1. U NDERSTANDING THE R ESEARCH P ROCESS Goal 1.2

2. H OW DO P SYCHOLOGISTS P ROVE THEIR T HEORIES ??? You decide that you are going to prove that being an organized student has NO or a BIG impact on students’ grades. How would you go about proving this theory? Brainstorm with two or three other students.

3. R ESEARCHERS N EED 1. A plan 2. People willing to participate in the study 3. A method for collecting and analyzing the data

4. AIM, PROCEDURE AND F INDINGS Aim – this is the purpose of the study. It indicates which behavior or mental process will be studied Target population – these are the group who is being investigated Procedure – the step-by-step process used by the researcher. Must be carefully written so that it is replicable Findings – states how the researcher interpreted the data that were collected. Must be interpreted in terms of the culture in which it was conducted

5. A C LASSIC S TUDY : T HE P YGMALION EFFECT (R OSENTHAL AND J ACOBSON, 1968) ( P. 18 IN CC) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNbXb94RdeE Start at 1.20 State the aim, procedure and findings of this study undertaken by Rosenthal and Jacobson What 4 factors by teachers seem to influence student achievement?

6. P OSSIBLE A NSWERS ! Aim – to determine if teacher expectations of students’ performance effects how well students learn. Procedure – Give each class of students an achievement test to see if there is development during the year of the study Chose 18 classes of students from kindergarten through 6 th grade Chose 20% of students at random and told the teachers that these were truly gifted students.(not so) Retest students at the end of the school year and compare the scores of those labeled “gifted.”

7. F INDINGS ! Those students labelled as “gifted” showed a significantly greater increase in test scores than other children. The “self-fulfilling prophecy” influences the performance of the students.

8. P ARTICIPANTS – WHO SHOULD BE IN THE STUDY ? Participants – who take part in a psychological study Target population –specific group they are interested in for the study Sample – the nature of the group of participants Representative sampling – since you can’t sample everyone in that group, you try to get a sample of as many as you can. More is better. Small is more open to distortion

9. P ICK YOUR PARTICIPANTS You want to replicate the Pygmalion effect experiment. How would you go about picking your participants? In a small group of 2 or 3 write out your plan.

10. K INDS OF S AMPLING Opportunity Sampling– whoever happens to be there and agrees to participate. Easy to get them, but often lead to biased results Sampling bias – 2/3 of research done at universities uses exclusively students to participate! HMMMM. Can you see a problem? Self-selected Sample –volunteers. Easy to obtain and usually highly motivated, but don’t always reflect whole population Snowball Sampling – Participants recruit other participants from among their friends and acquaintances.

11. Random Sampling – sampling where every member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected. Pull names out of a hat Everyone in the population has an equal chance of getting selected. Stratified Sample- draws random samples from each sub population in the group If school has 20% Hispanic, 50% African American, 30% Caucasian students then the samples must include 20% Hispanic, etc. This is the most accurate reflection of the actual distribution of the school population

12. Y OUR T URN : B E A RESEARCHER You want to make a study of people’s motivation to engage in exercise. You decide to go to the local fitness center and conduct some interviews. Discuss the following: If you use an opportunity sample at a local fitness center, which group of people would be overrepresented? Which group would be underrepresented? Would you get a more representative sample if you advertised for participants in your school?

13. E THICS IN R ESEARCH Restaurant research study 1999 p. 21-22 CC Since then Psychological groups around the world have adopted the following: 1. Informed Consent 2. Deception 3. Debriefing 4. Withdrawal from a study 5. Confidentiality 6. Protection from physical or mental harm

14. C HECK IT OUT Review the research carried out by Rosenthal and Jacobson. Was this study ethical? Discuss your reasons.

15. E VALUATING F INDINGS Application – how is the theory or empirical study going to be used? Studies of neurotransmitters are used to develop drugs to treat depression, schizophrenia Use of memory research improves how we take evidence from eyewitness testimony (an application of cognitive theory in forensic psychology) Research on effect of light on mood (an application of biological theory in occupational psychology)

16. V ALIDITY AND R ELIABILITY – DID THE RESEARCH DO WHAT IT CLAIMED TO DO ? Ecological Validity Did the study represent what happens in real life? If took place in a laboratory may lack e.v. If it was so well controlled that normal influences were eliminated, may lack e.v. If no e.v. it may not predict what will happen outside of lab Cross-cultural Validity Is it relevent to other cultures? If not, it may be ethnocentric and based on values and beliefs of one culture

17. R ELIABILITY Can the results be replicated? If another research uses the exact same procedure, it should give the same results LET’s REVIEW!!

18. P OINTS TO C ONSIDER WITH E MPIRICAL S TUDIES 1. Is the study based on a representative group of people (sample)? Is there a bias in the sample? Is one group overrepresented? 2. Was the study conducted in a lab or in a natural setting? Lab setting is artificial. It isn’t possible to be certain that participants act as they would in real life 3. Were the participants asked to do things that are far from real life? Remembering nonsense syllables? Lacks ecological validity

19. M ORE POINTS TO CONSIDER 4. Are the findings supported/questioned by the findings of other studies? Consider in what ways the findings are different and try to exolain how and why. Maybe you can suggest which study was better designed and sow which results seem to be more valid 5. Do the findings have practical relevance? Consider how the study is applied to real life situations 6. Ethical considerations Check IB psychology code of ethics

20. A CTIVITY : ARE THE FOLLOWING E THICAL ? You are the committee selected by your college or university to determine which research studies will be allowed. Get into groups of 3 or 4. Read your assigned scenario. Determine if it is ethical and should be allowed to be used.

21. S UPERIOR M EMORY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHeEQ85m79I