unit 2. research methods why do we need research in psychology? myth # 1: most people use only 10%...

Unit 2. Research Methods

Why do we need research in Psychology? Myth # 1: Most people use only 10% of their brain power 

There are several reasons to doubt that 90% of our brains lie silent. At a mere 2-3% of our body weight, our brain consumes over 20% of the oxygen we breathe. It’s implausible that evolution would have permitted the squandering of resources on a scale necessary to build and maintain such a massively underutilized organ. Moreover, losing far less than 90% of the brain to accident or disease almost always has catastrophic consequences (Kolb & Whishaw, 2003).

How did the 10% myth get started? One clue leads back about a century to psychologist William James, who once wrote that he doubted that average persons achieve more than about 10% of their intellectual potential. Although James talked in terms of underdeveloped potential, a slew of positive thinking gurus transformed “10% of our capacity” into “10% of our brain” (Beyerstein, 1999).

Why do we need research in Psychology? Myth # 2: It’s better to express anger than to hold it in

If you’re like most people, you believe that releasing anger is healthier than bottling it up. In one survey, 66% of undergraduates agreed that expressing pent-up anger--sometimes called “catharsis”--is an effective means of reducing one’s risk for aggression (Brown, 1983).

Yet more than 40 years of research reveals that expressing anger directly toward another person or indirectly (such as toward an object) actually turns up the heat on aggression (Bushman, Baumeister, & Stack, 1999; Tavris, 1988). Research suggests that expressing anger is helpful only when it’s accompanied by constructive problem-solving designed to address the source of the anger (Littrell, 1998).

Why is this myth so popular? In all likelihood, people often mistakenly attribute the fact that they feel better after they express anger to catharsis, rather than to the fact that anger usually subsides on its own after awhile (Lohr, Olatunji, Baumeister, & Bushman, 2007).

Why do we need research in psychology? Myth # 3: Low Self-Esteem is a Major Cause of Psychological Problems

Many popular psychologists have long maintained that low self-esteem is a prime culprit in generating unhealthy behaviors, including violence, depression, anxiety, and alcoholism. The self-esteem movement has found its way into mainstream educational practices. Some athletic leagues award trophies to all schoolchildren to avoid making losing competitors feel inferior (Sommers & Satel, 2005). Moreover, the Internet is chock full of educational products intended to boost children’s self-esteem.

But there’s a fly in the ointment: Research shows that low self esteem isn’t strongly associated with poor mental health. In a painstakingly - and probably painful! - review, Roy Baumeister and his colleagues (2003) canvassed over 15,000 studies linking self-esteem to just about every conceivable psychological variable. They found that self-esteem is minimally related to interpersonal success, and not consistently related to alcohol or drug abuse. Perhaps most surprising of all, they found that “low self-esteem is neither necessary nor sufficient for depression” (Baumeister et al., 2003, p. 6).

Why do we need psychology“Water Water Everywhere”-Beyond Science

SeriesCan they find what they claim more often

than chance?Why do they persist in believing in their skills

in face of disappointment?

Did We Know It All Along? Hindsight Bias

Hindsight Bias—Tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it“I knew it all along”

“Out of sight, out of mind” versus “Absence makes the heart grow

fonder”

Overconfidence

OverconfidenceThinking we know more than we actually do“Computers in the future may weight no more than 1.5 tons”-Popular Mechanics, 1949

Together with hindsight bias, can lead to overestimate our intuition

Summary Outline

Unit II. Methods9

A. Experimental, Correlational, and Clinical Research

1. Correlational (e.g. observational, survey, clinical

2. Experimental B. Statistics

1. Descriptive 2. Inferential

C. Ethics in Research

A. Experimental, Correlational, and Clinical Research

Unit II. Methods10

Testable Hypotheses Operational Definitions Correlational Relationships

“Correlation does not imply causation”

Causal Relationships

A.1. Correlational (e.g. observational, survey,

clinical

Unit II. Methods11

Naturalistic ObservationCase StudiesSurveys Correlational Research

Naturalistic Observation

Professor Wainwright’s painstaking field research to decode the language of bears comes to a sudden and horrific end

Describes behaviorDoes not explain behavior

Survey form of natural observation

Widely used to observe attitudes,, opinions, and reported behaviors

AdvantagesTargets specific informationCan gather large amounts of information in a

relatively short timeDisadvantages

Based on subject’s responses which can be distorted due toMisleading answers (Outright lying, bias, etc.)Misunderstanding of the questionPoorly devised questionsPlacebo effect

Survey QuestionsStructured (Fixed Response)

Yes/NoAre you a college graduate?

