1. Thinking Like a Psychologist Part 33 1 / 3

2.  Roll call  Essay #2 (missing several)  APA Mastery Test – see me if questions  Review  Control, Research Methods, and more  Intuitions Test  Probability, Chance, and the Popular Image of Psychology

3.  Does correlation prove causation? Why or why not?  What is the principle of faslifiability?  What are the problems with testimonial evidence?

4.  Necessary to make causal inferences and rule out alternative explanations  When a researcher holds everything in 2 (or more) different situations constant except for a particular variable  Requires that we separate and individually control variables that may naturally occur together  Then if the outcome changes, the only explanation is the variable that changed…  Outcome = Dependent Variable  Manipulated variable = Independent Variable

5. VariablesQuiet ConditionNoisy Condition Noise Level (IV)LowHigh IQ (EV)Average Room Temperature (EV)70°82° Sex of Subjects (EV)60% Female Task Difficulty (EV)Moderate Time of Day (EV)MorningAfternoon

6.  The Control Group  A group of participants that receives no (or alternative) treatment  Why important?  Examples of importance  Clever Hans  Facilitated Communication  Separation of Variables  Must rule out alternative explanations; therefore must create artificial situations where variables that naturally occur together are teased apart.

9.  There are 6 basic categories of scientific method that virtually all research falls into Research Non-ExperimentalExperimental Naturalistic ObservationQuasi-Experimental Survey Relational Research Field Study Experimental

10.  Addresses most basic scientific question: “What is out there?”  Requires operational definition of events to be observed  Observer must be unobtrusive, and design must be nonreactive

11.  Like naturalistic observation, conducted in real-world settings  Goal is to establish natural relations among events  Observer must be unobtrusive, but methods are intentionally reactive

12.  Appropriate to the study of private behaviors  Two primary styles: Interviews (structured/unstructured) Questionnaires (structured/unstructured)

13.  Goal to verify systematic (usually linear) relations among events  Strengths/directions of relations  generally expressed in form of correlation coefficient (rxy)

14.  Goal: to establish a cause-effect relationship among events  Does low-fat diet cause decrease in cancer risk?  Does exposure to violent video games cause increase in violent behaviors?  Does spaced study cause increase in memory accuracy and retention?  Do genetic variations cause sexual preference?

15.  Requires: random assignment of participants to at least two equivalent conditions manipulation of one factor (independent variable, or IV) in one condition (experimental), leaving it unchanged in other condition (control) measurement of one other factor in both conditions (factor called dependent variable, or DV; measurement instrument called dependent measure, or DM)

16.  Concludes: if groups are NOT equivalent with respect to DV, and if the difference between the groups is so big it probably did not happen by chance, then manipulation of the IV caused the difference in the DV

17.  Goal also to establish cause-effect relations among events  Required when random assignment is not possible, because must use pre-existing groups, or IV impossible to manipulate directly, or IV unethical/illegal to manipulate directly

18.  Name 6 categories of scientific research  Which method of research can be used to establish cause and effect relationships?

20.  Gradual Synthesis Model  Great Leap  Remember, the goal of science is really to get less and less WRONG.

21.  Most phenomena are caused by multiple (not just one event)  Examples?  There’s usually no “magic bullet” or “missing key”