CHAPTER 2THE METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY

I. Empiricism: How to Know Things

1. Originally, there were two kinds of Greek doctors: Dogmatists and Empiricists
Dogmatists attempted to treat illnesses by developing theories about the
a.
bodys functions
b. Dogmatism The tendency for people to cling to their assumptions
Empiricists attempted to treat illnesses by understanding the illness through
c.
the observation of sick people
Empiricism The belief that accurate knowledge of the world requires
d.
observation of it
Only in the last 300 years have people trusted observation over elders, laying
e.
the foundation for modern science
Empiricism is not infallible, however; Understanding natural phenomena
f.
through empiricism requires a method
g. Method A set of rules and techniques for observation that allow observers
to avoid the illusions, mistakes, and erroneous conclusions that simple
observation can produce
2. Three things make human behavior especially difficult to study
i. Complexity: The brain is nearly infinitely complex as a structure and it
is responsible for producing thoughts, feelings, and actions that are the
core of psychologys concerns
Variability: No two people ever do, say, think, or feel exactly the same
ii.
thing under exactly the same conditions
iii. Reactivity: People often react differently when they are being watched
compared to when they are not, and each individual may have a unique
reaction to being observed
II. The Science of Observation: Saying What
1. You have to know what people are doing before you can say why they do t
Observing something means using your senses to learn about the things
a.
properties
b. But casual observations are not useful in doing science
i. Casual observations are notoriously unstable
Casual observation cant tell you about many of the properties of
ii.
something that you might be interested in
Therefore, to know and understand the properties of interest of any thing
c.
you must measure
A. Measurement
In order to measure something you must first define the property to measure and
1.
then find a way to detect it
Operational Definition a description of an abstract property in terms of a
a.
concrete condition that can be measured
Example: The operational definition of length = the change in the
i.
location of light over time
The first step in making any measurement is to define the property we want
b.
to measure in concrete terms
2. Measure a device that can detect the events to which an operational definition

refers
i.

Example: You can detect the changes in the location of light over time
(length) by using a photon detector (location of light particle) and a
clock (time for light particle to travel from one point to another)
3. Defining and detecting are the two tasks that allows us to measure physical
properties and they also allow us to measure psychological properties
i.
Example: If we wanted to measure happiness, our first task would be
develop an operational definition of that property
we might define happiness as the simultaneous contraction of the
zygotomatic major and the orbicularis oculi
iii. We would then need to measure these contractions, with the
Electromyograph (EMG) a device that measures muscle contractions
under the surface of a persons skin
4. But there are many ways to measure happiness.
a. With so many options, how do we choose among them?
The best kinds of measurements share three properties: validity, reliability, and
5.
power
Validity the characteristic of an observation that allows one to draw
a.
accurate inferences from it
b. There are two ways for a measurement to be valid
i. The operational definition must adequately define the property
The measure can adequately detect the conditions that the operational
ii.
definition describes
6. The other important property of a good measurement is reliability
Reliabilitythe tendency of a measure to produce the same result whenever
a.
it is used to measure the same thing
b. The flip side of reliability is Powerthe tendency for a measure to produce
different results when it is used to measure different things
c. Reliable and powerful measures are those that detect the conditions
specified by an operational definition when they happen, and only when they
happen
7. Validity, reliability, and power are prerequisites for accurate measurement
a. The next step is to find something to measure, using these, and
psychologists have developed techniques for doing this too
B. Samples
Sometimes individuals do remarkable things that deserve close study by
1.
psychologists
Case Method a method of gathering scientific knowledge by studying a
a.
single individual
i. Example: Oliver Sachs described his observations of a brain-damaged
patient who made certain kinds of mistakes and these observations
were worth making because they were unusual mistakes for a man to
make
b.
It is worth studying an exceptional or unusual individual because it might
provide insight about a psychological phenomenon
ii.

But most often, psychologists are interested in explaining why unexceptional (i.e.,
ordinary) people do what they do
It is impossible to observe the entire Populationthe complete collection of
a.
objects or events that might be measured
Therefore, psychologists observe a Samplea partial collection of objects or
b.
events that is measured
c. If the sample is well-chosen and relatively large, then the behavior of
individuals in the sample should be representative of the larger population
d. For more on sampling techniques, see the Appendix.
C. Demand Characteristics
1. After psychologists have settled on a valid and reliable measurement, and
constructed a representative sample to study, they next have to figure out how to
apply that measurement to the sample in the most accurate way possible
2.

a.

One problem is that, people are tying to behave as they think

they should behave

b. Demand characteristics--those aspects of a setting that cause people to

behave as they think an observer wants or expects them to behave
i. Example: Do you think these jeans make me look fat?
One way for psychologists to avoid demand characteristics is to observe people
2.
without their knowledge
a. Naturalistic Observation a method of gathering scientific knowledge by
unobtrusively observing people in their natural environments
Example: Hungry shoppers buy the most impulse items at the grocery
i.
store
3.

