Research, Methodology, and Ethics UNIT 2 Research, Methodology, and Ethics

Why do we research? People lie! Why? Because just asking people how they feel or why they acted the way they did can be misleading People don’t know how they feel People don’t know why they behave certain ways People lie!

What is the goal of psychology? The goal of psychology is to develop explanations for behavior and mental processes…explain why we do what we do A scientific theory is a system of interrelated ideas that is used to explain a set of observations “Theory” in everyday language is different than in science

A good theory… Effectively organizes a range of self- reports and observations Leads to a clear hypothesis (prediction) Stimulates further research or can be replicated Simplifies and summarizes facts Produces testable predictions called hypotheses

Tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables Develop a Hypothesis A hypothesis must undergo rigorous tests before it will be accepted as a legitimate theory Perform a Controlled Test Gather data through observation of independent variables Gather Objective Data Consider if the data supports or disproves the hypothesis Analyze the Results Allow results to withstand the criticisms of the scientific community Publish the Results and Replicate Scientific Method

Let’s Do This

Popcorn Hypothesis… Develop a Hypothesis – Perform a Controlled test – If I let you eat snacks in class during the review, then you will score higher on the unit test. Perform a Controlled test – Half the class eats popcorn during the review. Half the class does not. All students take the test. Gather Objective Data – What were the scores? Separate them into two categories. (snacks and no snacks) Analyze the Results How did the snackers do versus the non snackers? Publish the Results and Replicate Write results on board in graphs and charts explaining findings

Hypothesis say what Hypothesis is usually an “if” “then” statement All hypotheses must be testable and falsifiable, or shown to be either supported or incorrect Falsifiability is the possibility that an assertion can be shown false by an observation or experiment. That something is "falsifiable" does not mean it is false; rather, that if it is false, then this can be shown by observation or experiment Don’t forget your operational definitions !!!!!!!!

Variables, they’re kind of a big deal Independent Variable - A stimulus condition that the experimenter changes independently of all other carefully controlled conditions in the experiment Dependent Variable - The measured outcome of a study, or the response of the subjects in the study Stimulus Independent (IV) Result Dependent (DV)

The Guinea Pigs Confounding Variable Control Group – Group that is NOT exposed to the independent variable Experimental Group – Group that IS exposed to the independent variable Confounding Variable Variables that have an unwanted influence on the outcome of an experiment.

How to keep your experiment on the up and up Representative Sample: A sample obtained in such a way that it reflects the distribution of important variables in the larger population in which the researcher are interested-variables such as age, sex, ethnicity, education….

How to keep your experiment on the up and up Random Assignment: Like selection for the experiment, placement into groups should be done randomly, meaning that each participant has an equal likelihood to be in either the control or the experiment group

How to keep your experiment on the up and up Double Blind Experiment: An experiment where both the subject and the person administering the experiment do not know the nature of the independent variable being administered

Charts and Graphs and Stats, oh my…… Now that you have collected your data what should you do with it? How should I organize my data? Histographs, pie charts, line charts, scatterplots, etc….. What does my data tell me? Does my data support or disprove my hypothesis?

another lecture for another day Statistics another lecture for another day

And now for something completely different….

Types of Research

What went wrong?? Overconfidence Bias: Tendency to think we know more than we do

Ex-Post Facto Research Research in which we choose subjects based on a pre-existing condition Ex: Cancer research. diseases Sometimes we are unable to do experiments for ethical or practical reasons (we will spend extended time on ethics in research next week)

Case Study Observational techniques that study one person or group in depth with the hope of revealing universal principles Case studies often suggest further directions for studies, but can be misleading if the person being studied is atypical

Naturalistic Observation Method where subjects are observed in their natural environment Like all descriptive studies, naturalistic observations do not explain behavior, they describe behavior Why would it be important for subjects to not know they are being observed?

Longitudinal Study One group or subject is studied for an extended period of time to observe changes in the long term Positive Aspect: Same subjects for the entire study Negative Aspects: Time and expense

Cross Sectional and Cohort-Sequential Studies look at a cross section of the population and studies them at one point in time EX: a lot of groups right now Cohort-Sequential look at a cross section of population and then studies them over a short period of time EX: a lot of groups over time

Correlation Study A correlation study is one where researchers try to show the relationship (or correlation) between two variables Correlation studies are largely based in statistics It is important to remember that correlation does not necessarily mean causation

Surveys Research technique using self reported attitudes or behaviors of a specific group What are some dangers of using a survey?

Institutional Review Board

Good News: This is NOT a math class Bad News: We still need to cover statistical analysis

Types of Statistics Descriptive Statistics Inferential Statistics Use measures of central tendency Mean, median, and mode Use measures of variation Range and standard deviation Inferential Statistics Estimating what is happening in a sample population If it worked for this population, we can estimate that it will work for the rest for the population

Vocabulary….a necessary evil!

Words to know Mean – average of the numbers Median – middle number of a sequence Mode – number that occurs most often Range – difference between highest and lowest values Outliers – a point that is far away from any other point in the data Standard Deviation – difference between each point and the mean

(add the numbers and divide by the total data points) Mean average of the numbers (add the numbers and divide by the total data points) Let’s Practice Find the mean 2,3,3,5,7,9 1,4,5,5,6,8,10 1,2,3,4,6,9

middle number of the sequence Median middle number of the sequence (put the points in numerical order and determine which is the middle number) Let’s Practice Find the median 1,2,8,5,9 3,6,6,7,8,1 5,5,8,3,9,10,3

Mode number that occurs most often Let’s Practice Find the mode (determine which number occurs most often) Let’s Practice Find the mode 2,5,4,7,6,8,8 4,5,7,7,2,9,5 1,2,3,4,5

Range difference between highest and lowest values Let’s Practice (arrange the numbers in numerical order) Let’s Practice Find the range 1,5,9,24,3,7 6,0,1,3,8,4 74,58,3,9,2

Outlier point that is far from all other points in data Let’s Practice (arrange in numerical order and determine which is outside) Let’s Practice Find the outlier 0,1,3,1,30 45,47,42,98 12,17,9,6,55

Standard Deviation difference between each point and the mean (use intense formula to find the SD of the data!) Let’s Practice Find the standard deviation 1,2,3,3,4 0,3,6,4,2 1,5,2,2,4

Let the fun begin……..