Do Now:
In full sentences on your index
card; list three (3) differences
between 9th and 12th graders.
How would you
prove it!
Objective: How is Experimentation Used in
Psychology?
• Experimental psychology is an area of
psychology that utilizes scientific methods to
research the mind and behavior. In the past,
psychological experimentation has been
controversial due to unethical experiments. It
is now strictly regulated by the American
Psychological Association (APA).
We are going to play a
short game.
Is everyone ready to play? If so raise your hand.
Is everyone comfortable?
Turn your index card over and put your answers
on there
Look at the list of words below for one minute. Memorize
as many words as you can in this amount of time.
Nine
Plugs
Army
Clock
Desk
Swap
Lamp
Bank
Horse
Hold
Cell
Apple
Fire
Color
Find
Ring
Table
Hold
Baby
Bird
Rust
Sway
Worm
Sword
Rock
Good Job! (a little positive reinforcement ), now same thing with these.
Horse
Orange
Table
Teacher
Apple
Cat
Yellow
Chair
School
Banana
Dog
Blue
Desk
Student
Kiwi
Fish
Green
Bookcase
Homework
Grape
Bird
Black
Bed
Class
Mango
Who got 7 or more the first time? Who got at least
5? Who got less? Who got more the second time?
Experimental Psychologist George A. Miller says the typical
storage capacity for short-term memory is seven to five items.
However, strategies such as chunking can significantly based
on category, can increase memorization and recall and
people remember more words.
Please sign your index card and hand up your
answers and put them in the box so I can lock
them up.
What are Ethics?
In dealing with human subjects, psychologists follow a
code of ethical principles published by the A.P.A.
• obtain informed consent from all subjects
• protect subjects from harm and discomfort
• treat all experimental data confidentially
• explain the experiment and the results to the subjects
afterward
• Prior to 1970 – this wasn’t always followed.
How do we use the Scientific Method
in Psychological Research?
Hypothesis:
Statement of
expected
results
Subjects
chosen
Subjects
divided up
Variables: Factors that change in an experiment
Experimental
Group
(get the
experiment)
Control
Group
(do not get
the
experiment)
IF
A request is made by a person
in a uniform
Dependent Variable
Independent Variable
How to tell the difference between
variables
THEN
More people will reply to this
request
What is the experimental group?
Group on which
critical part of
experiment is
performed
This group gets the
real sleeping pills
What is the Control
Group?
Control Group
• Subjects who are just like the experimental
group except will not participate in the study
This group will receive a placebo
• A Placebo is a medicine that has no active
ingredients and works by power of suggestion
What is a Control?
Experimental
Subjects
removed
Something
that could
skew
results
Examples: Subject
with cold, on
medication, etc.
Do Sleeping Pills Work?
Dependent Variable
What results from the experimenter
manipulating the independent variable
Subjects
Two groups of people in similar health, same
age, similar sleep issues
Ex. Better sleep, less sleep, etc.
Hypothesis
2 of my newly developed
sleeping pills will help
people with insomnia
Control
Independent Variable
Removal of factors that may prove hypothesis –
but would alter results.
(The variable the experimenter changes)
Older people, people with colds, on other
medication, etc.
Experimenter gives one group real
sleeping pills and one group placebos
What is a double-blind
study?
• Patient’s
expectations
• Wondering which
group gets real drug
Subject
Researcher
• Researcher
interprets results
• Knowing who got the
real drug can impact
objectivity
• Patient doesn’t know
• Researcher doesn’t
know
Accurate
Results
Are researchers responsible for
their subjects – even if they
volunteer for an experiment?
1. What is a
hypothesis?
2. What part of an experiment is
the Independent Variable?
3. What part of the experiment is
the Dependent Variable?
4. What is the experimental group?
5. What is a control group?
6. When would you use a control?
7. What is a placebo and what is its
purpose?
8. What are some ethics
psychologists must follow in
experimentation?
Has anyone ever asked you to
participate in a research study?
Answer survey questions? (Phone,
mall, school, online, etc.)
What was it about?
