The Science Game & The Cycle of Scientific Progress: Ch. 1, Ch. 2 & Ch. 3 (1/10 & 1/15lectures)- The Cycle of Scientific Progress**:o Theory-Data Cycles : the most important cycle in science is the theory-data cycle, in which scientists collect data to test, change, or update their theories. Theory leads researchers to pose particular…- Research questions, which lead to an appropriate…o Research design. In the context of the design, researchers formulate… Hypotheses. Researchers then collect and analyze…- Data, which feed back into the cycle. If/Then reasoning enables us to test and refine theories- Book calls this the Theory-Data cycleo Basic-Applied Cycle : If/Then reasoning also enables us to take basic findings and apply them to more realistic scenarioso Modifying Theories to accommodate new resultso Empirical Testing & Empirical Evidence Empirical Evidence is:- An observation or measurement that contributes to either verifying or falsifying a claim about what’s true;- Independent of the observer (i.e., objective). The evidence will be the same no matter who observes it. Empirical Testing is:- Any situation or procedure that creates empirical evidence which allows a claim on truth to be verified or falsified. - Empirical tests must be replicable and verifiable. o “Golden Assumption” If an object of study exists in nature, it is knowable:- In other words, its possible to fully DESCRIBE and EXPLAIN even highly complex things, like brains, beliefs, time, and romantic relationships The object of study is lawful- If we could perfectly control all of the input variables, we could perfectly PREDICT and CONTROL the outcome. o The importance of replication- 3 Types of Claims:o Frequency A claim that describes a particular rate or level of a single variable. Claims about what things/people/nature tend to be like and how frequently certain values or scores on a variable occur Ex. Median family income in the US is $51,900. Ex. Lifetime frequency of mood disorders in the US is 20%. o Association Claim about 2 variables, in which the level of one variable is said to vary systematically with the level of another variable, such that when one variable changes, the other variable tends to change, too. Ex then people who more strongly endorse traditional gender normswill more strongly show the gendered pattern.- Women with less traditional gender attitudes had more sexual partners, r= -.33. Ex: recency & intensity of illness has a stronger relationship with women’s libido than men’s. Claims about the a purported relationship between two measured variables Ex: Time spent playing videogames is positively correlated with creativity Ex: The SAT exists because it is a moderately strong predictor of 1st year GPA.o Causal: A claim arguing that a specific change in one variable is responsible for influencing the level of another variable.- Ex: Burger King Experiment Claims stating that changes in one variable induce changes in another variable. Ex: Sleep deprivation causes glycogen depletion (and thus poorer executive functioning)Operationalizing Measures: Ch. 5 (1/22 Lecture)- Psychological Construct vs. Operationalized definitionso To even begin to support such claims, we need to determine how to define and then measure the “constructs” of interest. o Psychological Construct: Any explanatory variable that is not directly observable or tangible Ex. Intelligence, happiness, addictiono Operationalized definitions: To make claims about constructs, we need to agree on how to operationalize them…- i.e. how to turn abstract constructs into specific, measurable instances that are both reliable and valid. - Operationalization is always a compromise between pragmatically measuring your construct and collecting data that validly tests your hypothesis.- Multiple ways to Operationalize psychological constructs:o Self-Report Recording people’s answers to verbal questions about themselves in a questionnaire or interview- Ex: Diener’s (1993) measure of happiness / subjective well-being (1-7 scale)o ___ In most ways my life is close to my idealo ___ The conditions of my life are excellento ___ I am satisfied with my lifeo ___ So far I have gotten the important things I want in lifeo ___ If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing. Potential pro’s & con’s of self-report measures?- Pro’s: Easy & low cost, large anonymous samples, may be the most appropriate format (i.e. the study of attitudes)- Con’s: Open to fabrication & social desirability biases, memory distortions, laziness, may not be useful for non-conscious constructs.o Observational (Behavioral Measures) Recording observable behaviors or physical traces of behavior.- Ex: Counting the number of times subjects smile in a given time frame to measure happiness- Ex. Counting the number of problems attempted to measure motivation- Ex. Recording donations given to measure generosity. Potential Pro’s & Con’s of Observational/Behavioral measures?- Pro: More shielded from respondent bias, can be recorded w/ less interference, sometimes most appropriate Operationalization of a construct (e.g. helping)- Con: Can be more complicated to collect, subject to experimenters “seeing what they want to see”, discrepancies may arise over whether the behavior was actually produced (i.e. was that a smile or not?), ethics?o Physiological Recording biological data believed to be associated with a construct- Ex: Dopamine & Endorphin levels in the brain to measure happiness- Ex: Blood flow to the “reward center” (nucleus accumbens) in an fMRI Potential Pro’s and Con’s of physiological operationalizations?- Pro: hard to consciously control or fake, can be quite precise, perceived as more “credible.”- Con: can be expensive & time consuming to collect, may require technical expertise w/ machinery/procedures, may be most sensitive to uncontrollable sources of error. Ethics?- Scales of measurement**o Nominal Variables in which the values are actually categories or labels Ex: Religions, colors, majors, presence or absence of a reactiono Ordinal Variables in which the values indicate some kind of ranking. Its numeric, but we can’t do any mathematical operations on it. Ex: Favorite movies, Where one finishes in a race.o Interval A quantitative measurement scale that has no “true
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