PSYNTRO The Science of Psychology PDF

The Science of Psychology PSYNTRO Monica Policarpio  Why take Psychology? PSYNTRO /poli  Why do people think and act the way they do? PSYNTRO /poli Learning Object...

The Science of Psychology PSYNTRO Monica Policarpio  Why take Psychology? PSYNTRO /poli  Why do people think and act the way they do? PSYNTRO /poli Learning Objective 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense 02 Identify principles of scientific thinking 03 Research methods in psychology PSYNTRO /poli Learning Objective 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense 02 Identify principles of scientific thinking 03 Research methods in psychology PSYNTRO 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense /poli  PSYCHOLOGY IS A SCIENCE! PSYNTRO 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense /poli Psychology scientific study of behavior, brain and mental processes ○ behavior: outward or overt actions and reactions ○ mental processes: internal, covert activity of our minds Goals of Psychology 01 Describe What is happening? 02 Explain Why is it happening? theory: general explanation of a set of observations 03 Predict Will it happen again? 04 Control How can it be changed? PSYNTRO 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense /poli Levels of Analysis psychology offers different perspectives from “neuron to neighborhood” about behavior; each level of explanation offers a perspective in describing, explaining, & predicting behavior 01 Cultural 02 Social 03 Behavioral 04 Cognitive 05 Physiological PSYNTRO 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense /poli What makes psychology challenging? 01 Multiply-determined - caused by many factors 02 Psychological influences are rarely independent from each other - influences are difficult to disentangle from one another 03 Individual differences - people differ from each other in thinking, emotion, personality, and behavior 04 People often influence each other 05 People’s behavior is often shaped in powerful ways by culture PSYNTRO 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense /poli Psychology challenges our common sense (and hearsays) Opposites attract There is a definite number of neurons in our lifetime PSYNTRO 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense /poli Steps in Scientific Method 01 Perceive the question (upon observation) 02 Form a hypothesis: - tentative explanation of a phenomenon based on observations. 03 Test the hypothesis (systematically observe) 04 Draw (tentative) conclusions based on the data 05 Report (communicate) your results so that others (researchers) can try to replicate, or repeat, the study to see whether the same results will be 06 obtained in an effort to demonstrate reliability of results PSYNTRO 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense /poli Steps in Scientific Method PSYNTRO 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense /poli Some science vocabulary Scientific theory explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world Hypothesis A testable prediction that has been formulated based on the scientific theory specifically enough so that it is clear what observations would confirm the prediction and what observations would challenge it. Variable Any characteristic whose values can change Independent The variable that the experimenter manipulates as variable a basis for making predictions about the dependent variable. Dependent The outcome variable that is measured or recorded, that variable is expected to have some changes as hypothesised in an experiment PSYNTRO 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense /poli Let’s Practice! Which among the following are variables? Drinking water Time of day Circumference Attitude Hours of sleep Votes Clicks Right angle Reaction time Number of steps Gravity Respiratory rate PSYNTRO 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense /poli Let’s Practice! Which among the following are hypotheses? 01 Hayley’s motivation for being selfish was fear of security. 02 Darwin’s evolutionary model explains the changes in species over time. 03 The earth is flat. 04 Zoey will show more play activities than Hayley because she is more extroverted. 05 Water consumption will increase because of higher room temperature. PSYNTRO 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense /poli Some science vocabulary The entire group about which the investigator wants POPULATION to draw conclusions. The subset of the population that the SAMPLE investigator studies in order to learn about the population at large. PSYNTRO 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense /poli Some science vocabulary - examples Question Is a classroom noisier when the teacher leaves the room in grade school? Hypothesis The class is noisier when the teacher is not in the room among the grade school students. Independent The grade school teacher is either in the room or not in the variable room. Dependent Loudness, measured in decibels variable Population Grade school children in the classroom Sample Number of grade school children participated in the study. PSYNTRO 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense /poli Some science vocabulary External validity The degree to which a study’s participants, stimuli, and procedures adequately reflect the world as it actually is Demand The cues in a study that might tell a research participant characteristics what behaviors are expected or desirable in that setting. Double-blind study The technique of assigning participants to experimental conditions while keeping both the participants and the researchers unaware of who is assigned to which group. PSYNTRO 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense /poli Learning Objective 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense 02 Identify principles of scientific thinking 03 Research methods in psychology PSYNTRO 02 Identify principles of scientific thinking /poli 6 Principles of Scientific Thinking 01 Rule-out rival hypothesis - have alternative explanations excluded? 02 Correlation isn’t Causation - can we be sure that A causes B? 03 Falsifiability - are there ways to show an evidence against a claim? 04 Replicability - can the results be observed again in other studies? 