1. Welcome!
Warm-Up: You will have 3 minutes to complete any last minute review before we begin the reading quiz… 

2. Psychologists do more than just wonder about human behavior: they conduct RESEARCH

3. Two Types of Research Used in Psychology
Applied Research
clear and practical reasons and used for research
Ex: If a psychologist was trying to come up with a new behavior therapy to stop heroin use, it would be applied research
Basic Research
no immediate, real-world uses but explores interesting questions
Ex: Studying the differences between cultures and physical beauty is an example of basic research

4. Things that make research scientific
Research Must Be Replicable
Must be able to be copied by others to get similar reliable data
the best and most reliable studies are replicated over and over

5. Things that make research scientific
Research Must Be Precise
Meaning research has to be to the point and easily understood
To be precise psychologists use
Operational Definitions
a definition of terms so basic that when others read your study they know exactly what you are looking for or measuring
Example – if you are trying to measure sense of humor – how would you make it precise?

6. What can cause research to go wrong??
Bias
What exactly do I mean by bias??

7. Bias
Any influence in research that unfairly increases the possibility we will reach a particular conclusion
Types of Bias
Researcher Bias, Confirmation Bias, Experimenter Bias
when researchers look for and accept evidence that supports their beliefs and ignore or reject evidence that prove false their beliefs
Participant Bias (or subject bias)
when research participants respond in a certain way because they know they are being observed
act how they think the researcher wants them to act
Hindsight Bias
when researchers believe, after learning the outcome of research, that they knew it all along

8. Hawthorne Effect short-lived increase in productivity
the fact that you know you are in an experiment can cause change
So even a control group may experience changes and affect results of experiment
Whether the lights were brighter or dimmer, production went up in the Hawthorne electric plant.

9. Scientific Method in Psychology
Scientists develop theories through the scientific method
The scientific method is the process used in psychology to discover knowledge about human behaviour and mental processes 5

10. Scientific Method in Psychology (cont’d)
The first step is to state the problem
Psychologists must ask questions that can be answered
The questions must be specific and defined in a clear way 5

11. Scientific Method in Psychology (cont’d)
The second step is to develop a hypothesis
A hypothesis is an educated guess about the answer to the question that has been posed
Hypotheses often emerge from theory 5

12. Scientific Method in Psychology (cont’d)
Step three is to design a study
Researchers must identify key variables and choose a suitable method for investigation
Researchers also must consider how many participants will be required and who the participants will be 7

13. Scientific Method in Psychology (cont’d)
The fourth step is collect and analyze data
Techniques must be selected that do not bias the results
Statistical methods help summarize the data that have been collected 7

14. Scientific Method in Psychology (cont’d)
The fifth step is draw conclusions and reporting results
Researchers report results to the scientific community by making presentations at conferences or by publishing their findings in a journal 7

15. Experimental Method
Psychological research often takes the form of an experiment
An experiment is a procedure in which researchers systematically manipulate and observe elements of a situation to test a hypothesis 11

16. Experimental Method (cont’d)
A variable is characteristic of a situation or a person that is subject to change or that differs within or across situations or persons 11

17. Experimental Method (cont’d)
The independent variable is manipulated by the experimenter
The dependent variable is the behavior or response that is expected to change because of the experimenter’s manipulation 11

18. Independent Variable Dependent Variable
Factors that are manipulated in an experiment
The variable that should cause something to happen
Dependent Variable
The variable that should show the effect of changing the IV
the way you can figure this out is …”If…then…” If = IV then = DV
- “If students study for a quiz before going to sleep, rather than in the morning, then they will get higher test scores”
Experimenters try to hold everything else constant so that the independent variable is the cause of the observed effects but this doesn’t always happen because of…

19. 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.

