1. It is actually way more exciting than it sounds!!!!
Research Methods
It is actually way more exciting than it sounds!!!!

2. Why do we have to learn this stuff?
Psychology is first and foremost a science. Thus it is based in research.
Be aware however of two hurdles that tend to skew our logic when we research

3. Hindsight Bias The tendency to Consider findings to be
Monday Morning Quarterbacking!!!
Example:

4. Overconfidence Overconfidence –
82% of U.S. drivers consider themselves to be in the top 30% of their group in terms of safety.
81% of new business owners felt they had an excellent chance of their businesses succeeding. When asked about the success of their peers, the answer was only 39%. (Now that's overconfidence!!!)

5. Overconfidence
“There is no reason for anyone to have a computerin their home.” (Ken Olson, president of Digital Equipment Company, 1977)
“Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.”(Lord Kelvin, British mathematician, physicist, and president of the British Royal Society, 1895)
“Reagan doesn’t have the presidential look.”(United Artists executive when asked whether Ronald Reagan should be offered the starring role in the movie The Best Man, 1964)
“A severe depression like that of 1920–1921 is outside the range of probability.” (Harvard Economic Society, Weekly Letter, November 16, 1929)
“Man will never reach the Moon, regardless of all future scientific advances.” (Lee DeForest, inventor of the vacuum tube, 1957)

6. The Scientific Attitude
Three main components

7. Critical Thinking Critical Thinking – “Smart thinking” Four elements
Examines
Detects
Evaluates
Assesses
Empirical Approach

8. Scientific Method Theory – Often starts as an hypothesis
Developed through repeated observation and testing
Example:
Hypothesis –
Usually written in an If/Then statement
Explains what you expect will happen

9. Hypothesis Practice
A researcher is evaluating the effectiveness of a new physical education program for elementary school children. The program is designed to reduce competition.
There is some evidence to suggest that participation in class can have an effect on human memory. A researcher plans to use a standardized AP Psych exam to evaluate the effects of class participation.

10. 3Types of Research
Descriptive
Experimental
Correlational

11. 3 Types of Descriptive Research
The Case Study
The Survey
Naturalistic Observation

12. Case Studies Provides oppty to study unusual cases in depth
Offers suggestions for further study
Results often can’t be
Can’t establish
Example: The ideal case study was John and Kate. Really interesting, but are they typical of all families

13. Case Study Methodology
Gather data from one person (or small group) through:

14. Naturalistic Observation
Do not manipulate the environment.
May be done when it is not ethical to manipulate variables
Does not show
Example: Jane Goodall’s research on chimpanzees

15. Survey
Gather Data –
Personal facts
Behaviors
Attitudes
Opinions

16. Survey Method Method: Questionnaire Interview Example:
On ave. how many hours do you study per night?
What is your grade point ave?

17. Conducting a Survey Population - Random Sampling – Example:
Ensures that the participants are
Helps avoid false generalizations

18. Survey Method: The Bad Low Response Rate
Response Bias/social desirability bias –
Wording Effects –
How accurate would a survey be about the frequency of diarrhea?

19. Wording Effects
Do you think it is important for America to provide aid to the needy?
Should the government not allow televised cigarette ads?

20. Think Pair Share
A researcher wants to investigate people's attitudes toward violence on television. Explain which of the following research methods the researcher should use and why: case study, survey, or naturalistic observation.
A researcher wants to investigate sharing behaviors of young children. Explain which research method the researcher would use and why. Provide a brief explanation on how the research would be conducted.

21. Correlational Method Correlation - Can be efficient
Measures how well one variable predicts the other
Used when ethics prohibit experimentation
Can be efficient
Can make predictions
Can use pre-existing or archival data
Make it difficult to assess the impact of a third variable
Does not show
As more ice cream is eaten, more people are murdered.
Does ice cream cause murder, or murder cause people to eat ice cream?

