AP PSYCH Unit 2.1 Research Methods & Description Methods 1. Why are answers that come from the scien3fic approach more reliable than those based on intui3on and common sense? 2. Have you ever been confident in an answer you’ve given, then been proven wrong, and said to yourself, “I knew it all along!”? 3. What are the 3 main components of the scien3fic aGtude? 4. What is good about cri3cal thinking? Limits of Intuition • Have you ever played a game involving the rolling of dice? • Did you roll harder when you needed a high number? • Did you roll lighter to get a low number? • Did you know that has absolutely no effect on the probability of what you will roll?! • Intui3on is why you did that… So what exactly is intui3on? Hindsight Bias • The tendency to believe, after learning of an outcome, that one would have foreseen it. • “I knew it all along” • Example: Boss thinking about job applicants that don’t perform well on the job • Part of limits of intuition Let’s Test Hindsight Bias! Answer these questions on scratch paper… • 1. Martin Luther King's age at death. • 2. Length of the Nile River. • 3. Number of original British colonies in America. • 4. Number of books in the Old Testament. • 5. Diameter of the moon. • 6. Pounds in a ton. • 7. Year in which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born. • 8. Gestation period (in days) of an Asian elephant. • 9. Air distance from London to Tokyo. • 10. Deepest (known) point in the oceans. Answers • 1. Martin Luther King 39 years • 2. Nile River - 4187 Miles (6,738 km) • 3. 13 • 4. Old Testament - 39 Books • 5. Moon diameter 2160 Miles (3,476 km) 6. 2000 Lbs in a ton 7. Mozart - 1756 8. Elephant - 645 days 9. Tokyo to London 5959 Miles (9,590 km) • 10. Ocean depth 36198 Feet (11,033 m) (Ah, Ohhhh, I knew that!) • • • • Overconfidence • We tend to think we know more than we do. • Together with hindsight bias, can lead to overestimate our intuition. • Example: Boss or job applicant, once working there, realizing applicant was full of it during the interview The Scientific Attitude: 3 Components • Curiosity • Eagerness skeptically scrutinize competing ideas • Humility / Being Humble, open-minded to learning errors we might make All of this leads to Critical Thinking… Critical Thinking • Not blindly accepting arguments and conclusions. • Ask Questions! • How do they know that? • What is this person’s agenda? • Is the conclusion based on feelings or evidence? • Does the evidence so cause and effect? • Are there any other possible conclusions? Think Critically • You have only an 8-liter jug and a 3-liter jug. Both containers are unmarked. You need exactly 4 liters of water. How can you get it, if a water faucet is handy? • Answer: Fill the 3-liter jug three times, each time dumping the water from it into the 8-liter jug. • The third time, this will leave one liter of water in the 3-liter jug, and the 8-liter jug will be filled. • Dump the water from the 8-liter jug down the drain, and then empty the one liter of water from the 3-liter jug into the 8-liter jug. • Now fill the 3-liter jug again and dump the water into the 8-liter jug. The 8-liter jug now contains 4 liters of water. • Various answers are possible. Think Critically • While relaxing on the deck outside her cabin one summer evening, Vivian fell into a deep trance-like sleep. When she awoke, she felt as if she had slept only an hour or two, but it was now the middle of winter. How could this be? • Answer: Vivian was on the patio of her first class cabin on a cruise ship. • She fell asleep just before the ship crossed the equator on a trip from Hawaii to New Zealand. • The equator is the dividing line between the opposite seasons. She fell asleep north of the equator while in the middle of summer and awoke two hours later south of the equator in the middle of winter. The Scientific Method & Using Observation in Psychology • Is a hypothesis in psychology the same as a hypothesis in a biology class? • What are the steps of the scientific method? • How do I create operational definitions in my psychological research? • How do scientists observe and describe behavior? • How should you choose a random sample? The Scientific Method Difference Between Theory & Hypothesis • Theory – An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events. • Well-established principle • Product of repeated testing of hypotheses or observations • Can predict general events • Generally accepted and extensively tested • Hypothesis – a testable prediction • For individual studies • Makes specific prediction about specific set of circumstances • Speculative guess that has yet to be tested Operational Definitions • Very important part of psychological research (you need to know this term all year for every unit) • Defines what the researcher will be observing and manipulating • Must be measurable and manageable • Not the same as a dictionary definition • For example: What is the dictionary definition of skinny? What would be our AP PSYCH operational definition of skinny? Generate more operational definitions on scratch paper, in small groups • Happiness • A Smile • Intelligence • Popularity • Good music • Delicious Food Replication • Replicate • Repeating a research study or experiment. • Increases confidence that the conclusion is reliable. Case Study Usually examines one individual in depth in hopes of reveling things true of us all. Positives: Can lead us in the right direction for other further and different studies extending from the case study Can be used to study rare phenomena Some times case studies are the only ethical way to study an idea Negatives: Can mislead us if the individual being studied is atypical. Usually rely on a single investigators findings…we have no way of assessing the reliability or validity of their observations or interpretations No two cases are alike Survey • These are very efficient because you can collect a great deal of information from a large group of people Survey Self reporting is not always accurate… participants may provide the response they think you want to hear and not the honest response. Example: 92% of people say they wash their hands after using the restroom every time. After conducting a Naturalistic Observation Study only 77% were found to wash their hands in the restroom every time. Also women(88%) are more likely to wash their hands every time than men (66%). Wording Effects: Watch how things are worded on surveys, this will come up later as framing Survey: Random Sample • By taking a representative sample of a given population we can generalize our results to that population. – The population in this case is the group being studied, from which samples may be drawn. • A Random Sample is: a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal change of inclusion. – 1500 people can accurately estimate 200 million people. Survey: Random Sample • • • • Let’s come up with 3 different ways to get a random sample at school. 1 2 3 For future reference: • Random Sample and Random Assignment will come up a lot. Know the difference. Random Samples are taken from a large population for observational research or experiments. • Random Assignment is taking a random sample and randomly assigning them to either experimental or control groups in experiments (only experiments, not other research) Naturalistic Observation • Observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to control the situation. – Does not explain behavior, simply describes it. – Can provide information for further research. Naturalistic Observation: Possible Observations You Could Conduct: • If you were performing a naturalis3c observa3on at school, what are some possible behaviors you could look for at school? – Think about things people do at certain 3mes of day – Think about loca3ons where many people are together at once and it would be easy for you to observe – Think about things younger students do differently than older students – Think about what men (boys) do differently than women (girls) – Think about what students do differently than teachers
