What is Research?

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What is Research?
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• Psychologists must first decide how to approach
  the research issue. Then psychologists conduct
  the research in one of a variety of ways to test
  a hypothesis, solve a problem, or confirm
  previous findings.

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Pre-Research Decisions

• Researchers begin asking specific questions about
  a topic or hypothesis.
• Next, researchers look for evidence and collect
  information about the chosen topic
• Samples are used when a relatively small group of
  people are to be tested out of a total population.

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A Sample must be

• Representative of the population the researcher
  is studying.

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• To avoid a nonrepresentative sample
• Random sample individuals have an equal chance
  of being represented.
• Stratified sample deliberately picking
  individuals who represent the various subgroups
  in the population being studied.

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Research Methods
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Research Methods

• Case Studies
• Naturalistic Observation
• Survey Method
• Archival Research
• Longitudinal Studies
• Cross-Sectional Research
• Cross-Cultural Research

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Descriptive Research

• Case studies, naturalistic observation and survey
  methods describe behavior but do not explain it
• Case studies Of individuals, groups or
  phenomena
• Advantages
• Potentially, deeply revealing about individual
  condition
• Disadvantages
• No experimental control
• Sample size extremely small generalization
  problems
• Potential for multiple types of bias, both
  subject and experimenter
• Examples, Phineas Gage, Freud and Little Hans,
  Genie

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Research Methods

• Naturalistic observation
• Advantages
• Viewing of variable of interest in a natural
  setting without intrusion (avoids observer
  effect)
• May be the best option if experimentation is not
  possible
• Provides ideas for further research
• Disadvantages
• Potentially time consuming and expensive
• No scientific control of variables
• No control over extraneous variables
• Potential for observer effect (reactivity)
• Not replicable
• Examples Piaget, Quasi-Experiments
• www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/proj/res_meth/rmvl/nato
  bs_psych.html

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Research Methods

• Surveys, interviews, questionnaires and tests
• Advantages
• Relatively inexpensive and simple way of
  collecting large amounts of data quickly
  (attitudes, interests, aptitudes)
• Assuming true random sample generalizable
• Disadvantages
• Poorly construction or administration of
  questions
• Sample/generalization problems unrepresentative
• Measures beliefs, not behaviors
• Issues of self-report, memory and honesty
• Examples Huffs How to Lie With Statistics

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Research Methods

• Longitudinal method- data is collected about a
  group of participants over a number of years to
  assess how certain characteristics change or
  remain the same during developmentexamples?
• Cross-sectional methods- data is collected from
  groups of participants of different ages and
  compared so that conclusions can be drawn about
  differences due to age.
• Cross-cultural method

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Research Methods

• Archival Research
• Advantages
• Enormous amounts of data used to see trends
  relationships and outcomes
• Relatively inexpensive and accessible
• Disadvantages
• No control over how data was collected or whether
  it was reliable
• Important missing data
• Examples Analysis of studies conducted by other
  researchers, or looking at historical patient
  data

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Correlation and Scatterplots
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Correlation

• Three Possible Cause-Effect Relationships

could cause
(1) Low self-esteem
Depression
or
(2) Depression
Low self-esteem
could cause
or
Low self-esteem
(3) Distressing events or biological predispositio
n
could cause
and
Depression
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Experimentation

• Important Terms/Concepts. Some you know, others
  you dont
• hypothesis
• independent/dependent variables
• operational definitions
• random and stratified sampling
• representative sample
• generalizability
• experimental and control group (or condition)
• population
• random assignment
• single and double blind procedures
• placebo effect
• replication

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• Hypothesis- educated guess on expected out come.
• Variables- conditions and behaviors that are
  subject to change.
• Independent variable- one experimenters change
  or alter to observe its effects.
• Dependent variable- one that changes in relation
  to the independent variable.
• Experimental group- group to which an independent
  variable is applied.

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• Control group- group treated in the same way as
  the experimental group except that the
  experimental treatment is not applied.

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Ethics

• Ethics- methods of conduct or standards for
  proper and responsible behavior.
• APA Requirements/Guidelines - Ethical Principles
  of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (2002)
• Human experimentation
• Each institution must have an Institutional
  Review Board (IRB)
• Informed consent
• Confidentiality
• Debriefing
• Role of deception (Baumrind)

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Research Pitfalls

• The investigation of psychological issues is a
  painstaking process. Psychologists must recognize
  and resolve errors while doing research.
• Self-fulfilling prophecy is a type of observer
  bias in which the researchers expectations
  influence that persons own behavior, and thereby
  influence the participants behavior.
• The halo effect is a kind of observer bias (v.
  effect). The tendency for people to transfer a
  positive opinion of someone based on one piece of
  information to irrelevant areas. For example,
  people tend to think that more attractive people
  are also smarter.
• Observer effect (aka reactivity) the effect the
  experimenters presence has on subjects.

