Research Methods Chapter 1 There is a lot more to data collection than just collecting the data Unfortunately sometimes people will Abuse the data Misuse the data Manipulate the data Even IGNORE the data Psychology as a science is unique Because everyone thinks they understand it You don t hear people in bars telling physicists biologists and chemists that their theories are wrong Not everyone agrees on what common sense is This is where bias comes from Implicit Theory Everyone has one based on our individual experiences shapes how we view the world very dif cult to change Sugar and hyperactivity people don t believe that sugar does NOT cause hyperactivity because they ve grown up their entire life believing its true Ex Facilitated Communication Facilitator steadies patient s arm so they can communicate by typing Gave children with autism pictures of animals and asked to identify on the Klewe computer 1 Facilitated communication by having another individual place their hand on the child IV Facilitators knowledge of target picture Only when the facilitator knew the target word did the child type the correct word Ex F shown apple C shown horse C would always type apple Sometimes we can do desperately WANT results to be signi cant that we ignore solid methodology All the more reason for tight research methods Research as a Process The Four Scienti c Cycles Theory Data Cycle Theory leads researchers to pose research questions which leads to an appropriate research design in the context of the design researches formulate hypotheses researches then collect and analyze data which feed back into the cycle So a hypothesis is not just a guess it s testable falsi able Theories should be falsi able as well Supported by numerous pieces of evidence hypotheses and tests Scienti c Method Empiricism Also called empiric method or empirical research Evidence based observation Important aspect of good hypotheses Falsi ability 2 Much easier to demonstrate something is false than if it is true The best you can hope is that your data supports your claims Theory vs Hypothesis Media Violence Hypothesis Exposure to violent video games will increase aggression Theory Watching others engage in behaviors and observing the outcome of those behaviors makes it more or less likely that an individual will also engage in those behaviors vs vs formalize to explain or predict theories dictate important variables variables are used to create Theories explain Models Laws describe the model Basic research Applied research Cycle Using knowledge from basic research to develop and test applications to health care psychotherapy or any other intervention is called Applied Research Practical problem goal is that ndings will be directly applied to that problem New treatments for depression autism etc New way to teach or assess math English etc New way to identify at risk populations or predict aptitude for a job Basic Research To enhance the general body of knowledge Understand the visual system Identify motivations in depressed individuals Learn more about infant attachment Peer review cycle Scienti c articles are published in peer reviewed journals 3 Rigorously reviewed by other scientists Anonymous review so honest assessment Manuscripts can be rejected accepted or accepted with minor or major revisions Journal to Journalism Cycle Scientists read science journals Often non scientists write and read about the nding in the popular press Pros and cons The consumer needs to asses importance and accuracy The Mozart Effect College students after listening to classical music would preform better on tests Many people only picked up a few words and thought that playing classical music to babies and unborn children made them smarter THIS WAS NOT IN THE ORIGINAL JOURNAL Distinguishing Science from Pseudoscience Dissemination Scienti c ndings are published in peer reviewed publications using standards for Borrowing from Social Psychology two of the most in uential tools of persuasion are Likability and Authority honesty and accuracy aimed at scientists Pseudoscienti c ndings disseminated Replication Limiting Bias Understanding Statistics Chapter 2 Sources of evidence for people s beliefs Experience 4 You are an n of 1 Personal experience has no comparison group Bloodletting as an example Draining liters of blood as a way of feeling better Some patients died anyway too sick to cure Some recovered must have been due to the treatment bleeding No proper control group Truth in advertising Good to look for products that discuss placebo trials control groups Caffeine in a 5 hour energy is comparable to that in a cup of coffee No evidence that all those extra vitamin leads to a more sustained caffeine high Experience is confounded Even if a change occurs we can t be sure what caused it Vegan example Confounds or confounding variables are things that might have caused a change and you didn t control for In the real world it is hard to isolate variable Why controlled research is better than experience Is venting anger bene cial Why do you or don t you think so Bushman 2002 Participants write a short essay and get feedback from their partner In truth all the feedback was predetermined and negative Next came a distraction task Control Condition Sitting quietly 5 Punching a bag exercise Punching a bag partner s face DV Exposing partner to loud bursts of sound 60 to 110 decibels The people who were asked to sit quietly brought down arousal level and made them less aggressive Lowest amount of decibels Punching bag participants were average etc Empirically BetterWays to Reduce Anger Counting to ten Reframing what made you made But my experience is different Your experience might contradict research ndings Is your experience wrong Behavioral research is probabilistic Conclusions are meant to explain a certain proportion very high proportion of the cases Intuition We are biased Biases in intuition Conserving mental effort mental shortcuts Asking biased questions Over con dence Thinking the easy way Something just makes sense ex catharsis Prevent vs not present bias 6 We notice what is present more than we notice what is absent The Availability Heuristic Things that easily come to mind tend to guide our thinking These are often uncommon events but more emotional or sensational so come to mind more readily Authority Empirical research Biased leading question Snyder Swann What would you do if you were at a party and you wanted to liven it up If you
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