1. Research Methods history
It is actually way more exciting than it sounds!!!!
Research

2. Which of the following is the best method of research?
A) Naturalistic observation
B) Case studies
C) Surveys
D) Longitudinal studies

3. Why do we have to learn this stuff. http://education-portal
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. In your own words- define these terms
Hindsight bias
Overconfidence effect
Barnum effect

5. 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….people said they knew Chris Brown was a “violent kid”!!! Did they really?

6. 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!!!)

7. The Barnum Effect
It is the tendency for people to accept very general or vague characterizations of themselves and take them to be accurate.

8. The Barnum Effect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDlkl78Yf-8

9. Figure 4. 1 How Do You Know What to Believe
Figure 4.1 How Do You Know What to Believe? Blair-Broeker and Ernst: Thinking About Psychology, Second Edition Copyright © 2008 by Worth Publishers 9

10. 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.
Studying how kissing changes when you get older is interesting…but that’s about it.
Research on therapies for drug addicts has a clear purpose.

11. Types of Descriptive Research
The Case Study
The Survey
Naturalistic Observation

12. I hypothesize….
1) that I will answer observation questions with ________% accuracy
2) that my peers will answer observation questions with ________% accuracy

13. Case Studies An indepth picture of one or a few subjects.
Tells us a great story…but is just descriptive research.
Could it be that your case is atypical?
The ideal case study is John and Kate. Really interesting, but what does it tell us about families in general?

14. Survey Method Cheap and fast Need a good random sample
Low-response rate
People Lie
Example
Wording Effects

15. --the problem with surveys (examples of the wording effect)
“ignorant” of what is being asked:
(from the Louis Harris Poll taken at New York’s American Museum of Natural History)
77% interested in plants/trees ;
39% botany
48% fossils
39% in paleontology
42% rocks/minerals
53% geology
Framing of question: H Clinton
Lie: exit poll 52/48; opposite
Interviewer: white: 62; black: 46
Framing of question: H Clinton/Perdue

16. Naturalistic Observation
Watch subjects in their natural environment.
Do not manipulate the environment.
The bad is that we can never really show cause and effect.
Why?

17. Longitudinal
Cross sectional

18. Correlational Method
correlation expresses a relationship between two variables
does NOT show causation
As more ice cream is eaten, more people are murdered.
Does ice cream cause murder, or murder cause people to eat ice cream?

19. 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.

20. Positive Correlation
As the value of one variable increases (or decreases) so does the value of the other variable.
A perfect positive correlation is +1.0.
The closer the correlation is to +1.0, the stronger the relationship.

21. Negative Correlation
As the value of one variable increases, the value of the other variable decreases.
A perfect negative correlation is -1.0.
The closer the correlation is to -1.0, the stronger the relationship.

22. How to Read a Correlation Coefficient

23. Correlation Coefficient
A number that measures the strength of a relationship.
Range is from -1 to +1
The relationship gets weaker the closer you get to zero.
Which is a stronger correlation?
(HINT: remember “absolute value”?)
-.13 or +.38
-.72 or +.59
-.91 or +.04

24. Figure 4.2 Positive and Negative Correlations Blair-Broeker and Ernst: Thinking About Psychology, Second Edition Copyright © 2008 by Worth Publishers 24

25. Correlation Practice! IQ/academic success Self esteem/depression
Stress/health
Shoe size/ grade on next exam
Education/income
Price of gas/sales of SUV’s

26. Experimental Method Looking to prove /disproved causal relationships.
Cause = Effect
Laboratory v. Field Experiments
Smoking causes health issues.

28. Terminology http://education-portal

29. 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.

30. Independent Variable aka the “cause”
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.

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

33. Identifying Independent and Dependent Variables
1. Developmental psychologists want to know if exposing children to public television improves their reading skills.
2. Behavioral psychologists want to know whether reinforcing comments will make people work harder on an assembly line.
3. A clinical psychologist wants to know whether people who have psychotherapy are more or less likely to have problems in the future.
4. A social psychologist wants to know whether being polite or rude to people tends to make them more cooperative.
5. A personality psychologist explores whether extroverted people have more fun at parties.

