Honours%20Seminar

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Honours Seminar

• Lecture 3 Critical Thinking

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What is the basis for the title of this movie?
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What caused the shootings at Columbine High
School?

• Marilyn Manson Music?
• Bowling? Violent History?
• Accessibility of Guns?

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Critical thinking

• Tries to function independently of preconceived
  notions of how the world functions
• Focuses on the simplest explanation of events
• Thinks of ways in which a conclusion may be at
  fault
• Tries to think of ways to strengthen research
  designs to isolate an dependent variable

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Every study has flaws. But every study also
shows something.

• But studies do not always show what the authors
  think they show. Knowing the difference is the
  basis of critical thinking.

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Trends in research designs

• Observational research
• Participant observation
• Correlational research
• Quasi-experimental research
• Experimental research
• Blind, Double-Blind

Example You wish to show that caffeine causes
accelerated motor behaviour in students
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Correlational research designs

• Direction of causality
• Example A soccer ball is kicked. It goes up a
  certain height and is in the air a certain length
  of time. Does the height cause the time, or does
  the time cause the height?
• A causes B
• B causes A
• C causes A and B

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The importance of experiments

• Random assignment should equate your groups on
  individual differences
• Self selection to groups means that non-random
  influences could account for the differences
  between the groups
• There are other problems with experiments
• Diffusion of your treatment
• Hypothesis guessing
• Attrition can result in loss of randomisation

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Construct validity of measures

• What are you measuring?
• Are you sure you are measuring what you are
  measuring?
• Example
• Obese and non-obese people are in a waiting room
• Shelled and non-shelled peanuts are available
• Obese people eat more non-shelled peanuts
• How do you interpret these results?
• Can you offer an alternative explanation for
  these results

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External validity

• Results may not generalise to other samples or
  populations
• Why? What non-random effects exist in your
  sample that may differ from others?
• Example A study of reading conducted in Nova
  Scotia. Will it generalise to other provinces?
  Why or why not?
• Psychology students are recruited into a study to
  show that family disruption is related to
  well-being at university.

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Translate the research questions into an
experimental research design

• Observational research
• Participant observation
• Correlational research
• Quasi-experimental research
• Experimental research
• Blind, Double-Blind