PSYCH 202 1st Edition Lecture 1EC: Alcohol, drugs, and college experiences IRB approval #1403236173Dept. #WV33What makes Psychologists scientists? -The way they go about researchMethodology• Chem = bio = psychology•Behavioral Research types• Basic Researcho Goal: To increase your understanding in somethingo Simplest form of researcho Driven by curiosity or interesto Gives us a foundation on which to buildo Example: Asking vets basic questions to see how they adapt to being home after getting back from the military and why, because their first six months they’re more likely to abuse drugsThese 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.• Applied Researcho Goal: Find solutions (by applying info from your basic findings)o Improving the human conditiono Example: Find out if you can give those vets some meds to help cope or maybe go into some type of therapy or group• Evaluative Researcho Form of applied researcho Goal: Evaluating existing treatments, interventions, or programso Program evaluation:  Community or state levelo Assesses effects of social institutional programs on behavioro Laws, education, health, employmento Example: Seeing if a program works or not, like D.A.R.E. (which is highly ineffective)Main goals of behavioral research1. Describing behavior2. Predicting behavior3. Explaining behaviora. Look beyond what to figure out whyb. Primary goal for most researchersi. Finding evidence that one variable causes another is very difficult to obtain in research… (more on this later)c. Example:i. Finding out who is going to get a certain grade in a class, who’ll cheat on their bf/gf,and finding out why.What do we do with this basic, applied, and evaluative research?• We describe the studies we run, write a manuscript, and then try to publish it!• Then it may become part of a clinical practice on our base knowledgeCommon Sense vs. Scientific Approach1. Common Sense: intuition, subjective, anecdotala. “Always go to a crying baby”i. Responding to a baby will spoil it (NOT TRUE, Common sense debunked)b. “Opposites attract”c. “More vitamins are better for you”i. Debunked, taking too many vitamins is actually not good for you!d. “Divorce is bad for children”i. Common sense debunked again, in some cases it’s actually better for the kid to get out2. Scientific Approach: Fact backed up by scienceWhat makes “scientific” ? (Aka empirical)• Systematic Empiricismo “Empiricism” The practice of relying on observation to make conclusionso “Systematic” Structured, formatted, methodical, ordered, plannedo Best way to do is by objective observations of the phenomena, not by hunches or assumptions or beliefs.• Public Verificationo Findings must be observed, replicated, and verified (peer review) by other researchers Example: We want to tell everyone the good and bad side effects of a drug so they don’t harm themselves• Solvable Problemso Must study questions that are potentially answerable through systematic empiricism  Can the q be answered with research Example: Don’t ask if your cat is going to heavenScientific Method: O-HOMER• Observe• Hypothesizeo Testable predictions about the conditionso If and then questionso Example: If children who hear their parents speak more than 1000 diverse words per day, thenthey will have a larger vocabulary and do better in school• Operationalizeo Make the variables you are interested in, testable o Conceptual Definition Abstract, boring dictionary definition Example: Fear- to be immensely surprised by somethingo Operational Definition  Concrete, situation-specific Example: Does heart rate increase when the child is provoked?• On a scale of 1-10, how scared was your child?• Measureo Questionnaires • Evaluateo Anova, T-test, Chi-square, regression, pearson r• Revise/replicateo If hypothesis is disconfirmed, revise hypothesis or operationalize Explanatory Research• Sometimes research is not guided by a hypothesiso No viable theory out there; new area of researcho Post hoc explanation:  Explaining a phenomena after it has been observed• Questionable accuracy of usefulness  “Oh, this is related to that! I can explain that now!” You go into a study, and then you find your results/relationship, and say “oh, this is related to that!”• Example: I knew he cheated on me! He was wearing too much cologne last week!o Easy to explain after we figure it outTypes of research we’ll learn later• Descriptive research: o Prevalence of…• Correlation• Experimentalo You manipulate something• Quasi-experimental1/21Variability • Variability o Behavior, thoughts and emotions are going to differ for many reasons Behavior varies among individuals • Someone may smoke daily, some weekly Behavior varies across situations• Some people when they drink they smoke Behavior changes over time• Some may smoke as a freshman and stop as a senioro Varying among individuals  We all behave and think different because of many factors:• Personality• Energy• Comfort level• Emotion • Example:o Why do some people dance at the bar and others hang out by the wall? Could be a personality thing and they’re shy Could be because they aren’t coordinated and don’t have rhythm o Varying across situations How • Exampleo May be different in a psych group than when you’re with your friendso Changing over time Behavior can change in the short or long term• Minute to minute• Hour to hour• Day to day• Month to month• Year to year• Example:o How were you as a freshman to how you are now?• How do you measure variability?o We hypothesize, operationally define the variables we are interested in studying, and then we give questionnaires or observe people to measure the variability in our data We then use descriptivestatistics to summarize the variability in our data Finally we then use inferential statistics to draw conclusions about the variability in our data• Descriptive Statisticso Organizing, summarizing, and presenting data related to a variable(s) of interest o Exam question!! Number of participants: “N” • N = 171o N is usually the sample size numbero Central tendency (all about the center, or average, of the distribution) Mean = average of all scores• Add all the