Research Strategies Psychology as a Science● Psychologist use the science of behavior and mental processes to better understand why people feel, think, and act as they do ● We don't know until we test it!Scientific Attitude ● Scientists, including psychologists, try to be:○ Curious- ask questions ○ Skeptical- no everything we read is true ○ Humble- realize we are vulnerable to errors What is Empirical Evidence?Empirical evidence- based upon objective observation, measurement, and/or experimentation Anecdotal Evidence- personal experience or opinion(not scientific) Types of Research Basic ● Fill in gaps ● Obtain knowledge/increase understandingApplied ● Seeks to answer a question/solve a problem in real world● Study habits experiments ● Does listening to music improve study habits? What do we mean by “research findings?” ● Of course there are always exceptions to scientific findings that we can think of ● But scientific results in psychology tend to refer to objectively- testes ideas that were found among a majority of people in the samples ○ Not “proven”, but not opinion-based eitherWhy shouldn't we rely just on common sense or intuition? ● Humans make errors● Common sense is dependent upon experience ● Intuition can be problematic and related to mind bugs (false beliefs that lead us to make errors) and errors Bias means error Hindsight Bias ● I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon Example: students who dress more formally to class tend to earn higher grades (confidence)● Example: students who dress more casually to class tend to earn high grades (comfort)Common sense more easily describes what has happened than what will happenOverconfidence ● We tend to think we know more than we do ● 80% of drivers rate themselves as being “above average” ● Taking notes and studying Confirmation Bias● Tendency to search for info that confirms beliefs ● Ignore other evidence ● To be scientifically you must try to find disconfirming evidenceExplains why people still endorse non- vaccination despite overwhelming evidence that they do NOT cause autism Implicit Bias ● Unconscious attitudes/beliefs that influence our decisions and perceptions of events ● Thoughts and feelings are “implicit” if we are unaware of them or mistaken about their nature. We have a bias when, rather than being neutral, we have a preference for (or aversion to) a person or group of people. Thus, we use the term “implicit bias” to describe when we have attitudes towards people or associate stereotypes with them without our conscious knowledgeFalse Consensus Effect ● Overestimation of the extent to which our beliefs are shared by others ● The tendency to overestimate how much other people agree with us is known among social psychologists as the false consensus effect. This kind of cognitive bias leads people to believe that their own values and ideas are "normal" and that the majority of people share these same opinionsFundamental attribution error● We assume people's actions or decision are strictly due to their own personality/disposition ● Ignore that external factors influence people● If someone cuts you off in traffic (different personal reasons) Perceiving order in random events ● We tend to find and see patterns, even when something is completely random● You are playing roulette and hit red seven times in a row. What bet would you make next? Why? You would pick red ● Gambler’s fallacy (odds increase because it hasn't been used in awhile, assumption that things have to change) Acknowledge Biases● Make a commitment to continuous learning ● Commit to identifying and challenging personal biases ○ This is not easy○ This alone can create cognitive dissonance (two competing attitudes or a competing attitude or competing behavior) Use these 4 steps to be a critical thinker● Minimize preconceptions and biases ● Evaluate evidence (should examine evidence for and against argument) ● Determine conclusions that can be drawn based on the evidence ● Consider alternative explanations Research DesignsThe Scientific Method Theory: explanation for something based on observations Hypothesis: a testable prediction; more specific than a theory Operational definition: how research variables are defined (very clear) Replication: repeating a research study with different people or circumstances to see if results are the same 8 Qualities of a Good Hypothesis ● It is testable ○ Is the statement able to be demonstrated as correct or incorrect ● It is falisable ○ Can potentially have results that shows the hypothesis is not true ● It is succinct ○ Short and sweet ● Example: Listening to heavy metal music increase aggression Type of research Designs ● Descriptive ● Correlational ● Experimental Descriptive studies ● Observative and describe what people think/do ● In depth analysis of individuals ○ Phineas Gage ● Naturalistic Observation ○ watching/recording behavior in natural settings ○ Joel Berger ● Surveys ○ Strengths■ Can reach a large, diverse sample■ Electronic survey may be inexpensive and data is automatically recorded○ Limitations ■ Wording effects: even subtle changes in questions wording can dramatically affect how a person answers questions■ Potential for self-selection and social desirability among respondents■ High nonresponse Correlational studies ● Investigating how two variables relate to each other ○ Does knowing the amount of one variable predict the amount of the other variable?● NOT whether or not one variable causes another ● Determine Strength and direction Correlation studies example Positive correlation: as one variable goes up OR down the other variable does the same Negative correlation: as one variable goes up or down, the other variable does the opposite No correlation: one variable does NOT increase or decrease as a function or the other Correlational studies *Why does the crime rate increase when ice cream sales increase?Correlation doesn't equal causation (we cannot make any kind of assumption that a has any time of causal on b unless we do an experiment) Experimentation ● How does it differ from correlational studies ○ If done properly, we can infer causation ● Why can we do this?○ Manipulation (changing) one variable while holding all other factors constant (controlling) ● Random assignment to different conditions● Manipulating one