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Scenario

Suppose LR is about to ban the use of headphones for listening to music in study halls. How might we predict the effect of this new policy? Can students focus better with or without music?

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Common Sense

Why doesn’t common sense apply in psychology?

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The Limits of Common Sense (Common Sense Says…)

Opposites attract
Out of sight, out of mind
Nothing ventured, nothing gained

Birds of a feather flock together
Absence makes the heart grow fonder
A penny saved is a penny earned.

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Common Sense In Psychology

Common sense is simply a hunch. The scientific method evaluates the competing hunches.

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Observation & Bias

Observation is the most simple scientific technique in psychology.

Examples---Go back to our example with the head phones.

What is the issue with this?

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Observation & Bias

Take 2 minutes and with your desk partner come up with a definition of the word bias. Use a dry erase marker and write it on your desk.

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Types of Bias

Hindsight
Overconfidence
Confirmation
Participation

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How long would it take you?

How long would it take you to unscramble these words?

WREAT -----> WATER

ETRYN ------> ENTRY

GRABE -----> BARGE

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Now...Unscramble These

Listen

The Eyes

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Confirmation Bias

A tendency to search for information that confirms a preconception.

Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcucGn_X8AA

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Participant Bias

A tendency for research participants to behave in a certain way because they are being observed or they believe they know what the researcher wants.

Example: a teacher getting observed

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Bell Work

List the 4 different biases we discussed last class. Give a brief description of each.

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Dessert Test

If you could only pick one dessert to have for the rest of your life, which one (and only one) would you pick? Based on your selection, personality psychologists can identify key characteristics about your personality. Here are your choices:

1. Strawberry Short Cake

2. Chocolate Chip Cookies

3. Brownies

4. Sorbet

5. Cheesecake

6. Pudding

7. Cake

8. Ice Cream

Make your selection carefully, and be sure to select only one dessert.

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Barnum Effect & Critical Thinking

Barnum Personality Test
Vague statements have no place in psychology. We must use critical thinking.

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Critical Thinking

Based on your reading what is the definition of critical thinking? Write a definition on the desk.

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Goals of the Scientific Enterprise

Measurement and Description

Ex. Determining whether men are more sociable than woman. How do you measure sociability.

Understanding and Prediction
Application and Control

How can the information we find assist us in everyday life?

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The Scientific Method

Based on previous classes (maybe science classes) you’ve taken take 3 minutes and list the steps of the scientific method.

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Scientific Method in Psychology

The Steps:

Formulate a testable hypothesis
Design the study
Collect the data
Analyze the data and draw conclusions
Report the findings

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Hypothesis V. Theory

Based on your reading and definitions what is the difference between a hypothesis and a theory.

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Hypothesis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17ocaZb-bGg

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Hypothesis

The importance of an operational definition:

Establish precisely what is meant by each variable in the context of a study.

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Designing the Study

When designing the study you need to select a specific research method.

What were the research methods discussed in your reading?

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Different Types of Research Methods

Naturalistic Observation
Case Studies
Survey
Correlation

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Naturalistic Observation

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvyH4l-GlSo

Advantage: Allows researchers to study behavior under conditions that are less artificial than in experiments.

Disadvantage: Researchers have a problem making their observations non-invasive.

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Case Study

What is a case study?

Good for investigating certain phenomena such as psychological disorders.

Problem with case studies is that they are highly subjective.

Understand that sometimes a case study is all we can use i.e. child abuse. Genie - 1970 case.

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Surveys

Great for gathering information about difficult to observe data.

Disadvantage: relying on self-reported data

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Advantages of the Scientific Approach

It offers clarity and precision.

Relatively intolerant of error.

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Experimental Research V. Descriptive Research

What were the four different types of research methods I gave you?

Based on your reading and prior knowledge what is an experiment?

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Experimental Research V. Descriptive Research

Experimental Research deals with conducting an experiment. Cause and effect.

Descriptive research includes methods like a case study, naturalistic observation, survey, and correlation. No cause and effect.

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Various Aspects of Experimental Research

What is the difference between an independent and a dependent variable?
What is the difference between the experimental and control groups?

http://www.sciencespot.net/Media/scimethodconvar.pdf

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Various Aspects of Experimental Research

The experimental and control groups only have to be alike in reference to the dependent variable.
They focus on what we consider to be extraneous variables.
An extraneous variable is anything outside the independent variable that seems likely to influence the dependent variable.

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Extraneous V. Confounding Variable

What is an confounding variable?
Confounding = Extraneous

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Variation in Designing Experiment

First, it is sometimes advantageous to use only one group of subjects who serve as their own control group.
It is possible to manipulate more than one independent variable in a single experiment.
It is also possible to use more than one dependent variable in a single study.

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Advantages of Experimental Research

Permits conclusions about cause and effect relationships between variables.

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Disadvantages

Experiments are often artificial (jury & guilty v. not guilty status)
Experimental method can’t be used to explore some research questions. (pregnant woman malnutrition & birth defects)
Manipulation of variables are difficult or impossible sometimes (values v. urban & rural areas)

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Design Your Own Experiment

We’re going to spend time designing our own experiments.

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Descriptive Research

Based on our previous class discussion what can we define descriptive research as?

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Descriptive Research/Descriptive Statistics

Descriptive Research includes descriptive statistics.

What is statistics?

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Descriptive Statistics

Descriptive Statistics are used to organize and summarize data.

Central Tendency includes mean, median, and mode. Calculate the mean, median, and mode for the following numbers: 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 6, 9, 9, 11, 12

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Variability

Based on your definitions/vocabulary what is variability?

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Understanding Correlation Through Dance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFjaBh12C6s

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Correlation

When two variables increase at the same time they are positively correlated.
When one variable increases while the other decreases it’s negative correlation.
Correlation does not mean causation (it shows what not why)

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Strength of Correlation

What is a correlation coefficient?
The size of the number determines the strength of an association.

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Correlation and Predictability

As a correlation increases in strength the ability to predict one variable based on knowledge of the other variable increases. (i.e. test scores and first year college GPA)

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Correlation and Causation

Although a high correlation allows us to predict one variable from another it does not tell you whether there this a cause-effect relationship.
X & Y are related but how?
Children foot size & Vocabulary Development

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Inferential Statistics

Used to interpret data and draw conclusions.
Did our results occur do to chance?
Scores on Standardized Test

Control Group	Experimental Group
Mean: 6.3	Mean: 6.8
Standard Deviation: 1.4	Standard Deviation: 2.4

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Statistical Significance

If chance plays a small role in the way results occur in an experiment, the findings are said to have statistical significance.

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Evaluating Research

Based on your definitions what is a sample and what is sampling bias? Take a few minutes and discuss it with your partner.
After you are finished discuss the meaning of the placebo effect.

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Evaluating Research Continued

What issues what you run into when conducting a survey besides a sampling bias?

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