PSYC 201 Midterm Review SheetChapters 1 & 2What is a construal? How do construals impact our thoughts & behavior?Construal: People’s interpretation and inference about the stimuli or situations they confront, how we regard others influences our perceptions of their actions, our perceptions in turn influence our behavior toward othersHow is social psychology different from personality psychology? Personality psychology: Stresses individual differences in behavior rather than the social situationSocial Psychology: The scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals in social situations, how people think about, influence, and relate to each otherHow are social psychological theories different from folk/lay theories?“Scientific study” Go beyond folk wisdom: scientific basis for understanding human behavior by conducting research studies and experiments.For example: Bird of a feather flock together or opposites attract?What are the differences between observational, archival, survey, & experimental research? Observational research: observing social situations in a semi-formal way- Social psychologists usually prefer to augment their observational studies with additional researchArchival research: analyzing social behaviors documented in past behaviors- Newspapers, police reports, hospital records, etc.- Can be used to test theories about social behaviorSurveys: Interviews or written questionnaires- Consider number and type of people being surveyedo Results may be limited if sample is biasedo Relatively small sample may be representative of population if sample is unbiasedExperimental research: the only experimental method, which systematically controls and manipulates events, can determine causality- Overview of basic ideas:o Research that involves randomly assigning participants to different situations or conditionso Conditions are controlled or manipulated by the researcherso Behaviors are systematically measuredo Comparisons of how different manipulations affect behavior allow researchers to determine causal influences of behavior Experiments are the “gold standard” of psychological research What is the difference between a correlational and experimental study?Correlational research: Research that does not involve random assignment to different situations, orconditions, and that psychologists conduct just to see whether there is a relationship between the variables- Measuring the linear relationship between two variablesCorrelational Study Experimental Study- Does not involve random assignment to different situations or conditions- Does NOT prove causation- Involves randomly assigning participants to different situations or conditions- Proves causationWhat is important about experiments? Why do we like using experiments in social psychology?Generally though, scientists prefer the experiment well above others. Allows researchers to better infer causality. “Gold Standard” of research. What are the main components of an experiment? What is a dependent variable? An independent variable? Can you identify each in an experiment?Independent variable (IV): The variable that is manipulated, hypothesized to be the cause of a particular outcome- “I” DO IT – in the context of this course, we are all social psychologists. The IV is something that you, as the researcher, would manipulate.Dependent variable (DV): The variable that is measured, hypothesized to be affected by the manipulation of the IV- Often change in behavior, feelings, or evaluation- depends on the IV. This is what we are measuring, the participant’s response to our manipulation.Control condition: Comparable to the experimental condition in every way except that it lacks the one ingredient hypothesized to produce the expected effect on the DV- We need the control condition as a basis of comparison. - This is identical to the experimental condition, but without the IV. - We’ll compare participants’ scores on the DV: compare those who got the IV compared with those in the control condition, to determine if the IV had an effect on the DV. Random assignment: Assigning participants to different groups randomly, such that they are as likely to be assigned to one condition as they are to anotherExample: Does drinking coffee lead to better memory?IV: coffeeDV: memory (have participants try to memorize a list of words – how many can they memorize?)Control: coffee vs. no coffee What are reliability and validity?Reliability: The degree to which the particular way that researchers measures a given variable is likely to yield consistent measurements- If you took the same test twice, would you get the same result?- How consistently a test measures the variable of interest.- If I take the same self-esteem test today and then again tomorrow, will I get the same score? What about if I take it a month from now? Measurement validity: The correlation between some measure and some outcome that the measure is supposed to predictDoes the test measure what it’s supposed to measure?The degree that a test accurately measures the variable of interest. (Sometimes called construct validity). What are the different types of validity?External validity: An experimental setup that closely resembles real-life situations so that results can safely be generalized to such situations- Do the results extend to other populations / to real life situations Internal validity: In experimental research, confidence that only the manipulated variable could have produced the results- Sometimes called “causal validity” this is your confidence that your IV caused changes in your DV.- Essential; can improve through random assignment Often the more closely a situation resembles real life (good external validity), the more difficult it may be to tightly control the situation (bad internal validity)What is random assignment? Why is random assignment important?Random assignment: Assigning participants to different groups randomly, such that they are as likely to be assigned to one condition as they are to another- improves internal validityWhat is the difference between basic and applied science?Basic Research: concerned with trying to understand some phenomenon in its own rightApplied Research: is concerned with solving real world problem- Intervention: a connection between the two; basic research facilitates theories that lead to interventions. What is statistical significance?Statistical significance: A