• Take Quiz 2
• Correct Quiz 1 & 2
• 8 Modern Perspectives
• I explain Attraction
• You complete Aggression
• Research Method
• 40 Studies that changed Psychology

*

Learning Targets

IN GENERAL: Term, Definition, Applications/Examples/Illustrations

• Term = F
• Definition = C
• Application of a classroom example = B
• Application of an novel situation = A

​

TODAY

• Do
• I can infer answers from limited information
• I can use my understanding of the 8 modern perspectives to explain or predict how a person will act
• Know
• I can explain the basic history of psychology
• I can define psychology
• I can explain the 5 goals of a psychologist
• I can name and explain the the 8 modern perspectives, to include the key terms, people, and studies associated with each

Types of Psychologists

1. Clinical

• Psychiatrist
• Counseling
• School
• Educational: Head Start Program
• Developmental
• Personality
• Social
• Experimental

-Biological Psychologist

​

Psychologists Continued

• 9. Other Specialists
• -Industrial & Organizational
• -Environmental
• -Consumer
• -Forensic
• -Health
• -Sports

​

Day 4’s Agenda

• What are your questions?
• Quiz 3
• Hand back all your papers and quizzes
• The Test is next class period
• Everything from Unit 1 is due
• Finish 8 Modern Perspectives
• Conducting Scientific Research

*

Learning Targets

IN GENERAL: Term, Definition, Applications/Examples/Illustrations

• Term = F
• Definition = C
• Application of a classroom example = B
• Application of an novel situation = A

​

TODAY

• Do
• I can conduct three of the steps of the scientific research model
• -Question, Hypothesis, Test
• I can use my understanding of the 8 modern perspectives to explain or predict how a person will act
• Know
• I can name and explain the the 8 modern perspectives, to include the key terms, people, and studies associated with each
• I can name and explain the 5-6 steps of the scientific research model.
• I can name and explain mean, median, mode, & standard deviation

Research Methods

• It is actually way more exciting than it sounds!!!!

*

Why do we have to learn this stuff?

• Psychology is first and foremost a science.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

• Thus it is based in research.

*

Before we delve into how to do research, you should be aware of three hurdles that tend to skew our logic.

Impression of Psychology

• With hopes of satisfying curiosity, many people listen to talk-radio counselors and psychics to learn about others and themselves.

Dr. Crane (radio-shrink)

Psychic (Ball gazing)

The Barnum Effect

• It is the tendency for people to accept very general or vague characterizations of themselves and take them to be accurate.

*

The Need for Psychological Science

• Intuition & Common Sense

Many people believe that intuition and common sense are enough to bring forth answers regarding human nature.

Intuition and common sense may aid queries, but they are not free of error.

Limits of Intuition

• Personal interviewers may rely too much on their “gut feelings” when meeting with job applicants.

Hindsight Bias

• Hindsight Bias is the
• “I-knew-it-all-along” phenomenon.

​

• After learning the outcome of an event, many people believe they could have predicted that very outcome. We only knew the dot.com stocks would plummet after they actually did plummet.

Hindsight Bias

• The tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that you knew it all along.

​

*

Monday Morning Quarterbacking!!!

After the Chris Brown/Rihanna incident….many said they knew Chris Brown was a violent kid!!! Did they really?

Overconfidence

• We tend to think we know more than we do.
• 82% of U.S. drivers consider themselves to be in the top 30% of their group in terms of safety.
• 81% of new business owners felt they had an excellent chance of their businesses succeeding. When asked about the success of their peers, the answer was only 39%. (Now that's overconfidence!!!)

​

*

Overconfidence

• Sometimes we think we know more than we actually know.

How long do you think it would take to unscramble these anagrams?

People said it would take about 10 seconds, yet on average they took about 3 minutes (Goranson, 1978).

Psychological Science

• How can we differentiate between uniformed opinions and examined conclusions?
• The science of psychology helps make these examined conclusions, which leads to our understanding of how people feel, think, and act as they do!

The Need for �Psychological Science

• The biases and errors of people’s everyday judgments illustrate the need for:

​

• Skepticism
• Humility
• Critical Thinking

The Need for Psychological Science

• Critical Thinking
• thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions
• examines assumptions
• discerns hidden values
• evaluates evidence

The Amazing Randi--Skeptic

Scientific Method

• Formulate testable questions
• Develop hypotheses
• Design study to collect data
• Experimental
• Descriptive
• Analyze data to arrive at conclusions
• Use of statistical procedures
• Use of meta-analysis
• Report results
• Publication
• Replication

The Need for Psychological Science

• Theory
• an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts observations
• For example, low self-esteem contributes to depression.
• Hypothesis
• a testable prediction
• often implied by a theory
• People with low

self-esteem are apt

to feel more depressed.

