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Research Methods in Psychology How do we study Psychology?
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Goals of Psychological Research Define and Describe: What happened? Explain: Why did that happen? Predict: Under what conditions is that likely to happen again? Control: How can I we apply our principle to make this happen again? To make sure it never happens again?
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Observation Propose a hypothesis Gather Evidence Keep Hypothesis Reject Hypothesis Build a theoryPublish results Define the Problem The Scientific Method in Psychology
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Psychological Research Empirical Knowledge based on direct observation Theory A systematic general principle or set of principles that explains how separate facts are related to one another Enables researchers to fit many facts into a larger framework Organizes facts, must predict new facts, permits a degree of control over phenomenon
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Psychological Research Hypotheses Hypothesis: specific statement of expected outcome resulting from theory States the relationship between two variables NOT: An educated guess!!!! Variable: can be any event, characteristic, condition, or behavior
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Variables Independent variable (predictor variable) Factor(s) that change the outcome variable How do we operationalize? The variable we introduce Exercise will have a positive effect on health.
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Variables Dependent variable (outcome variable) Dependent on the influence of other factor(s) How do we operationalize? In psychology this is usually a behavior or a mental process Exercise will have a positive effect on health.
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Psychological Research Research methods Design Experimental vs. correlational (Design) Setting Field vs. laboratory (Setting) Descriptive Methods Naturalistic observation Surveys Case studies
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Research Methods Describing Behavior Naturalistic observation allows researchers to observe participants in real-world settings Advantages allows researchers to view behavior as it really happens in a natural setting Disadvantages cannot control outside variables, researcher bias
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Research Methods Describing Behavior Surveys Using interviews or questionnaires to gather information about subjects’ beliefs, feelings, experiences, etc
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Research Methods Describing Behavior Surveys Advantages Quick and done properly can gather accurate info about a large group Disadvantages Respondents may lie, population may not be representative, the questions may be leading
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Research Methods Describing Behavior Surveys Population: The entire group of interest to the researcher and the group to which they wish to generalize findings; a group from which a sample is chosen
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Research Methods Describing Behavior Surveys Sample: The fraction of any population selected for study and from which generalizations are made Representative sample: a sample selected from the larger population in a way that important subgroups within the population are included in the same proportions as the larger population
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Research Methods Describing Behavior Case studies An in depth study of one or a few participants consisting of information gathered by observation, interview, or psychological testing to provide a description of behavior or disorder
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Research Methods Describing Behavior Case studies Advantages Gathers knowledge about unusual conditions; can provide a hypothesis to be tested later Disadvantages Cannot establish cause of observed behaviors; cases studied might not generalize to larger population; researcher bias
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Correlational Research Finding relationships Correlational research: observes the relationship between two variables Because two things vary together does not mean that one thing causes the other
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Correlational Research Finding relationships Correlational research Scatter plot: A graph showing the relationship between 2 variables Correlational Coefficient: a numerical value that indicates the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables; ranges from +1.00 ( a perfect positive correlation) to -1.00 ( a perfect negative correlation)
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Correlational Research Finding relationships Correlational research A positive correlation means when one variable increases the other increases A negative correlation means when one increases the other is associated with a decrease The stronger the relationship between variables, the better the prediction
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Correlational Research Finding relationships No correlation Positive correlation Negative correlation
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Sources WWW.SPSP.org Banyard, Philip, & Grayson, Andrew. (2008). Introducing psychological research. Palgrave MacMillan. Hill, Grahame, & Cox, Erika. (2002). As Psychology for aqa specification b. 2002-07-25. Gross, Richard. (2008). Key studies in psychology. 2008 Myers, David, & Reviews, Cram101. (2009). Outlines and highlights for psychology by david g myers, isbn. Worth Pub.
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