Untitled

• The lecture notes concern scientific culture and the principles of good science.
• They also cover developing a theory, pseudoscience, goals of psychological research, research design basics, relationships between variables, causality, confounding variables, blinded procedures, animal models for research, human research, descriptive statistics (mean, median, mode), standard deviation, p-value, effect size, p-hacking, construct validity, internal and external validity.

Principles of Good Science: Materialism

• Everything in the universe has a physical basis
• It Can be measured physically / objectively
• Everything follows principles of cause and effect
• Even love, thoughts, and emotions have a physical basis
• Neuroscience agrees that all aspects of humans have a physical basis.

Universalism

• Involves making systematic observations that can be measured objectively.
• Aims for agreement on standardized, empirical measurement strategies.
• Requires that everyone has the same measuring tools to engage in constructive scientific dialogue.

Communality

• Data and scientific methods should be open, accessible, and transparent for replication.
• Ensures science is for the greater good, not just profit.

Disinterestedness

• Science should not be influenced by desired outcomes. Companies rushing to profit often produce questionable data and results.

Organized Skepticism

• Evaluation based on scientific merit, not the prestige of the publishing journal.

Developing a Theory

• Theory organizes and explains facts/descriptions/observations, explaining larger phenomena.
• Theories should be testable and falsifiable to generate new knowledge.
• Theories should be parsimonious.

Pseudoscience

• Relies on authority and uses scientific-sounding jargon to appear credible.
• Often lacks peer review, methodology, and conflicts with existing evidence.
• Relies on claims that are vague
• Doesn't facilitate further research or engage with existing scientific research.

Goals of Psychological Research

• Describe, predict, and determine the causes and mechanisms of behavior.
• Once these goals are achieved, attempts can be made to influence or control behavior.
• An example is a Facebook experiment on emotional contagion through social networks.

Research Design Basics - Variables

• A variable is something that varies, like height or temperature.
• Psychology focuses on conceptual variables like memory, emotion, and attention.

Operationalization

• Defined as turning a conceptual variable into a measured variable.
• Operational variables stand in for abstract concepts.
• Often requires multiple operational variables to measure a concept comprehensively (e.g., measuring love).

Four Categories of Variables

• Includes Independent, Dependent, Situational, and Participant variables.

Relationships Between Variables - Correlation Research

• In Positive correlation, two variables move in the same direction (e.g., attitude change and speech rate).
• In Negative correlation, two variables move in opposite directions (e.g., noise level and group size).
• In Curvilinear correlation, the relationship is positive initially but diminishes over time (e.g., caffeine and performance).

Experimental Method

• The Independant variable affects change in the Dependant variable allowing understanding of cause and effect.

Causality Requirements

• Requires covariation of cause and effect.
• If the cause occurs, the effect happens, and vice versa.
• Requires temporal precedence, where the cause comes before the effect.

Confounding Variable

• Variable that varies along with the independent variable, affecting the experiment results.
• Controlled by ensuring all subjects receive the same volume of fluid, regardless of alcohol content.

Common Examples of Research Studies

• In rat drug experiments, social isolation can be a confounding variable.
• Clinical drug studies use a controlled environment and placebos to control confounding variables.

Blinded Procedures

• A single-blind study is where the participant doesn't know what they're getting.
• A double-blind study is where both the participant and researcher are unaware to mitigate potential bias.

Animal and Human Research

• The use of Animal research is for basic mechanisms and genetics, with ethical considerations in place.
• In Human research has federally mandated committees and informed consent.

Descriptive Statistics

• Descriptive statistics like mean, median, and mode are important for understanding and splitting data
• Data can be shown in Histogram diagrams

Understanding P-Value and Effect Size

• Standard deviation graph shows how much variance is in data.
• P value indicates the likelihood data could have occurred under the null hypothesis.
• Significance is typically set at p<0.05.

Effect Size

• As bell curves overlap less, there is a larger effect size which is how much the independent variable has on the dependant variable.
• Cohen's d is designed for comparing two groups for the difference between standard deviations the two means use.

Significance Level

• FMRI scans require a smaller p value due to the large number of statistical tests.
• P-hacking involves manipulating p statistics to get misleading results.

Construct Validity

• Is how a tests the concept it was designed to evaluate.
• The data needs to be good, and methods sound, but actual operalization may have errors.

