9/9/13%1%PSYC 100 Fall 2013 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY (2) ¡ Which level of analysis in psychology does the following statement represent? At low doses, cocaine can improve performance on visual attention tasks, such as being faster at detecting certain stimuli on a computer screen. A. Biological B. Individual C. Social D. Cultural I>CLICKER TIME! ¡ Distinguish between the types of studies in psychological research LEARNING OBJECTIVES9/9/13%2%¡ Naturalistic Observation § Researchers watch people behave as they normally would § Researcher is NOT a part of situation DESCRIPTIVE/OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES ¡ Advantages? § Valuable in early stages of research § Real-world settings ¡ Disadvantages? § Errors in observation due to observer bias/expectations § Observer presence can change the behavior being witnessed DESCRIPTIVE/OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES OBSERVER BIAS9/9/13%3%¡ Examines how two variables are naturally related in the real world § Researcher does not try to alter or assign causality ¡ Goal: To allow us to make a guess about another variable based on what we know about one variable CORRELATIONAL STUDIES CORRELATIONAL STUDIES ¡ As stress decreases, blood pressure also decreases.! A. Positive B. Negative C. Zero CORRELATIONS: UNDERSTANDING CHECK!9/9/13%4%¡ As the numbers of beers drank per week increases, GPA decreases.! A. Positive B. Negative C. Zero CORRELATIONS: UNDERSTANDING CHECK! CORRELATION VS. CAUSATION & DIRECTIONALITY THIRD VARIABLE PROBLEM Ice Cream Eating Violent Crime HEAT! ¡ Another, unmeasured variable may the actual cause of differences in the variables of interest9/9/13%5%¡ Advantages: § Naturally occurring relationships § May take place in real-world settings ¡ Disadvantages: § Cannot tell causation § No directionality § An unidentified variable may be involved CORRELATIONAL STUDIES EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH Divide sample into 2 equal groups Experimental Group Control Group Exposed to one manipulation of the independent variable Exposed to another manipulation of the independent variable Measure Dependent Variable Measure Dependent Variable Experimenter manipulates the independent variable IN THE NEWS… Selling On eBay? Get Higher Bids With a Red Background* § Undergraduate research participants (Ps) shown an e-Bay ad for a Nintendo Wii. § Half were shown ad with red background, half with blue background. (Randomly assigned into groups) § EVERYTHING ELSE about the two ads was the same. § Ps told that the current bid was $225, and asked to give their highest bid. § Bid jump calculated (highest bid – current bid). *Bagchi, R. & Cheema, A. (2013). The effect of background color on willingness to pay: The moderating role of selling mechanism. Journal of Consumer Research, 39, 947-960.9/9/13%6%IN THE NEWS… Effects MUST be due to background color because nothing else varied between the two conditions. ¡ Random Sampling § Each member of the population an equal chance of being chosen ¡ Random Assignment § Each research participants has an equal chance of being assigned to any condition (i.e., the manipulations of the independent variable) KEY FEATURES OF EXPERIMENTS ¡ Advantages: § Can demonstrate causal relationships § Avoids the directionality problem ¡ Disadvantages: § Often conducted in an artificial setting
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