There are two reasons why naturalistic observations doesnt solve demand
characteristic problems:

Some of the things that psychologists want to observe do not occur

naturally
i. Example: If we wanted to find out whether people who have
undergone sensory deprivation perform poorly on motor tasks, we
would have to wait a long time for a few dozen blindfolded people with
earplugs to wander by and start typing
Some of the things psychologists want to observe can only be gathered
b.
from direct interaction of a person
Example: If we wanted to know how often people worried about dying,
i.
simply observing them would not do the trick
4. Psychologists use several tricks for avoiding demand characteristics
a. They allow subjects to respond anonymously
b. They measure behaviors that are not susceptible to demand characteristics
i. Example: Pupil dilation in response to excitement
c. They retain lack of relationship information between demand and behavior
(i.e., keep the participant blindto the purpose of the study)
5. But the best way to avoid demand characteristics is to keep the people being
observed from knowing the true purpose of the observation
a. When participants are kept blind to the observers expectations, they cannot
a.

strive to meet those expectations.

6. However, people are curious, and so try to figure out why they are being observed
a. So psychologists sometimes use cover stories, or misleading explanations
that are meant to keep participants from seeing the true purpose of an
observation
Or they may use filler items, or pointless measures that are meant to mask
b.
the true purpose of the observation
D. The Blind Observer
The behavior of the observers can also interfere with valid and reliable
1.
measurement
i. Example: In a classic study, students who thought they were
measuring the speed of a dull rat reported that it took longer for that
rat to run a maze than did the rat than other students thoughtwas a
bright rat
2. There are two reasons why this happened
i. Expectations can influence observation
ii. Expectations can influence reality
3. Psychologists used many techniques to avoid these influences
a. One of the commonest is the Double-Blind an observation whose true
purpose is hidden from the researcher as well as from the participant
Many modern studies are carried out by the worlds blindest experimenter: a
b.
computer
III. The Science of Explanation: Saying Why
Although the careful measurement of properties is important, the ultimate goal of scientific
research is to discover the causal relationships between properties
i. Example: Measurement can tell you how much happiness and altruism
occur in a particular sample, but it cannot tell you whether two
properties are related, or, if so, whether their relationship is causal
A. Correlation and Causation
After collecting some data, you may notice that two properties tend to occur
1.
together more often than not
a. When two properties occur together, we often say they are Correlated the
value of one is systematically related to the value of the other
When the value of altruism is high, then the value of happiness tends to be
b.
high, too.
Correlation is short for co-relationship
2. But that two Variablesproperties whose values can vary across individuals or over
timeare present does not necessarily mean that one causes the other
For example, the more television violence a child sees (variable X), the more
3.
aggressive that child is likely to be (variable Y)
a. But it may not mean that seeing violence causes aggression
i. Example: Children who are naturally aggressive may enjoy TV violence
more than those who arent and therefore may seek opportunities to
watch it
4. To complicate matters even more, it may be that a third variable (Z) causes
children to both be aggressive and to watch TV violence
a. The relation between aggressiveness and TV violence may be caused by
Third-variable correlationin which two variables are correlated only

because each is causally related to a third variable

i. Example: Lack of adult supervision (Z) may allow children to get away
with bullying other children and to get away with watching TV shows
not normally permitted by adults; thus, watching TV violence (X) and
behaving aggressively (Y) may not be causally related but be the
independent effects of a lack of adult supervision (Z)
B. Matched Samples and Matched Pairs
The most straightforward way to determine whether a third variable (Z) causes
children to watch TV violence (X) and behave aggressively (Y) is to eliminate
1.
differences in adult supervision (Z) among a sample of children and see if the
correlation between TV violence (X) and aggressiveness (Y) remains
a. You could observe children using the Matched Samples Techniquea
technique whereby the participants in two samples are identical in terms of a
third variable
b. Or you could observe them using the Matched Pairs Techniquea technique
whereby each participant in a sample is identical to one other participant in
that sample in terms of a third variable
c. Regardless of which technique you use, you would know that children who
do or dont watch TV violence have equal amounts of adult supervision on
average; as such, if those who watch a lot of TV violence have more
aggression than those who dont, then lack of adult supervision can not be
the cause
2. Even so, neither matched samples nor matched pairs techniques would be enough
to dismiss a particular third variable like adult supervision, so you could not use
them to dismiss all third variables
3. The reason is that there is an infinite number of third variables and thus an infinite
number of reasons why X and Ymight be correlated
a. The Third Variable Problemrefers to the fact that a causal relationship
between two variables cannot be inferred from the naturally occurring
correlation between them because of the ever-present possibility of thirdvariable correlation
C. Experimentation
1. To learn about causal relationships, we have to find another method
2. Experiment a technique for establishing the causal relationship between variables
You already know about experiments because we have been doing them all
a.
your life
i. Example: If you are surfing the Web on a laptop that uses a wireless
connection and suddenly the connection stops working, you might
suspect your roommates new cordless phone has interfered with your
connection, and then you might observe and measure carefully, noting
whether your connection works when you roommate uses his cordless
ii. Even if you observe a correlation between the failure to connect and
your roommates phone usage, the third-variable problem would
prevent you from drawing a causal conclusion; for example, perhaps
your roommate calls his mom when there is an electrical storm
because such storms terrify him, and thus it is the storm that
interrupts your connection
iii. Then the storm (Z) is the cause of both your roommates phone calls
(X) and your laptops failure to connect to the internet (Y)
3. To solve the third-variable problem, you could try to create a correlation

i.