23. Results of Correlational Studies
Positive Correlation
The variables go in
Negative Correlation
The variables go in
Example:
Example:

24. Correlation Coefficient
Range is from -1 to +1
The relationship gets weaker the closer you get to
(+) tells you the variables
(-)tells you the variables are
Scatterplot –
shown as a graphed cluster of dots
Which is a stronger correlation?
-.13 or +.38
-.72 or +.59
-.91 or +.04

25. Which of the following would be a negative correlation, and which would be a positive
Education and years in jail
Weight and hours of TV watched
Education and income
Holding babies and crying
Food and calories ingested

26. Correlation

27. The table below lists the scores of eight research participants on a test to measure anxiety, as well as the typical number of cigarettes each person smokes daily. Scores on the anxiety test can range anywhere from a low of 0 (indicating very low anxiety) to a high of 30 (indicating very high anxiety).
Research Anxiety Cigarettes
Participant Test Score____________
Construct a scatterplot to represent the correlation between smoking and anxiety. Describe the direction of the correlation and give two possible explanations for it.

28. Correlation Illusory Correlations

29. Think Pair Share
Speaking at a college graduation ceremony, Professor Robson compared college graduates with adults who are less educated. She correctly noted that college graduates pay more taxes, vote more frequently, engage in more volunteer activities in their communities, and are less likely to go to jail than less-educated adults. The professor concluded that colleges obviously do great things for society. How might you reasonably challenge the way the professor reached her conclusion?

30. Experimental Method Experiment – Advantages: Shows Can verify results
Can eliminate bias
Disadvantage:
Smoking causes health issues.

31. Theory
Theory - An explanation that organizes observation and predicts behaviors or events
A hunch
Example:

32. Hypothesis
Hypothesis -
Example:

33. Operational Definitions
Meaning of hypothesis
measure a variable
Must be clear and precise
Must be
Allow experiment to be
Example:
Participation
Higher Score -

34. Independent Variable Example:
Independent Variable - Whatever is being manipulated in the experiment.
If there is a drug in an experiment, the drug is almost always the independent variable.

35. Dependent Variable Dependent Variable –
It is dependent on the independent variable.
Example:
The dependent variable would be the effect of the drug.

36. Hypothesis and Operational Definitions
Study: A scientist wants to study whether people who make more money are happier
Identify:
Hypothesis
Operational Definitions IV DV
Study: A scientist wants to study whether or not people who drink become more aggressive. Identify the following:

37. Assignment Random Assignment Examples:
Minimizes differences between two groups
Different than Random Sample
Reduces the impact of
Experimental Group –
Control Group –
Examples:
Experimental –
Control group –

38. Beware of Confounding Variables
Confounds often arise due to differences between the groups that exist before the independent variable is imposed!
Examples:

39. 2 important confounding variables
Experimenter Bias -
Example: -
Placebo effect –
Example:

40. Double-blind Procedure
Minimizes

41. Replication Replication –
What helps the researcher to insure the study can be replicated?

42. Quasi-experimental Quasi-experimental
Used to study differences between:
Confounding variables so no cause and effect

43. Controlled Observation
Conditions are contrived by researcher
Independent and dependent variable
Does not show cause and effect
Early Psych Research

44. Think Pair Share
Design an experiment to test whether alcohol consumption influences people's tendency to become socially aggressive. In your experimental design, identify the following experimental elements and procedures: hypothesis, random sampling, random assignment, experimental group, control group, independent variable, and dependent variable.

45. Statistics Recording the results from our studies.
Must use a common language so we all know what we are talking about.

46. Descriptive Statistics
Examples:
Frequency Polygon
Frequency Histogram

47. Measures of Central Tendency
Mode -
Mean -
Median -

48. Central Tendency Watch out for extreme scores or outliers.
Mean, Median and Mode.
Let’s look at the salaries of the employees at Dunder Mifflen Paper in Scranton:
$25,000-Pam
$25,000- Kevin
$25,000- Angela
$100,000- Andy
$100,000- Dwight
$200,000- Jim
$300,000- Michael
The median salary looks good at $_______________________
The mean salary also looks good at about $________________
But the mode salary is only $___________________________
Watch out for extreme scores or outliers.
____________________is a better measure than the mean when there are extremes/outliers

49. Normal Distribution
In a normal distribution, the
Examples:

50. Distributions Outliers skew distributions. Positive Skew –
Mean is higher than median, so median better measure of central tendency
Negative Skew –
Mean is lower than median, so median better measure of central tendency
If most students scored well on a test, what would the distribution look like?
If most students scored poorly?
What does the data tell us?

