Psychology 1800

1
Psychology 1800

• Introduction
• Research Issues

2
Effective Teaching

• Practice Exercise

3
Dev/Ed Psychology

• Understand the process underlying good teaching
  practices

4
Methodology

• In both areas (dev or ed psy) attempt to provide
  research evidence, not just opinion
• need to know what studies are how they are done

5
Non-scientific

• Based on 1 or 2 instances, cultural or intuitive
  notions
• NOTE ones own experience is necessarily biased.

6
Theoretical research

• Designed to test a developmental explanation.
• Interested in expanding scientific knowledge.

7
Applied Research

• How to use the research to solve a real-life
  problem
• Ex. Best way to teach literacy
• Answers a question, not just scientific curiosity

8
Theories

• Orderly integrated set of statements that
  describe, explain, and predict behavior.
• 1. explain observations
• 2. guide application of study findings to real
  life.

9
All theories-3 parts

• Describe components of behavior being discussed.
• Explain account for relationships between
  variables.
• Predict be able to use the information to make
  educated guesses about what is going to happen
  next.

10
Hypothesis

• Specific prediction about behavior drawn from a
  theory.
• Must be stated so as to be testable in study.
• Hypotheses are confirmed or disconfirmed

11
Variables

• Attributes which vary among individuals or
  events.
• Ex. level of self-esteem, level of physical
  conditioning, height

12
Judging the worth of a study

• Reliability-repeatability of measures of a
  subjects behavior.
• For ex, aggression
• Need agreement on what it is

13
Validity

• Extent to which measures in the study accurately
  reflect what the researcher intended to measure.

14
Research Designs

• Correlational Studies p.4
• Examines relationships between two variables
• If X goes up, what does Y do?

15
Correlational Studies

• Plus side gathers information in the natural
  world
• Can study things you can not ethically study in
  experiments

16
Correlational studies

• BIG DRAW BACK does NOT permit us to say anything
  about cause effect
• Ex children in divorce
• May also experience poverty, less parental
  attention, etc.

17
correlation

• Positive--as x increases, so does y
• Negative--as x increases, y decreases
• No relationship

18
Even when highly correlated

• Variable X could cause Y or
• Y could cause X or
• Z could cause X and Y

19
Educational example

• of books in a childs room positively
  correlates with reading readiness

20
More real correlations

• Schizophrenia smoking are positively (and
  highly) correlated
• Tattoos self-esteem are negatively correlated
• Birth order intelligence are negatively
  correlated
• Left-handedness gayness are positively
  correlated

21
Practice correlation directions

• Tattooing personality disorders are
  correlated
• Smoking depression are correlated
• Exercise weight are correlated

22
Experimental Design

• Big bonus can determine cause effect
• because
• We assign people to groups
• Experimental group vs. control group

23
Variables

• Independent variable-one manipulated (changed by
  experimenter)
• Dependent variable-changes are measured by the
  experimenter

24
Example of Experiment

• Heat in classrooms is varied (independent
  variable)
• -too warm, students doze off
• -too cold students shiver cant
• focus
• -control group 70 degrees
• Student scores on tests are measured (dependent
  variable)

25
2nd example

• Classical music is played to one group, rap to
  another. A 3rd group hears no music but has 30
  minutes of quiet time before a test.
• Test scores are measured for each group.

26
Dependent vs. Independent Variables

• Independent variable is what is varied
• Dependent variable is what is measured
• Ex Protein diet vs grapefruit diet
• What is varied?
• What will be measured?

27
Practice Slide

• Dr. Z plays music to corn plants. One group gets
  classical, one rock, and one does not get music.
• After 2 months, she measures their growth.

28
Other designs for development

• Longitudinal design-study a group of participants
  at different ages.
• Same people, growing older.
• Can truly say differences due to development.

29
So why dont we use them?

• Because they cost a lot of money
• time
• Subject attrition makes them difficult
• Because I want to publish NOW

30
Cross-sectional Design

• Groups of children at different ages are compared
• Strengths need only take one measurement
• Limitations may be problems with comparability
  of the children

31
Cross sectional design

• May be able to match children on all
  characteristics (SES, sex) except age
• May still have cohort effects

32
Program Evaluation Research

• Is a program working for us?
• May answer specific question about a schools
  program

33
Action Research

• Specific school problem
• Try to improve educational practices in a few
  classrooms
• Carried out by classroom teachers (not truly
  scientific)

34
Gathering Data

• Observation- the researcher or teacher focuses on
  what the child or children do and makes a record
  of what is seen.
• Be objective.

35
Bias in Research

• Media Hype

36
Bias in Research

• Bias may be present for race, sex, SES, etc.)
• Frequently cited study Benbow Stanley on
  Gender differences in math

37
Media Response to Study

• Are Boys Better at Math? NY Times
• Do Males Have a Math Gene? Newsweek
• The Gender Factor in Math. A New Study Says Male
  May Be Naturally Abler than Females. Time

38
Benbow Stanley

• Later claimed that hormonal differences lead to
  males superiority
• Critical thinking ? did they gather any hormonal
  data?

39
Females Males

• Elem ed better at arithmetic, math concepts
• Adults in general population, better at arithmetic

• Gifted students
• College bound students on SAT
• Adults in gen.pop. Math performance

40
Doing Research

• Or Labs

41
Eliciting Information

• Plan the questions
• Ex. interviews, work products, surveys

42
Making Records

• 3 main ways
• 1. write a description of what happened
• 2. count the of times something happens
• 3. collect examples of a childs work

43
Descriptive Narratives

• Running records of what happened
• Anecdotal records-descriptions of specific events
  
• Jottings-concise brief descriptions of beh

44
Counts or Tallies

• Record of how often the beh occurs
• Have to decide ahead of time what behavior to
  observe
• Little detail

45
Timed Samples

• Predetermined intervals of time
• E.g. 3 minutes every hour or 3 minutes at certain
  times (915, 1015, etc.)

46
Duration sample

• Record the length of time a beh occurs
• Can do it with a stop watch or just note the time

47
Frequency Counts

• only observe a few categories at a time and one
  or two children
• Will try this in lab 1 and you will see why

48
Checklists

• Identifies behaviors observed or present
• Presence or absence of an ability
• Who can write their name, skip, identify bs vs.
  ds

49
Work Products

• Collect examples of things the child produces
• Saving written work, drawn objects
• Can analyze them by combining it with a checklist
  or creating a rubric to analyze it

50
Ethics in Studying Children

• Read before Lab 1
• Leong Bodrova Chap. 3

51
4 Principles

• 1. Freedom from harm
• 2. confidentiality
• 3. informed consent
• 4. reporting of child abuse

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Freedom from Harm

• Participants protected from harm
• If your presence in class is upsetting, stop your
  observation
• Respect their wishes should they want to stop the
  lab
• Dont show your personal feelings

53
Maintaining Confidentiality

• Dont discuss observations outside of class
• Dont identify the school, the teacher, or the
  children to others
• May use initials or Child I
• Dont use labels delayed, gifted
• Even if asked, dont comment on how a situation
  was handled

54
Informed Consent

• Must be obtained for all observations and
  interviews
• Need to obtain parental permission for children
• And the CHILDS permission as well

55
Reporting Child Abuse

• If you see something harmful happening to a child
  or
• A child confides in you
• Report the incident immediately to administrative
  person
• Also, you can call the instructor or the Psy
  chairperson

56
Lab I

• Read lab book
• Read lab book
• Most common student errors in writing up lab
• students writing sentence fragments
• in bad handwriting