Psychology 1010 009 Class notes 9 2 14 Professor Raymond Why is the way we conduct research important Facilitated communication Prefrontal Lobotomy Like scientific thinking good research designs protect against several cognitive biases Two modes of thinking System 1 intuitive Fast Utilizes heuristics Heuristic A mental shortcut or rule of thumb that helps us to streamline our thinking System 2 analytical Slower and deliberate Often thought to over ride system one System 1 processing and heuristics usually lead to correct answers with minimal effort but there are instances when these can cause an error in judgement What direction would you have to travel to go from Reno Nevada to San Diego Calofornia Answer South East processing Proper research designs in scientific thinking encourage the use of system 2 Validity External Validity Extent to which we can generalize findings to real world situations Internal Validity Extent to which we can draw cause and effect relationships from studies Construct Validity Called just validity in your text Extent to which a measure asses what it claims to measure Reliability Reliability The consistency of a measure i e does it record similar responses over time Interrater Reliability Extent to which different raters Interviewers data coders observers agree on the characteristics they are measuring Generalizability Generalizability Degree to which the results from a study can be said tot represent the entire population from which a sample was drawn Random selection Procedure that ensures every person in a population has an equal opportunity to be chosen to participate in a study This is key if we want to generalize the findings of a study to the entire population Self report measures and surveys Ask participants to report on themselves Personality traits mental illness traits interests opinions ect Not necessarily asking participants directly about a topic The construct validity and reliability of the survey questionnaire used is also extremely important Advantages Easy to administer People often have insight into their behavior that others cannot observe Disadvantages People don t always have full insight into their behavior however Assume people are honest in their responses Response Set Participants distort their responses to questionnaire items Often to paint themselves in a more positive light Types of research design Naturalistic observation Watching participants behavior in real works settings without attempting to influence that behavior High in external validity Low in internal validity Difficult to determine causation Case study In depth examination of a single individual or a small group of individuals often over an extended period of time Helpful in providing existence proof Existence proof Demonstrates that a psychological phenomenon can occur Useful in generating new hypotheses for future research Evidence is anecdotal and cannot be used to draw inferences Types of research designs Correlation design Examines the extent to which two variables are associated with one another Correlations can be positive zero or negative Positive Both variables change together in the same direction Zero The variables are not associated at all Negative The variables systematically change with each other but in opposite directions Range from 1 to 1 1 is a perfect positive correlation 1 is a perfect negative correlation Allows us to make predictions based on the discovered relationships Allows us to study phenomenon that are impossible to study experimentally Correlation does not equal causation Illusory Correlation The perception of a statistical association two variables where none exists Many superstitions develop from illusory correlation We fall into them for many of the same reasons we discussed in the last chapter pattern recognition confirmation bias belief perseverance ext Independent Variable IV A variable whose variation does not depend on another variable Manipulated by the experimenter Dependent Variable DV A variable whose value is dependent on another variable Measured by the experimenter to assess the effects of the independent variable Experimental designs Research design characterized by random assignment of participants into conditions and manipulation of an independent variable Operational definition A working definition of what researcher is measuring imagine i want to know how narcissistic someone is i could 1 Give them a series of questions about narcissistic behavior and then total them as a narcissist score 2 I could put a mirror in the room and count how many times they look at themselves 3 How many times do they talk about themselves during a 5 minutes conversation 4 how long do they talk about themselves when given opportunity Random Assignment Experimenter randomly places participants in one of the possible groups in the study Conditions Experimental Group The group of participants that revive the manipulation Control Group The group of participants that don t revive the manipulation Experimental Designs Allows cause and effect inferences Allows us to make predictions Can sometimes have lower external validity Possible problems with experimental designs Confounding variable Any variable that differs systematically between the experimental and control group besides the independent variable Placebo effect Improvement resulting from the expectations of improvement Nocebo effect Harm resulting from the expectation of harm Experimenter Expectant Effects Phenomenon in which researchers hypothesis lead them to unintentionally bias the outcome of a study Demand Characteristics Cues during a study that allows participants to guess correctly or incorrectly at the researchers hypotheses How do we protect against these problems Experimental Control Design studies in such a way that many possible confounds are eliminated Keep participants blind Unaware whether they are in the experimental or control condition Double blind Neither the researcher or participants are aware of who is in the experimental or control group Deception Many studies feature a cover store or distractor tasks that hide the true intention of the research Research Ethics We all know why ethics are important so we don t have to learn how to treat people Right WRONG infamous tuskegee study