Psych 350 9 5 14 Ch 2 Introduction to Research Methods in Social Psychology Stanford Prison Experiment o Why were the guards so cruel Taking good apples and putting them in a bad situation o Does the power of the situation always dictate behavior Often but not always Might dictate a range of acceptable behaviors Correlational Methods o 3 types of correlational methods Observational research Observing behavior in its natural setting o Pros real behavior real situations seeing what naturally happens o Cons researcher can interfere some behaviors are rare cannot determine cause the natural behavior may not necessarily be natural if the subjects notice that they are being watched it can be difficult to observe without interfering with their natural behavior Surveys Asking people about their beliefs behaviors etc o Pros can study difficult to observe behaviors and thoughts o Cons participants might be unbiased or untruthful Archival research Examining public records o Pros access to large amounts of data no difficulty generalizing o Cons many interesting behaviors aren t recorded can t determine causes o Correlational Research can tell us about Correlations A correlation is the degree to which 2 variables are related High correlations strong relationships Low correlations weak or no relationships o Correlation coefficients Positive correlation As X increases Y increases Negative correlation As X increases Y decreases Zero correlation X scores are not related to Y scores 9 8 14 Experimental Methods o To determine causality must see experimental methods o The thing that you are manipulating is the independent variable o Dependent variable the variable that s measured o Experiments test the effect of the independent variable I V on the dependent variable D V o Random assignment each subject has equal chance of being in any condition o Two types of Experimental methods Field studies behavior measured in the real world but including a manipulation Participants rarely know they re in an experiment Has high external validity o Pros real behavior real situations o Cons less control over extraneous factors measures often limited to observable behaviors ethical considerations Laboratory studies a controlled experiment with complete control over the variables in the study Has high internal validity o Pros more control over variables than any other methods Ability to use invasive methods Best method for determining causation o Cons might not generalize to real life suspicion o Important Principles Random assignment each subject has equal chance of being in any condition Internal validity extent to which experiment allows confident statements about cause and effect External validity experimental results can generalize to real life situations because the experimental set up resembled a real life situation Experimental vs Quasi Experimental o Culture of Honour studies are only quasi experimental Quasi Experimental test of the Culture of Honour hypothesis Method Experimental condition bumped in hallway o Walk back to lab Experimental condition game of chicken