1. Conducting Psychological Research The Dos and the Don’ts!

2. Choosing a Sample Population: The entire group of people you want your research to apply to Sample: the small group of subjects, out of the total number possible, that a researcher studies Must be representative! Random sample: each individual has a equal chance of being represented Stratified sample: subgroups in the population are represented proportionally Group assignment (for formal experiments only) Experimental Group & Control Group

3. Variables Variables are the things you measure in your research.

4. Formal Experiment Independent Variable: the variable the researcher controls to measures it’s effect on human behavior Dependent Variable: The behavior you are observing Make sure to use the same independent variable for all subjects! Measure dependent variable consistently !

5. Non-Experimental Methods Correlation is NOT necessarily cause and effect! If you are not conducting a formal experiment, you can only show relationships between variables. 1.Content Analysis 2.Case Study 3.Surveys and Interviews 4.Field Study/ Naturalistic Observation 5.Laboratory Observation 6.Psychological Tests

6. Placebo Effect A change in a participants illness or behavior the results from a belief that the treatment will have an effect, rather than the actual treatment

7. Self-fulfilling Prophecy Single blind experiment: an experiment where the subjects are unaware of which participants receive the treatment (independent variable) Double blind experiment: an experiment where neither the experimenter nor the participants know who receives the treatment (independent variable)

8. Ethics in research Informed consent Debrief Protection of participants Deception Confidentiality Option to withdraw from an investigation