PPE 3003 1st Edition Lecture 3 Outline of Last Lecture I. Measuring Personality TraitsII. Self-Report DataIII. Observer Report DataIV. Test DataV. Life Outcome DataOutline of Current Lecture I. Types of Research MethodsII. Correlational ResearchIII. Experimental MethodIV. Case StudyV. Interpreting ResultsCurrent LectureA. Types of Research Methodsa. Correlationali. Studies of naturally occurring relationshipsii. Are X and Y related to each other?1. Political attitudes and career choice b. Experimentali. Studies that look at cause and effect relationships by manipulating one or more variablesii. Is X the cause of Y?1. Ex: class size and self confidencec. Case Studyi. Studies that examine one person in depth and detailii. Popular method in the beginning of Psych1. Freud and his clientsd. There are limitations with all of these methodsB. Correlational Researcha. Are two or more factors naturally associated?b. Calculated by correlation coefficient (r) i. Range from -1.00 to +1.001. Close to -1/+1, the stronger the correlation2. Closer to 0, the weaker the correlationii. Strength1. +/- .1 is a weak correlation2. +/- .3 is a moderate correlation3. +/- .5 is a strong correlationc. Very few perfectly correlated variablesd. Positive does not mean strongeri. .5 is as strong as -.5ii. Number of people vs the food eaten at dinner1. Positive correlation2. The number of people increases as the amount of food eaten increases tooiii. Number of people vs the amount of leftovers1. Negative correlation2. The number of people eating increases as the amount of leftovers decreasese. Pro’si. Describes relationships between variablesii. Can measure things that cannot be controlled1. Ex: smoking and extraversioniii. Relatively easy to interpretf. Con’si. Correlation does not equal causation1. Method identifies only whether two variables are associated, not why they are relatedii. Third variable problem1. There is another variable that is involved that isn’t talked about2. Ex: rates of homicide and temperaturea. The warmer the weather, the more murdersb. Other variables like activityi. It could be summertime, where there is less structure and more free time to be outside and activeC. Experimental Methoda. Method for exploring the causal relationship between two factorsb. Can determine causality because it controls and manipulates eventsc. Does the independent variable cause changes to the dependent variablei. Independent variable1. Manipulated by researcher2. Must be randomly assigned3. Each participant is equally likely to be in any conditionii. Dependent variable1. Measured by the researcher2. Provided by the subject3. Is it or is it not influenced by the independent variableiii. Listening to music and concentration1. Concentration= IV2. Music= DViv. Drinking alcohol and reaction time1. Drinking=IV2. Reaction time= DVd. Con’si. Demand characteristics1. Experimenter gives subtle cues as to how to respond2. Solutionsa. Standardization of procedureb. Double blind procedureD. Case Studya. Good for rare phenomenab. Cannot be generalizedc. Cannot draw big conclusions from one person’s lifei. Brenda/Brandon sex change cased. Have to be ethicale. Pro’si. Can answer questions that other methods cannot answer in a labii. Nature versus nurtureiii. Can study extreme casesf. Con’si. Bias is an issueii. Tend to focus on negative examplesE. Interpreting Resultsa. Finds are interpreted using statisticsb. Statistical significancei. Results could occur by chance 5 times or fewer out of 100ii. P < .05iii. Has to be able to be
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