2. Research Methods in Psychology Who? … YOU! What? …Scientific Method and Communication Where? … Here When? … Now

3. WHY?????

4. 1. Assist you in other psychology courses 2. Provide you with skills necessary for graduate school (if that is your choice) 3. Provide you with skills appreciated by employers (critical thinking, analysis, clear communication, etc). 4. SCIENTIFIC EMPOWERMENT 5. And the list goes on and on…. 6. But mostly

5. To avoid being a chump!! “There are lies, damned lies and statistics”. Mark Twain oops, I lied

6. Stretching the truth….Selective calculations…. But who would ever LIE to us????? Statistics are a start…. but not the end. Examples of statistical abuse (aka “sadistics”)

7. ……who, indeed.

8. What is “Truth”? How do we search for it?

9. How do we know anything… …REALLY? S ources of Knowledge: - authority - tenacity - experience - reason and logic - SCIENCE List one thing about human behavior that you have learned from each source. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each source of knowledge?

10. The Scientific Enterprise

11. Definition of Science – it’s a VERB!!!! Four canons (with one n) of science: (Canon = a generally accepted principle) Objective measurement Independent verifiability Self correction Control

12. Types of Research: Qualitative Descriptive Correlational Experimental

13. Pieces of the Pie DV – dependent IV – independent EV - extraneous CV – confounding OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS

14. Beware of BAD SCIENCE Small group project:: Search for examples of bad science on the internet. For your example, be able to answer the following questions: 1.What makes this science BAD? 2.What is the source of this science?

15. INDEPENDENT VARIABLE Manipulation DEPENDENT VARIABLE Measurement If done properly, will establish a causal relationship EXTRANEOUS VARIABLES - UNCONTROLLED VARIATION - CONFOUNDING VARIABLES GROUP PROJECT: 1. Analyze your example of “bad science” with specific reference to this flow chart. Where does your example go wrong? 2. Using the same topic, describe how you could turn your example of bad science into good science.