51. Measures of variability
Range:
Standard Deviation:
The higher the variance or SD, the more spread out the distribution is.
Do scientists want a big or small SD?
Variance - The average of the squared differences from the mean
Shaq and Kobe may both score 30 ppg (same mean).
But their SDs are very different…meaning?

52. Calculating Standard Deviation
Step 1 – calculate the mean – add all of the raw scores and divide by the # of scores
Step 2 – calculate the deviation from the mean by subtracting each of the raw scores from the mean
Step 3 – square the deviation from the mean for each score
Step 4 – Sum the squared deviations
Step 5 – divide the sum of the squared deviation by the number of scores and find the square root

53. Calculating the Standard Deviation

54. Calculating the Standard Deviation your turn
Scores – 10, 3, 7, 8, 7
Step 1 – calculate the mean – add the all of the raw scores and divide by the # of scores
Step 2 – calculate the deviation from the mean by subtracting each of the raw scores from the mean
Step 3 – square the deviation from the mean for each score
Step 4 – Sum the squared deviations
Step 5 – divide the sum of the squared deviation by the number of scores and find the square root

55. Variance
Variance - The average of the squared differences from the Mean.
= Standard Deviation2
Tells you the same thing as Standard Deviation—how consistent/reliable the data is
Example:
Standard Deviation = 5
Variance =
*if you know the variance, how can you calculate the standard deviation?

56. Scores Z Scores – Observation – Mean Standard Deviation 10-15 = -1 5
= -1 5
Equals 0 at the mean
A positive z score =
negative z score =
Example: If John scored a 72 on a test with a mean of 80 and a standard deviation of 8, John’s z score would be?

57. Normal Distribution
What is the probability an observation is less than the z score or more than the z score?

58. Normal Distribution
Calculating the probability that scores are above or below the mean
Step 1 – calculate the mean
Step 2 - calculate/find the standard deviation or variance. If you only have the variance you must calculate the standard deviation
Step 3 draw a normal distribution curve and find the scores for each standard deviation from the mean and place them on the graph
Step 4: calculating the % of students who scored within a range of scores by finding the corresponding scores on the curve, then add the percentages from each standard deviation.

59. Inferential Statistics
Inferential Statistics - The purpose is to discover whether the finding can be
Statistical Significance – the observed difference between the means of the experimental and control group
Measured by P-value= .05
5% likely the results are due to chance or
95% confidence level the results are due to the independent variable
You can apply the findings to the population
What does a p-value= .80 mean?

60. Statistical Significance Key Ideas
The bigger the difference between groups the less likely it’s due to chance (regardless of sample size)
Sample size matters. This is known as the "law of large numbers."
The larger the sample size, the smaller an observed difference has to be in order to be statistically significant.
The smaller the sample size, the larger an observed difference would have to be in order to be statistically significant.
Small sample, small difference not likely to be statistically significant

61. Descriptive vs. Inferential Statistics
Help researches draw conclusions from data
Statistical Significance
P < .05
Answers:
Did the independent variable cause changes in the dependent variable?
Should the Hypothesis be supported or rejected?
Can I apply my findings to the general population?
Descriptive
used to describe summarize a data set
Make use of averages
Mean
Median
Mode
Address dispersion – how widely the individual data points are likely to be from the mean
Standard Deviation
Variance

62. APA Ethical Guidelines for Research
IRB-
Both for humans and animals.

63. Animal Research
Clear
Treated
Acquired
Least

64. Human Research

65. Milgram’s Study Random Assignment: Hypothesis: Population Sample IV DV
Op Def: DV
Random Assignment:

66. Milgram’s Experiment Criticized for
of participants followed the orders to the maximum shock level

67. Milgram’s Experiment
Obedience High
Obedience Lower