1. Chapter 2: Conducting Research in Social Psychology

2. Learning Objectives
What is the difference between basic research and applied research?
What is the purpose of institutional review boards on university campuses where research is conducted using human participants?
What does it mean when someone says, "Correlation does not mean causation"?
What new technologies are social psychologists using to study social behavior and social thinking?

3. The Scientific Method A set of procedures
Gather information
Analyze information
Interpret information
Leads to dependable generalizations

4. Basic Research Increases knowledge for knowledge's sake
Does not attempt to solve a specific problem

5. Applied Research Increases the understanding of social problems
Finds solutions to social problems
Using current scientific knowledge
Basic and applied research can inform each other.

6. Values in Science Value-free perspective Value-laden perspective
Scientists should not be concerned with how their discoveries are applied.
Trying to influence social policy is irresponsible.
Value-laden perspective
Social science and social action should be connected.
Scientists are morally obligated to try to improve society.

7. Six Basic Steps of Research
Select a topic and review past research.
Develop a theory, generate a hypothesis, and select a method.
Obtain approval.
Collect data.
Analyze data and reevaluate theory.
Report results.

8. Selecting a Topic
Topic choice is influenced by the researcher's own life and culture.
Research is "me-search."
Once a topic is selected, review scholarly literature to see what has already been learned.

9. Theory
Theory: a set of ideas that integrates findings and allows for explanations and predictions
A theory should:
Have predictive accuracy
Have internal coherence
Be economical
Be fertile
A theory helps generate hypotheses.

10. Hypothesis A prediction about what will happen in a study
Much more specific than a theory
Terms in a hypothesis must be operationally defined.
Defined in clear, measurable ways

11. Research Methods
Three categories of scientific methods in social psychology
Observational
Most widely used in sociology
Correlational
Similar rates of use in sociology and psychology
Experimental
Most widely used in psychology

12. Obtaining Approval
Institutional review boards review study proposals with the goal of protecting participants.
One ethical issue is use of deception.
Not fully disclosing the nature of the study until it is over
Use of confederates (experimental assistants posing as participants)

13. Ethical Challenges
Protection of experimental participants from psychological distress became a concern in the 1970s following several studies which appeared to put participants at risk of psychological harm.
e.g., Milgram's obedience study
Institutional review boards were developed to meet this need.

14. Guidelines for Research with Human Subjects
Provide informed consent.
Be truthful where possible and use deception only when necessary.
Allow participants the right to decline or discontinue.
Protect participants from physical and psychological harm.
Keep information confidential.
Debrief participants after the study.
Provide information on the results if requested.

15. Collecting Data
Population: group of people described by research question or hypothesis
Sample: smaller group of people participating in the study
Should be representative of the population
Data may be qualitative, quantitative, or both.

16. Three Categories of Data
Self-report
"On a scale of 1-5, how happy are you right now?"
Direct observation
Count how many people put recyclables in a trash can nearest this classroom.
Archival information
Compare number of children below the poverty line in 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010.

17. Analyze Data
Descriptive statistics summarize the responses of the sample.
Inferential statistics estimate the degree to which these responses can be generalized.
If the data do not support the hypothesis, the theory may need revision.

18. Report the Results Publish in scholarly journals.
Editors and reviewers critique hypotheses, methods, analyses, and conclusions.
Authors then revise and clarify.
Present at research conferences.
Personally inform other researchers.

19. Meta-Analysis "Analysis of analyses"
A way of calculating the overall size of an effect
Example: Are there gender differences in communication?
Researchers seek unpublished as well as published works.
Each study is treated like a participant in the meta-analysis.
Mean and standard deviation for the sample are used to calculate effect size.
Effect sizes can be averaged across studies.
Improvement over "majority rules" literature reviews

20. Science is Self-Correcting
Researchers may reject their own hypotheses.
Editors may reject flawed studies.
If incorrect results make it into the literature, others will try to replicate it and report contradictions.

21. Figure 2.1 The Cyclical Nature of the Theory-Hypothesis Relationship

22. Observational Research
Naturalistic Observation
Investigation of behavior in its natural environment
Observers should be as unobtrusive as possible.
Participant Observation
The observer joins the group as a participant.
Allows researchers to get close to participants
Archival Research
Examines existing records of an individual or group
Includes content analysis

23. Pros and Cons of Observation
Benefits
See behavior in natural context
See rare events that would not happen and/or events that cannot safely be created in laboratories
Record events usually seen only by nonscientists
Risks
Lack of control
Observer bias
Observer presence may change behavior
Ethical concerns about invasion of privacy

24. Survey: A Form of Correlational Research
Structured questions used to measure attitudes, beliefs, values, or behavioral tendencies
Face-to-face, written, phone, or computer administration
Random selection is important for the representative sample.
Social desirability bias may affect responses.

25. Correlation Coeffiecient
Correlations are used for prediction.
If two variables are correlated, knowing the value of one variable allows you to predict the value of the other.
Correlation coefficient measures the linear relationship between two variables.
Range is ±1.00.
Strength is indicated by magnitude (absolute value).
Direction is indicated by sign.

26. Correlation ≠ Causation
When two variables are related (correlated), there is a natural tendency to assume one causes the other.
However, there are problems in assuming a particular causal structure.
Third variable problem
Reverse causality problem

27. Figure 2. 2. Plotting the Relationship Between Variable X
Figure 2.2 Plotting the Relationship Between Variable X and Variable Y on a Graph

28. Experiments
"Experiment" is not just another word for "study"—it has a particular meaning.
An experimenter uses random assignment to put people into groups or conditions.
Manipulates an Independent Variable (IV)
Measures a Dependent Variable (DV)
Controls all other variables as much as possible

29. How Does an Experiment Show Cause and Effect?
The groups are equivalent at the start of the experiment.
They experience different levels of the IV.
They don't experience any other differences.
Because all other variables are controlled
Therefore, if the groups are different at the end of the study, it can only be due to the difference in levels of the IV.

30. Field vs. Lab Experiments
Field experiments
More natural setting  easier generalization
Less control  less sure about cause-and-effect
Lab experiments
Unnatural setting  may limit generalizability
Easier control  stronger causal claim

31. New Technologies Virtual Environment Technology Web-based studies
Early studies suggest a promising combination of realism and control.
Web-based studies
Recruit many people
Run studies remotely (cheap and easy)
Non-representative samples
Implicit measures
Reporting what people don't realize they are thinking/feeling
Brain imaging techniques

32. Study of Actual Behavior
Studies with real behavior as an IV or DV in two top social psychology journals
About 75% in the 1970s
About 20% in the 1990s and 2000s