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

21. Experimental Method (cont’d)
A sample is the limited number of people researchers select to be part of the experiment and who represent a larger group 11

22. Experimental Method (cont’d)
An operational definition is a definition of a variable in terms of the methods or procedures used to study that variable
Studying defined as 20 minutes per day over three days is an operational definition 11

23. Experimental Method (cont’d)
Participants are the individuals who take part in an experiment and whose behaviour is observed and recorded 11

24. Experimental Method (cont’d)
The experimental group “receives” the independent variable
The control group is a comparison group who are tested on the dependent variable but do not receive the independent variable 15

25. 3 Types of Research you will have to know!!!
Descriptive Research
Correlational Research
Experimental Research

26. What is going on in this picture?
We cannot say exactly, but we can describe what we see.
This is called…
Descriptive Research
Research Type #1
describes the “who, what, when, where” of a situation
NOT concerned with causes or how something works only about describing what is going on

27. 3 Types of Descriptive Research
The Case Study
The Survey
Naturalistic Observation

28. Descriptive Research Type #1 The Case Study
Where one person (or situation) is observed and studied in depth to gather information.
For example, if I wanted to study personality and abnormal behavior how would a case study go about it??

29. 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. Really interesting, but what does it tell us about families in general?

30. Can study a behavior in depth and get quality info on that case
The results of the case study are usually
not generalizable to the rest of the population.
One persons case would not be a valid representation of the whole population
Strength
Weakness

31. Descriptive Research Type #2 The Survey
Uses interviews or questionnaires to gather information like attitudes and beliefs
The Good
Allows generalization
Cheap and anonymous
Can get a diverse and large population
Has both pros and cons when used

32. Where are surveys used in daily life?
Survey Method: The Bad
Social Desirability Bias
Give socially acceptable answers not truth
Volunteer Bias
People who volunteer may not be representative of whole population
Problems with wording and answer options
Where are surveys used in daily life?

33. Descriptive Research Type #3 Naturalistic Observation
Observing and recording behavior in natural environment
No interacting with subjects at all – just an observer
“taking the lab into the field”
What are the benefits and detriments of Naturalistic Observation?
+ = natural behavior
- = observers may see different things
- = can’t control the environment or outside factors

34. Field Trip We will stay together as we walk around the school grounds.
We are to stay quiet and observe
There is nothing special set up, I just want you to LOOK

35. How many signs in the hallway
How many signs in the hallway? How many times did you see the word Huskies? How many cars in the parking lot? Did a plane fly over? How many people did you pass?

36. Correlational Research
Research Type #2
Correlational Research
Explores relationships or links (correlations) between variables
Example – mothers smoking during pregnancy is “correlated” with increased risk of SIDS in babies
Descriptive vs. Correlational
Descriptive Research describes
Correlational Research links or relationships between things

37. Correlational Research
#1 thing to remember in Correlational Research
Correlation does not equal causation!!!!!
It is important to understand that CR does NOT say that one variable causes another but rather that they are somehow related
For Example…
There is a correlation between ice cream and murder rates. Does that mean that ice cream causes murder?
Remember…correlation does not equal causation!!!!!

38. Measuring the Strength of Relationships
Relationship of variables is measured using correlation coefficient
A statistical measure (a number) of strength of relationship of variables
(ex. Ice cream and murder rates)
Can vary to (more on this later)
Correlations or relationships can go in two directions
Positive
Negative

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

40. Experimental Research
Research Type #3
Experimental Research
Explores cause and effect relationships by manipulating and measuring variables
Bad Breath
Eating too many Onions causes

41. Extraneous or Confounding Variables
variables that you don’t count on that could change or influence the DV
you want to check for these to make sure they don’t mess up what you are looking for with the IV
Determine the type of experiment:
Blind vs. Double Blind
- blind
– participants are kept in the dark about purpose or about hypothesis
- double-blind
– both the participants and researcher are kept in the dark
- placebo
– an inactive pill that has no known effect (sugar pill)

42. Let's Design an Experiment

43. Mini Activity Design an experiment you might be interested to conduct:
Come up with a question
Form a hypothesis
Come up with your variables (IV, DV)
Operational Definition
Confouding Variables?
Any bias?
What you think the outcome will be?

44. Hypothesis – students who are assigned to wear headphones in study hall will have higher average grades at the end of the quarter than those banned from wearing headphones
Sample
All Study hall students
(population)
40 students randomly selected
20 students randomly
assigned to
experimental group
20 students randomly
assigned to
control group
Wear headphones
daily in study hall
Not allowed to wear
headphones
in study hall IV
Average grades at
the end of the quarter
Average grades at
the end of the quarter DV DV