Myers PSYCHOLOGY (9th Edition in Modules)

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Myers PSYCHOLOGY (9th Edition in Modules)

• Module 3
• Research Strategies

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The Scientific Method
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Which of the following is TRUE?

• A. Hypnosis is an effective way to help people
  relive long-buried or repressed memories.
• B. Electroconvulsive therapy is no longer used.
• C. Most people do not suffer from
  unrealistically low self-esteem.
• D. Opposites generally attract.

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The Scientific Method

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

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The Scientific Method

• Replication
• repeating the essence of a research study to see
  whether the basic finding extends to other
  participants and circumstances
• usually with different participants in different
  situations

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Samples and Populations

• A Sample is the group you test, measure or
  observe. It is always part of the population.
• The population is the group you hope to apply the
  findings of your research to the group you hope
  to make assumptions about or generalize to.
• Because you use the sample to represent the
  population the sample should be as similar as
  possible to the population.

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Dr. Piercy wants to find out if how many drinks
CVCC students have per week. She distributes 500
surveys, leaving 50 in the student center every
morning at 8am and picking them up at 9am. In
this research,_____________ are her sample
and______________ are her population

• All students at CVCC the students who fill out
  the surveys
• All students in her classes all students at
  CVCC.
• The students who fill out the surveys all
  students at CVCC
• The students who drink a lot the students who
  fill out the survey.

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Dr. Piercys research re how many drinks
students have may not be valid because

• The sample is too large.
• There is no population.
• The sample does not represent the population.
• There are not enough confounding variables.

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Case Study

• An in-depth study of one person or a small group.
  
• Advantages of this type of research Gives a lot
  of detail.
• Disadvantages of this type of research Subject
  to experimenter bias costly and time consuming
  may be dependent on self-report data sample may
  be too small to represent the population.

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Survey

• Interview or Questionnaire generally given to a
  large group.
• Advantages of this type of research Cheap and
  easy
• Disadvantages of this type of research
  Dependent on self-report data sample may not
  represent the population people may lie or
  otherwise misrepresent themselves question
  wording may affect response.

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Observation

• Naturalistic Observation involves observing
  behavior in the field or where it naturally
  occurs.
• Advantages Its relatively cheap and easy to
  do it is less likely to interfere with subjects
  behavior than other types of research.
• Disadvantages You have no control over
  conditions and the presence of the observer may
  change subjects behavior subject to
  experimenter bias.
• Laboratory Observation Observing subjects in the
  laboratory.
• Advantages You can control conditions.
• Disadvantages Being in the lab may change
  subjects behavior which lowers your ecological
  validity (the degree to which conditions in the
  lab represent the real world) subject to
  experimenter bias.

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Correlation

• A measure of the relationship between 2 things
  (called variables).
• Really just an observation of two things that you
  did not control, manipulate, or cause to happen.
  It shows that they are related (for example, I
  might find that larger shoe size is related to
  better grades)
• DOES NOT SHOW that changes in one variable (shoe
  size) CAUSE changes in the other variable (test
  scores). If larger shoe size is related to
  higher grades, making your feet bigger won't
  improve your grades (no cause/effect).

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Which of the following is TRUE?

• Correlation means that changes in one variable
  cause changes in another variable.
• If I find a strong correlation between variables,
  it means that the variables are strongly related.
• If I find a strong correlation between variables,
  I have found a cause and effect relationship.
• Correlation is not useful to researchers.

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

0.37

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

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Correlation

• Three Possible Cause-Effect Relationships

could cause
(1) Low self-esteem
Depression
or
(2) Depression
Low self-esteem
could cause
or
Low self-esteem
(3) Distressing events or biological predispositio
n
could cause
and
Depression
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Which of the following correlation coefficients
indicates the strongest relationship between
variables?

• A. 0.05
• B. -0.25
• C. 0.75
• D. -0.95

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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.
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Scatterplots
Perfect negative correlation (-1.00)
No relationship (0.00)
The Scatterplot on the left shows a negative
correlation, while the one on the right shows no
relationship between the two variables.
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Illusory Correlation

• The perception of a relationship where no
  relationship actually exists. Parents conceive
  children after adoption.

Michael Newman Jr./ Photo Edit
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Order in Random Events

• Given random data, we look for order and
  meaningful patterns.

Your chances of being dealt either of these hands
is precisely the same 1 in 2,598,960.
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Order in Random Events

• Given large numbers of random outcomes, a few are
  likely to express order.

Jerry Telfer/ San Francisco Chronicle
Angelo and Maria Gallina won two California
lottery games on the same day.
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Experimentation

• The only way to demonstrate a cause and effect
  relationship is to conduct an experiment. In an
  experiment, the objective is to make the two
  groups as similar as possible except for the
  independent variable, and then measure the
  effects of that variable (for example, the beer)
  on the results (called the dependent variable -
  for example, in my experiment, the psychology
  test scores are the dependent variable).

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What makes an experiment so special?

• An EXPERIMENT is different from a correlation
  because
• 1) It involves control of all conditions to
  demonstrate that it is the independent variable
  and not something else that causes changes in the
  dependent variable.
• 2) It generally involves random assignment to
  groups. Random assignment allows us to assume
  the subject characteristics that might otherwise
  affect results are evenly distributed between
  groups.

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Experimentation

• Experimental Group (Condition)
• The group that receives the "treatment" an
  experimenter may be testing.
• There may be more than one experimental group or
  condition each receiving a different level of
  the independent variable).
• Control Group (Condition)
• the group that receives a placebo or nothing and
  is used for comparison

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Experimentation

• Random Assignment
• assigning participants to experimental and
  control conditions by chance
• minimizes pre-existing differences between those
  assigned to the different groups

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Experimentation

• Independent Variable
• is the one thing we are trying to isolate to see
  if it affects the dependent variable its the
  treatment
• Dependent Variable
• the experimental factor that may change in
  response to manipulations of the independent
  variable
• what you examine to see if the independent
  variable had an effect (for example, test
  scores).

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Things that can mess up your experiment

• A selection factor occurs when people choose
  whether or not to participate, or what group to
  be in and it affects the results.
• Confounding variables are things that mess up an
  experiment.  Confounding variables are anything
  other than the independent variable that could
  cause changes in the dependent variable. For
  example, if I allowed subjects to choose their
  groups, their weight, tolerance and gender would
  become confounding variables. 

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Experimentation

• 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

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A significant disadvantage of the correlational
approach is that it

• A. does not provide evidence of cause and
  effect.
• B. cannot be used to examine relationships
  between variables that exist naturally.
• C. does not aid in the process of prediction.
• D. does not provide information about how two
  variables are related.

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Dr. Anderson conducts an experiment to see
whether exposure to helpful models leads to
helping behavior in young children. Of the forty
girls and boys in his study, half are exposed to
helpful models while the other half watch the
same models not engaged in helping behavior. In
this experiment, the dependent variable is

• A. the gender of the children.
• B. helpful or non-helpful models.
• C. the age of the children.
• D. helping behavior.

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In Dr. Andersons research, the independent
variable was

• The helping behavior of the children
• Exposure to helpful models
• The age of the children
• The gender of the children

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Which of the following is the best way to
generate a random sample of students for a
research study?

• A. mail out a questionnaire that students could
  voluntarily complete and return
• B. stand by the door of the library and ask
  people who pass by to answer your questions
• C. offer extra credit for students in a
  particular classroom who choose to participate
• D. use a table of random numbers to pick
  participants from a student listing