The Science Game The Cycle of Scientific Progress Ch 1 Ch 2 Ch 3 1 10 1 15 lectures The Cycle of Scientific Progress o Theory Data Cycles in which scientists collect data to test change or update their theories the most important cycle in science is the theory data cycle 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 cycle o Basic Applied Cycle and apply them to more realistic scenarios If Then reasoning also enables us to take basic findings o Modifying Theories to accommodate new results o 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 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 Empirical Testing is o Golden Assumption If an object of study exists in nature it is knowable The object of study is lawful In other words its possible to fully DESCRIBE and EXPLAIN even highly complex things like brains beliefs time and romantic relationships 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 Ex systematically with the level of another variable such that when one variable changes the other variable tends to change too more strongly show the gendered pattern then people who more strongly endorse traditional gender norms will Women with less traditional gender attitudes had more sexual Ex recency intensity of illness has a stronger relationship with partners r 33 women s libido than men s Claims about the a purported relationship between two measured Ex Time spent playing videogames is positively correlated with Ex The SAT exists because it is a moderately strong predictor of 1st year variables creativity GPA 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 Ex Sleep deprivation causes glycogen depletion and thus poorer variable executive functioning o Causal Operationalizing Measures Ch 5 1 22 Lecture Psychological Construct vs Operationalized definitions o 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 addiction o 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 ideal o Observational Behavioral Measures o The conditions of my life are excellent o I am satisfied with my life o So far I have gotten the important things I want in o If I could live my life over I would change almost life 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 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 Recording biological data believed to be associated with a construct Ex Dopamine Endorphin levels in the brain to measure Ex Blood flow to the reward center nucleus accumbens in an happiness 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 o Physiological Scales of measurement o Nominal Variables in which the values are actually categories or labels Ex Religions colors majors presence or absence of a reaction 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 Ordinal o Interval A quantitative measurement scale that has no true zero and in which the numerals represent equal intervals distances between levels e g temperature in degrees Ex Temperature degrees Celsius does not mean no temperature A quantitative scale of measurement in which the numerals have equal intervals an the value of zero truly means nothing Ex weight 0 seconds means no time o Ratio Validity o Face o Content construct The operationalized measure seems to plausibly and reasonably
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