34. Need a better picture here
Examples of relationships attendence and grades, tv watching and test scores

36. Guess that correlation
Dogs : time spent scratching and # of fleas
Time (years) and internet access
Sports: time spent practicing and # of points scored (wins)
Golf: time spent practicing and golf score
Time spent studying and test score

37. Guess that correlation
age -- number of medical conditions
hours in the sun -- severity of sunburn
temperature - number of clothing layers people wear
amount of exercise -- % body fat

40. Years of education and income?

41. Years of education and income?

42. GPA and hours of television watched per week

43. GPA and hours of television watched per week

44. Experimental Vocabulary
Population: the group from which your participants were drawn from
Experimental Group: Group exposed to IV
Control Group: Group not exposed to IV
Replication: to repeat an experiment

45. Population/Sample

46. Stratified/Random Sampling
EHS (2012)
819 total
White %
Hispanic %
Black %
All other 9 1%
Males %
Females %
School.html

47. Operational Definitions
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 replicable.
Let’s say your hypothesis is that chocolate causes violent behavior.
What do you mean by chocolate?
What do you mean by violent behavior?

48. How might we operationally define the following?
The teacher wants to find a way to help make Billy act more friendly toward the other children.
2. A psychologist wants to know if his new form of psychotherapy will make people less depressed.
3. College athletes are not as smart as regular students.
4. Overall, senior boys are more handsome than junior boys.
5. The school spirit is at an all-time low.

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

50. Beware of 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.
If I wanted to prove that smoking causes heart issues, what are some confounding variables?
Lifestyle and family history may also effect the heart.

51. Experimenter Bias Another confounding variable Not a conscious act
Double-Blind Procedure

52. Another Confounding Variable
Placebo effect
A change in the participant’s illness or behavior that results from a belief that the treatment will have an effect rather than from the actual treatment

54. Another Confounding Variable
Placebo effect
example; beware of "bs"

55. Random Selection (surveys/experiments) & Random Assignment (experiments)
Once you have a random sample, randomly assigning them into two groups helps control for confounding variables
Experimental Group v. Control Group
Group Matching

56. Blind procedure
An experimental procedure where the research participants are ignorant (blind) to the expected outcome of the experiment
Sometimes called single blind procedure

57. Double Blind Procedure
A research procedure in which both the data collectors and the research participants do not know the expected outcome of the experiment.
Both groups are ignorant (blind) to the experiment’s purpose or expected results

60. Flawed experiments

61. Have you ever done something that you knew was wrong?
What motivated you?
Did you get caught?
Are you more willing to do something wrong if someone else tells you to do it?

62. Think about it…..
Would you do something that you know or believe is wrong if someone were watching you and might tell?
What about if you were anonymous and no one would ever know?
What about if you still know its wrong, but an authority figure says it is ok or to continue?
Cheat on test with the teacher watching
Cheat on a take home test
Teacher leaves out a copy of the test and looks away while you take it

63. The Milgram Experiment
Yale Univ. 1960’s
Classic social psychology experiment
“one of the most fascinating studies of obedience ever conducted”

64. The Milgram Experiment
Milgram wanted to determine whether or not participants would administer painful shocks to others merely because an authority told them to do so

65. The Milgram Experiment
He told participants that he was researching the effects of punishment on learning
Ethical?
Deceptive?
IV?
DV?
Outline sequence of the experiment

68. Amazing results….
The most amazing thing to note from this follow-up experiment is that 32% of the subjects in the proximity-touch condition held the hand of the learner on the shock plate while administering shocks in excess of 400 volts!
Further experiments showed that teachers were less obedient when the experimenter communicated with them via the telephone versus in person

69. Amazing results…. Do you think gender played a factor in obedience?
Why?
Males were just as likely to be obedient as females, although females tended to be more nervous.

70. The Milgram Experiment

72. The Milgram Experiment
Milgram's obedience experiment was replicated by other researchers.
25+ year period from 1961 to 1985
Australia, South Africa and in several European countries.
In one study conducted in Germany, over 85% of the subjects administered a lethal electric shock to the learner.

