Research Strategies

 Turn to your partner.  Why did you sign up for Psych in the first place?  Is it because you wanted to learn to analyze your dreams?  Or mabey because you wanted to know if your friend had a crush on you.

 We would never fully understand the answers to these questions unless we used research.  Have you ever heard of any psychology related research from YV, Radio, Books or the internet?

 Common sense  Leaves us unsure of  The truth. Research  Helps us apply the  Principles  Appropriately in  Different situations. See Table 2.1 pg. 18

 What are the advantages of research over other ways of knowing/learning Information?

 Bias occurs when any factor unfairly increases the likelihood that the researcher will reach a particular conclusion.  E.X. if your wearing headphones while studying your not actually learning anything

 Define the following: Confirmation (researcher) bias, Critical thinking and Participant bias.

 Write this down. What is one of the best ways to minimize participant bias?

 Researcher makes no attempt to control the setting.

 Case study – a research technique in which one person in studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principals.

 Genie was an abused child who in 1970 was discovered after having spent most of her 13 year old life in isolation in California.

 Write down three advantages and three disadvantages of using case studies.

 Go online and find a new article about a person that has had either a stroke or Alzheimer's.  Write down 3 behaviours that we can deduce from the person with the disease of their brain.  This is the foundation of a case study

 Think of how many times it’s useful to know the extent to which two variables are related.  1. Whether or not a student wears headphones.  2. Studying effectiveness.

 See pg. 21  If effectiveness of studying increases when students wear headphones and decreases when students do not wear headphones we can say the two variables are positively correlated.

 But if studying decreases when students wear headphones and increases when they do not the variables are negatively correlated.

 5. What is a correlational study?  6. In your notes, diagram and describe the types of correlation that can exist.

 Read pg. 22  Watch this  hiE hiE  6. Why can we not conclude cause-and- effect relationships from correlational data?

 A short questionnaire  But you must be sure that the results of your survey are relevant to the large group, known as the population, that interests you. To do this you must draw a random sample of an adequate number of individuals.  See fig. 2.4 on pg. 23

 Go to  Find a research survey that you would like to take.  Answer the next questions.

 1.Name the study  2. What was the purpose of the study?  3. Was it descriptive, correlational or experimental  4. Describe what it was like to be an online participant.  5. What are three limits and three benefits of conducting online research?  6. How did the researchers employ the proper ethical considerations.

 Read pg. 23  1. Describe the difference between a population and a sample.  2. What is a ‘random sample’ and why is it important that your sample be random?  3. Explain why we should be wary of data obtained from surveys.

 Longitudinal studies follow the same group of individuals for many years. Very expensive and time consuming, but provide rich data.  EX following children as they grow up

 Cross sectional – comparing people of different ages at one time. More efficient but greater number of variables to account for.  Are children more creative than adults? This could mean that people are less creative as they age. Or with the introduction of technology or headphones.

 Read pg. 23 and 24  11. Define and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of longitudinal and cross-  sectional studies.

 Read pg. 24  12. What is the key advantage of using an experiment?

 Read pg. 24 and 25  Define: a) hypothesis; b) operational definition.

 places-to- live/2012/maps/Default.aspx?sp2=1&d1=a& sc1=0 places-to- live/2012/maps/Default.aspx?sp2=1&d1=a& sc1=0  Best places to live in Canada. How do these researchers operationalize best?  Crime, weather, unemployment etc  If you don’t agree with the criteria then you would find the conclusions unacceptable.

 The variable that should cause something to happen is the Independent variable IV  The variable that should show the effect of the IV (or outcome) is the dependent variable (DV)  MIU MIU

 Read pg. 25 and 26  Differentiate between an independent and dependent variable in an experiment.

 Experiment group will be all students who wear headphones and the control group all students who are not allowed to wear headphones.  Experimental group – exposed to treatment (IV)  Control group – not exposed to treatment

 Hypothesis  Students assigned to wear headphones in study hall will have higher than average grades at the end of the quarter than students banned from wearing headphones.

 Read pg. 26 and 27 – Write this down  1. What is the difference between the experimental group and the control group in an experiment?  3. Define ‘confounding variable’.

 We will collect from every student  Shoe size, height, favorite ice cream (Choc, Van or Straw)  Analyze individual results  Get into random groups.  Who is your favorite singer and why?  Collect same info  Compare data  Random assignment helps to limit the effect of individual differences.

 Pg. 26  What is random assignment and why is it important in an experiment?

 What was the confounding variable?

 Double blind procedure and placebo.  Blind  When one is blind you cannot see the world. In a blind experiment the subjects are unaware if they are in the control or experiment group.  In double blind, two different groups of people-the experimenters and the subject are unaware of what group the subjects are in.

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 A nonactive substance of condition that may be administered instead of a drug to see if the drug has an effect beyond the expectations produced by taking it. Usually a sugar pill  o18 o18

 Read pg. 28 and 29  Explain how the double blind procedure and placebos help control for confounding variables.

 To determine the statistical significance between variables we must ask ourselves three questions.  1. how big is the difference between the groups?  2. how uniform are the results between two groups?  3. how many participants in each group?

 Describe the role of statistics in the experimental method.

 Replication helps us know that our results apply in a variety of circumstances.

 Read pg  1. Summarize the four ethical principles that must guide human research.  2. Explain why researchers sometimes use animals in their research.  3. What guidelines are in place to protect animals used in research?

 Read pg  Write down answers to quiz in your book on pg  Check your answers.

 MC  1-C, 2-A, 3-A, 4-D,5-C, 6-C, 7-B, 8-D  Matching  A-(7), B-(1), C-(10), D-(9), E-(2), F-(4), G- (12)  Fill in the blank  10-counfounding variable, 11- sample, 12- scientific method, 13-naturalistic observation.

 The primary difference between experiments and correlations is that experiments seek to determine a cause and effect relationship while correlations do not. In both variables are compared yet the conclusions that are drawn from each one are different.  Correlations describe a relationship between variables and experiments manipulate one variable to coax another variable to occur.