Example: You can intentionally switch your roommates phone on and

off a few times and at the same time observe changes in your laptops
connection
ii. If you notice that when he phone is on the connection failure occurs
more often than not, then you would conclude your roommates phone
is the cause of your failed connection
To solve scientific problems, psychologists use the same technique that you
4.
intuitively did to solve your connection problem
i. Example: You can determine why there is a correlation between
aggressiveness and TV violence by manipulating how much TV violence
a child watches
ii. You could, for example, find a sample of children, expose half of them
to 2 hours of TV violence every day for a month, and make sure the
other half saw no TV violence during the same period
iii. At the end of a month, you could measure the aggressiveness in each
group; you would essentially be computing the correction between a
variable you measured (aggressiveness) and a variable you
manipulated (TV violence) and in so doing you will have solved the
third-variable problem
5. Independent Variable the variable that is manipulated in an experiment
Experimental Group the group of people that are treated in a particular way
Control Group the group of people that are not treated in a particular way
Dependent Variable the variable that is measured in the study
D. Drawing Conclusions
1. Internal Validity the characteristic of an experiment that allows one to draw
accurate inferences about the causal relationship between an independent and
dependent variable
a. Everything inside of the experiment is working like it should in order to draw
conclusions about causal relationships, which means
i. An independent variable has been effectively manipulated
A dependent variable has been measured in an unbiased way with a
ii.
valid, powerful, and reliable measure
A correlation has been observed between the independent and the
iii.
dependent variable
2. If we do these things, we may conclude that manipulated changes in the
independent variable caused measured changes in the dependent variable; that is,
that TV violence (as we defined it) caused aggressiveness (as we defined it) in the
children we measured
a. Even if an experiment is internally valid, it only allows you to draw the
conclusion that one variable caused another as you defined it and only in
the people whom you studied
3. External Validity a characteristic of an experiment in which the independent and
dependent variables are operationally defined in a normal, typical, or realistic way
Most psychologists are trying to learn about the real world by using experiments to
4.
test theories and hypotheses
a. Theory a hypothetical account of how and why a phenomenon occurs,
usually in the form of a statement about the causal relationship between two
or more properties (which leads to hypotheses)
Hypothesis a specific and testable prediction that is usually derived from a
b.
theory

Theories allow us to generate hypotheses about what can happen, or what

must happen, or what will happen under particular circumstances
d. Experiments are typically meant to create these circumstances, test the
hypotheses, and thereby provide evidence for or against the theories that
generated them
5. The best way to know whether the conclusions we draw about a sample are also
true of the larger population is to use random sampling
a. Random Sampling a technique for choosing participants that ensures that
every member of a population has an equal chance of being included in the
sample
Random sampling allows the right to generalize from the behavior of the
b.
sample to the behavior of the population
True random sampling is extremely difficult and thus is never really done and so
6.
nonrandom sampling is used instead
7. There are three reasons why nonrandom samples are okay
i. Sometimes generality does not matter; it often doesnt matter if
everyone does something as long assomeone does it--as an
experimental result can be illuminating even when its generality is
severely limited
ii. Sometimes generality can be determined; for example, if the results of
an experiment can be replicated in other nonrandom samples, we can
be more confident that the results would generalize to the whole
population
iii. Sometimes generality can be assumed; thus many participants in
samples share enough in common with other people in other places to
assume that the effects found in one study would occur again in
another study
c.

IV. The Ethics of Science: Saying Please and Thank You

Psychologists are bound by a strict code of ethics to treat participants fairly, and to
1.
ensure their safety and well-being
a. Informed Consent a written agreement to participate in a study made by a
person who has been informed of all the risks that participation may entail
b. Freedom from Coercion--psychologists may not coerce (e.g., physically,
psychologically, or monetarily) participation from potential subjects
c. Protection from Harm: psychologists should always use the safer of two
methods when available, and if no safe method is available, the study must
not be conducted
d. Risk-benefit Analysis: Participants must not be asked to take risks beyond
those that they would ordinarily, and requests for small risks must be shown
to provide new social benefits as a result of the study
e. Debriefing a verbal description of the true nature and purpose of a study
that psychologists provide to people after they have participated in the
study
2. These rules of ethics are enforced by Institutional Review Boards (IRBs),
instructors and researchers, university staff, and laypeople from the community,
who review the proposals for studies to ensure the safety of the participants
3. Some psychological experiments are performed on nonhuman animals
Nonhuman animal experiments are governed by similar guidelines as those
a.
for people to ensure their ethical treatment

Some experiments on nonhuman animals have had tremendous benefits for

humans and many do not
4. Still, there is a controversy over whether it is morally acceptable to force
nonhuman animals to pay certain costs so human animals can reap uncertain
benefits
a. This is a moral dilemma and not a scientific controversy
b. For now there is no easy solution
b.