1. APA Ethical Guidelines
Research Methods
APA Ethical Guidelines

2. The APA – American Psychological Association
Responsible for setting the ethical guidelines for human and animal research.
The IRB – Institutional Review Board
Part of the APA responsible for reviewing research proposals for ethical violations and/or procedural errors.

3. Human Research
Research involving human subjects must meet the following standards:

4. 1. Informed Consent
Participants must know that they are involved in research and give their consent.

5. 2. Coercion
Participation in a research study must be voluntary.

6. 3. Anonymity/Confidentiality
The participant’s privacy must be protected. No identities and actions may be revealed. A researched must not share any results that could match a participant and their specific responses. A researcher will not identify the source of any data as well.

7. 4. Risk
Participants cannot be placed at any significant mental or physical risk.

8. 5. Debriefing Procedures
Participants must be told the purpose of the study and provided with ways to contact the researcher about the study results.

9. Animal Research
Ethical studies using laboratory animals must meet the following requirements:

10. 1. The must have a clear scientific purpose.
The research must answer a specific, important scientific question. Animals are chosen based on their ability to help answer the question proposed.

11. 2. The animals must be cared for and housed in a humane way.

12. 3. The animal subjects must be acquired in a legal manner.
The animals used in the experiment must be purchased from accredited companies, and if trapped in the wild, they must be trapped in a humane manner.

13. 4. The experiment must be designed with procedures in place that employ the least amount of suffering on the part of the animals.

14. Should Animals Be Used In Research?

15. How do psychologists collect data about behavior?

16. Regardless of the method used, all research is based on the Scientific Method of Psychology
Scientific means systematic, testable, and objective.

17. What are the main principles that guide the Scientific Method of Psychology?

18. Step 1 – Review the existing Literature
Step 2 – Develop a testable Hypotheses
Step 3 – Research and Observation
Step 4 – Analyze the data
Step 5 – Publish, Replicate, Seek Review
Step 6 – Build a Theory

19. What are the two broad types of data that psychologists collect?

20. Quantitative and Qualitative Data
Research Data
Quantitative and Qualitative Data

21. Quantitative Data may involve things like experimentation or correlation studies, and the data produces numbers, measurements, deductive logic, statistics, etc. .

22. Qualitative Data emphasizes natural settings and observation, and generates data in the form of written themes, verbal narratives, personalized comments, pictures, etc.

23. Methods of Research

24. I. Naturalistic Observation
Researchers study spontaneous and natural behaviors in a subjects most familiar environment. There is no interaction with the subject during these observations.

25. Researcher Bias
Situation in which a personal factor unfairly increases the likelihood of a researcher reaching a particular conclusion

26. Example of Bias
I was recently mugged by a group of teenagers, or I just had a fight with my teenage son over driving privileges. My assignment is to observe teenage behaviors at the mall. Will I be more inclined to seek out bad behaviors or infer bad intentions and motivations?

27. Participant Bias - Hawthorne Effect
The tendency of research subjects to respond in certain ways because they know they are being observed. The subjects might try to behave in ways they believe the researcher wants them to behave.

28. II. Case Study
A case study is a situation in which a single individual is studied in-depth by a researcher, often times due to their unique behaviors or situation. Case studies are very interactive and often include face-to-face interviews, paper and pencil tests, the study of medical records, etc.

29. Police have arrested Bart for the serial killing of fifteen young women over the past ten years. A psychiatrist will examine the police files, medical files, observe and interview Bart, talk to his and the victims families, friends, etc. in order to understand Bart’s behaviors and motivations.

30. III. Survey
Questionnaires/ interviews. Using a combination of forced and open response questions, it can be helpful in analyzing and predicting behaviors.
Advantageous because you gather a large amount of information from a large group of people.

31. IV. Correlation

32. Correlation Study
Research study designed to determine the degree to which two variables are related to one another. This does not prove a cause and effect relationship; only that some relationship exists.

33. How are exercise and weight related
How are exercise and weight related? Are smoking and rates of cancer related? Is there a relationship between brain size and intelligence? Does your level of education have any implications on your potential future earnings?

34. Suppose there exists a high correlation between the number of popsicles sold and the number of drowning deaths. Does that mean that one should not eat popsicles before one swims? Not necessarily. Both of the above variable are related to a common variable, the heat of the day. The hotter the temperature, the more popsicles sold and also the more people swimming, thus the more drowning deaths. This is an example of correlation without causation.

