Psych 350 1st Edition Lecture 5 Outline of Last Lecture I. Social Psychology Research Methods II. Developing Ideasa. Steps and Research Outcomesb. Descriptive ResearchIII. Other Methods of ResearchOutline of Current Lecture I. Correlational ResearchII. Experimental Research III. Subjectivity in Social PsychologyCurrent Lecture I. Correlational Research: research that measures the relationship between two or more non-manipulated variables, as they exist in nature. This design cannot explain why the relationship exists, only that a relationship exists.- Third variable problem: a situation where a third variable, that was not measured, is affecting the measured variables. o Example: as ice cream sales increase so does crime rate. There is a relationship between these two variables, but the third variable affecting both of these is weather. As temperatures increase so do both ice cream sales and crime rate.o Example: birth control by toaster. The more small appliances present in a household, the fewer number of teenage pregnancy. The third variable is socioeconomic status which is affecting the other two variables independently.- Directionality Problem: When we discover a relationship between variables X andY, we do not know which comes first and affects the other. o Example: There is a correlation between depression and smoking, but does depression cause people to smoke or does smoking cause depression?These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.o It is impossible to determine directionality using a correlational research design. Correlation does NOT mean causation, and therefore the most that can be said using correlational data is THAT a relationship exists. II. Experimental Research: Research that can demonstrate cause and effect relationships by manipulating one or more variables while controlling everything else. Manipulating a variable and measuring the effect is the only way to determine cause and effect relationships.- Variableso Independent variable (IV): the variable that is manipulated o Dependent variable (DV): the variable that is measured (it is expected to depend on the different levels of the IV).Example 1. Does room temperature (IV) affect performance on a group task (DV)? You manipulate temperature and measure performance.Example 2. Will a person help (DV) another person when many others are nearby(IV)? You manipulate number of people nearby and measure helping actions.Example 3. Do people yell (DV) louder when they’re in a large group or alone (IV)? You manipulate if they’re alone or in a group and measure their yell.- Random Assignment: assigning participants to experimental conditions so that each participant has an equal chance of being in any condition. This cannot be done with correlational research because you are measuring people as they already exist, for example you can’t assign a woman to a group testing males.- Validity: the two types of validity below are inversely proportional and thus a researcher must focus on one or the other when designing experiments. o Internal Validity: making sure that nothing besides the IV has an effect on the DV. Requires tight control of experiment to ensure everything is the same. The problem is that this does not represent “real life” and real social environments making the experiment artificial and contrived.o External Validity: the extent to which research results can be generalized beyond the current situation and people. Requires real world settings to mimic actual situations. The problem is that the real world is messy and thus there is no real control over other variables. - Statistical Significance: results that are statistically significant in an experiment mean that the difference seen between the groups is unlikely to have occurred by chance, usually 95% sure that it did not occur by chance.III. Subjectivity in Social PsychologySubjectivity in research is a bad thing. However scientists are human beings and therefore they cannot be totally objective. Science implements protocols to limit subjectivity but doesn’t eliminate it. Often scientists project their own values into their research.- Values: principles or standards considered worthwhile or desirable. How do values enter psychology research?o Choosing a research topico How to study a topico Interpretation of findingso Unchallenged assumptions: if you assume something to be true without evidence than you don’t bother to study it.- Naturalistic Fallacy: What is “natural” is good. Within psychological research “natural” means things that are observed that are typical/common/normal. The problem is that as researchers they cannot place value on something you observe, they cannot say what is typical is good. Research can only determine what is or what is typical.Science should not be rejected just because it can be objective. First of all it is the best and only reasonable way we have of answering questions. Different people with their own values all bring different approaches to answering these questions. And scientists employ checks and balances to minimize the effects of values in science through the scientific method and peer