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Avoiding a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

• A single-blind experiment is an experiment in
  which the participants are unaware of which
  participants received the treatment.
• A double-blind experiment is an experiment in
  which neither the experimenter nor the
  participants know which participants received
  which treatment.

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The Milgram Experiment

• Stanley Milgram wants to determine whether
  participants would administer painful shocks to
  other only because an authoritative figure
  instructed them to do so.
• 1,000 males (college students and adult in
  various occupations)

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The Milgram Experiment

• Why did subjects obey?
• Socialization
• Perception of legitimate authority
• Lack of social comparison
• Foot in the door phenomena
• Diffusion of responsibility
• Inaccessibility of values
• Buffers, e.g., physical (or emotional) distance
  from victim or authority)

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Placebo Effect

• A change in a participants illness or behavior
  that results from a belief that the treatment
  will have an effect, rather than an actual
  treatment.

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Statistics
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• Statistics are a branch of mathemat6ics that
  enables researchers to organize and evaluate the
  data that is collected.
• Descriptive statistics are a list and summary of
  data in a practical, efficient way, such as
  graphs or averages.

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Statistical Reasoning

• Organizing data
• Frequency distribution- a way to arrange data so
  we know how often a particular score or
  observation occurs.
• Histogram and Polygon

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Descriptive Statistics

• Measures of central tendency
• Mean
• Median
• Mode/Bimodal

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Descriptive Statistics

• Measures of Variability
• Range The difference between the highest and
  lowest scores in a distribution.
• Standard Deviation - A computed measure of how
  much scores vary around the mean. (The square
  root of the sum of difference squared over the
  number of scores)

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Standard Deviation

• Standard deviation indicates how scores are
  distributed about the mean.

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Statistical Reasoning

• A Skewed Distribution

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Dont forget about scatterplots and correlation

• Correlation coefficient (Pearson-product moment
  correlation coefficient) describes the linear
  relationship (1, -1 or 0) between two variables.
  

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Stat

• There are lies, darned lies, and statistical
  outliers.
• Statistics means never having to say you're
  certain.
• Statistics is the art of never having to say
  you're wrong. Variance is what any two
  statisticians are at. - C.J.Bradfield
• A statistician is a person who draws a
  mathematically precise line from an unwarranted
  assumption to a foregone conclusion.
• A statistician is a person who stands in a bucket
  of ice water, sticks their head in an oven and
  says "on average, I feel fine!" - K.Dunnigan
• A statistician drowned while crossing a stream
  that was, on average, 6 inches deep.
• Most people use statistics the way a drunk uses a
  lamp post, more for support than enlightenment.
• Figures don't lie, but liars figure. - Samuel
  Clemens (alias Mark Twain)
• Are statisticians normal?
• The weather man is never wrong. Suppose he says
  that there's an 80 chance of rain. If it rains,
  the 80 chance came up if it doesn't, the 20
  chance came up! - Saul Barron

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Stat

• All measurements are subject to variation.
• The minute a statistician steps into the position
  of the executive who must make decisions and
  defend them, the statistician ceases to be a
  statistician. - W.E.Deming
• I feel that the kind of examples of statistical
  analysis that tend to be considered in
  professional discussions ... are so grossly
  over-simplified as to make a pretentious mockery
  of real-life situations and statistical
  consultancy. - A.Ehrenberg
• There are lies, damned lies, and statistics! -
  B.Disraeli
• It has long recognized by public men of all kinds
  ... that statistics come under the head of lying,
  and that no lie is so false or inconclusive as
  that which is based on statistics. - H.Belloc
• Like dreams, statistics are a form of wish
  fulfillment. - J.Baudrillard
• Where is the knowledge that is lost in
  information? Where is the wisdom that is lost in
  knowledge? - T.S.Eliot
• One picture is worth more than ten thousand
  words.
• The only useful function of a statistician is to
  make predictions, and thus to provide a basis for
  action. - W.E.Deming
• The most powerful mathematical tools are
  sometimes less important to the engineer than
  some of the simpler or less powerful tools. But
  often, for lack of information about either,
  neither is used. - C.M.Ryerson