How Psychologists Ask and Answer Questions Module 2 Research Strategies How Psychologists Ask and Answer Questions -I-

Goals of psychology To understand / explain human and animal behavior and mental processes Cause and effect But observe/describe before deriving causal statements How different is this from just having intuitions or common sense?

Is psychological knowledge common sense? “Out of sight, out of mind.” ??? “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” Some people think psychology is about “all we know” Common sense knowledge Psychologists claim that : Seperation weakens romantic attraction. “Out of sight, out of mind.” Seperation strengthens romantic attraction. “ absence makes the heart grow fonder” Indeed as psychologists we know that common human knowledge – our insight – is prone to be erronous – not reliable. Intuition and common sense may aid queries, but they are not free of error.

Our intuition and common sense Hindsight Bias we tend to believe, after learning an outcome, that we would have foreseen it the “I-knew-it-all-along” phenomenon Overconfidence we tend to think that we know more than we do Perceiving order in random events Our eagerness to make sense of the world We overestimate our own intuition Some of the common problems of “non- scientific thinking”: Hindsight bias- Esp. After important footbal games - a lot of people claim that they knew the outcomes already. Indeed systematic comparisons of people’s choices before and after – have shown That people are not as likely... Overconfidence

Scientific Method Definition: make observations, form theories, and refine theories according to new information. Theory Organizes multiple observations into a concise principle Organizes and predicts behavior/events Ex: Romantic love is associated with distance between partners Ex: Greater height contributes to better employment Ex: Low self esteem is related to depression Theory leads to hypotheses or testable predictions. Hypothesis is a specific statement about the relationship between two concepts. Ex: People who move away from a romantic partner weaken their positive emotions about this partner Ex: Taller people will be hired more often than will shorter people. Ex: There are people with lower self esteem among people with depression compared to non-depressed people

Scientific Method Operational Definitions Should test hypotheses by: Stating the activities necessary to measure it in the experiment. Ex: Male who are 1.80 cm.s tall or more will report unemployment of 2 weeks or less between jobs on the survey. Should test hypotheses by: Making observations (describe) Finding correlations (predict) Performing experiments (explain)

The Scientific Method Formulating an idea Testing an idea Initial phase of research, in which observations, beliefs, information, and general knowledge lead to a new idea or a different way of thinking about some phenomenon Testing an idea Organizing countless observations into a theory Formulating testable predictions: hypotheses Testing the hypotheses Using operational definitions of concepts Generalizing or refining the idea Formulating an idea Initial phase of research, in which observations, beliefs, information, and general knowledge lead to a new idea or a different way of thinking about some phenomenon

The Scientific Method Theory explains the underlying reason WHY?

Testing hypotheses using operational definitions a statement of procedures (operations) used to define research variables Also enables other researchers to replicate example- intelligence may be operationally defined as the score obtained from the intelligence test measures Psychological well-being can be operationally defined as high level of life satisfaction and low depression. Academic success can be operationally defined as GPA.

The Scientific Method Replication repeating the essence of a research study to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances usually with different participants in different situations the research findings can be generalizable to other samples/situations.

Example: Theory: Hypothesis: Empirical evidence: Self-esteem feeds one’s evaluations of himself/herself. Hypothesis: People with low self – esteem have more tendency to feel depressed Empirical evidence: Administer tests of self-esteem and depression. --- high score on depression predicts low score on self-esteem? Operational definitions of self-esteem and depression? If we were to observe that depressed people talk about their past, present, and future in a gloomy manner, we may theorize that low-self-esteem contributes to depression. Observe that self-esteem and depression may be linked.

Example Observation: Children who are more aggressive at play seem to be watching violent movies rather than other types of movies. Theory? Hypothesis? Operational definition of terms? Theory social learning Hypothesis – prediction – specific link to be tested Children – aggressive movies Only aggresibe movies? Only children? THEORY:People learn from observing others’ behaviors ---- WHY?

Methods of psychology To describe human and animal behavior and mental processes, psychologists conduct: Case studies Surveys Observations (naturalistic / lab)

Description Case Study observation technique in which on individual (or few incidences) are studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principals Studies of brain damaged individuals Piaget Suggest hypotheses for further studies Problems?? May be unrepresentative cannot be generalizable

Description Survey Looks at many cases with less depth Ask people to report their behaviors or opinions. Market surveys Koç University student satisfaction survey Problems??

Who do we survey? Usually question a representative, random sample of people selected from a population. Population all the cases in a group, from which samples may be drawn for a study Random Sample a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion

How do we ask questions? If there is a serious fuel shortage this winter, do you think there should be a law requiring people to lower the heat in their homes, or do you oppose such a law? Should be 39.4 % Oppose 60.6 % If there is a serious fuel shortage this winter, do you think there should be a law requiring people to lower the heat in their homes, or do you oppose such a law because it would be too difficult to enforce? Should be 26.0 % Oppose 74.0 % Wording effects: How we word our questions influences how people answer them

Description Naturalistic Observation observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations (or in more controlled environments) without trying to manipulate and control the situation Dating behaviors of university students? Problems? Third descriptive method: watching and recording the behavior of organisms

Methods of psychology 2. To predict human and animal behavior and mental processes, psychologists conduct - Correlational studies: the examination of the quantitative relationships between two or more variables how does one behavior relate to the occurrence of another behavior? if we know one behavior’s pattern can we then, in turn, predict the pattern of occurrence of another behavior? After describing a behavior, the next step is to be able to predict it.

Variable Defined Any characteristic or attribute that varies in amount and kind Gender (variable): female (attribute) Success Weight, Height Self-esteem Reaction time in a learning experiment Intelligence Achievement motivation Any characteristic or attribute of persons, objects, or events that can take on different numerical values. These different values are called attributes So gender: variable female: attribute personality: variable extravert: attribute

(positive or negative) Correlation Correlation Coefficient a statistical measure of the extent to which two variable vary together, and thus how well either variable predicts the other Indicates direction of relationship (positive or negative) Correlation coefficient r = +.37 Indicates strength of relationship (0.00 to 1.00)

Positive correlation ---- age and shoe size Negative correlation ---- age and sharpness of eye sight No correlation

Coffee and test performance movie

Correlation does not imply causation Three Possible Cause-Effect Relationships could cause (1) Low self-esteem Depression or (2) Depression could cause Low self-esteem or Low self-esteem CORRELATION DOES NOT IMPLY CAUSATION In order to determine causality we must turn to experimental methods. Health and owning ash trays ---- 3rd variable - cigarette smoking. (3) Distressing events or biological predisposition could cause and Depression

Illusory Correlation Illusory Correlation the perception of a relationship where none exists Example: Beliefs about the common cold