Hypothesis

• Expresses a relationship between two variables.
• A variable is anything that can vary among participants in a study.
• Participating in class leads to better grades than not participating.

*

Research Observations

• Research would require us to administer tests of self-esteem and depression. Individuals who score low on a self-esteem test and high on a depression test would confirm our hypothesis.

The Need for Psychological Science

The Need for Psychological Science

• Operational Definition
• a statement of procedures (operations) used to define research variables
• Example-
• Intelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures

The Need for Psychological Science

• Replication
• repeating the essence of a research study to see whether the basic finding generalizes to other participants and circumstances
• usually with different participants in different situations
• Validity
• The extent to which an experiment tests its hypothesis or tests what it is supposed to
• Preventable with good operational definitions

Descriptive Research

• Any research that observes and records.
• Does not talk about relationships, it just describes.
• Done through case studies, surveys, and naturalistic observation

What is going on in this picture?

We cannot say exactly, but we can describe what we see.

Thus we have…..

Description

• Case Study
• Psychologists study one or more individuals in great depth in the hope of revealing things true of us all
• Where one person (or situation) is observed in depth.

​

What are the strengths and weaknesses of using a tragedy like the Columbine School Shootings as a case study?

Case Studies

• A detailed picture of one or a few subjects.
• Tells us a great story…but is just descriptive research.
• Does not even give us correlation data.
• Strength: In-depth
• Weakness:Information cannot be generalized to others; also, researcher’s biases can influence subject’s behavior.

​

*

The ideal case study is Jon and Kate. Really interesting, but what does it tell us about families in general?

Description

• Survey
• technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of people
• usually by questioning a representative, random sample of people
• Most common type of study in psychology
• Cheap and fast

Samples and Sampling

​

• Sample
• selected segment of the population
• Representative sample
• closely parallels the population on relevant characteristics
• Random selection
• every member of larger group has equal chance of being selected for the study sample

Survey

• Wording can change the results of a survey.
• Even subtle changes in the order or wording of questions can have major effects.

​

• Q: Should cigarette ads and pornography not be allowed on television? (not allowed vs. forbid)

Wording Effect

Survey

• If each member of a population has an equal chance of inclusion into a sample, it is called a random sample (unbiased). If the survey sample is biased, its results are not valid.

Random Sampling

The fastest way to know about the marble color ratio is to blindly transfer a few into a smaller jar and count them.

Description

• False Consensus Effect
• tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors
• Indicate how you feel about the following :
• George Bush was a good President

(1) strongly agree

(2) somewhat agree

(3) agree

(4) somewhat disagree

(5) strongly disagree

Description

• Naturalistic Observation
• observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation
• Hawthorne effect
• Can’t show cause and effect

​

Correlational Method

• Correlation expresses a relationship between two variable.
• Does not show causation.

*

As more ice cream is eaten, more people are murdered.

Does ice cream cause murder, or murder cause people to eat ice cream?

Correlation

• Correlation Coefficient is a statistical measure of the relationship between two variables.

When one trait or behavior accompanies another, we say the two correlate.

r =

0.37

+

Correlation Coefficient

• A number that measures the strength of a relationship.
• Range is from -1 to +1
• The relationship gets weaker the closer you get to zero.

Which is a stronger correlation?

• -.13 or +.38
• -.72 or +.59
• -.91 or +.04

​

*

Types of Correlation

Positive Correlation

• The variables go in the SAME direction.

Negative Correlation

• The variables go in opposite directions.

*

Studying and grades hopefully has a positive correlation.

Heroin use and grades probably has a negative correlation.

Scatterplots

Perfect positive

correlation (+1.00)

Scatterplot is a graph comprised of points that are generated by values of two variables. The slope of the points depicts the direction, while the amount of scatter depicts the strength of the relationship.

Scatterplots

No relationship (0.00)

Perfect negative

correlation (-1.00)

The Scatterplot on the left shows a negative correlation, while the one on the right shows no relationship between the two variables.

Scatterplot

The Scatterplot below shows the relationship between height and temperament in people. There is a moderate positive correlation of +0.63.