Indicators of construct validity

• Face validity (does the measure appear to match the construct at face value?)
• Content validity refers to the measurement of all facets of a given construct.
• Concurrent validity - Does your variable move in a clear pattern along with other variables?
• Convergent validity - Does your test exhibit consistent results with other tests measuring similar / the same construct?
• Discriminant Validity - How well does a test distinguish between concepts that are similar but conceptually different?
• Predictive Validity - How well does a test predict a future outcome, behaviour, or performance?

Types of Validity

• Internal validity shows to what extent the researchers can trust the results of a study are not attributed to methodological errors.
• External validity is how representative the data is to the world (WEIRD countries).

What Science Is

• A method to understand observable patterns/phenomena, not a dogmatic way to view the world

Methods in Psychology

• Psychology involves studying the relationship between the mind, brain, and behavior using scientific methods.

Empiricism: How to Know Stuff

• Empiricism, using empirical evidence to establish facts, is the backbone of the scientific method

Theories

• Theories organize and explain natural phenomena.

Hypothesis

• Formed by a falsifiable prediction made by a theory
• Theories can never be proven right.
• A false statement is when "Scientists prove theory (x)".

Scientific Method

• A method to learn the truth about the world
• Consists of developing a theory, deriving a falsifiable hypothesis, and testing the hypothesis through empirical evidence.

Human Beings

• A complex brain that is comprised of 100 billion neurons that give rise to our thoughts, and feelings
• No two humans are alike
• People tend to think, feel, and act differently when being observed.

Exclusion of Women in Science

• Historically women were excluded as they could not enroll in medical / scientific professions
• Belief that men aligned with scientific professions
• Men are are more variable than women on quantitative and visio-spatial ability, but do not mean smarter on average.
• Women earn the majority of degrees in social sciences.
• No evidence to suggest these traits are biologically innate

Measurement

• Psychologists avoid inconsistent everyday observations by using measurement.
• First find a way to detect it by defining a property in measurable terms which is also called, Operational definition.
• Then find a detector that can measure that property, or device.

Construct Validity

• A construct is valid if the way it is measured actually reflects what it's supposed to measure
• A good detector detects differences in the magnitude of a property when they exist

Demand Characteristics

• aspects of an observational setting that causes people to behave as they think someone else wants or expects
• Avoid this by gathering information by observing people in their natural environments who are unaware they being observed
• Privacy and control by making participants feel less anonymity
• Unawareness, or making sure that people are unaware of the purpose of the observation

Observer Bias

• the tendency for observers' expectations to influence both what they believe and what they actually observed in a study
• Avoid this by using a double blind study

Graphic Representations

Made by scientists to make sense out of data

Frequency distribution

• graphic representation showing the number of times that the measurement of a property takes on each of its possible values.

Descriptive Stats

• brief summary statements that capture the essential information from a frequency distribution
• Can use the ,ode, mean, median

Descriptions of variability

• tell how much measurements differ from each other
• Range (the value of the largest measurement in a frequency distribution minus the value of the smallest measurement) that is not consistent
• Standard deviation, statistics describing how each of the measurements of a frequency distribution differs from the mean.

Correlation

• Correlation between amount of sleep university students get, and amount of countries they can name in one minute.
• Relationship between variables in which variations in the variation in the value of the other
• When the patterns are synchronized, two variables are said to be co-related
• Measuring with positive and negative correlations
• Third-variable problem causes lack in relation between the variables

Experimentation

• The purpose is the Establish Causations
• It is technique a for establishing the casual relationship between variables using:
• Manipulation and random assignment for both making and measuring different conditions

Statistical Testing

• Is to make sure the conditions in the experiment don't differ by chance.
• Half of Canadians believe in extrasensory perception, but often they were only coincidentally thinking such.

Drawing Conclusions

• Experiment would have internal validity, or has the attribute to establish causal relationships
• Make sure to review the experiment is accurate

Population

• The psychologist rarely measure the properties of an entire population.
• A sample collection of people drawn from the population

Sample

• Must achieve graphic representation by the use of frequency distribution- showing the number of times a property takes on each of its possible measurements.
• Must consider a balanced view and note what someone might not consider

Ethics

• Psychologists are bound by code of ethics.
• The Tuskegee experiment against Black men, or rules for the ethical treatment of experiment subjects.
• Canadian studies are following the Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS)
• Includes:Respect for others, to maximize benefits to participants, and to treat all risks and benefits fairly to everyone
• Requires and verbal confirmation to participate in a risk entail experiment
• Cannot be misleading (all group members included)
• Must share their data to confirm what was done