73. What do you think?

74. Read the Hawthorne Exp. on page 32

75. Bellwork Refresh your memory on the Hawthorne Exp. on page 32
- Read back over this section
Get out your think about it question and label of IV, DV, Exp. And control groups.
Review over the types of research (2-1)…..pop quiz coming your way

76. The Hawthorne Study
Insert figure from page 44 of text
Page 32

77. The Hawthorne Study (p. 45 in text)
In 1927 a group of industrial psychologists set out to determine how to increase worker’s productivity at a General Electric plant in Hawthorne, Ill.
Subjects?
IV?
DV?
Experimental group?
Control group?
5 assembly line workers
Amount of light
Productivity level
Those with increased lighting
Those with normal lighting

78. Hawthorne Experiment
In the 2nd experiment, the subjects were allowed to take rest breaks
In another experiment, the lighting was decreased
What happened in these experiments?
Why?

79. This came to be known as the Hawthorne Effect
When being in an experiment has an influence on behavior and confounds the outcome of the experiment

80. The Case of Clever Hans Late 1800’s German math teacher
Believed strongly in the reasoning and intelligence of animals
Tutored a cat, horse, and bear in mathematics

81. The case of Clever Hans 2 hypotheses? Method
Horse could compute math problems
Hans was reacting to visual stimuli
Method
How did they test the horses math skills?

82. Clever Hans
Results
Once conditions were controlled the truth was revealed
As the researcher stood farther away the horses “math skills” were greatly diminished
Horses possess the acute sensitivity to body language cues
Von Osten never accepted the fact that his horse could not truly perform the math problems and continued to tour around Germany with his Clever horse

83. APA Ethical Guidelines for Research http://education-portal
IRB- Internal Review Board
Both for humans and animals.

84. Stanford Prison Exp.

85. Animal Research Clear purpose Treated in a humane way
Acquire animals legally
Least amount of suffering possible.

86. Human Research Informed consent* Protected from harm and discomfort
Withdrawal
Confidentiality
Must debrief
*example follows

87. Actual Example of Informed Consent
Background Information: The purpose of this study is to determine if perceptions high school general education teachers and special education teachers on inclusion differ. It is hoped that this study will help us determine high school teacher perceptions on inclusion and factors that may contribute to their perceptions. Procedures: Participation in this study will take no more than 10 minutes of your time. If you agree to be in this study, you will only need to click on the attached link to access and complete a survey. Risks and Benefits of being in the Study: The risks are no more than the participant would encounter in everyday life. Your participation in this study will add to existing research on teacher perceptions of inclusion at the high school level. This study will provide school leaders with information to address teacher needs regarding inclusion. Addressing teacher needs will enhance student learning.

88. continued
Compensation: Participants will not receive any compensation for their participation. Confidentiality: The data collection for this this study will be completed anonymously. No one, including the researcher, will have any way of identifying who actually participated in the study. The researcher is the only person who will have access to collected data. In any sort of report we might publish, we will not include any information that will make it possible to identify a subject. Voluntary Nature of the Study: Participation in this study is voluntary. Your decision whether or not to participate will not affect your current or future relations with the Liberty University, the Douglas County School System, or the school that you work at. If you decide to participate, you are free to not answer any question or withdraw at any time with out affecting those relationships. Contacts and Questions: The researcher conducting this study is Carmen Wiggins. You may ask any questions you have now. If you have questions later, you are encouraged to contact her at or her committee chair Dr. Mowen at If you have any questions or concerns regarding this study and would like to talk to someone other than the researcher(s), you are encouraged to contact the Institutional Review Board, Dr. Fernando Garzon, Chair, 1971 University Blvd, Suite 1582, Lynchburg, VA or at

89. Statistics Can be used to describe data and manipulate data
For valid statistics the psychologist must collect meaningful data and evaluate it correctly
Defined as the branch of mathematics concerned with summarizing and making meaningful inferences from collections of data

90. Statistics Recording the results from our studies.
Must use a common language so we all know what we are talking about.

