Psychological Research

Research & Experimentation

INTUITION

It isn’t always right. In fact, and this may suck, but sometimes, it is exactly

WRONG!

HINDSIGHT BIAS(I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon)It does not mean that your common sense (if you have such) is wrong.

Our intuitive sense more easily describe what JUST HAPPENED than what WILL HAPPEN in the future.

Natural tendency toward OVERCONFIDENCE

Perception of ORDER IN RANDOM EVENTS FALSE ASSUMPTIONS

That is why we have……psychological research,

experimentation,

scientific inquiry,

to help us to get around these problems that basically save the study of our minds from the stupidity of our minds.

OPERATIONALIZATIONFiguring out how to ask general questions about subjects and turn them into measurable, testable

proposition

SCIENTIFIC METHOD

1. Question & a theory (what explains and organizes lots of different observations and predicts outcomes)

2. Hypothesis, testable prediction

3. Test with a replicable experiment

REPLICATIONWatching a person exhibit a certain behavior once and it won’t prove very much.

BUT(T)!

Getting consistent results even as you change subjects and/or situations, you’re prolly onto something

CASE STUDIESTake an in-depth look at one individual

Can be misleading; can’t be replicated; run the risk of overgeneralizing

Good at showing us what can happen; frame questions for more extensive, generalizable studies

Great story-telling device psychologists use to observe & describe human behavior

Rare cases

NATURALISTIC OBSERVATIONResearchers watch behavior in a natural environment

To let the subjects do their “thing” without trying to manipulate them or control the situation

Great at describing behavior, limited in explaining it

SURVEYS & INTERVIEWSAsking people to report their opinions or behaviors

Alfred Kinsey (Published Sexual Behavior in the Human Male & Sexual Behavior in the Human Female)

A great way to access people’s consciously-held attitudes and beliefs

ISSUES IN QUESTIONS IN SURVEYS

What words are used?ban & censor vs. limit & not allowDo you believe in space aliens?Do you think that there is intelligent life somewhere in the universe?

Who to ask?Representativeness of sampleRandom sampling – equal chance to be selected to answer a questionSampling bias

CORRELATIONNOT CAUSATION!

Predicts the possibility of cause-and-effect relationships but cannot prove them

EXPERIMENTS

Allow investigators to isolate different effects to a dependent variable by manipulating an independent variable, and keeping other variables constant.

Experimental groupControl group

Random assignmentPlaceboDouble-blind procedure

Experiment Time!Caffeine’s effect on the brain

QUESTION

DO HUMANS SOLVE PROBLEMS WHEN GIVEN CAFFEINE?

HYPOTHESIS

Caffeine makes me smarter.

Adult human given caffeine will navigate a maze faster than adult human not given

caffeine.

IV

CAFFEINE DOSAGE

DV

SPEED AT WHICH A SUBJECT NAVIGATES THROUGH THIS

GIANT CORN MAZE

Random selection

Informed consent

Random assignment

Manipulation of the IV

Control group……….Decaf

Experimental grp 1....100mg (Kopiko Black)

Experimental grp 2…500mg (Kopiko Black)

Dose everyone

Let them loose in the corn maze

Wait at the end of the maze with your stopwatch

See if there is any conclusive results

Science – probably the

best tool that you have for understanding other people