Psychology=the study of the way people think, feel, and behavePrologueBiological ReductionismIssue everything we know or want to know is in its actual source of the individual, in the brain neuron patternDo things transcend physically?John LockeTabularasa born as a blank slate and learning through experience versus being born knowing thingsTo what extent are we born with abilitiesTo what extent do we learn through experienceNativism versus PuricistSociobiologySocial behaviors in terms of biological rootsAre behaviors shaped over time or determined in our gene pool?We are a highly social speciesCan’t explain much about a individual without looking at their social contextFundamental Scientific Method in PsychologyCorrelation doesn’t mean causationExample: 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 exampleDependent Variable=Reading ScoreIndependent Variable=ProteinSocioeconomic Status= Rich and poorGender=male and femaleHave an equal number of gender and SES and divide them up randomly. Give one group the protein and the other group nothingGoal: measure how much they’ve learned to readConsider other variables that prevent from showing a true measurement of how much they’ve learned to read test anxiety indirect measurementIndirect measurement- measure something that’s related to something other than the direct reading tool includes other variablesAlmost always using indirect measuresDirect Measurement- acting on with one of your senses the variable you’re interested inBe wary of all the conclusions due to direct and indirect measuresDependent variable= what you’re measuringIndependent variable= variable that is altered between the groupsExperiment of AboveJust IV and DVControl Group- nothing; Non protein score- 76Experimental group- Protein score- 88Finding: protein group gets higher reading scoreWhy is conclusion wary2 differences between groupsone group got protein, one didn’tone got pill, one didn’tconfounded the two variables instead of isolated themInstead: 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 proteinPlacebo effectmust only have one difference between groups!!!How many subjects to use in an experiment?No guidelines for this answer just common senseSmaller 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 worldRepresentative sample- performs the same way everyone in the world wouldIssue- how much can I convince you that the subjects are really representative of all the people out thereNumber of subjects depends on the nature of the experimentConfounding vs. IsolatingConfounding=opposite of isolatingOnly ONE independent variable in experiment2 independent variables you don’t know which one caused the resultsneed to isolate the independent variablegive one group a pill with nothing in it and one group the protein pillIsolate the variable you care aboutBlind Experiment- subject doesn’t know what condition they’re inExperimenters know which group is getting the protein but the subjects aren’t aware if they are getting the protein or notDouble Blind- the subject and the experiment doesn’t know what condition each group is inSubjects and experimenters don’t know which group is getting the proteinPrevent observers from coating the behavior they’re observingBlind and Double blind eliminate biasesSolves isolation issueStatistical Significance- the results that you got are not due to chanceinferring from the sample that the finding is real in the whole populationchance- the chance that they were not representative of the whole populationsampling error- the probability that you chose a non representative groupWhat’s going to convince you that the results are significant and not due to chance?More convincedN- number of subjects the larger the NThe more subjects“size of effect” the greater the S.E.Greater difference between the sample groupsvariability the less Vscores are closer together between the subjects within the sameExperimental Approach- groups start as equalsCan determine what variable caused resultsCorrelation Approach- observe the variables as they behave in nature; don’t start as equalsCan’t determine what variable caused resultsThird factor effectAlmost all experiments are correlationalNo definitive answerCorrelational numbers run from 0-1 and 0- -1The bigger the number (closer to one) the higher the correlation (the closer the two variables are related)1=perfect correlation0 correlation- no relationship between the two variablesLess error to make a predictionMore correlation (higher the number to 1) allows you to be more predictiveError reduces correlationAnything about 0 is a relationship >/=.5 is strongStrength of CorrelationScatterplots- draw linear line of best fitThe more compressed data is to the average line the less range and the higher correlationParallel line=zero correlationNegative CorrelationAs one variable goes up, the other goes down (vice versa)Positive CorrelationAs one variable goes up, the other goes up (vice versa)Which has a stronger correlation: 0.4 or -0.7?-0.7Correlation Example: does cigarette smoking cause cancer in humans?No definitive answerNever been an experiment where they start people with equalsAlways just compare smokers to nonsmokersKnow nothing about their backgroundsCorrelational Example: Violent cartoons are causing kids to be more aggressiveFinding: the kids who watched violent kids were more aggressiveArgument: correlational because the kids weren’t equal know nothing about kid’s parenting etcBiology vs. ExperienceGenes and evolutionRandom Variation and SelectionDarwin TheoryNatureGenes (sperm and egg cell)Genes set the rangeNurtureHow you were raised (food, exercise, parenting)Experience (environment) determines where you fall in the fangeNurture tweaks what nature gives youInhibits or enhancesWhich is more influential?Nature is more influential if the range is very smallNurture then only has a little to tweakNurture is more influential if the range is very largeNurture then has to do a lot more than just tweakPlantsNature=seedsNurture= sunshine, soil
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