Starter
Objectivity task one- booklet
Task
• Write instructions for someone to recreate your given
picture
How does this link to research methods?
• Replicability for reliability
• Standardised instructions
Replicability & Reliability
This relates to the reliability of the findings: so, if it is
possible to carry out the research again and find the same
or similar results, the research is replicable. If it is
replicable we can have confidence in the findings
If research is replicable it guards
against scientific fraud (for
instance, researchers may have
simply made their findings up) and
allows us to rule out that the finding
was a one off caused by something
about the original study, such as an
atypical sample being tested
Sir Cyril Burt was accused
of making up the data for
his study that supported a
genetic link in intelligence
Replicability & Reliability
To enable others to replicate a study, psychologists should
publish full and precise details of their research
Replication is an important tool in the scientific method. It
allows scientists to check findings and ensure that they are
robust.
Which section of psychology research reports need to be
very detailed to achieve this: the abstract, the method or
the discussion?
Why do we dream?
• Which is the best theory?
• Why?
Freud’s Theory of Dreams
• 1900 Freud wrote the interpretation of dreams, suggesting that
dreams were a “psychic safety valve” allowing us to discharge
unacceptable, unconscious wishes and urges.
• Dreams protected sleep by providing imagery that kept disturbing and
repressed thoughts out of our consciousness. The psychoanalyst
uses free association, knowledge of dream mechanisms,
(displacement/symbolism) and knowledge of recent events to uncover
the latent content of the dream from the manifest content (dream as
reported by dreamer)
• For Freud, dreams were the “Royal road to the unconscious”.
However absurd a dream may initially seem, Freud believed it always
possessed meaning and logic. He considered that many aspects of a
dream were symbolic, and in some cases would interpret the
symbols as sexual, which was often seen as controversial.
Cartwright’s Problem Solving Theory
• Cartwright (1988) sees dreams as a way of dealing with
problems relating to work, sex, health etc. Like freud,
she makes use of metaphor in dreams – e.g. dreaming of
a colleague trying to stab you in the back could suggest
that the person is undermining you at work.
Hobson & McCarley’s ActivationSynthesis Theory
• This theory suggests that dreaming results from waves of
activity which sweep up from the brainstem, through to several
parts of the brain, including those involved in perception, action
and emotional reactions.
• This activation is essentially random: whilst body movements
are inhibited, the brain still receives signals and attempts to
make sense (or synthesise) these random bursts of neural
energy.
• Hobson (1988) argued “The brain is so bent upon the quest for
meaning, that it creates meaning when there is little or none in
the data it is asked to process”. Therefore, this theory sees
dreams as the result of brain stem activity rather than
unconscious wishes.
Empiricism
• Read and answer the questions
Hypothetico- deductive
• The hypothetico-deductive method is one of the
mainstays of scientific research, often regarded as
the only 'true' scientific research method.
• The method involves the traditional steps of observing the
subject, in order to elaborate upon an area of study.
• This allows the researcher to generate a testable and
realistic hypothesis which the researcher can then use to
support said theory.
The Scientific process
Look at the study and highlight the
process
• Booklets
Peer review task- Abstract
The team led by Professor Pedley sat two groups of 20
male students in a mini-cinema and played two films to
them – one featuring alcohol drinking and one without.
A fridge containing alcoholic and soft beverages was
placed next to them and they were told they could pick any
drink.
The group that watched the comedy American Pie, which
featured 23 alcoholic scenes, along with drink ads in
between, consumed three bottles of beer on average
compared with 1.5 bottles drank by another group that
watched the relatively dry film 40 Days and 40 Nights with
some alcohol ad breaks.
Peer review
• In the peer review process, a paper is submitted to a journal
and evaluated by several reviewers. (Reviewers are often
individuals with an impressive history of work in the area of
interest, that is, the specific area that the article addresses).
• After critiquing the paper the reviewers submit their thoughts to
the editor. Then, based on the commentaries from the
reviewers, the editor decides whether to publish the paper,
make suggestions for additional changes that could lead to
publication, or reject the paper.
• The primary purpose of peer review is to ensure that the
papers published are valid and unbiased.
Why bother?
• “Peer review is one way (replication is another) science
institutionalizes the attitudes of objectivity and public
criticism. Ideas and experimentation undergo a honing
process in which they are submitted to other critical minds
for evaluation. Ideas that survive this critical process
have begun to meet the criterion of public verifiability”
(Stanovich, 2007, p. 12).
• But really….why?
Why bother?
• Research proposals will be scrutinized to check it is robust
• To ensure it can contribute to already existing knowledge
• Ethics approval
• Encourages academic debate, openness and communication
• Ensure there is no bias
• Appropriateness of conclusions drawn
• Ensure it is worth dissemination- journals
• Consider wider implications
• Find any errors
• Ensure it can be repeated
Peer reviewing your essays
I am going to ask an A2 student in the other group to mark
your essays.
What might be the problems with this?
Bias
• Reviewer
• Publication
• Reputation
Gender research topic ideas
• Gender differences in memory
• Gender differences in handwriting
• Gender differences in answering questions in class
• Gender differences in likeliness to be asked questions in class
• Gender traits
• Gender preferences in films/music
• Gender differences in jealousy
• Gender differences in mental health
• Gender preferences in choice of A level subjects
• Gender differences in university decisions
• Gender differences in IQ
• Gender differences in spatial awareness
Who is more likely to get published?
“Men are better at multi tasking than women”
(Foster 2015)
“Women are better at multitasking than men”
(Fearon 2015)
“No difference found in ability to multi task”
(Pedley 2015)
Define the following
• Objectivity
• Empiricism
• Hypothetico- deductive approach
• Peer review