Multiple ChoiceWhich of the following:Which response describes you

Rating / Ranking questionsRank the following activities from favorite to least

favorite

Non-structured (Open ended)What do you like to do in your free time?

Partially structured (List of choices with other______ )

Survey Question Problems

Yes/NoNo can have many meanings

Have you finished college?Do you still beat your wife?

Range of meanings attached to terms in questionHave you ever been sexually harassed?

Offering irrelevant or inconsistent choicesHaving a choice that is out of place with the other

choices

Misleading information in the questionAre the teachers and students satisfied with

the lunch schedule at your school? (Double barreled / two different questions)

Biased or leading questionsIs the new president more communist than the old

president?

CorrelationHow well does A predict BPositive versus negative correlation

Strength of the correlation-1.0 to +1.0

Correlation

Correlation

Correlation

Correlation

Correlation

Correlation

Correlation

Correlation

Correlation

CorrelationCorrelation and Causation

Correlation helps predictDoes not imply cause and effect

CorrelationIllusory Correlations

Illusory CorrelationPerceived non-existent correlation

A random coincidence

CorrelationPerceiving Order in Random Events

Comes from our need to make sense out of the worldCoin flipPoker hand

Insight into Negative Correlation

Unit II. Methods34

Experimentation

“No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right, a single experiment can prove me wrong.”

Albert Einstein

Experimental & Control Groups

Unit II. Methods36

ExperimentCan isolate cause and effectControl of factors

Manipulation of the factor(s) of interest

Hold constant (“controlling”) factors

Key Ideas in Experiment Design

Unit II. Methods38

Treatment of GroupsVariables

Independent Variable (IV) Dependent Variable (DV)

PlaceboExperimenter Bias (double-blind

design)

Steps of the Scientific MethodAsk a question

Why does something happen? What is the cause?

Do background researchWho has already studied this? Related studies and ideas.

Form a hypothesisIf “a” then “b” / causal relationship

Test the hypothesis by doing an experimentAnalyze your data and draw a conclusion

Statistical analysis / Accept or reject hypothesis

Communicate you findingsFully report hypothesis, methodology, statistical methodsAllows for informed review and replication

Experimental Design

Experimental Design

Experimental Design

Experimental Design

A researcher is interested in how the activity level of 4-year-olds is affected by viewing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He shows one group a 30-minute video of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and another group a 30-minute video of Barney.

IV:______________DV:_______________Experimental group:__________________Control group:_______________________

An Exercise in Designing Research

Turn the saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” into a hypothesis and design an experiment to test its validity.

Need to state it as a testable hypothesis and identify the IV and DV

Use the following steps to design or analyze and experiment

Confounding Variable

“When Dr. Henderson comes in, everybody play dead.”

Comparing Research Methods

Ethical Considerations

Basic Ethical Principles

•Informed Consent (Use of Deception?)

•Protection from harm and discomfort

•Confidentiality of information about participants

•Debriefing participants after the research

Describe how ethical considerations will be

dealt with in the research.

Flawed Experiment (Source unknown) A psychologist wishes to study the effect of a

reinforcement of food on the performance of a fine motor skill involving eye hand coordination. To accomplish this, he had his subjects thread as many needles as possible in a five minute period.

The subjects were divided into two groups: Males Females TotalGroup A 20 30 50Group B 28 22 50

The psychologist explained the tests to each group in the same way. However, she offered Group A a voucher for a free lunch for every 20 needles threaded. After the five-minute time period had expired, he counted the number of needles threaded by each group.

Flawed Experiment The results were as follows:

Total Number of Needles Average Number of Needles Threaded Threaded per Person Group A 80 1.8 Group B 45 0.9

From these results, the psychologist concluded that the reward of food caused Group A to thread more needles that Group B.

What was the independent variable? What was the dependent variable?

Which of the two groups was the control group? Why? Which of the two groups was the experimental group?

Why? How could the following variables negate the psychologist’s

conclusions? Age of the subjects? Sex of the subjects?

Describing DataMeasures of Central Tendency

Mode (occurs the most)Mean (arithmetic average)Median (middle score)

Describing DataMeasures of Variability

RangeStandard Deviation

Describing DataMeasures of Variability

Normal Curve (bell shaped)

Making InferencesWhen Is an Observed Difference Reliable?

Representative samples are better than biased samples

Less-variable observations are more reliable than those that are more variable

More cases are better than fewer

Making InferencesWhen Is a Difference Significant?

Statistical significanceThe averages are reliableThe differences between averages is relatively large

Does imply the importance of the results

C. Ethics in Research

Unit II. Methods56

Informed consentMinimize risk and discomfort

Potential benefits must outweigh risk to subjects

Confidentiality DebriefingEthics of animal researchApproval of research committee