05 Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence 06 Occam’s razor - does a simpler explanation fit the data just as well? PSYNTRO 02 Identify principles of scientific thinking /poli Learning Objective 01 Explain why psychology is more than just common sense 02 Identify principles of scientific thinking 03 Research methods in psychology PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Psychological Research Methods Psychological Research Methods Descriptive Correlational Experimental PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Psychological Research Methods Descriptive Methods Observation Case Study Survey Naturalistic Laboratory PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Descriptive Methods Goal Describe a phenomenon observation ○ naturalistic and laboratory surveys and interviews case studies Example Polls on political preferences and television subscription [!] Does not answer how and why the phenomenon occur Descriptive methods lead to the formation of testable hypotheses PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Naturalistic Observation Goal watching the behavior in their normal environment without control or manipulation of the environment Advantage realistic picture of behavior PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Naturalistic Observation - Disadvantages [!] Observer effect tendency of people to behave differently when they know they are being observed [√] Participant a naturalistic observation in which the observer observation becomes a participant in the group being observed (to reduce observer effect) [!] Observer bias tendency of observers to see what they expect to see [√] Blind Observers people who do not know what the research question is (to reduce observer bias) PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Laboratory Observation Goal watching behavior in a laboratory setting (controlled environment; may be conducted as part of an *experiment Advantages control over environment and allows use of specialized equipment Disadvantage artificial situation may result in artificial behavior PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Case Study Goal study of one individual in great detail Advantages tremendous amount of detail Disadvantage cannot be applicable to others, or cannot be generalized Case study 1: H.M. Case study 2: Phineas Gage PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Survey Goal Researchers ask a series of questions about the topic under study Given to representative sample to infer to the target population Advantages data from large numbers of people; study covert behaviors Disadvantage researchers have to ensure representative sample or the results are not meaningful; people are not always accurate (courtesy bias) PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Survey (Descriptive) PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Review! In the scientific method, the The use of this helps to control first step is for the effect of observer bias. a. reporting your results. a. blind observers b. perceiving a question. b. a single trained observer c. drawing conclusions. c. randomly selected observers d. testing the hypothesis. d. none of the above In a naturalistic observation, the phenomenon in which the behavior of the subjects being observed changes because they are being watched is called a. observer bias. b. participant observation. c. observer effect. d. representative sampling. PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Correlation Goal measure of the relationship between two variables measures of two variables go into a mathematical formula and produce a correlation coefficient (r), which represents: direction of the relationship ( + / -) strength of the relationship ( -1.0 –1.0 ) The closer to +1.00 or -1.00, the stronger the relationship between the variables (no correlation = 0.0; perfect correlation = -1.00 or +1.00) PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Correlation Positive variables are related in the same direction correlation ○ as one increases, the other increases ○ as one decreases, the other decreases ○ e.g. as more hours spent in studying, the grade is higher Negative variables are related in opposite direction correlation ○ as one increases, the other decreases ○ e.g. as more hours spent on computer games, the grade is lower [!] Correlation does not automatically imply causation PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli  Correlation https://www.tylervigen.com/ http://istics.net/Correlations/ PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Experiment Goal a deliberate manipulation of a variable to see whether corresponding changes in behavior result, allowing the determination of cause-and-effect relationships Operational definition of a variable of interest that allows it to be Definition directly measured Example aggressive play — number of novel ways on hitting operational definition PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Experiment Independent the variable in an experiment that is manipulated by the variable experimenter IV: violent TV Dependent the variable in an experiment that represents the variable measurable response or behaviorof the subjects in the experiment DV: aggressive play Variable A Variable B PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Experiment PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Experiment Experimental Group subjects in an experiment who are subjected to the independent variable e.g. experimental group: watch TV Control Group subjects in an experiment who are not subjected to the independent variable and who may receive a placebo treatment (controls for confounding variables). e.g. no group: no TV PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Review! Which of the following would indicate the strongest relationship between two variables? a. +1.04 b. -0.89 c. +0.75 d. +0.54 It’s common knowledge that the more you study, the higher your grade will be. What kind of correlation is this relationship? a. positive c. zero b. negative d. causal PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli Review! In an experiment to test the effects of alcohol on memory, the experimenter gives vodka mixed in orange juice to one group of subjects and orange juice with no vodka to the other group. She then measures the memory skills of both groups by means of a memory test. In this study, the independent variable would be a. scores on the memory test. b. the presence or absence of vodka in the orange juice. c. intelligence. In that same experiment, the control group is the one d. aplacebo. that gets a. only one drink of orange juice with vodka. b. a fake test of memory. c. only something to eat. d. the orange juice without vodka PSYNTRO 03 Research methods in psychology /poli References Textbook Gleitman, H., Gross, J. and Reisberg, D. (2011). Psychology. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. Lilienfeld, S. O. (2009). Psychology: From inquiry to understanding. Boston: Pearson / A & B. Journal Article Messerli, F. H. (2012). Chocolate consumption, cognitive function, and Nobel laureates. The New England Journal of Medicine, 367(16), 1562-1564. PSYNTRO The Science of Psychology /poli