PSY 223 1st edition Lecture 4 9/3Outline of Last Lecture I. Research in Social PsychOutline of Current Lecture II. Research continueda. Memory issues in self-reportsIII. Observational Studiesa. Advantagesb. DisadvantagesIV. Experimentsa. Variables in experimentsb. Weaknesses of experimentsV. Archival ResearchVI. Meta-AnalysesCurrent LectureChapter 2 continuedHow do you get around memory issues in self-reports?Solution: reduce the time that elapses between experience and reporting of itWays to do this:- Interval-contingent self-reports—example: married couple reports mood every night at the sametime- Signal-contingent self-reports: example: at a random time get a text and report who they are with and their current mood- Event-contingent self-repots: example: report every time interaction of 10 minutes or more happens and then take a surveyObservational StudyThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.Direct observation: systematic observations about behavior; can be conducted in either lab setting or field (natural) settingParticipant observations: researcher makes systematic observations of behaviors and plays an active role in interactions **usually not passed by ethics now**- Example: person is a sociologist but pretends not to be in the studyAdvantages: avoid faulty recollections & other self-report biasDisadvantages: person knowing you’re watching may affect behavior (reactance effect)Improvements: interrater reliability—degree of agreement between trained observers about what occurs (use multiple observers) & addition of technologyExperimentsLaboratory experiments: experiment takes place in controlled situationField experiment: experiment that takes place in everyday situations- Higher in external validity, but can’t control- Hard to get passed by ethics nowExperiment: form of research that can determine cause-and-effect relationships because experimenter has control over the conditions and participant randomly assigned to conditionsRandom assignment: the placement of participants in experimental conditions based on change (ex. Flipping a coin) -this makes groups equivalent except exposure to independent variable-can conclude that any difference between group on the dependent variable is due to independent variableVariables in ExperimentIndependent variable: experimental factor that researcher manipulates Dependent variable: measure depends on independent variableSubject variable: characteristics of the participants in the experiment (ex. Gender, western background vs. east Asian) which are pre-existing and not manipulatedWeakness of ExperimentMany social phenomena can’t be studied experimentallyExperiments face several threats to internal validity (degree to which there can be reasonable certainty that the independent variables in an experiment caused the effects obtained on the dependent variables)- Example threats to internal validity: confound and experimenter expectancy effectsExperiments also face problems with external validity (degree to which there can be reasonable confidence that the results of the study would be obtained for other people and in other situation--can you really generalize the results to other people/situations or settings)- Example threats to external validity: the sample (not being able to generalize to other people) and the setting/situation Archival ResearchInvolves analyzing information or data collected previously by others. Particularly valuable for experiments examining cultural and historical trendsEx. Government data, diaries, letters, advertisements, etc.Meta-Analyses-Statistical procedure combined data from several studies; can draw stronger conclusions about test of