Lecture 2 Scientific Research and the Scientific Method Scientific reasoning testing ideas about what is going on in the world and how the world works Scientific Reasoning and Real Life Scientific approach is often used in real life in a rudimentary form just no with the kind of rigor and carefulness you have to use for well warranted well grounded conclusions Whenever we have any kind of idea about something you try something and see what happens and then you re evaluate your idea based on what happens this is rudimentary scientific thinking Example You are sitting and reading The light goes out You wonder why the light went out and then you generate a hypothesis maybe the cat knocked the plug out of the wall or maybe a fuse blew If the fuse blew then the light in the next room would be off as well If you want to test the fuse blew hypothesis then you look and see if the light is out in the other room If the light is out in the other room then probably the circuit blew Essentially this is the basis of scientific reasoning you generate a hypothesis what s going on here from the hypothesis you generate a prediction if the hypothesis is true something should also be true then something should also be true that I can test in the world you run the experiment you check to see if the prediction is true Scientific research is done in this way except for much more careful and thorough ways and they take into account the possible pitfalls of their reasoning so that when they reach a conclusion they have more solid grounds for determining whether the conclusion is correct Scientific Reasoning and the Scientific Method in Psychology Generating a Hypothesis Why do people like to be with others Being with other people helps to relieve anxiety Hypothesis Anxiety is an important but not the only causal factor for why people like being with others The Prediction The theory predicts that in this circumstance people experiencing high anxiety are more likely to wait with others when you increase the anxiety you increase the probability that people will want to wait with others The prediction is about the thing you are going to measure you are predicting the dependant variable You manipulate the independent variable you make a prediction about the dependant variable Designing an Experiment Schachter wants to design an experiment where he can manipulate the causal factor anxiety By manipulating the subject s anxiety Schachter should be able to affect the extent to which people want to be with other people What the experimenter manipulates is the independent variable in 1 this example the degree of anxiety is the independent variable Schachter manipulates the variable by telling people that they are going to feel a shock half the people are going to be told that it is a mild shock this should produce a low level of anxiety and half the people are told that it is a severe shock this should produce a high level of anxiety The thing that you try to manipulate is the thing that you think is the causal factor the cause of the behavior The dependant variable is what the experimenter measures in response to the manipulation of the independent variable In this case the dependant variable is the choice that people make about where they want to wait with people or alone You will measure the dependent variable by noting peoples choices Then at the end you add all of data up and find the proportion of people who wanted to wait with others and the proportion of people who wanted to wait alone Experiment Test Analysis Conclusion Run the experiment and report the results Your analysis is what your results mean for the theory you were testing Example What s being measured The choice they made Prediction the proportion of people who want to wait with others will be higher in the high anxiety group than in the low anxiety group What does Schachter find 60 of the people in the high anxiety group chose to wait with others 32 of people in the low anxiety group chose to wait with others the portion in the high anxiety group means nothing unless you can compare it to the portion in the low anxiety group Huge difference Schachter reports the results of the experiment 60 32 Now you draw your conclusion Prediction was fulfilled When you draw your analysis the first thing you ask is did the prediction come out Yes or no In the example the answer is yes You then draw a conclusion that is justified by this experiment Example Conclusion 1 Based on the results of this experiment we can conclude that there is evidence in support of the hypothesis that anxiety leads people to want to be with other people because being with other people can reduce anxiety either through giving people something to take their mind off their anxiety by talking about something else or by talking to the other people about what s making them anxious and getting feedback from the other people that will reduce the anxiety For one of these two reasons people seek out the company of other people NO Is conclusion 1 justified by this experiment Do not draw a conclusion that goes beyond the data that you have from your experiment 2 Summary Example Conclusion 2 the real conclusion The experiment as described justifies support for the conclusion that anxiety leads to people wanting to be with other people The experiment showed that the level of anxiety correlates very strongly with the choice to be with other people or to be alone thus there was significant support that anxiety is one of the factors that leads to people seeking the company of others No support for how being with other people helps to reduce anxiety The theory is a general statement The prediction is an exact detailed statement about what you expect to observe in this experiment a greater proportion of the high anxiety group will chose to wait with others than the low anxiety group the proportion of people who chose to wait with others will be higher in the high anxiety group than in the low anxiety group A better theory will allow you to make a better prediction and a more exact prediction will allow you to have a stronger test of theory Hypothesis says that A is causing B you predict what will happen to B if your hypothesis is true and then you run the experiment you manipulate A independent variable changes in A should produce changes in B and you measure B dependant variable B depends on A that s why it s called a dependent variable Brief Structural Outline Hypothesis Prediction Experimental
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