Area of Study 1: Introduction to Psychology

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As we interact with our world we try to explain what we see- we come up with our own ideas as to how people think and feel and why they behave the way they do.
This however often leads to inaccurate conclusions.
Psychologists rely on the use of the scientific method to ensure the conclusions they reach about people’s behaviour and mental processes is accurate.

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The scientific method refers not to “what” but to “how” knowledge is gained.
The scientific method by definition is a systematic set of procedures used when planning, conducting and reporting research
The scientific method starts with a topic to investigate- the research question

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Depending on the topic being investigated, a psychologist will identify and study two or more
variables- factors that are able to be measured and may change under different circumstances.
Psychologists often look at the relationship between variables
Variables can be:
 Physical- such things as height, hair colour, shoe size,
 Psychological- things such as personality traits (shyness, aggressiveness, friendliness), memory, intelligence,
 Physiological- heart rate, blood pressure, dilation of blood vessels

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Confounding Variables: Variables that were not controlled during the experiment that may have influenced the results. For example if testing the influence of caffiene on test performance, the time of day or average caffeine consumption may be a confounding variable.
Limitations: Can the study be generalised to the larger population? For example in a study of caffeine effect on test performance did the study test males and females of a variety of ages?

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 Pick one of the research questions from the handout. Design a study investigating the research question. Outline the:
Variables
Hypothesis
Who are your participants?
How many participant will take part?
Study Design (Method)
What might be some confounding variables?
What limitations might be present in your design?

Research Methods are a particular way of conducting a research study or investigation to collect data.
 Experiment – researcher changes and controls participants’ experiences to measure a particular response
▪ Allows us to test for a cause-effect relationship
 Survey – used to ask participants about their thoughts, feelings or behaviours

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Research methods describes the different ways that psychologists conduct psychological research
Three main types of research methods:
 1. Experimental Research- Conducting
Experiments
 2. Descriptive Research- Case Studies and
Observational Studies
 3. Correlational Research

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Involves testing whether one variable influences another variable. e.g. Drinking red cordial reduces the amount of work primary school children complete in class.
Can be conducted in a laboratory or in a field setting
Will often include an experimental group and a control group.

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A variable is anything that can be measured or may change over time
There are three types of variables in experimental research:
 1. Independent Variables
 2. Dependent Variables
 3. Extraneous Variables

 The independent variable is the variable that is manipulated or changed by the experimenter.
This variable is thought to cause a change in the other variable of interest to the experimenter.
 E.g. Listening to music while studying decreases performance on a test. The independent variable would be listening to music. In an experiment, the experimenter would have two groups: one that listens to music and one that does not. Therefore “listening to music” is controlled by the experimenter and it is therefore the independent variable. It is also thought to cause a decrease in test performance.

 The dependent variable is the variable that is
measured and that changes as a result of the effect of the independent variable. The change in the dependent variable is thought to depend on the independent variable.
 E.g. In the study on music and test performance, test performance would be the dependent variable as it is the variable that is measured and that will change depending on exposure to the independent variable (music).

 There are many other variables, known as
extraneous variables (EV),that may influence the
DV. Experimenters will always try to control or minimise the effect of these variables.
 e.g. In the study on music and test performance possible extraneous variables could include amount of time studying, subject, type of study, stress, amount of sleep, age, motivation, mood, intelligence, gender, etc.

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Extraneous variables can be divided into:
Participant variables: individual differences in personal characteristics (e.g. age, sex, religion, cultural background).
 To reduce participant variables we use random sampling and random allocation
Experimenter variables: personal characteristics of experimenter (e.g. age, sex, etc.)

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Independent variable (IV) is manipulated or changed
(e.g. anger management technique, number of classes attended, method of teaching) I VARY / I CAUSE
Dependent variable (DV) is the effect. The DV is
measured. Whether or not the DV will change depends on the IV.
(e.g. amount of road rage, exam results) MEASURED / D EFFECT
I CAUSE - D EFFECT
Example… Listening to a radio broadcast of a sports event while studying for a test decreases performance on the test
IV =
DV =
LA 2.4 pg 57
IV/DV
Worksheets x
2

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Limitations relate to the experimental design.
Where there aspects of the experimental design that may have influenced the results in any particular way?
For example if you conducted a study investigating the effect of music on test performance but only conducted the study with Yr
11 students then the results of the study can only be generalised to other Yr 11 students and not the general population. You would mention in your prac report that future studies need to involve a range of ages.

Participants of a study are often divided into 2 groups:
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Experimental Group is exposed to the experimental condition (IV – e.g. studying with radio)
Control Group is exposed to the control condition
(no IV – e.g. studying without radio)
Random allocation (or random assignment) is when participants are just as likely to be in the experimental group as the control group
 (e.g. drawing names out of a box)
 Ensures that each group will have the same kind of backgrounds, characteristics and abilities.

LIMITATIONS/ADVANTAGES:
Briefly describe two advantages
& two limitations of experimental research
Complete LA 2.7 pg 60
Complete LA 2.10 pg
64 Questions 1-3 & 5
(not 4)

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 By using the scientific method and collecting empirical evidence, psychologists can be more confident that the conclusions they make are accurate. There are many ways that we can try to explain human thought, feelings and behaviour that do not use the scientific method. Some of these approaches claim to be scientific but in fact are not.
These approaches are known as pseudoscience.
The conclusions made by pseudoscience are often inaccurate and based on faulty or insufficient evidence.

