the IV
• experimental group
• control group
• Control over extraneous (confounding) variables
• holding them constant
• random assignment to conditions (if assignment is not random we
talk of quasi-experiments)
 A causal relationship between the independent and
dependent variables can be established
THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
Method in which the researcher randomly assigns
participants to different conditions and ensures these
conditions are identical except for the independent
variable (IV) (the one thought to have a causal
effect on people’s responses).
– Goal is explaining (WHY?) social behavior
(answering causal questions)
– Limitations?
Experimental Design
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmBqwWlJg8U&ab_channel=EverywherePsychology
ADVANTAGE OF THE
EXPERIMENTAL METHOD
Usually high in internal validity
Internal validity = The extent to which one can be
sure that differences in the DV have only been
caused by the IV and by no other factors
Even with random assignment, there is a small probability
that different characteristics of people are distributed
differently across conditions. To guard against
misinterpreting results, scientists calculate the probability
level (p-value) that their results would occur by chance.
DISADVANTAGE OF EXPERIMENTAL
METHOD
•May be low in external validity
•External Validity
–The extent to which the results of a study can
be generalized to other situations and to other
people.
TWO KINDS OF EXTERNAL VALIDITY
Generalizability across
1. Situations (psychological realism & cover
story)
• the extent to which we can generalize from the
experimental situation to real-life situations
2. People (random selection & cultures)
• the extent to which we can generalize from the
people who participated in the experiment to people
in general
TRADE-OFF BETWEEN
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL VALIDITY
• Internal validity: randomly assign to conditions and control for extraneous variables
• External validity: generalize to everyday life
• “Basic dilemma of the social psychologist”
(Aronson & Carlsmith, 1968)
–Too much control, generalizable?
–Too much like real life, control all extraneous
variables?
• The way to resolve this basic dilemma is not to try to do everything in a single
experiment!
Bystander Effect
Latané and Darley (1970)
Copyright © 2015, 2012, 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The murder of Kitty Genovese
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jKtugVokaY&ab_channel=InsideEdition
Criteria to Evaluate the Quality of
Research
VALIDITY & RELIABILITY
•Internal validity
Confidence that the DV has only been caused by the IV. Also
the degree to which plausible alternative causes have been
controlled for
• External validity – how natural / generalizable is the
research?
Confidence that the results can be generalized to the
population of interest, to other measurement methods, to
another similar study, to other contexts, and to a real-life
situation and
• Reliability
The degree to which the particular way that researchers
measure a given variable is likely to yield consistent results
VALIDITY VS. RELIABILITY
TESTS OF EXTERNAL AND
INTERNAL VALIDITY
• Replications / Methodological Pluralisim
– Repeating a study, often with different subject populations or in
different settings
– Ultimate test of external validity
• Meta-analysis
– A statistical technique that averages the results of two or more
studies to see if the effect of an independent variable is reliable
– Test of internal validity
BASIC VERSUS APPLIED
RESEARCH
• Basic Research
– Designed to find the best answer to why people behave as they
do
– Conducted purely for reasons of intellectual curiosity
• Applied Research
– Designed to solve a particular social problem
• “There is nothing so practical as a good theory.” (Lewin,
1951)
– To solve social problems, one must understand underlying
psychological dynamics
ETHICAL ISSUES IN SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY
• Researchers need to use ethical guidelines in
their research!
– Scientific beneifts outweigh the costs to participants
– No physical or psychological harm
– Minimal deception
– Informed consent-an agreement to participate
– Debriefing-explaining the true purpose of the study
• Some research can only be done as
correlational
– Ex. Cigarette smoking and cancer
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The Hypothesis?
The IV?
The DV?
The Manipulation?
The population?
The sample? Sample Size?
Is a Causal Explanation possible? Why? Why not?
Internal Validity?
External Validity?
Why is experiment 2 conducted?
NEXT WEEK
AGENDA
Social Cognition
Ch3