Admit Slip List 5 things that come to mind when you think of research.

Psychological Experimentation

General Procedures Step 1 –Ask Research Question: Does watching violence on TV lead to aggressive behavior? Step 2 –Form a Hypothesis: People who watch violent TV programs will engage in more acts of violence than people who don’t.

General Procedures Step 3 –Determine Variables: People watch violent TV programs (independent variables: People engage in aggressive acts (dependent variables:) Step 4 –Experiment (Testing): A. Participants (randomly assigned to groups) –Experimental group »Spends four hours a day watching violent TV.

General Procedures – Control Group Spends four hours a day watching nonviolent TV. B. Measure aggressive behavior(dependent variable)of experimental and control groups. Step 5 –Compare Measurements Step 6 –Interpret Results and Draw Conclusions

Scientific Attitude 1. Curiosity about the world. –As psychologist we must be observant of our surroundings. –Ask questions about who, what, when, where and why. 2. Seek data driven answers. –Answer the Who, what, when, where and why questions by using collected data

Scientific Attitude 3. Be humble about all we don’t know. –It’s ok to say we do not know how to answer a questions or where it derived or why. –Part of learning 4. Don’t take things at face value. –Question everything, even if you collected the data yourself.

Steps to Successful Research

1. Define your population Population = the group you are interested in. –all humans? –people with depression? –Adolescents?

2. Obtain a sample to study Sample – a subgroup of your population In order for results to be generalizable to a population (able to infer that it is true for all members of the population), you need to obtain a representative sample. Random sample – everyone in the population has an equal chance of being in your sample.

3. Operationally define variables Definitions should be quantifiable when possible. Reduces subjectivity and expectancy effects.

4. Manipulate the independent variable (control all other variables) This is easier said than done. –Confounding variables – variables in a study that are not controlled for.

How do we control for confounding variables? Large sample size (more likely to be representative) Random assignment to groups (control and experimental) Blinding –Single vs. double –Controls for expectancy effects –Placebos or sham treatment

5. Collect and analyze data Do basic statistics (mean, median, mode, standard deviation) to simplify data. Compare control and experimental groups. Run inferential statistical test (more on this later) –T test, chi squared, ANOVA