Research in Psychology PDF

Chapter 2: Research in Psychology Introduction: - Questions are answered through formal, systematic observation 2.1 Looking for Laws: The Scientific Approach to Behavior - The scientific approach assumes that events are governed by some lawful order - Behavior is governed by laws or p...

Chapter 2: Research in Psychology Introduction: - Questions are answered through formal, systematic observation 2.1 Looking for Laws: The Scientific Approach to Behavior - The scientific approach assumes that events are governed by some lawful order - Behavior is governed by laws or principles - Scientific enterprise: consistency or laws that can be uncovered Goals of the Scientific Enterprise: - Psychologists and scientists share three sets or related goals: - Measurement and description - Understanding and prediction - Application and control - Measurement and Description: figuring out a way to measure the phenomenon under a study - Example: are men sociable than women? - First must develop means of measuring sociability - Goal: develop measurement techniques that make it possible to describe behavior clearly and precisely - Understanding and prediction: scientists believe they can understand events when they can explain the reasons for their occurrence - Hypothesis-a tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables - Variables- any measure conditions, events, characteristics, or behaviors that are controlled or observed in a study - Application and control: most scientists want to be able to help solve everyday problems - Theories are constructed by psychologists - A system of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of observations - Example: using handful of concepts - Integrating unknown facts into a whole can help leap from description of behavior to understanding - Scientific theory must be testable - Typical studies test one or two hypotheses - Confidence increases if the findings support the theory - Theory construction: gradual, iterative that is subject to revision Steps in a Scientific Investigation: - Andrew Elliot and Markus Niesta believe colors have automatic, unconscious effects on behavior - 2 sources- people learn associations based on certain colors being paired repeatedly with certain experiences - Certain colors have adaptive significance for survival or reproduction - Ex: blood, red, fire, danger - Scientific investigations are systematic - Step 1: formulate hypothesis - Translate theory into a testable hypothesis - Operational definition: describes the actions or operations that will be used to measure or control a variable - - 2: design the study - Figure out how to put the hypothesis to a test - The research method chosen depends on the nature of the question under the study - Various methods - Experiments, case studies, surveys, naturalistic observation - Andrew and Markus picked an experiment - Involves manipulation of one variable to see if it has an impact on another variable - Detailed plans are made to execute their study - Participants or subjects: the persons or animals whose behavior is systematically observed in a study - Eliot and Niesta chose people who ranged from 23-63 - The sample in experiment 5 was 23 male undergraduates with a mean age of 19 - 3: collect data - Data collection techniques: procedures for making empirical observations and measurements - Direct observation, questionnaires, interviews, psychological tests, physiology recordings, examination of archival records - Questionnaires are suited for studying attitudes, psychological tests for personality, physiological recordings for studying biological bases of behavior +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | - Direct observation | - Observers are trained to | | | watch and record behavior as | | | objectively and precisely as | | | possible. They may use some | | | instrumentation, such as | | | stopwatch or video recorder | +===================================+===================================+ | - Questionnaire | - Subjects are administered a | | | series of written questions | | | designed to obtain | | | information about attitudes, | | | opinions, and specific | | | aspects of their behavior | +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | - Interview | - A face-to-face dialogue is | | | conducted to obtain | | | information about specific | | | aspects of a subject's | | | behavior | +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | - Psychological test | - Participants are administered | | | a standardized measure to | | | obtain a sample of their | | | behavior. Tests are usually | | | used to assess mental | | | abilities or personality | | | traits | +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | - Physiological recording | - An instrument is used to | | | monitor and record a specific | | | physiological process in a | | | subject. Examples include | | | measures of blood pressure, | | | heart rate, muscle tension or | | | brain activity | +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | - Examination of archival | - The researcher analyzes | | records | existing institutional | | | records, such as census, | | | economic, medical, legal, | | | educational, and business | | | work | +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ - 4: analyze the data and draw conclusions - The observations made are usually converted into numbers - Constitute the raw data of the study - Researches use statistics to analyze their data - Statistics play a very essential role in scientific enterprise - 5: Report the findings - Publication of research results if fundamental - Scientific progress can only be achieved if researchers share their findings with one another and the public - Journal- periodical that publishes technical and scholarly material, usually in a narrowly defined area of inquiry - Eliot and Niesta was published in the Journal of Personality and Social psychology - The process of publishing scientific studies allows other experts to evaluate and critique new research findings - They go through a peer-review process - 90 percent of work is rejected - It helps reduce the likelihood of publishing erroneous findings Advantages of the Scientific Approach: - Logic, casual observation and common sense is used to draw conclusions - Clarity and precision - Common sense notions are vague - "Spare the rod and spoil the child" - Statements have different meanings compared to each person - Scientific approach requires that people specify exactly what they are talking about - Relative intolerance of error - Common sense analyses involve little effort to verify ideas or detect errors. - Research methods consist of differing approaches to the observation, measurement, manipulation and control of variables in empirical studies Looking for a cause: Experimental Research - Stanley Schachter conducted an experiment that if people feel more anxious they want more company - Experiment: a research method in which the investigator manipulates a variable under carefully controlled conditions and observes whether any changes occur in a second variable as a result - Cause and effect relationships - Depend on this method the most Independent and dependent variables: - Does change in X cause a change in Y - How does x effect y - X in the independent variable and y is the dependent variable - Independent variable: a condition or event that an experimenter varies to see its impact on another variable - Controls or manipulates - It is supposed to have an effect on the dependent variable - Dependent variable: the variable that is thought to be affected or manipulated by the independent variable - Usually a measurement of some aspect - Independent is free to be varied by the experimenter Schachter's experiment: Independent variable: participants anxiety level Dependent: subjects desire to be with other people Experimental and control groups: - Two groups of subjects are treated differently in regard to the variable - Experimental and control group - Experimental group: consists of the subjects who receive some special treatment in regard to the independent variable - Control group: similar subjects who do not receive the special treatment given to the experiment group Extraneous variables: - Differences between the two groups can cloud the situation and make it difficult to draw conclusions - It is impossible to make sure groups are alike in every respect - Extraneous variables: any variable other than the independent variable that seem likely to influence the dependent variable in a specific study - Confounding of variables: occurs when two variables are linked in a way that makes it difficult to sort out their specific effects - Scientists use safeguards to control extraneous variables - Subjects are assigned to the experimental and control groups randomly - Random assignment of subjects occurs when all subjects have an equal chance of being assigned to any group or condition in the study Variations in Designing Experiments: - Many variations are possible - Sometimes it is advantageous to use only on group of subjects who serve as their own control group - They will be exposed to experimental conditions and a control condition - Also possible to manipulate more than one independent variable or measure more than one dependent variable in a single experiment - Example: change music and room temperature - Interaction means that the effect of one variable depends on the effect of another Advantages and Disadvantages of Experimental Research: - Powerful research method - It permits conclusions about cause and effect relationships between variables - No other research method could duplicate this - Experiments are often artificial - For example: experiments on jurys and having participants read is much different then real jury trials - When they are highly artificial doubts arise about the applicability of findings to everyday behavior - It also cant be used to explore some research questions - Ethical concerns or practical realities 2.3: Looking for links- Descriptive/Correlational Research - Descriptive/correlation studies is used when psychologist cannot exert experimental control over variables they want to study - Variables cannot be manipulated - Shows a link or association between the variables of interests - Correlation coefficient - Descriptive research- naturalistic observation, case studies, surveys The Concept of Correlation: - Correlation: exists when two variables are related to each other - Can be positive or negative - Positive indicates that two variables change each other in the same direction - Negative correlation indicates that two variables co-vary in opposite directions Strength of Correlation: - Strength of an association between two variables can be measured with a statistic called the correlation coefficient - Numerical index of the degree of relationship between two variables - Can be between 0-1 if the correlation is positive or 0-(-1) if the correlation is negative - A coefficient near 0 indicates no relationship - +1 or -1 indicates a perfect, one-to one correspondence between the two variables - Stronger relationship - Strength depends on size - Positive and negative indicates the direction Correlation and Prediction: - As correlation increases in strength the ability to predict one variable based on knowledge of the other variable increases Correlation and Causation: - Correlation does not equal causation - X and Y are correlated but it does not mean X - Demir, Orthel and Andelin, Lakey have found a positive correlation between social activity and overall happiness - A third variable like extraversion could foster both social activity and happiness Naturalistic Observation: - Naturalistic observation: a researcher engages in careful observation of behavior without intervening directly with the subjects - Its called naturalistic