Getting ideas from existing research

1
Getting ideas from existing research
Extend
Repeat?
Question
Find
2
Finding accessible literature

• Textbooks
• ERIC
• Student/Faculty papers
• Browsing

3
Question the studys validity

• Internal validity
• Construct validity
• External validity

4
Questioning Internal validity I

• Can you identify which variable came first?
• Low self-esteem and teen pregnancy
• Country music and depression
• Wearing black and being violent

5
Questioning Internal validity II

• Can you rule out other causes?
• Women in bars are perceived as prettier at
  closing time...
• Attendance and grades

6
Internal validity III

• Can you change a correlational study into an
  experiment?
• Training/Treatment programs
• Bored people see world in black white
• Preventing cheating
• Can you create a small scale model of the real
  life situation?
• NFL teams wearing black are more penalized
• Deindividuation research

7
Construct validity

• Different manipulations
• Different measures
• Double-blind studies

8
Construct validity I

• Different manipulations (because none is perfect)
• More closely related to definition of construct
• Use of placebo treatments
• Verified through manipulation check

9
Construct validity II

• Different measures
• Richer or
• More objective or
• More behavioral

10
Construct validity III

• Double-blind study
• Medical studies
• The case of ECS

11
External Validity

• 1. Different types of participants
• 2. Different amounts of treatment
• 3. More realistic stimulus materials
• 4. More realistic settings
• 5. Longer-term effects
• 6. Moderator variables

12
External validity I

• Different group of participants
• Species
• Culture
• Age
• Non-college sample
• Non-clinical sample
• Subgroup

13
External validity II

• Varying treatment amounts
• To determine how much is too much
• Therapy
• Attractiveness
• To determine effects of more realistic amounts
• Weight lifting and the elderly

14
External validity III

• More realistic stimulus materials
• E. F. Loftus
• Evolution of social loafing research

15
External validity IV

• Take lab study to the field
• TV violence studies
• Helping research

16
External validity V

• Time or repetition may_____ the original effect.
• Reverse
• Weaken
• Strengthen

17
External validity VI

• Think about exceptions to the rule The search
  for moderator variables
• When dont they all look alike?
• When dont people loaf in groups?

18
Why replicate studies?

• Skepticism
• Conflicting findings
• Null results

19
Replicating studies I

• I dont believe it.
• A check on bias
• Fraud prevention

20
Replicate studies II

• Conflicting research findings
• note taking research
• mood dependent learning

21
Replicate studies III

• Dont accept the null hypothesis!
• The absence of proof is not the proof of
  absence-- M. Crichton

22
Extend research I

• See if you can pinpoint the exact effect of the
  variable
• Aging and intelligence
• Love changing over time

23
Extend research II

• Look for other effects
• Behavioral rather than cognitive effects.
• Just world effect
• Try to produce more extreme behavior
• Loftus

24
Extend research III

• See if similar variables would have similar
  effects
• Temperature affects aggression, so...

25
Extend research IV

• Could effects also be causes?
• Wearing black causes you to be more violent and
  ....
• Being attractive causes favors and...
• Confidence leads to success
  and...

26
Extend research V

• Could a treatment that had positive results also
  produce negative results (and vice versa)?
• trying to achieve the American Dream
• efforts to boost self-esteem

27
Summary/Conclusions

• Theres no such thing as a perfect study. Any
  study can be improved.