Psychology Research Methods 18 04 2012 17 03 00 Scientific theories organize and link observed facts they imply hypotheses that offer testable predictions Getting Ideas forming hypotheses choosing a research design choose subjects and measures analyze data report results replicate Research Designs Descriptive Studies o field studies naturalistic observation watching and recording the behavior in the organsm s natural environment PROS CONS unobtrustive beginning step of further research disconfirm a hypothesis no control can t figure out cause effect relationships observer bias see what you want to see can lead to overblown claims o case studies intensive study of single individual over a period of time Phineas Gage frontal lobes play a part in personality reasoning PRO depth of information useful for very rare populations CONS atypical non representative case overblown claims subjective interpretation cause effect relations cannot be determined Self Report Studies o Surveys can get a lot of information about people learn about attitudes opinions demographics make sure you re getting a representative sample of the population you want to look at Correlational Research o correlation coefficient r o positive same directions or negative inverse one goes up and another goes down relationship o The longer children are breast fed the greater their later academic achievement o Global warming rates have increase since pirates have starting shinking in numbers NO Correlation does not infer causation Lurking variable could exist o the more strongly correlation two variables are the more one variable predicts the other Experimental Research o Detects cause efffect relationships o Independent Variable IV Manipulated Presumed cause o Dependent Variable DV What we measure Presumed effect o Differences in the dependent variable are thought to be caused by the independent variable o Do infants who are breast fed have higher intelligence scores in later childhood than children who are bottle fed with infant formula o Experimental terms Operational definition clearly define how we are measuring our variables what do you mean by breast fed amount Time what do you mean by intelligence grades IQ As a child As an adult Experimental Group vs Control Group Experimental group do something different can be many many but you re comparing it to the Control inert To see if experimental is different than the control Random assignment Representative sample of population in both control groups Are you going to use mothers who are all from PhD programs Or mothers who all haven t had a high school education Confounding variables o Empirical Research What are the variables we re interested in Feeding method Intelligence Controlling for other factors First we must operationally define our variables Feeding method breast vs bottle Intelligence defined as IQ score at age 8 Feeding method would be the IV If effects the outcome Intelligence score is the DV Findings On intelligence tests taken at age 8 the children nourished with breast milk had significantly higher intelligence scores than their formula fed Confounding breast feeding mothers more likely to be nurturing Stuff in breast milk that isn t in counterparts formula Experiments aim to manipulate an independent variable measure changes in the dependent variable and control all other variables Random assignement works to equate the experimental control groups by minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups 18 04 2012 17 03 00 18 04 2012 17 03 00
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