because behavior is allowed to unfold naturally - Ramirez-Esparza examined ethnic difference in sociability using a device called an electronically activated recorder - EAR is an unobtrusive and portable audio recorder carried by participants that periodically records their conversations and other ambient sounds as they go about their normal daily activities - Investigated an interesting paradox about Mexicans being more sociable - Mexicans rated themselves less extraverted than white participants rate themselves - However, they are more sociable - Another study shows how mothers use physical punishment when disciplining their 2--5-year-old children - Survey research suggested that physical punishment is overused and not effective - Holden, Williamson, and Holland had 33 mothers wear unobtrusive portable audio recorders until their children fell asleep - Found that corporal punishment is ineffective and when children were spanked, they just misbehaved again - Strength of this observation is that it allows research to study behavior under conditions that are less artificial - Can be used to study animal behavior - Australian sea lines - Chimpanzees - A problem with this method is that it is hard to make the observations without intruding - Reactivity: occurs when a subjects behavior is altered by the presence of an observer - Also hard to convert it into numerical data Case studies: - People characterize stock market as legalized gambling - Research team (Grall-Bronnec) conducted a preliminary investigation in France - Case study- in-depth investigation of an individual subject - Interviewing subjects - Interviewing people close to subjects - Direct observation - Examination of records - Psychological testing - 221 patients were screened who were seeking treatment at a problem gambling clinic in France - 8 patients had excessive traders - Resembled problem gamblers in many ways - Addictive trading should be viewed as a new subtype of gambling disorders - Clinical psychologists do case studies of their clients - Not conducting empirical research - Case study research- typical involves investigators analyzing a collection of case studies to look for patterns that permit general conclusions - Study- efficacy of interpersonal psychotherapy - People with bylimia - Case studies were studied before during and after a 16 session course - Showed it can be effective - Individual case studies are sometimes published - Zigarelli- culturally adapted cognitive-behavioral treatment of 15-year old - Well suited for investigating certain phenomena, roots of psychological disorders and efficacy of therapeutic practices - Highly subjective - Several sources could be knit together - Focus on info that fits with their expectations Surveys: - Survey- researches use questionnaires or interviews to gather information about specific aspects of participants background, attitudes, beliefs or behavior - Mcginty- surveyed 1468 adults in April 2020 using a standard measure of psychological distress - Compared this to 2018 - Stress tripled and distress was more common among females then males and people with lower income - Unanticipated impact on young adults - 76,000 participants from 13 municipalities in Denmark responded to the survey - As the incidence of hangovers after binge drinking declined steadily with increasing age - Surveys are used to get info on aspects that are difficult to observe directly - Easy to get info from many people - Peoples tendency to do surveys have declined in recent decades - Privacy and identity theft - When surveys response rate declines the likelihood of sampling bias increases - Surveys depend on self report data Advantages and Disadvantages of Descriptive/Correlational research - Advantage- give researchers a way to explore questions they could not examine with experimental procedures - Broadens the scope of phenomena that psychologist are able to study - Investigators cannot control events to isolate cause and effect - Does not demonstrate conclusively that correlated variables are related - Other factors could play a role Looking for flaws: Evaluating research: - Need to be studied with a critical eyes  Sampling Bias: - Empirical research involves making statistical inferences about a population based on a sample - Sample- collection of subjects selected for observation in an empirical study - Population-much larger collection of animals or people that researches want to generalize about - Example- political pollsters attempt to predict elections, all of the voters in a jurisdiction represent the population, the voters who are actually surveyed represent the sample - 6-year-olds in a studied are the sample, other six year olds are the population - The sample is usually relied to be representative of the population - Is representative if its composition (age, sex, income) is similar to the composition of the population - Sampling bias- exists when a sample is not representative of the population from which it was drawn - Generalizations can become inaccurate - Psychologist tended to under sample ethnic minorities and people from non-western cultures - Jefferey Arnett reviewed studies published in six major journals and found that 68 percent came from the United States which accounts for less then 5 percent of the population - American samples depended too much on heavily college students - Students tend to be better educated and much younger then the population so they have different attitudes - Popularity of cell phones has led many people to drop landline phones - Large scale phone surveys are conducted using automatic dialers - Autodialing cell phone numbers is illegal in the United states - Autodialing is crucial because researches have to dial 20,000 numbers to get 1,000 usable respondents - Manual dialing is more expensive - Limiting surveys to people who still have landlines can introduce bias into surveys - Examine composition of sample