35. Types of Correlation Relationships

36. After you’ve collected your data, it’s time to organize and analyze it.

37. Scatter plots consist of a large body of data plotted on a graph to show their relationship to one another. The closer the data points are to making a straight line, the higher the correlation between the two variables, or the stronger the relationship.

38. Positive Correlation
As the value of one variable increases or decreases, so does the value of the other variable.

39. Drinking Water and Hydration
As a person drinks less water, the lower their level of hydration is
Studying and Grades
As students study more, their grades increase.
Practice and Athletics
As athletes practice more, their batting averages increase
Driving Speed and Distance
As drivers drive faster, they travel further.

43. A perfect positive correlation results in a numerical value of +1.00
All additional positive correlations fall between 0.00 and The closer to you get, the stronger the positive correlation is.

44. Negative Correlation
As the value of one variable increases, the value of the other variable decreases.

45. The more you exercise, the less you weigh
The more you study, the less your teachers yell at you
As the price of movie tickets increases, the number of patrons decreases.
As the number of bystanders increases, the lower the likelihood of anyone helping a stranger in need.

49. A perfect negative correlation results in a numerical value of -1.00
All additional negative correlations fall between 0.00 and The closer to you get, the stronger the negative correlation is.

50. Zero Correlation
There is no relationship whatsoever between the two variables.
The length of your hair has no influence on your level of intelligence.

52. No correlation relates to a numerical score of 0.00

53. Correlation Study
Important NOT to imply a cause and effect relationship between the variables
Correlational study does not determine why the two variables are related--just that they are related.
Correlational studies are helpful in making predictions.

54. Illusory Correlation
A superstition; or, a belief that a relationship occurs between two variables when in fact there little or no relationship.
When I wear my lucky socks I always win.
Knocking on wood wards off bad luck.
Racial profiling.
If I’m thinner I’ll be happier.

55. V. Experiment
An investigation seeking to understand relations of cause and effect. The experimenter changes a variable (cause), and in turn changes another variable (effect). At the same time the experimenter hopes to hold all of the other variables constant so that they can attribute any changes to only the manipulation.

56. IE. I want to know if new Drug A will help to alleviate the symptoms of insomnia. I can manipulate the dosage and the times, but I need to control other factors like mattress softness, diet and room temperature to eliminate them as variables that affect sleep. At the end of the experiment I want to know that it was only Drug A that affected the patient’s sleep.

57. How do I create a valid and reliable experiment?

58. Step 1: Choose Variables
Variables are things that are measured, controlled, or manipulated in research.

59. The independent variable is the manipulated variable.
IE. The violent programming is the independent variable because I can adjust what shows are viewed, for how long, by whom, etc.

60. The dependent variable is measured for change.
IE. Measuring the change in aggression levels is the dependent variable in our experiment because it changes based on what is viewed, for how long, etc.

61. Step 2: Operationalize
When you operationalize your variables, you are explaining how you will measure them.

62. IE. The operational definition of the independent variable (what defines a violent show?) would be shows that have scenes of fighting, bloodshed, use of weapons, injury, kicks, punches, etc.
IE. The operational definition of the dependent variable (what constitutes an increase in aggressive behavior?) would be an increase in agitation or tenseness, increased vocal volume, threats of bodily harm, kicks, punches, throwing objects, etc.

63. Step 3: Identify Potential Extraneous Variables/Confounding Variables
It is important to make sure that during the experiment as many other factors that are NOT part of the therapy are NOT included. Any factor or variable that causes an effect (or potential affects) other than the variable being studied is considered an extraneous variable.

64. IE. An extraneous variable in our experiment would be a phone call from a solicitor during a program, the viewer receiving mail including a poor report card, a viewer stubbing their toe during a show, alcohol abuse, etc. All of these could increase aggressiveness, but are not related to viewing violent television.

65. Step 4: Choose a Hypothesis
A hypothesis expresses the type of relationship that you expect to find between the two chosen variables.
IE. My hypothesis is that watching violent television programs makes people more aggressive.

66. Step 5: Identify Who You Will Be Testing
The people on which the research will be conducted are called participants. If you are using animals, they are referred to as subjects.
I want to test the effects of television violence on teenage behaviors.

67. Step 6: How Do We Decide Who Will Be Subjects, and Who Won’t?
Since we can’t realistically test all teenagers in the world (the test population), we must reduce the overall population down to a more manageable number (the test sample). How?

