PS111 Notes Chapter 1 01 16 2014 Psychology the study of the way people think feel and behave Prologue Biological Reductionism Issue everything we know or want to know is in its actual source of the individual in the brain neuron pattern Do things transcend physically John Locke Tabularasa born as a blank slate and learning through experience versus being born knowing things To what extent are we born with abilities To what extent do we learn through experience Nativism versus Puricist Sociobiology Are behaviors shaped over time or determined in our gene pool Social behaviors in terms of biological roots We are a highly social species Can t explain much about a individual without looking at their social context Fundamental Scientific Method in Psychology Correlation doesn t mean causation o Example people who drink red wine live longer but that doesn t mean go out and start drinking red wine due to that finding It depends on the case and lifestyle Experiment example Dependent Variable Reading Score Independent Variable Protein Socioeconomic Status Rich and poor Gender male and female Have an equal number of gender and SES and divide them up randomly Give one group the protein and the other group nothing Goal measure how much they ve learned to read o Consider other variables that prevent from showing a true measurement of how much they ve learned to read test anxiety indirect measurement Indirect measurement measure something that s related to something other than the direct reading tool includes other variables o Almost always using indirect measures Direct Measurement acting on with one of your senses the variable you re interested in Be wary of all the conclusions due to direct and indirect measures Dependent variable what you re measuring Independent variable variable that is altered between the groups Experiment of Above Just IV and DV Control Group nothing Non protein score 76 Experimental group Protein score 88 Why is conclusion wary Finding protein group gets higher reading score o 2 differences between groups one group got protein one didn t one got pill one didn t o confounded the two variables instead of isolated them o Instead give the non protein group a sugar pill because we don t know if the different score was because of the idea of taking a pill or the actual protein o Placebo effect o must only have one difference between groups How many subjects to use in an experiment No guidelines for this answer just common sense Smaller group is not representative of the whole ex 1 subject per group one might be a better reader naturally If you have bigger groups participants even out and results become more representative of all the potential people in the world Representative sample performs the same way everyone in the world would Issue how much can I convince you that the subjects are really representative of all the people out there Number of subjects depends on the nature of the experiment Confounding vs Isolating Confounding opposite of isolating Only ONE independent variable in experiment 2 independent variables you don t know which one caused the results need to isolate the independent variable o give one group a pill with nothing in it and one group the protein pill Isolate the variable you care about Blind Experiment subject doesn t know what condition they re in Experimenters know which group is getting the protein but the subjects aren t aware if they are getting the protein or not Double Blind the subject and the experiment doesn t know what condition each group is in Subjects and experimenters don t know which group is getting the protein Prevent observers from coating the behavior they re observing Blind and Double blind eliminate biases Solves isolation issue Statistical Significance the results that you got are not due to chance inferring from the sample that the finding is real in the whole population chance the chance that they were not representative of the whole population sampling error the probability that you chose a non representative group What s going to convince you that the results are significant and not due to chance More convinced o N number of subjects the larger the N The more subjects o size of effect the greater the S E Greater difference between the sample groups o variability the less V scores are closer together between the subjects within the same Experimental Approach groups start as equals Can determine what variable caused results Correlation Approach observe the variables as they behave in nature don t start as equals Can t determine what variable caused results Third factor effect Almost all experiments are correlational No definitive answer Correlational numbers run from 0 1 and 0 1 o The bigger the number closer to one the higher the correlation the closer the two variables are related o 1 perfect correlation o 0 correlation no relationship between the two variables o Less error to make a prediction More correlation higher the number to 1 allows you to be more predictive o Error reduces correlation o Anything about 0 is a relationship 5 is strong Strength of Correlation Scatterplots draw linear line of best fit o The more compressed data is to the average line the less range and the higher correlation o Parallel line zero correlation Negative Correlation Positive Correlation As one variable goes up the other goes down vice versa As one variable goes up the other goes up vice versa Which has a stronger correlation 0 4 or 0 7 0 7 Correlation Example does cigarette smoking cause cancer in humans No definitive answer Never been an experiment where they start people with equals Always just compare smokers to nonsmokers o Know nothing about their backgrounds Correlational Example Violent cartoons are causing kids to be more aggressive Finding the kids who watched violent kids were more aggressive Argument correlational because the kids weren t equal know nothing about kid s parenting etc Nature vs Nurture Biology vs Experience 01 16 2014 Genes and evolution Random Variation and Selection Darwin Theory Nature Nurture Genes sperm and egg cell Genes set the range How you were raised food exercise parenting Experience environment determines where you fall in the fange Nurture tweaks what nature gives you Inhibits or enhances Which is more influential Nature is more influential if the range is very small o Nurture then only has a little to tweak Nurture is more influential if the range is very large o Nurture then has to do a lot more
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