Illusory Correlation

• The perception of a relationship where no relationship actually exists.
• Parents conceive children after adoption.
• Sugar makes children hyperactive
• Arise from a natural tendency to see order in the world

Michael Newman Jr./ Photo Edit

Two Random Sequences

• Your chances of being dealt either of these hands is precisely the same: 1 in 2,598,960.

Experimentation

• Experiment
• an investigator manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe their effect on some behavior or mental process (the dependent variable)
• Measures cause and effect
• by random assignment of participants the experiment controls other relevant factors

​

Control Group

Steps in Designing an Experiment

• Hypothesis
• Pick Population: Random Selection then Random Assignment.
• Operationalize the Variables
• Identify Independent and Dependent Variables.
• Look for Extraneous or Confounding Variables
• Type of Experiment: Blind, Double Blind etc..
• Gather Data
• Analyze Results

Beware of Confounding Variables

If I wanted to prove that smoking causes heart issues, what are some confounding variables?

• The object of an experiment is to prove that A causes B.
• A confounding variable is anything that could cause change in B, that is not A.

*

Lifestyle and family history may also effect the heart.

Other Confounding Variables

• Placebo effect
• Placebo
• an inert substance or condition that may be administered instead of a presumed active agent, such as a drug, to see if it triggers the effects believed to characterize the active agent

*

Experimenter Bias

• Another confounding variable.
• Not a conscious act.
• Double-blind Procedure
• both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant (blind) about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo
• commonly used in drug-evaluation studies

​

*

Experimentation

• Experimental Condition
• the condition of an experiment that exposes participants to the treatment, that is, to one version of the independent variable
• Control Condition
• the condition of an experiment that contrasts with the experimental treatment
• serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment

Experimental Design

• Random sample— every member of the population being studied should have an equal chance of being selected for the study
• Random assignment— assigning subjects to experimental and control conditions by chance.
• Randomization helps avoid false results

Independent Variable

• Whatever is being manipulated in the experiment.
• Hopefully the independent variable brings about change.

​

If there is a drug in an experiment, the drug is almost always the independent variable.

*

Dependent Variable

The dependent variable would be the effect of the drug.

• Whatever is being measured in the experiment.
• It is dependent on the independent variable.

​

*

Operational Definitions

• Explain what you mean in your hypothesis.
• How will the variables be measured in “real life” terms.
• How you operationalize the variables will tell us if the study is valid and reliable.

Let’s say your hypothesis is that chocolate causes violent behavior.

• What do you mean by chocolate?
• What do you mean by violent behavior?

​

*

Hawthorne Effect

• But even the control group may experience changes.
• Just the fact that you know you are in an experiment can cause change.

*

Whether the lights were brighter or dimmer, production went up in the Hawthorne electric plant.

Experimentation

*

APA Ethical Guidelines for Research

• IRB- Internal Review Board
• Both for humans and animals.

​

*

*

Basic Ethical Guidelines for Psychological Researchers

Do no harm.

Accurately describe risks to potential subjects.

Ensure that participation is voluntary.

Minimize any discomfort to participants.

Maintain confidentiality.

Do not unnecessarily invade privacy.

Remove any misconceptions caused by deception (debrief).

Provide results and interpretations to participants.

Treat participants with dignity and respect.

*

Evaluating Media Reports

• Be skeptical of sensationalist claims
• Goal of “shock” media is ratings
• Look for original sources
• Separate opinion from data
• Consider methodology and operational definitions
• Correlation is not causality
• Skepticism is the rule in science.

*

Ethical Issues

• Is it right to experiment on animals?
• What limits should there be?

Animal Research

• Clear purpose
• Treated in a humane way
• Acquire animals legally
• Least amount of suffering possible.

*

Ethical Issues

• Is it right to experiment on people?
• What limits should there be?

Statistics

• Recording the results from our studies.
• Must use a common language so we all know what we are talking about.

*

Statistical Reasoning

Histogram: Bar graph showing frequency of data

Statistical Reasoning

Statistical Reasoning

Measures of Central Tendency

• Mode
• the most frequently occurring score in a distribution
• Mean
• the arithmetic average of a distribution
• obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores
• Median
• the middle score in a distribution
• half the scores are above it and half are below it

Central Tendency

• Mean, Median and Mode.
• Watch out for extreme scores or outliers.

​

*

$25,000-Pam

$25,000- Kevin

$25,000- Angela

$100,000- Andy

$100,000- Dwight

$200,000- Jim

$300,000- Michael

Let’s look at the salaries of the employees at Dunder Mifflen Paper in Scranton:

The median salary looks good at $100,000.

The mean salary also looks good at about $110,000.

