1. Research Methods (8-10%) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFV7 1QPvX2I

2. Applied V. Basic Research Applied Research has clear, practical applications. YOU CAN USE IT!!! Basic Research explores questions that you may be curious about, but not intended to be immediately used. Research on therapies for drug addicts has a clear purpose. Studying how kissing changes when you get older is interesting…but that’s about it.

3. Why do we have to learn this stuff? Psychology is first and foremost a science. Thus it is based in research. Before we delve into how to do research, you should be aware of three hurdles that tend to skew our logic.

4. Hindsight Bias The tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that you knew it all along. Monday Morning Quarterbacking!!! After the Chris Brown/Rihanna incident….lots of people said they knew Chris Brown was a violent guy… Did they really?

5. Overconfidence We tend to think we know more than we do. 82% of U.S. drivers consider themselves to be in the top 30% of their group in terms of safety. 81% of new business owners felt they had an excellent chance of their businesses succeeding. When asked about the success of their peers, the answer was only 39%. (Now that's overconfidence!!!)

6. The Barnum Effect It is the tendency for people to accept very general or vague characterizations of themselves and take them to be accurate. – Examples: Horoscopes Fortunes Year of ____ “place mat”

7. Terminology

8. Theory An explanation using a set of principles that organizes / predicts behaviors or events.

9. Hypothesis Expresses a relationship between two variables. A variable is anything that can vary among participants in a study. Participating in class leads to better grades than not participating.

10. The Need for Psychological Science

11. Independent Variable Whatever is being manipulated in the experiment. Hopefully the independent variable brings about change. If there is a drug in an experiment, the drug is almost always the independent variable.

12. Dependent Variable The dependent variable would be the effect of the drug. Whatever is being measured in the experiment. It is dependent on the independent variable.

13. Psychology’s Research Strategies Psychology’s research strategies include descriptive, correlational and experimental Pg. 40-study

14. Descriptive Case Study  Psychologists study one or more individuals in great depth in the hope of revealing things true of us all Is language uniquely human?

15. Case Studies A detailed picture of one or a few subjects. Tells us a great story…but is just descriptive research. Does not even give us correlation data. The ideal case study is John and Kate Plus 8. Really interesting, but what does it tell us about families in general?

16. Descriptive  Survey  technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes, opinions or behaviors of people  usually by questioning a representative, random sample of people  Random Sample  a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of participating  Ex- survey calls or individuals outside of stores

17. Survey Method Most common type of study in psychology Measures correlation Cheap and fast Need a good random sample Low-response rate

18. Descriptive  Naturalistic Observation  observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation  Ex- animals, children in their home or schools

19. Correlation  Correlation Coefficient  a statistical measure of the extent to which two factors vary together, and thus how well either factor predicts the other.  Ex-knowing how much aptitude test score correlate with school success tells us how well the scores predict school success Correlation coefficient Indicates direction of relationship (positive or negative) Indicates strength of relationship (0.00 to 1.00) r = +.37

20. Correlation  Scatterplot  a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables  the slope of the points suggests the direction of the relationship p.31  the amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation  little scatter indicates high correlation  also called a scattergram or scatter diagram

21. Correlation Perfect positive correlation (+1.00) No relationship (0.00)Perfect negative correlation (-1.00) Scatterplots, showing patterns of correlations

22. Types of Correlation Positive Correlation The variables go in the SAME direction. Negative Correlation The variables go in opposite directions. Studying and grades hopefully has a positive correlation. Heroin use and grades probably has a negative correlation.

23. Correlation Three Possible Cause-Effect Relationships (1) Low self-esteem Depression (2) Depression Low self-esteem Depression (3) Distressing events or biological predisposition could cause or and

24. Experimentation  Experiment  an investigator manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe their effect on some behavior or mental process (the dependent variable)  by random assignment of participants the experiment controls other relevant factors

25. Sampling Identify the population you want to study. The sample must be representative of the population you want to study. GET A RANDOM SAMPLE

26. Experimentation  Placebo  an inert substance or condition that may be administered instead of a presumed active agent, such as a drug, to see if it triggers the effects believed to characterize the active agent  Double-blind Procedure  both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo  commonly used in drug-evaluation studies

27. Random Assignment Once you have a random sample, randomly assigning them into two groups helps control for confounding variables. Experimental Group v. Control Group.

28. Beware of Confounding Variables If I wanted to prove that smoking causes heart issues, what are some confounding variables? The object of an experiment is to prove that A causes B. A confounding variable is anything that could cause change in B, that is not A. Lifestyle and family medical history may also effect the heart.

29. Operational Definitions A statement of procedures used to define research variables. Explain what you mean in your hypothesis. How will the variables be measured in “real life” terms. How you operationalize the variables will tell us if the study is valid and reliable. Let’s say your hypothesis is that chocolate causes violent behavior. What do you mean by chocolate? What do you mean by violent behavior?

30. Hawthorne Effect But even the control group may experience changes. Just the fact that you know you are in an experiment can cause change. http://psychology.about.co m/od/hindex/g/def_hawt horn.htm http://psychology.about.co m/od/hindex/g/def_hawt horn.htm Whether the lights were brighter or dimmer, production went up in the Hawthorne electric plant.

31. Experimentation

32. Statistics Once data is gathered we must organize, summarize and make inferences from it using statistics. Recording the results from our studies. Must use a common language so we all know what we are talking about.

33. Statistical Reasoning  Mode  the most frequently occurring score in a distribution  Mean  the arithmetic average of a distribution  obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores  Median  the middle score in a distribution  half the scores are above it and half are below it

34. Normal Distribution In a normal distribution, the mean, median and mode are all the same.

35. Distributions Outliers skew distributions. If group has one high score, the curve has a positive skew (contains more low scores) If a group has a low outlier, the curve has a negative skew (contains more high scores)

36. Statistical Reasoning  Range  the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution  Standard Deviation  a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean  Statistical Significance  a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result occurred by chance

37. Other measures of variability Range: distance from highest to lowest scores. Standard Deviation: the variance of scores around the mean. The higher the variance or SD, the more spread out the distribution is. Lebron and Wade may both score 30 ppg (same mean). But their SDs are very different.

38. Ethics in Research

39. Animal Research Clear purpose – b/c human physiology resembles various animals (esp. mammals) – Some experiments are not permitted on humans Treated in a humane way Acquire animals legally Least amount of suffering possible. Rats, mice, rabbits and birds are the types of animals often used in psych researech

40. Ethics Human Research No Coercion- must be voluntary Allow them to withdraw @ any time Informed consent Protect from harm & discomfort Must debrief Protect confidentially

41. MILGRAM OBEDIENCE Experiment Ethical or unethical? pg. 706 Stanley Milgram –Social psychologist. Studies about social interaction and obedience Discussion about obedience? 1. Now that you know about ethical guidelines for conducting human research, while watching the video, describe 3 ethical guidelines that would be violated if this experiment was conducted today. 2. Discuss and explain how you would have responded as a subject in the experiment? (giving the “electrical shocks” and as the individual that “received” the electrical shocks

42. Zimbardo Prison experiment Page 700 Read https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jdOoxnr7AI Also Milgram obedience experiment pg. 706

43. Normal Distribution

44. Scores A unit that measures the distance of one score from the mean. A positive z score means a number above the mean. A negative z score means a number below the mean.

45. Statistical Reasoning A Skewed Distribution 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 90 475710 70 Mode Median Mean One Family Income per family in thousands of dollars