NU PSYC 1101 - Research Methods in Psychology

Unformatted text preview:

Research Methods in Psychology Monday January 12 2015 1 31 PM Scientific Empirical methods observation Science is A process A set of values Psychological Science 1 Psychology is not about you a Group averages 2 Intuition and common sense are not enough a b Hindsight bias People are bad at accurately guessing i Don t like that we re bad at accurately guessing c Perceiving order in random events 3 Scientific method 4 Data collection a Descriptive i Case Study 1 Intensive examination of One specific person a i Ex Freud s Anna O a Theory general idea based on some principles hypothesis specific testable research observation of validity of hypothesis She had symptoms of pregnancy but wasn t pregnant Freud says patients project their feelings on their therapist b A rare or unusual event i Ex Hurricane Katrina c Things that can t be induced in a lab setting ii Naturalistic observation 1 2 3 4 Observing and recording behavior in the organism s natural environment Creeper method Priority is rich description of detail a Ex Jane Goodall Downsides people aren t really good at observing esp if looking for something a Bound to miss important information iii Strengths and Weaknesses 1 Strengths Observe people in their typical settings Depth of information Only way to study rare occurrences New ideas 2 Weaknesses Based on observer s perceptions bias interpretation Observer bias being watched changes behaviors People respond to make themselves look good No control over what happens a b c d a b c d b Correlational Survey i Self reported data 1 2 Ask people to answer questions about themselves Correlational a Are some qualities behaviors etc related to one another 3 Asking questions 4 Correlation a Very difficult to make a set of good questions a b c Positive negative none Can never be certain one causes another Major problems i Directionality problem not sure what is causing what Can t answer with a survey ii Third variable problem Another variable causes the two correlating variables This is always an issue with survey research Strengths d e Weaknesses i ii Measure variables we can t shouldn t control Which variables go together which are unrelated i ii iii Correlation doesn t equal causation Less researcher control Issues with methods tools that are usually used c Experimentation Chapter 1 Page 1 c Experimentation i Establish cause and effect 1 2 3 Can be used in laboratory or outside the laboratory Detects cause and effect relationships by controlling one or more variables 2 or more groups of people a b c d Random assignment Introduce some change in at least 1 group s experience Independent Variable Compare behavior outcome Dependent Variable to group who didn t receive change Ex Bandura s Bobo Doll Experiment 1961 i ii IV Modeled Aggression DV Child s Aggression Being a critical consumer of psychology Study Watching TV is correlated to earlier death Media portrays it as watching tv shortens lifespan From Data to Insight Measures of central tendency One number to describe some quality of a population Options Mode most common score Mean arithmetic avg Median 50th percentile Outliers affect mean the most Skewed vs Normal Distribution Some distributions are normally distributed symmetrical Ex Intelligence Tests Mean median mode are similar Others are skewed asymmetrical Ex Income Mean median mode are very different Measures of Variation Are data points close together or spread apart Range difference between lowest and highest Standard Deviation a calculation of the average distance of the scores from the mean When do we know whether our data can generalize about the broader population Statistics Generalizability is our data and analysis reliable Need Representative sample need to represent group as a whole Not a lot of variation a lot of variance can t say much with confidence about whole group Large Sample Predictive Power is the analysis significant Statistical significance Not just random Research Ethics Three primary criteria Autonomy Respect for the participant Full informed consent Beneficence Justice Study is doing more good than harm Important in sensitive topics such as trauma Selecting participants in an equitable manner Using people to help someone else and not them is not ethical Syphilis Study Tuskegee 1940s Men were never told they had syphilis Thought they would get medical treatment Studiers let them die give it to them family Penicillin could have treated they were never told this Studies involving human animal participants must be approved by an independent committee Usually the Institutional Review Board Composed of many different types of people Informed Consent Debriefing Participant given as much info as possible and they consent Sometimes telling them about it would influence their results Emotion Contagion on Facebook For 1 week in 2012 FB manipulated newsfeed of 700 000 useres Theory being around people of certain emotions transfers that emotion to yourself Chapter 1 Page 2 Theory being around people of certain emotions transfers that emotion to yourself Question does this even work online Users who saw positive content tended to write positive posts themselves Users who saw negative began to write more negative posts Problems No informed consent Caused people to feel negatively with no explanation Included minors as well Chapter 1 Page 3 Biology Brain and Behavior Thursday January 15 2015 2 06 PM Early Study of the Brain Phrenology Franz Gall Modern Study Neurons Study of bumps on the skull as they relate to mental abilities character traits Localization of function Different areas of the brain do different things Building blocks of the brain Basic unit of communication for the CNS Convey messages throughout the body from outside world with other neurons Synapses connections between neurons Prenatal Rapidly create new neuronal connections Synaptogenesis Immediately after birth Even more synapses are generated Most synapses people ever have occur shortly after birth Synaptic pruning remove connections which are un used make transmission more efficient Bilingual children stronger attention focus planning self monitoring working memory Specialization becomes more efficient but less able to learn be open to everything Lantern vs Flashlight Awareness Baby brains Many many more neuronal connections Less inhibitory transmittors Baby s perception of reality is more diffuse read less focused than adults Adults like seeing with a flashlight in a dark room babies like a lantern


View Full Document

NU PSYC 1101 - Research Methods in Psychology

Documents in this Course
Memory

Memory

3 pages

Exam 2

Exam 2

9 pages

Memory

Memory

6 pages

TEST 2

TEST 2

15 pages

Test 1

Test 1

8 pages

LANGUAGE

LANGUAGE

19 pages

Cocaine

Cocaine

4 pages

TEST 4

TEST 4

14 pages

TEST 3

TEST 3

8 pages

Load more
Download Research Methods in Psychology
Our administrator received your request to download this document. We will send you the file to your email shortly.
Loading Unlocking...
Login

Join to view Research Methods in Psychology and access 3M+ class-specific study document.

or
We will never post anything without your permission.
Don't have an account?
Sign Up

Join to view Research Methods in Psychology 2 2 and access 3M+ class-specific study document.

or

By creating an account you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use

Already a member?