But the mode salary is only $25,000.

Maybe not the best place to work.

Then again living in Scranton is kind of cheap.

Practicing Calculations

• 1,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,16
• Median (easiest)
• 5.5 (average between 5 and 6)
• Mean
• Add ‘em all up and divide by 12
• 6
• Mode
• 1 (occurs most frequently)

Median

• Separates the upper and low half of distribution
• 1) mean and median not necessarily equal
• 2) median much less sensitive to extremes

Statistical Reasoning

• A Positively Skewed Distribution

How these measures relate

• In a normal distribution…
• Mean = Median = Mode

​

• In a nonnormal distribution (one that is skewed)…
• The mean will be impacted by the unusual values and will be pulled toward the skew.

Normal Distribution

• In a normal distribution, the mean, median and mode are all the same.

*

Distributions

• Outliers skew distributions.
• If group has one high score, the curve has a positive skew (contains more low scores)
• If a group has a low outlier, the curve has a negative skew (contains more high scores)

*

Skewed Distributions

Positive

Mean > Median

Negative

Mean < Median

Which measure do you use?

• If the distribution is close to normal, they are all equal and it makes no difference
• If the distribution is skewed, the median is the best measure of center because it is “resistant” to influence from outliers that cause the distribution to be skewed.

Measures of variability

• Range: distance from highest to lowest scores.
• Standard Deviation: the variance of scores around the mean.
• The higher the variance or SD, the more spread out the distribution is.
• Do scientists want a big or small SD?

*

Shaq and Kobe may both score 30 ppg (same mean).

But their SDs are very different.

Measures of Variation

​

• Standard Deviation: A computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean.

Standard Deviation

• 1,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,16
• The formula for standard deviation is quite complicated, but we will use a procedure to estimate this value.
• The mean value is 6
• The differences between each data point and 6 are all follows:
• -5, -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 10
• Square those differences, add them all up and divide by 12 and then square root.
• (25+25+16+9+4+1+1+4+9+16+100)/12
• Square root your answer

Table 1.4�Myers: Psychology, Eighth Edition�Copyright © 2007 by Worth Publishers

When to use Standard Deviation

• Standard deviation (like the mean) is impacted by unusual values, so should not be used unless the distribution is close to normal.
• If the distribution is normal, standard deviations are an excellent way to see how variability within the data.

Which of the following is true of the two sets of scores below?

• Set A has a larger standard deviation
• Set B has a larger standard deviation
• The range is the same for both distributions
• Set A has a lower median score than set B
• The mean score is the same for both distributions

Variation

• Normal Curve--a bell-shaped curve that describes the normal distribution of many types of data. Most scores fall near the mean and fewer and fewer fall near the extremes. In a normal curve the mean, median and mode are all near the middle.

Empirical Rule

How to interpret and use standard deviations

• More than three standard deviations away from the mean is unusual, not impossible
• If you see a result like this, we attribute that to mean that something unusual is occurring
• We sometimes use this as evidence against the current mean
• We sometimes use a p-value to indicate how unusual this result is
• Something is considered unusual if the p-value is small (p < .05). Look back at the empirical rule slide…

Z-scores

• Measure the number of standard deviations that a data point lies from the mean
• If z is negative, the data point is below the mean
• If z is positive, the data point is above the mean
• Z = (data point – mean) / st. dev
• If z is more than 2.5, then it is considered unusual in most settings

AP Psych Exam 2003

• Statistics are often used to describe and interpret the results of intelligence testing.
• Describe the three measures of central tendency
• Describe a skewed distribution
• Relate the three measures of central tendency to a normal distribution
• Relate the three measure of central tendency to positively skewed distribution

• An intelligence test for which the scores are normally distributed has a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. Use this info to describe how the scores are distributed.
• In two normal distribution, the means are 100 for group I and 115 for group II. Can an individual in group I have a higher score than the mean score for group II. Explain.

*

Making Inferences

• A statistical statement of how frequently an obtained result occurred by experimental manipulation or by chance.

Statistical Inference

• When is it safe to generalize from a sample?
• 1. Representative Samples are better than biased samples.
• 2. Less-variable observations are more reliable than those that are more variable.
• 3. More cases are better than fewer. Larger samples are better than smaller ones.
• 4. As the size of a sample increases, the size of the standard deviation is most likely to decrease

When is a difference significant?

• When sample averages are reliable and the difference between them is large we say the difference has statistical significance (it reflects a real difference not due to chance or variation between samples).
• For psychologists this difference is measured through alpha level set at 5 percent.