Experiments: Harlow’s Monkeys
• In subsequent experiments, Harlow’s monkeys proved that
“better late than never” was not a slogan applicable to
attachment. When Harlow placed his subjects in total
isolation for the first eights months of life, denying them
contact with other infants or with either type of surrogate
mother, they were permanently damaged. Harlow and his
colleagues repeated these experiments, subjecting infant
monkeys to varied periods of motherlessness. They concluded
that the impact of early maternal deprivation could be
reversed in monkeys only if it had lasted less than 90 days,
and estimated that the equivalent for humans was six
months. After these critical periods, no amount of exposure
to mothers or peers could alter the monkeys’ abnormal
behaviors and make up for the emotional damage that had
already occurred.
Primetime Live
Milgram Revisted
Stanford Prison
Experiment
Abu Ghraib
McDonalds (2003)
Reading: Little Albert Experiment
Whatever happened to Little Albert?
1. What was the Stanley Milgram
Study?
2. What was the major outcome?
3. What was the most common
answer subjects gave for
“following authority”?
4. Why didn’t the Stanford Prison
subjects leave the experiment?
5. What happens to Harlow’s
monkeys as time goes on?
6. How can this be compared to
R.A.D.?
7. Years after these experiments
– incidents still occur. Like what?
What types of Research Studies are
Used in Psychology?
• Objective: There are a variety of ways to
conduct psychological experiments. Some
are good for one thing, but not for
another. There are always pros/cons to
each type.
• Certain types of studies are: Case Studies,
Longitudinal Studies, Cross Sectional
Studies, Naturalistic Observation, Lab
Studies, Field Studies. There will often be
common pitfalls to each type.
Cross Sectional
Studies
Con
May not truly
measure
generational issues
Pro
Random sample of
population
Case Study
Very detailed,
no comparisons
Detailed
information
Pro
Survey
Con
Quick way to
gather a lot of
information
Questions can be
misunderstood
Interview
Subject can be less
than truthful –
interpretation issues
One on one
information
Pro
Lab Experiment
Con
Research
completely
objective
Artificial Setting
Field Setting
Difficult to
control variables
More realistic
than Lab setting
Naturalistic
Observation
Con
No subject
feedback
Pro
Observe in natural
environment
Longitudinal Study
Expensive to
undertake and keep
track of subjects
Gathers
information over a
subject’s life
What bothers you the most about high
school?
What is it?
How would you prove it?
How would you find out if it bothers others?
How would you find out WHY it’s done?
Which method of research would best yield the
most accurate data for your question?
• Use divergent thinking to understand causation and correlation in reference to
timing, demographics and how results can be analyzed, choose your question.
• Choose your groups. Design your questions.
• Discuss how you will collect and measure data. (See me …there are many
online survey sites that make this easier).
• Delineate tasks in order of group convenience. (Who has study hall which
period, who has lunch, who has proximity to target subjects. Who may be
busy with sports, play, etc. ….how to include them. All members share
accountability. You will work in your group to create surveys to administer to
chosen groups earlier in the unit.
• Collection/analysis will be performed by group. Schedules for presentations
will follow on what expectations the group had, the hypothesis, the results,
the controls, the variables, and what they learned from this experiment.
Summary
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Scientific Method is used in Psychology
experiments
Hypothesis: statement of expected results.
Can be proved or disproved through
observation and experimentation
Experimental Group: Group participating in
•
experiment
Control Group: Group not participating in the
experiment
•
Control: removal of subjects that could skew
results
•
Variables: factors introduced or resulting from
experiment
•
Independent Variable: Variable controlled by
Researcher
Dependent Variable: Result of Experiment
Placebo: medicine with no active ingredients •
– works by power of suggestion
Double Blind Study: Experiment with neither
the subject nor researcher knowing who has
the placebo – removes expectations that can
skew results
Ethics: Guidelines for Psychological
Experiments – results must outweigh risks.
There are many types of psychological studies
– each has their pros and cons.
Types: Field Studies, Lab Experiments,
Naturalistic Observation, Case Studies,
Surveys, Longitudinal and Cross Sectional
Studies, and Interviews.
Classical Conditioning: is a learning process
that occurs through associations between an
environmental stimulus and a naturally
occurring stimulus.
Research Methods Test
Test: 40 Multiple Choice
(5 Paragraph) Essay
(please refer to one of the
psych studies: Milgram,
Zimbardo, Harlow, or Watson
and Rayner