Psychology: Thinking and Researching Like a Psychologist

• Don't forget the badger cart!
• IPRP information is available in the Foundations in Psychology 1 course on the Modules page.
• Thinking, practising and researching like a psychologist.
• Over the next week, some reading is particularly important for the "Uncle Badger" assessment.

Readings

• Approaches to Research
• Analyzing Findings

Scientific Approach

• Psychologists study behaviour objectively, much like other natural phenomena.
• The scientific method enables psychologists to discover the nature, causes, and predictors of behaviour.

Theory

• A systematic way of organizing and explaining observations, including a set of propositions about the relationships among various phenomena.
• A set of statements explains a set of phenomena and is more encompassing than a hypothesis (Carlson, 2000, p. 672).
• Behaviour differs from place to place, because different places have different norms and expectations.
• Lying is associated with particular personality types.

Hypothesis

• Statement that can be tested
• Can be exploratory or directional
• Typically more focused than theories
• Psychology separates itself from other non-sciences because it uses the scientific method to test hypotheses to see if they are supported by appropriate information (or data).
• Places with weak norms around appropriate behavior are subject to more vandalism and crime.
• The more psychopathic someone is, the more they will lie. Situational Norms and Behaviour
• Two psychologists conducted a study on human response to an abandoned car in a middle-class residential neighborhood of New York City.
• After removing the license plates and opening the hood, they observed people's interactions with the vehicle from a nearby window.
• A family was observed, with the father removing the battery and radiator after inspecting the car in 7 minutes.
• Observers watched the theft.
• Broad daylight surprised one of the observers when most of the car stripping occurred.
• Clean-cut, well-dressed middle-class people carried out all thefts.
• Major theft and damage were always observed by others, with casual conversation occurring.
• Over 26 hours, vandals removed the battery, radiator, and other parts.
• Nine hours later, teenagers started throwing the rearview mirror at the headlights and front windshield.
• Five eight-year-olds claimed the car as their playground.
• One of the last visitors rummaged through the trunk and wheeled off one of the car parts.
• Philip Zimbardo concluded that in a big-city feeling of personal anonymity encourages destructive behaviour but is discouraged by a sense of community.
• To test this theory, Zimbardo parked a derelict car in a middle-class neighborhood of suburban Palo Alto, California, but no one touched it.

Types of Variables

• Predictor variables are used in correlational designs.

Correlations

• A correlation represents the size and direction of the relationship between two variables.
• The correlation can range from -1.0 to +1.0.
• Negative correlation: As x increases, y decreases.
• Positive correlation: As x increases, y increases.
• Smoking and death from lung cancer approximate best the correlation.
• On the graph the mean scale scores on primary psychopathy for degree type by sex shows that female students have higher scores for science and male students have higher scores in commerce in primary psychopathy.
• Psychologists use statistics to determine if observed differences between groups are not from chance.
• A result is sufficiently unlikely if there is less than a 5% likelihood that it is due to chance.
• p<.05 means that a relationship occurred by chance less than 5 in 100 times, or less than 5% of the time.
• This result is about as likely as tossing five heads (or tails) in a row.
• Two streams rated a target person (me) on 13 attributes using the Olmsted scale.

Data Types

• Quantitative data expresses a quantifiable aspect.
• Qualitative data reflects qualities.

Statistical Significance

• For F(1,485) = 5.84, p < .05 (actually p =.016).
• The 'p<.05' means that this relationship is likely to have occurred by chance less than 5 in 100 times, or less than 5% of the time.
• This result is about as likely as tossing five or six heads (or tails) in a row.

Key Variable Types

• Independent Variable (IV)
• Dependent Variable (DV)

Olmsted Scale

• On Monday lectures, two streams rated a target person on 13 attributes using the Olmsted scale

• A=Morning stream

• A=Afternoon stream

• A=so close there's no point having two points

• On Tuesday lectures, two streams rated a target person on 13 attributes using the Olmsted scale

• A=1pm stream

• A=3pm stream

• A=so close there's no point having two points