The Science of Social Psychology 2 The Science of Social Psychology

How Can Research Methods Impact You Every Day? Research assists with critical evaluation of information Accurate evaluation assists with making choices People often misjudge the outcomes of their actions. Research allows subjective, rather than objective, analysis

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How Can Research Methods Impact You Every Day? People often make mistakes when estimating odds or value Such estimates are based on past experiences Advertisements can influence assessments We underestimate current gains and overestimate future value These mistakes are due to subjective biases

Common Sense Does Not Hold True Not all research affirms widely known facts Intuition is valuable, but also risky in research

Using Research in Your Own Life Hindsight Bias – "I knew that was going to happen!" False Consensus Effect – "Everyone thinks the way that I do!"

How do Social Psychologists Find the Truth? Research is a process of gathering evidence in specific ways

Steps in the Research Process Theory – a general framework that allows us to make and test predictions Step 1 – craft a research question Step 2 – examine existing literature for answers

Steps in the Research Process (continued) Step 3 – form a testable hypothesis An hypothesis is an educated guess about the answer to your question An operational definition identifies the specific variable to be examined Take care of validity and reliability in your study

Steps in the Research Process (continued) Step 4 – select the best method to explore your research question Step 5 – conduct the research and analyze data Step 6 – Draw Conclusion

Steps in the Research Process (continued) Step 7 – Publish findings This allows for peer review This allows for replication

Steps in the Research Process (continued) These are the primary steps in the scientific method If these steps are followed, then the findings can be useful If these steps are ignored, the findings may be of little or no value

Why Publish? Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons in 1989 that they had produced cold fusion in a 1989 research The reported results received wide media attention and raised hopes of a cheap and abundant source of energy Many scientists immediately tried to replicate the experiment without success Eventually error in the original experiment was established

What can Descriptive Methods Show Us? What is the current status of a population? What is the current status of a phenomenon? Who, what, when, where, and how?

Observation Can occur in a natural setting or controlled environment Albert Bandura (1977) Social Learning Laboratory based observational research was employed

Observation (continued) Naturalistic observation Watching behavior in a real-world setting It is sometimes best to observe people in their natural environment Focuses on both people and environments

Correlations Exploring the relationship between two variables without inferring cause-and-effect

Limitations and Advantages of Correlation Demonstrates a relationship between two variables Cannot be used to demonstrate causation Third variable – an outside factor can create the illusion of a relationship between two factors

Limitations and Advantages of Correlation (continued) Matched samples design – helps reduce third variable problem Some variables that are correlated do have a causal relationship, but correlation alone cannot demonstrate this

Positive Correlation As one variable goes up, so does the other

Negative Correlation As one variable goes up, the other goes down

No Correlation No discernable relationship between two variables

Types of Correlations

Self-Report and Survey Measures Asking participants to describe their behaviors or mental statuses

Archival Studies Gathering information from existing records

What do Experimental Methods Have to Say? Experiments attempt to control factors that can affect results Allows for cause-and-effect conclusions Experiments always include three components: Independent variable(s) Dependent variable(s) Random assignment to groups

What do Experimental Methods Have to Say? (continued) External validity Do results generalize to a larger population? Internal validity Can cause-and-effect conclusions be relied upon? Generally as one increases, the other decreases

Independent and Dependent Variables Independent variable (IV) That condition that is controlled/altered by the researcher Dependent variable (DV) That condition that is measured by the researcher Experiments ask if the IV has an impact on the DV, and if so what is that impact?

Independent and Dependent Variables (continued) Experimental group The participants who receive the main treatment or manipulation Control group The group that does not receive the main treatment and can be used for comparison Without both groups, there is no way to be certain of the relationship between an IV and a DV

Random Assignment All participants have an equal chance of being in an experimental or control group Is required to allow cause-and-effect conclusions Research without random assignment cannot be considered experimental

Experiment Examples Scientific Cause to Effect Non-scientific Cause to Effect Non-scientific Effect to Cause

Confounds Anything other than the IV that affects the DV is a confound Impairs the ability to determine a relationship between an IV and a DV

Participant Bias Do participants have assumptions about the research? If these assumptions impact their behavior, participant bias can skew results The placebo effect when the belief that a treatment will be effective causes it to be effective

Participant Bias (continued) Experimenter bias – researchers’ expectations can skew results Single-blind or double-blind studies The participant and/or researcher don’t know which participant is in which subject group Helps eliminate participant and experimenter biases

A Placebo Effect

Ethics Deception – giving participants false information about the study Debriefing – telling participants the true nature of the study after their involvement is over APA Ethical Guidelines Beneficence Autonomy Justice

Ethics Institutional Review Board (IRB) Informed consent Evaluates potential research to ensure ethical treatment of participants Informed consent Participants are given as much information about the research as possible This allows them to participate without taking unnecessary risks

Emile Durkheim and Suicide Egoistic Suicide Low social integration Low social integration means that an individual is not influenced by a collective conscience Altruistic Suicide Extremely high social intigration The Individual is literally forced to commit suicide by virtue of the collective conscience

Emile Durkheim and Suicide Anomic Suicide Low social regulation This occurs when the regulative powers of society are disrupted resulting in normlessness Fatalistic Suicide Extremely high social regulation This occurs when social regulation is so repressive all hope is lost