Research in Psychology
1. What role does critical thinking play in
this course and the field of
psychology?
2. What makes psychology a science?
3. How do psychologists use research to
study human behavior and mental
processes?
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“…kids are spending 11 hours a day with
technology,” says Gary Small, MD, director of
the University of California, Los Angeles,
Center on Aging.
Based on your OWN KNOWLEDGE, what do
you think the impact of this might be?
Figure 1.5 - Psychology’s Research Methods
Applied to Studying Social Media Use
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Key Questions for Critical
Thinking
1. What am I being asked to believe or
accept?
2. What evidence is available to support the
assertion?
3. Are there alternative ways of interpreting
the evidence?
4. What additional evidence would help to
evaluate the alternatives?
5. What conclusions are most reasonable?
The Scientific Method:
The approach used by psychologists to systematically
acquire knowledge and understanding about behavior
and other phenomena of interest.
1. Identify questions of
interest stemming from
• Behavior and phenomenon
requiring explanation
• Prior research findings
• Curiosity, creativity, insight
3. Carry out research
Operationalize hypothesis
Select a research method
Collect the data
2. Formulate an explanation
Analyze the data
Specify a theory
Develop a hypothesis
© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
4. Communicate the findings
Types of Psychological Research
• Descriptive research
• Finding out about some variable
• Correlational research
• Discovering relationships between
variables
• Experimental research
• Establishing causal relationships
Introductory Psychology Concepts: Descriptive Methods
Population vs. Samples:
• Random
• Convenience
Population
Purposive
Stratified
Unrepresentative
sample
Sampling procedure
Representative
sample
© The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Correlational Research
• Examining whether and how variables are
related and change together
• Correlation Coefficient:
-1.00 ≤ r ≤ 1.00
• Direction: Sign
• Strength: Number
Value of the Correlation Coefficient
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0.7 - 0.9
0.4 - 0.6
0.1 - 0.3
0
Strength of Correlation
Perfect
Strong
Moderate
Weak
Zero
Figure 1.4 -
Scatter Plots
Showing
Positive or
Negative
Correlations
Correlation Studies
• Correlation ≠ causation
• Third variable problem
• Some other variable could account for
relationship between two variables
• Third variables also called confounds
Experimental Research
• Determining whether causal relationship
exists between variables
• Experiment
• Manipulation of one or more variables that are
believed to influence some other variable
• Random Assignment
• Researchers assign participants to groups by
chance
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Experiments and Causation
•
•
•
•
Random assignment helps establish causation
Independent variables  manipulated
Dependent variables
 measured
Experimental groups
• Experience manipulation
• Control groups
• Serve as baseline for comparison
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Experimental Research: Validity
• External validity
• Do experimental results apply, or generalize, to
real world?
• Internal validity
• Are changes in dependent variables due to
independent variables?
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Experimental Research: Bias
• Experimenter bias
• Demand characteristics
• Research participant bias
• Placebo effect
• Double-blind experiment
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Seven Ethical Principles
• Informed Consent – inform participant of all features
of the research
• Openness and Honesty – relationship between
investigator and participant
• Right to Decline or Discontinue – to protect
participants dignity and welfare
• Protection from physical and mental harm –
investigator protects participant
Ethical Principles
• Debriefing participants – After data is collected the
investigator informs participants about the study.
• Correct undesirable consequences – procedures may
have undesirable consequences for the participants,
investigator needs to detect and remove or correct
them.
• Information Confidentiality – the data/outcomes
must avoid identifying any particular test subjects