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Based on the belief that the movement of the stars and planets influences our personality, moods, behaviour and events in our lives.
Uses very broad statements that are highly applicable to most people e.g. Mistakes could cost you time and money.
Often predict the occurrence of events that are highly likely to happen anyway- e.g. You will meet someone new in the coming days.

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The Barnum effect describes the willingness with which we accept a statement as accurate when it is vague and general.
People will also accept statements about their personality that are positive in nature:
You are a relatively tolerant person. You are generally well organised.

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Believes that personality traits can be “read” from the bumps on a person’s skull.
Stemmed from research on localised brain function but quickly became unscientific relying entirely on anecdotal evidence and ignoring cases that did not support the theory.

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Involves the analysis of a person’s handwriting to make conclusions about their personality and events that have occurred in their lives.
Graphologists often have people write about personal information- hence they can make predictions about their personality and life events!
Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGFFq9CsaXM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCQqdpqdKY0

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Descriptive research is a research method that focuses on studying and describing one or more aspects of thoughts, feelings or behaviour as they occur at a given time and place.
Examples:
 Case studies
Summarise the
 Observational studies information on ‘case
 Self reports studies’ & ‘observational
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Surveys
Questionnaires studies’ (pg 65 – 70).
 Interviews
Your notes should include
 Rating scales an explanation of each type
 Longitudinal studies of study, examples &
 Cross-sectional studies
 Twin studies advantages/disadvantages
 Adoption studies

 There are two types of data that a psychologist may collect to form their empirical evidence:
▪ Qualitative Data
▪ Quantitative Data

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Descriptive data expressed as words or pictures (“qualities”)
Some examples include:
 Written descriptions of observed behaviours
 Responses to projective tests such as the
Rorschach Inkblots
 Written responses to items on a questionnaire
 Pictures drawn by a depression patient

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Numerical data that mathematical procedures can be applied to (“quantities”)
“statistics”
Some examples include:
 Test scores
 Score on a closed questionnaire
 The number of items recalled on a memory test
Complete LA 2.15 pg 73 (Q2 only)
Complete LA 2.16 pg 73

Statistics are essentially mathematical procedures.
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Inferential are used for interpreting and giving meaning to results
Descriptive are used to summarise and describe results
Define these terms & complete the associated tasks:
Percentage – complete LA 2.17 (Question 1 only)
Table – copy dot points pg 75/76 (conventions/standards)
Graph – copy dot points pg 76 (conventions)
- Distinguish between the X & Y axes
- Draw an example of a bar chart, histogram, pie chart, line graph
& frequency polygon (identify each)

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Groups of people are often used in psychological research
Psychologists must be careful about how they choose these people as their selection must be
random and must be representative of the general public.
For example if a psychologist who wanted to study attitudes towards school would not want to pick only the top students with high grades because this group does not represent all students that go to school.

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A population refers to the entire group of people a psychologist is interested in studying.
In the previous example the population was all school students.
Other populations that psychologist may want to study include smokers, people who suffer depression, adolescents, people in a relationship, etc.
A population includes every single person that belongs to that group.

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If my population of interest is all students that attend school is it feasible to include every single school student in Australia in a study? No. It would be very expensive, time consuming and in most cases impossible.
Instead I could select a smaller group of school students to complete my study.
This group is referred to as a sample.

Some terms often used in Psychological Research:
 Sampling – Process of selecting participants for a sample.
 Must reflect the population
 Representative sample – is a sample that is approximately the same as the population from which it is drawn
 Random sampling – procedure that ensures every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected for research
 If everyone does not have an equal chance of being selected, the sample is called biased

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The sample must be selected in a scientific way to ensure that the sample is representative of the population. That is, the sample has the same characteristics as the population- sex, age, religion, cultural backgrounds, etc.
There are three types of sampling:
Random Sampling
Stratified Sampling
Opportunity Sampling

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Every member of a population is identified and a sample is randomly selected. Each member must have an equal chance of being selected.
Often names are placed in a data base and selected by computer

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Also called “convenience” sampling
Individuals are selected based on convenience
The easiest but least representative sampling procedure
E.g. Asking psychology students to take part in a study of memory; calling random phone numbers to ask them to take part in a survey

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Once the participants of a study are selected that are often divided into two groups:
 An experimental group
 A control group
The experimental group is exposed to the
experimental condition (the IV)
The control group is exposed to the control condition. This is usually a placebo or simply the absence of the IV.

 For example: A researcher is interested in studying the effect of alcohol consumption on driving precision.
The experimenter will control the amount of alcohol the participants consume (the IV) and will test driving precision with a driving simulator (the DV). The experimental group will be tested after they have consumed alcohol. The control group will be tested after they have consumed non-alcoholic drinks.

 The control group provides a standard of comparison against which the experimentor can compare the performance of the experimental group in order to determine whether the independent variable has affected the dependent variable.

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Are the results of the study valid?
Meaning does the study actually measure what it is aiming to measure?
For example if a study is measuring rates of depression among high school students- are they actually measuring “depression”? What diagnostic test are the using? Is it a VALID test of depression?

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Are the results of the study reliable?
Can the results of the study be repeated?
If an experiment if repeated then a reliable study will yield similar results each time.

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Data is the information collected in any research
Qualitative data relates to qualities or characteristics of what is being studied (e.g. descriptions, words, meanings, pictures, texts).
This data does not involve numbers
Quantitative data is numerical information of the quantity or amount of what is being studied. E.g. weight, percentage of yes/no, reaction time.
(Q2 only)