91. Statistics Has anyone ever had a dentist recommend trident?
¾ dentists recommend trident chewing gum….
Has anyone ever had a dentist recommend trident?
Or any chewing gum for that matter?

92. Exploring psychology
Long ago, when Johns Hopkins University had begun to admit women students, someone not particularly happy with coeducation reported a real shocker:
33.3% of the women at the school had married faculty members!
The raw data gave a clearer picture
There were 3 women enrolled at the time, and one of them had married a male faculty member.
(p. 47)

93. Descriptive Statistics http://education-portal
Just describes sets of data.
You might create a frequency distribution.
Frequency polygons or histograms.

94. Analyze Results measures of central tendency measures of variation
mean
median
mode
measures of variation
Range
standard deviation

95. Central Tendency Watch out for extreme scores or outliers.
Mean, Median and Mode.
Watch out for extreme scores or outliers.
Let’s look at the salaries of the employees at Dunder Mifflen Paper in Scranton:
$25,000-Pam
$25,000- Kevin
$25,000- Angela
$100,000- Andy
$100,000- Dwight
$200,000- Jim
$300,000- Michael
The median salary looks good at $100,000.
The mean salary also looks good at about $110,000.
But the mode salary is only $25,000.
Maybe not the best place to work.
Then again living in Scranton is kind of cheap.

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

101. Normal curve

103. 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)

105. A Skewed Distribution
Are the results positively or negatively skewed?

106. 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.
Do scientists want a big or small SD?
Shaq and Kobe may both score 30 ppg (same mean).
But their SDs are very different.
K: 81
Example

107. What does Standard Deviation tell us?

108. Inferential Statistics
The purpose is to discover whether the finding can be applied to the larger population from which the sample was collected.
p-value= .05 for statistical significance.
5% likely the results are due to chance.

110. Z-score= how far away form the average, in number of standard deviations, is my alignment score. P-value= How likely am I to get an alignment score greater or equal to the observed score from the given score distribution. (corresponds to the surface area of the little blue bit on the right).

112. Psychiatry MD
Av=$250 hr.
A branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders
Practiced by physicians who sometimes use medical (for example, drug) treatments as well as psychotherapy

113. Clinical Psychologists PH D av=$150-$200 hr
Clinical Psychologists PH D av=$150-$200 hr. study, assess, and treat people with psychological disorders without the use of medical interventions

114. Psychiatric Social Work
Psychiatric social workers provide mental health services to individuals with high needs. They may perform psychotherapy and even diagnose mental illness. You need a Master’s degree.
$42,220 per year

116. https://www. youtube. com/watch

117. Reliability and validity
In its everyday sense, reliability is the "consistency" or "repeatability" of your measures
Validity
Construct validity refers to the degree to which inferences can legitimately be made from the operationalizations in your study to the theoretical constructs on which those operationalizations were based

119. valid group estimate, but you are inconsistent
"Robin Hood“
-- you consistently hit the center of the target. Your measure is both reliable and valid
consistent but wrong

121.  If the scale tells you the same weight every time you  step on it as long as your weight has not actually changed.   
However, if the scale is not working properly, this number may not  be your actual weight.

122. A test can be reliable, meaning that the test-takers will get the same score no matter when or where they take it, within reason of course. 
But that doesn't mean that it is valid or measuring what it is supposed to measure. 
A test can be reliable without being valid.
However, a test cannot be valid unless it is reliable.

123. Summary
Reliability and Validity are key concerns in psychological research
Part of the problem in psychology is the lack of reliable measures of the things we are interested in.
Assuming that they are valid to begin with, we must always press for more reliable measures if we are to progress scientifically
This means letting go of supposed ‘standards’ when they are no longer as useful and look for ways to improve current ones
1. Always, always, always find the reliability estimates for the measure you are about to use. The information is readily available in original and related articles (always go to the original though), Mental Measurement Yearbook etc. At least give yourself a chance to do a decent study by using reliable measures.