Research in Psychology

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Research in Psychology

• A Scientific Endeavor

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Goals of Psychological Research

• Description of social behavior
• Are people who grow up in warm climates different
  from those in cold climates?
• Establish a relationship between cause effect
• Does heat cause higher amounts of aggression?
• Develop theories about why people behave the way
  that they do
• We dislike Duke students to feel better about
  ourselves
• Application
• Creating effective therapeutic treatments, more
  successful negotiation tactics, and greater
  understanding amongst groups of people

3
Empirical Research

• Empirical
• Knowledge based on direct observation
• Theory
• Set of ideas which try to explain what we observe
• Goal is to find support OR disprove
• We can never prove!!
• Theoretical diversity

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The Process of Doing Research

• First, select a topic
• Good theory
• Has predictive power
• Is simple straightforward
• Then, search the literature
• Find out what others have done that may be
  applicable to your area of interest

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The Process of Doing Research

• Next, formulate hypotheses
• Hypothesis specific statement of expectation
  derived from theory
• State the relationship between two variables
• Variable can be any event, characteristic,
  condition, or behavior

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The Process of Doing Research

• Then pick your research method
• Experimental vs. correlational (Design)
• Field vs. laboratory (Setting)
• Finally, collect analyze your
• data

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Lets take a closer look . . .at variables

• Dependent variable (outcome variable)
• Dependent on the influence of other factor(s)
• How do we operationalize?
• Independent variable (predictor variable)
• Factor(s) that change the outcome variable
• How do we operationalize manipulate?
• Control group

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Lets take a closer look . . . at research methods

• Experimental vs. correlational designs
• Correlational observe the relationship between
  two variables
• Describe patterns of behavior
• Types include
• Naturalistic observation
• Case studies
• Surveys

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Correlational research

• Advantages
• Sometimes manipulation of variables is impossible
  or unethical
• Efficient look at lots of data
• Disadvantages
• CANNOT DETERMINE CAUSATION
• Could be a lurking variable

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Experimental Research

• Researcher manipulates one variable (IV) to see
  effect on other variable (DV)
• Try to hold everything else constant
• True experiments have
• Random sampling selecting Ps randomly from
  population
• Random assignment chance assignment to condition

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Ethics in Research

• Should the study be done?
• Value vs. potential cost
• APA guidelines, IRB, colleagues
• How do we protect Ps?
• Informed consent
• Confidentiality anonymity
• Debriefing