Sept 15

Scientific Principles in Psychology

Scientific Attitudes Curiosity-ask why, skepticism-show me your evidence, open-mindedness-might there be a better explanation

Gathering Evidence Identify question of interestSee/read an event; ask why Gather information and form hypothesis o A specific prediction about some phenomenon that often takes the form of an if-then statement If multiple bystanders are present, then the likelihood that any one bystander will intervene is reduced Test hypothesis by Conducting Research-research/experiment will prove the hypothesis Analyze Data-Draw conclusions between your research and the hypothesis Build a Body of Knowledge o Ask further questionseg. What other factors affect bystander intervention o Form new hypothesis and test those hypotheses by doing more research o This allows the scientific process to become self-correcting Theory o Broader than hypotheses and psychology theories specify lawful relations between certain behaviours and their causes

Two Approaches to Understanding Behaviour Hindsight Hindsight reasoning can provide valuable insights and is often the foundation on which further scientific inquiry is build Related past events can be explained in many creative, reasonable , and contradictory ways

Scientists prefer to test their understanding of what causes what If we understand the causes of a behaviour, the we should be able to predict the conditions for the future behaviour to occur If these conditions can be controlled then it the behaviour can be produced Understanding though prediction and control is a scientific alternative to hindsight understanding

Theory development is the strongest test of scientific understanding because good theories generate an integrated network of predictions

Sept 15 Characteristics of a good theory Incorporates existing facts and observations within a single broad framework o Aka. Organizes info. In a meaningful way Testable o Generates new hypotheses and predictions whose accuracy can be evaluated by gathering new evidence Predictions made by theory are supported by the findings of new research Conforms to law of parsimony o If 2 theories explain and predict the same phenomena equally well, the simpler theory is preferred

Defining and Measuring Variables Variable o Characteristic or factor that can vary Eg. Height, hair color Operational definition o Defines a variable in terms of the specific procedures used to produce or measure it o Eg. Stress and academic performanceGPA can be the operational definition

Self reports and reports by others Self report measures o Ask people to report on their own knowledge, beliefs, feelings, experiences, or behaviour o Often gathered in interviews/questionnaires Participants may be distorted by a social desirability bias o Tendency to respond in a socially acceptable manner rather than according to how one truly feels/behaves Researches can minimize this bias through wording of the question

Measures of Overt Behaviour Record overt behaviour o Eg. How many errors a person makes while performing a task during an experiment on learning o Eg. Drug effects measure peoples reaction timehow rapidly they respond to a stimulus Coding systems o Eg. While parent and child jointly performs task, we cold code the parents behaviour into categories like praise child, assists child, and criticizes child o Observers must know how to use the coding properly so that their measurements will be reliableconsistent observations

Sept 15 Humans/ other animals may act differently when they are observed o Researchers use unobtrusive measures to counter this problem Disguise their presence and records behaviour in a way that keeps participants unaware that certain responses are being measured Archival Measures o Records or documents that already exist o Eg. To evaluate effectiveness of a program to reduce school childrens disruptive classroom behaviour, researchers examined school records containing student suspensions/# of trips to office Psychologists also use tests such as personality tests and IQ tests or neuro-psychological tests helps diagnose normal and abnormal brain functioning by measuring how well people perform mental and physical tasks such as recalling a list of words Psychologists also record physiological responses to assess what people are experiencing. Measures of heart rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, hormonal secretions, brain functioning. These measurements have their own problems because we do not know what they mean.

