Methods of Psychological Research continued Correlation o The closer to 1 or 1 the further away from 0 the stronger the correlation o Correlation does NOT imply causation o E g there was a correlation between polio ice cream consumption and people believed that sugar consumption was causing polio However the warm weather was actually causing a higher rate of polio and ice cream consumption o E g UW research there was a correlation between smoking mental health problems People smoking 10 cigarettes a day had greater levels of depression more among students anxiety and worse well being Issue the newspaper worded it that smoking caused mental health issues early on in life but smoking was not necessarily the cause of poor mental health However there could be a directionality issue mental health problems could cause smoking not vice versa Or there could be a third variable e g stress causing smoking poor mental o Correlation can suggest cause and we can build a model and test it with an experiment Experimental Methods o Manipulation taking control lets us find causation because it isolates one variable o Core features of experimental methods Independent Variables aka IVs e g hitting a punching bag or not in the anger health study Dependent Variables aka DVs e g how loud long the noise was blasted in the anger study Random sampling Random assignment to conditions treatments Try to control extraneous or irrelevant factors e g being watched during the Hawthorne experiment Goal the IV is the ONLY thing that varies o Confounds anything that may unintentionally vary between different experiments that may affect the dependent variable This is different from but similar to the 3rd variable problem E g when testing drunk driving ability not controlling for whether an automatic or manual transmission vehicle is used Design of an Experiment E g exposure to media violence and violent behavior o Directionality issue do violent children choose to watch violent media or does exposure to violent media cause violent behavior 1 experimental group that gets exposed to violent media and 1 control group non violent media aggression is measured In this example kids who were exposed to violent media were more aggressive proving that exposure to violent media causes aggression o Or a 3rd variable issue does lack of adult supervision cause both exposure to media violence and violent behavior Distribute kids with high adult supervision low adult supervision into 1 experimental group exposure to violent media 1 control group non violent media aggression measured In this example there was no difference in aggression between the 2 groups proving that adult supervision has no effect on aggression Drawing conclusions o Statistical significance there must be a p value of 0 05 meaning there is less than a 5 chance that the findings are a coincidence or that they are 95 confident the findings are accurate o Internal validity was the research designed validly o External validity does it matter does the experiment apply to real life Hallmarks of good research o Systematic data collection Standardized Reliable replicable o Careful specification of theoretical terms o Careful specification of operational values the way you measure something should be good e g how long loudly the sound was blasted in the anger experiment representing the amount of aggression Mindfulness research stress reduction o Mindfulness being aware of your anger and letting it go o Are people who meditate happier more compassionate etc o Can meditation move your happiness set point Directionality is an important question are people who meditate happier to begin with or does meditation increase happiness So is the 3rd variable question is something else causing people to be happy and to meditate o Meditation and research have begun to encounter each other in the past research on meditation was thought of as too soft a subject o Theories hypotheses Meditation can change the function of the brain Left prefrontal cortex activation is associated with positive emotions Right prefrontal cortex activation is associated with negative emotions Can we rewire the brain Since most people are either left brained or right o Richard Davidson 2003 study on mindfulness seeing if it can make people more left brained brained 8 week program for 2 hours a day of meditation and a workshop at the end they were also injected with the flu vaccine brain activity and number of antibody titers were measured People at a biotechnology company were able to sign up for free classes and the control group was composed of those on the waitlist that way they were still motivated to participate in meditation IV mindfulness training DV outcome results of the mindfulness training Lower self reported negative affect and anxiety Higher left sided prefrontal cortical asymmetry More influenza vaccine antibody titers