68. Method 1: Rigorous Control Design
Designing an experiment with specific, hand-picked participants in mind.
IE. Only testing males, 18 years old, enrolled in AP Psychology at Middletown High School.

69. Method 2: Random Sample
A random sample allows that every member of an overall population has an equal chance to be in the sample.
IE. Put all teenager’s names into a hat and pull out fifty names.

70. Method 3: Systematic Sample
Select a starting point from your population and then select every ?th participant.
Alphabetically list all teenagers from one to one million, and then choose every 10th name on the list to be a participant in the experiment.

71. Step 7: Assignment
Once you have chosen your subjects to study, you must assign them to one of two groups; those that will be manipulated, and those that won’t.

72. Group 1: Experimental Group
The experimental group receives the independent variable and is manipulated throughout the experiment.

73. IE. In our television violence experiment, those in the experiment group will watch varying degrees of violent program, for varying lengths of time, etc., and their changes in levels of aggression measured.

74. Group 2: Control Group
The control group does not receive the independent variable. They are the used for comparative purposes.

75. IE. In our television violence experiment, the control group will be shown a variety of non-violent programming in order to create a baseline to compare the experiment group against.
How do the behaviors of teens exposed to non-violent programming compare with those of teens who watch violent programming?

76. How Can I Control For Bias In An Experiment?

77. Single-blind Design. The subjects do not know whether they have been randomly placed in the control or experiment group, so hopefully their behaviors will be more natural.

78. Double-blind design, where neither the subjects nor the researcher may know which is the control or the experiment group.
We hope that the subjects will behave more naturally, and the observers will be more objective.

79. Other Things to Consider…
Placebo Effect – Is it the independent variable that is affecting behavior, or is it the subject’s expectation that it should have an effect having an impact on the outcome?
We introduce a placebo, a fake variable, to compare against the real thing.

80. IE. Half of our control group receives a real sleep drug, while the other half receives a pill that looks, tastes exactly the same but has no medicine in it. Are the placebo group’s sleep patterns affected the same way as the real drug’s group?

81. REMEMBER !!!
Only experimental data can conclusively demonstrate causal relations between variables (A causes B to happen).

82. Once I have completed my research, how do I present my findings ?

83. I. Measures of Central Tendency
Mean – average of all scores in a data set
Median – the middle score
Mode – the most frequent score

84. Regression to the Mean
In statistics, it is the phenomenon whereby members of a population with extreme values on a given measure for one observation will probably give less extreme measurements on other occasions when they are observed.

85. IE. A running back rushed for 276 yards in his first football game of the season. More than likely he will not rush for 4416 yards that season (considering only five players have ever rushed from more than 2,000 yards in a single NFL season). It’s more likely that his game totals will decrease and his overall average will eventually reflect an NFL average of about 67 yards per game.

86. II. Measures of Variability
Range – difference between the highest and lowest score
Standard Deviation – how does each score relate to the mean

87. IE. Our class took Unit Exam 2. I scored a 76%
IE. Our class took Unit Exam 2. I scored a 76%. I want to know how well I did in relation to the rest of the class to see whether or not that score was good or bad. I need to figure out what the class average was, figure out the standard deviation from the mean, and I’ll know how well I did.

88. Graphing Data

89. Normal Curve

90. For any data set, this is the typical (normal) way that data relates to the mean. The mean and the median are the same, with half of the scores falling in a predictable pattern above and below that score.

91. What does this tell us?
If the mean of a set of class scores on a unit exam was 72, with a SD of 8, 68% of students scored between a 64 and an 80. Your score of a 76 would be close to being better than 68% of the rest of the class.
Approximately 95% of the class scored between a 56 and an 88. Your score of a 50 would indicated that roughly 96% of the class did better than you on the test.

92. Positively Skewed
This distribution has a positive skew. The mean has a greater value than the median.

93. IE. In a neighborhood of relatively low incomes, a few millionaires move in. Those few high salaries will inflate the mean (average), but the median will remain relatively low.

94. Negatively Skewed
This distribution has a negative skew. The vale of the median is larger than the mean.

95. IE. In a particular well-to-do neighborhood, a few low-income residents move in. The overall average income will drop a bit, but the median will remain relatively high.

96. When graphing the mean, median and mode of a distribution, roughly speaking, a distribution has positive skew if the right tail is longer and negative skew if the left tail is longer.