Methods of Research Descriptive Research Seeks to identify how humans and other animals behave mainly in natural settings o Provides info about diversity of behaviour and give clues about cause-effect relations o Case studies, naturalistic observation, surveys are research methods commonly used to describe behaviour

Case study In-depth analysis of individual, group, event Studying cases, researchers hope to find principles of behaviour true for people or general situations Data gathered through observation, interviews, psychology tests, physiology recordings, task performance, archival records Advantages o When a rare phenomenon occurs, enables scientists to study it closely o A case study may challenge the validity of a theory or widely held scientific belief o Be a source of new ideas and hypotheses that subsequently may be examined by using more controlled research methods Limitations o Poor method for determining cause-effect relations o May not generalize to other people/situations To establish generalization of a principle, more case studies/research methods/variety of cultural groups

Sept 15 Observers may not be objective in gathering and interpreting data o Measurement bias/observer bias can occur in any type of research o Based on an observers subjective impressions o Cases should be followed up by more controlled experiments

Naturalistic Observation Researcher observes behaviour as it occurs in a natural setting and tries to avoid influencing that behaviour Bully ex. Page 47 Does not permit clear causal conclusionsbias, other variables

Habituation In chimp example researchers may delay their data collection until participants have habituated to the observers presence

Survey Research: Does your own Personality Match the Canadian National Character Survey Research o Info. About topic is obtained through questionnaires/interviews o Not representative of the population o Cannot be used to draw cause and effect conclusions o Relies heavily on participants self efforts-can be distorted by the social desirability bias, interviewer bias, peoples inaccurate perceptions of their own behaviour, and misinterpretation of survey questions o Unrepresentative samples can lead to faulty generalizations about how an entire population would respond

Correlation Research: Measuring associations between events The researcher measures one variable (X) Measures second variable (Y) Statistically determines whether X and Y are related Naturalistic research and surveys do not only describe events but also studies the association between variables

Correlation does not establish causation Bidirectionality two way causality problem o Both variables have influenced each other o Spurious-a third variable Z Correlation coefficient o Statistic indicates the direction and strength of the relation between two variables

Sept 15 Negative correlation occurs when higher scores on one variable=lower scores on the second variable Abs value tells you of its strength Correlation can o Not establish cause and effect o Real world association o Associations that are later studied under controlled lab conditions o For practical reasons some questions can be studied through experiments and correlations o Make predictions o

Experiments: Examining Cause and Effect Experiments have essential characteristics o Researcher manipulates one of more variables o Measures whether this manipulation influences other variables o Attempts to control extraneous factors that might influence the outcome of the experiment Logic o Start with same number of participants o Treat equally in all respects except for the variable that is of interest o Isolate this variable and manipulate it o Measure how groups respond

Independent Variables and Dependent Variables Independent variable o Factor manipulated or controlled by experimenter Dependent variable o Factor that is measured by the experimenter and may be influenced b the independent variable

Experimental and Control Groups Experimental group o Group that receives a treatment/active level of the independent variable Control group o Not exposed to treatment Provides standard behaviour to which experimental group can be compared NOTE in experiment the independent variable MUST HAVE at least 2 levels o Not all experiments need a control group

Sept 15 Basic ways to Design Experiment Between groups/subjects design o Each group in the experiment is composed of a different set of participants o To draw meaningful conclusions, various groups of participants must be same at the start of study o Random assignment Each participant has equal likelihood of being assigned to any one group within the experiment Repeated measures/within subjects design o Each participant is exposed to all the conditions of an independent variable

Counterbalancing- a procedure in which the order of conditions is varied so that no condition has an overall advantage relative to the others Manipulating Two independent Variables Scientists manipulate two/more independent variables simultaneously to study several causal factors to better capture real life complexity Manipulating both independent variables cell phone use and traffic density o How cell phone use and traffic density each independently influence drivers performance o Whether cell phone use has different effects, depending on whether traffic is heavier or lighter o Scientific terms this as an interaction between cellphone use and traffic density Interaction means that the way in which one independent variable influences the dependent variable differs depending on the various conditions of another independent variable Having two independent variables allows for 4 types treatment methods

Threats to the validity of research Validity o How well an experimental procedure actually tests what it is designed to test Internal validity o Represents the degree to which an experiment supports clear causal conclusions o Eg. If experiment is well designed and properly conducted, we can be confident that the independent variable really was the cause of differences in the dependent variable high internal validity o Flaws=low internal validity

Confounding variables Means that two variables are intertwined in such a way that we can not determine which one has influenced a dependent variable

