Name:___________
Research Methods in Classic Psychology Experiments
Back in the day … when experimental psychology became popular, social scientists were
finding all kinds of ways to test “what if …”.
After Freud and Jung had blah blah blahed their way to understanding the human mind, the
behavioural psychology experiments of Skinner & Pavlov got people thinking about new
ways to understand why people do what they do.
Go to the website:
http://www.experiment-resources.com/psychology.html
Check out one of the classic experiments below
(or any other on this website that you find interesting)
Bob Doll Experiment – Al Bandura
Zone of Proximal Development – Leo Vygotsky (what teacher’s are supposed to do)
Asch Experiment – Conformity in Groups – Solomon Asch
The Good Samaritan Experiment – Darley & Batson
Stanford Prison Experiment – Philip Zimbardo
Stanley Milgrim Experiment – Stanley Milgrim
Cognitive Dissonance Experiment – Leon Festinger
Overjustification Effect - The Felt Tip Marker Study – Lepper, Greene, & Nisbett
Stereotypes and the Clark Doll Test – Kenneth Clark
The Hawthorne Effect – Mayo & Landsberger
Moral Development Theory – Jean Piaget
Task 1
- State the Title and Researcher of the experiment
- Summarize the findings of the research (IN YOUR OWN WORDS … summaries are already at the
beginning of the experiments in bold … and the findings are at the end in the CONCLUSION section)
- Describe a situation in real life where the findings of this research help us understand how or why
people make the choices they do.
- Categorize and explain why the research methods are: (one from a) and one from b) )
a) Positivist OR Interpretivist
b) Inductive OR Deductive
THIS IS DUE BY FRIDAY FEBRUARY 24th
… SEE Task 2 , Task 3 AND RUBRIC ON NEXT PAGE …
Task 2
- Find a good youtube video about your experiment. Make sure that the video shows the research
in a way that you agree with (ie., don’t choose a “whack” video)
- Post the following on our class Edmodo account: (www.edmodo.com )
 The Title and Researcher of your study
 The main finding of the research (in 1 or 2 sentences)
 The link to your youtube video.
THIS IS DUE BY FRIDAY FEBRUARY 24TH
Task 3
- Check out two other classmate’s posts (read the post, watch the video … usually about 3
minutes)
- Reply to both with a real-life application of the research findings.
THIS IS DUE BY MONDAY FEBRUARY 27TH
Example of Edmodo Post (from Task 2)
Example of Edmodo Reply (from Task 3)
Operant Conditioning – B.F. Skinner
Sweet video – pigeons were hilarious – lol . This
can be applied to living in an abusive home
Skinner found that rats and pigeons learned complex where you’re never sure when you’re going to
tasks if given a reward, or “unlearn” things if given a
get hurt … it makes you stressed out all the
punishment. When rewards or punishments were
time.
not predictable it caused addiction and stress.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ctJqjlrHA
RUBRIC
Expectation
demonstrate an
understanding of
various research
methodologies
(K)
analyse information
from a social science
perspective
(T)
communicate findings
with effectively (C)
locate and select
relevant information
(A)
Level 4
Thorough and
insightful
understanding
Level 3
Considerable
Understanding
Level 2
Some
understanding
Level 1
Little
understanding
Redo/Incplt
Poor
understandin
g
Thorough and
insightful
analysis
Thorough
analysis
Some analysis
Poor analysis
Incomplete
analysis
Findings
communicated
effectively and
creatively
Info is
relevant, and
interesting
Findings
communicated
effectively
Findings
communicated
with little
effectiveness
Info has little
relevance
Findings
communicat
ed
ineffectively
Info not
relevant.
Findings
communicated
with some
effectiveness
Info is relevant Info is
somewhat
relevant