Psychological Research and Ethics
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
The Study of Psychology
• Psychology is the scientific study of
behavior and mental processes
• Psychology values empirical evidence
• Psychology employs critical thinking
• Psychology employs systematic research
methods
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Pseudopsychologies
• Pseudopsychologies are unreliable
approaches that do not use the scientific
method
• Examples of pseudopsychologies include:
– Astrology: system that tries to relate personality to
the movement of the stars
– Palmistry: idea that reading a person’s character
from the lines on their palms
– Psychokinesis: notion that humans can move
objects through mental concentration
– Follicology: notion that personality characteristics
are related to hair color
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Goals of Psychology
–Description of behavior using careful
observations
–Explanation involves identifying the cause(s)
of behavior
–Prediction allows for specification of the
conditions under which a behavior will occur or
not
–Psychological knowledge can be used to
assist changes in behavior
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Psychological Research
• Two forms of psychological research:
– Basic research seeks answers for theoretical
questions
• E.g. How is hunger controlled by the brain?
– Applied research seeks answers for specific
application problems
• E.g. Organizational psychology studies leadership,
job satisfaction, job training, and development
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Areas of Psychology
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Clinical
Educational
School
Industrial/organizational
• Developmental
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
•
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Social
Comparative
Neuropsychology
Health
psychology
• Cognitive
Descriptive Research
• Naturalistic observation refers to the systematic
recording of behavior in a natural state or
habitat
– Jane Goodall observing apes in the wild
• Surveys are instruments designed to sample
attitudes or behaviors
– Asking persons at a rally how they feel about animal
rights issues
• A case study is an in-depth study of a single
person
– Freud used the case study method to probe anxiety
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Complexity of working with
Humans
• Due to the “humanity” of humans, we can’t
always perform experiments. Therefore,
some knowledge is gained through
correlational and descriptive methods.
• Also, humans are inquisitive and active.
Rarely do they act as passive participants in
an experiment (unlike a fruit fly)
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Correlational Research
• The correlation technique
indicates the degree of
association between 2
variables
• Correlations vary in direction:
– Positive association: Increase
stimulus= increases in specific
behavior
– Negative association: Increase
stimulus= decrease in specific
behavior
– No relation: No relationship between
stimulus and behavior
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Correlations
• Correlations also vary in the strength of
the association
– Zero correlation: no relationship between
the 2 variables
– Strong correlation: knowing the value of one
variable permits one to accurately estimate
the value of the other variable
• Strong correlation can be positive or negative
• Correlations can be seen in scatter plots
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Correlation Difficulties
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
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
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Control versus Realism
• Desired state in an experiment is isolation
and manipulation of one variable.
• Does this lead to a contrived and unrealistic
situation? If so, how does that impact the
validity of your findings?
– Are your findings generalizable to the real world?
• Human research is a delicate tradeoff
between realism and control
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Realism
• Experimental Realism: impact of an
experiment on a subject. Does the
participant take the experiment seriously
• Mundane Realism: similarity of the
experimental environment to the real world
• Experimental realism can occur in the
absence of mundane realism
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Ethics
• Often necessary to deceive participant
during experiment: although this
deception is often minor (disguising the
hypothesis of interest)
• Reasons for this need:
– Self Presentation Biases
– Good Subject Bias
• Question arises – is this right?
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E
Ethics, continued
• Decision on experiment and deception is
based upon a cost/benefits analysis
– Are the potential costs to the participant worth the
benefits of the knowledge gained?
– Increasing the difficulty of answering this question
is that you can’t be sure what results the
experiment will produce!!
• Problem of deception can be reduced with a
thorough debriefing
© 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Huffman: PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION, 7E