Sept 15 Confounding variables prevents one from drawing clear causal conclusions and it ruins the internal validity of the experiment

Placebo effects In medical research o Substance that has no pharmacological effect Experiment testing o Placebo-fake dummy Placebo effect-people receiving a treatment show change in behaviour because of their expectations not because the treatment itself ha specific benefit Decrease internal validity by providing alternative explanation for why responses change after exposure to treatment

Experimenter expectancy effects Refers to the subtle and unintentional ways researchers influence their participants to respond in a manner that is consistent with the researchers hypothesis Scientists can take steps to avoid this o Eg. Researchers who interact with participants in a study/ record participants responses are often kept blind to the hypothesis or the condition that they are assigned which makes it less likely that these researchers will develop expectations about how participants should behave o Double blind experiment Both participant and experimenter are kept blind as to which experimental condition the participant is in Minimizes placebo effects and experimenter expectancy effects

Replicating and Generalizing the Findings External Validity o The degree to which the results of a study can be generalized to other populations, settings, and conditions o Typically judgements about external validity concern the generalizability of underlying principles To determine external validity o Either we/other scientists need to replicate experiment o Replication is the process of repeating a study to determine whether the original findings can be duplicated o If successfully replicated, we become more confident in our conclusion In typical experiments o Responses of each participant is analyzed

Sept 15 When researchers review a number of experiments that are trying to replicate an effect they use meta analysis Statistical procedure for combining results of different studies that examine the same topic to test the overall significance of the findings In meta analysis each study is treated as a single participant, and its overall results are analyzed with those of other studies Informs researchers about the direction and statistical strength of the relationships between two variables The most objective way to integrate the findings of multiple studies and reach overall conclusions about behaviour Cross Cultural Replication o Examining whether findings generalize across different cultures o Research that fail to replicate may lead to better research and new discoveries as scientists search for clues to explain why the results were different from one study to another o Studies that consistently fail to replicate the original results of earlier research suggests that the original research was flawed or that the finding was a fluke o Ultimately the accountability for the results of experiments rests with individual researchers and the scientific and academic community o

Ethical Principles in Human and Animal research In Canada university research in large is funded by three national government agencies o The Canadian institutes of Health Research o Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council o Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Developed tri council policy for ethical conduct for research involving humans Canadian Psychological Association published Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists to cover behaviour of psychologists engaged in research, direct service, teaching, administration, legal cases or other roles related to psychology Psychologists must o Protect and promote the welfare of participants o Avoid doing harm to participants o Not carry out any studies unless the probable benefit is proportionately greater than the risks o Provide Informed Consent explain all aspects of procedure and ensure that the procedure is understood Oral/written consent is usually required and assurance is given that one can withdraw from the study without penalty For those not able to give informed consent , consent is obtained through guardians o Take all reasonable steps to ensure that consent is not given under coercion

Sept 15 o Ensure privacy and confidentiality Use of incomplete disclosure/deception o When participants are misled about the nature of a study o Supporters of deception research argues that when studying certain types of behaviours, deception is the only way to obtain natural, spontaneous responses from participants o Guidelines permit incomplete disclosure only when no other feasible alternative is available and when the scientific educational or applied benefits clearly outweigh the ethical costs of deceiving participants o If incomplete disclosure is used participants must be debriefed- told the true purpose of the study at the end of the experiment o Most psychological studies do not involve incomplete disclosure and deception research has decreased recently o In Internet observational studies confidentiality and privacy , informed consent and debriefing is highlighted

Ethical standards in Animal research Animals are subjects in 7/8% of psychological studies including research done in wild/controlled settings Tell us about human behaviour/behaviour of other species Canada-fed and CPA code of ethics state experimental animals should not be subjected to pain stress or privation unless there is no alternative procedure and the research is justified by prospective scientific/educational benefits ERBs follow Guide to the care and use of experimental animals

Critical Thinking Pseudoscientific misinformation:

Ganzfeld procedure Lots of control-does not replicate it We need to have a balance of skepticism