when you are unsure of a survey Placebo Affect: - A placebo is a substance that resembles a drug but has no pharmacological effect - Placebos are giving to control for the effects of a treacherous extraneous variable - Subjects expectations - Placebos are used because individuals feelings can influence feelings, reactions and behaviors - Placebo effect- occur when participants expectations lead them to experience some change even though they receive empty, fake, or ineffectual treatment - Expectations can be powerful determinants of their perceptions and behavior when they are under the microscope in an empirical study - Effects of alcohol - Aquacharge experiment-participants were believed to think they were testing a new energy drink but they were given plain water - Three conditions were assigned - Confirming social influence - Disconfirming social influence - No social influence - Confirming feedback from another person led to higher estimates of alertness and more enthusiastic endorsement of the fake product - The role of placebo affects can be assessed by including fake versions of the experimental treatment in a study Distortions in Self-Report Data- - Self report data- participants verbal accounts of their behavior - Questionnaires, interviews or personally inventories are used to measure variables - Unique opportunity to observe themselves, but can be plagued by different kinds of distortions - Social desirability bias- a tendency to give socially approved answers to questions about oneself - Order of questions can shape responses - Memory errors - People might agree to everything or disagree to everything Experimenting Bias: - Psychologist try to conduct studies in an objective, unbiased way - Objectivity is a goal that scientists strive for, not an accomplished fact that can be taken for granted - Experimenter bias- occurs when a researchers expectations or preference about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained - Researches may see what they want to see - Robert Rosenthal suggests that experimenter bias may lead to researches to unintentionally influence the behavior of their subjects - People who expected higher ratings got higher ratings because of experimental bias - Subtle nonverbal signals as the experiment progressed - Experimenter bias can influence researchers observation and their subjects behavior - Double blind procedure- research strategy in which neither subjects nor experiments know which subjects are in the experimental or control group The Importance of Replication: - Replication- the repetition of a study to see whether the earlier results are duplicated - Helps scientist identify and purge inaccurate findings - Can lead to contradictory results - 270 researchers volunteered to attempt replications of 100 studies - Research team applied four different statistical standards that produced replication rate estimates of 36, 39, 47, and 68 - OSC replication rate estimates may have been dragged down by the inconclusion of many low-fidelity studies - "low fidelity"- refers to a stimulation or representation that is less realistic and detailed - Meta analysis- combines the statistical results of many studies of the same question, yielding an estimate of the size and consistency of a variables effects - Results were combined of the results of 115 studies of gender differences in aspects of self-esteem - Males have higher self esteem in physical appearance and athletic ability and females score higher in moral-ethical attributes - This allows researchers to test the generalizability of findings and the strength of a variable's effect across people, places, times and variations in procedure in a relatively precise and objective way The Question of Deception: - Critics argue against deception - Assert that deception is only a nice word for lying - Deceiving unsuspecting participants, psychologists may undermine individuals trust in others - People believe that important issues could note be investigated if experimenters were not permitted to mislead subjects - Subjects seem to understand that researchers need to engage in certain amount of deception The Question of Animal Research: - Use animals to identify general laws of behavior that apply to both humans and animals - Can expose animals to aversive treatments that would be unacceptable with human participants - People believe that it is wrong to subject animals to harm or pain for research purposes - Also think that it is a waste of time because the results may not apply to humans - 7-8 percent of all psychological studies involves animals that are mostly rodents and birds - Advantages of animal research- treatment of mental disorders, neuromuscular disorders, strokes, brain injuries, visual defects, headaches, memory defects, high blood pressure, and problems with pain Bateson- Ethical acceptability of specific animals studies should be judged by assessing the studies along three independent dimensions: - Extent of anticipated animal suffering - Importance of the research problem addressed - Likelihood of beneficial discoveries One widely-cited from the Pew Research Center found that 50% of respondents opposed animal studies, whereas 47% held a favorable view Ethical Principles in Research: - APA developed a set of ethical standards for researches - people's participation in research should always be voluntary and they should be allowed to withdraw from a study at any time; - participants should not be subjected to harmful or dangerous treatments; - if a study requires deception, participants should be debriefed (informed of the true nature and purpose of the research) as soon as possible; and - participants' right to privacy should never be compromised. - harmful or painful procedures cannot be justified unless the potential benefits of the research are substantial, and - research animals are entitled to decent living conditions (American Psychological Association, 2012).