Research Design

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Research Design

• Experimental Methods
• Standardization
• Psychological Testing

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Need for Psychological Research?

• Are intuition and common sense enough to bring
• forth answers about human nature?
• Are they free of error?
• Examples
• Opposites attract

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Need for Psychological Research?

• Limits of intuition
• Personal interviewers tend to be overconfident of
  their gut feelings about job applicants.
• Overconfidence
• We tend to think we know more than we actually
  do.
• How long do you think would it take to unscramble
  the anagrams?
• Anagram
• GRABE----------BARGE
• ETYRN----------ENTRY
• WREAT---------WATER
• People said about 10 seconds.
• On average they took about 3 minutes.
• Errors in common sense
• If you were to fold a piece of paper (0.1 mm
  thick) a 100 fold, how large do you think its
  thickness would be?
• Answer
• 800 Trillion times the distance between the sun
  and the earth.

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Need for Psychological Research?

• The Amazing Randi
• 1 million dollar check to anyone that can
• (under conditions agreed upon by both parties)
  prove the existence of any form of paranormal
  activity.

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Need for Psychological Research?

• Psychology is a unique blend of biology,
  philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, and
  sociology.
• This makes psychology an important science
  because it merges all the gray areas of other
  scientific fields into one science.
• Psychology gives us a place to answer
  philosophical questions with hard, scientific
  methods.

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Schools of Thought

• Abnormal Biological
• Cognitive Comparative
• Counseling Clinical
• Critical Developmental
• Educational Evolutionary
• Forensic Global
• Health Legal
• Occupational Health
• Personality Quantitative
• Social School
• Industrial/Organizational

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Schools of Thought
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Normality
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Experimental Psychology

• Research in psychology has five basic goals
• Describe
• Explain Why did the subject produce the
  behavior?
• Predict The best predictor of future behavior
  is past behavior.
• Control What can we do to change the behavior?
• Improve

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Experimental Psychology

• Two Main Types of Psychological Research
• Basic Study of psychological issues in
  order seek knowledge for its own sake.
• Applied Study of psychological issues
  that have direct practical significance
  and application.

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Theory

• Explains how a number of separate facts are
  related.
• An idea about a relationship.
• Testable model capable of predicting future
  occurrences or observations.
• Capable of being tested through experiment or
  verified through empirical observation.
• Experimental analysis is necessary in order to
  validate or invalidate a theory.
• Empirical
• Can be physically tested.
• Is understood through experience.
• Uses tools to weight and measure its boundaries.
• Experiment
• Manipulate a situation in order to prove/disprove
  a hypothesis.
• Meta-Analysis
• Summary of past research on a given topic.

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Placebo

• Placebo
• No treatment given
• Participant assumes treatment is present.
• Confederate
• Experimenter assumes the role of a participant or
  antagonist.
• Hawthorne Effect
• Subjects improve an aspect of their behavior
  being experimentally measured simply in response
  to being studied.

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Animal Model
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Research ProcessToo many cookies make penguins
go crazy.

• Have a question or idea about a relationship.
• Develop a Null Hypothesis (H0)
• The reverse of what the experimenter believes
  will happen.
• Cookies dont make penguins go crazy.
• Very easy to test this, all you have to do is
  find one
• case where this is not so.
• Develop an Alternative Hypothesis (H1)
• Statement that attempts to describe or explain a
  given behavior.
• Leads to specific predictions of what will happen
  in very specific situations.

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Research Process

• 4. Conduct the Experiment
• Variable Anything that can be measured or is
  changed.
• Independent Variable Input variable.
• Dependent Variable Outcome variable.
• Control Condition No manipulation added.
• Operational Definition How the phenomenon is to
  be observed and measured.
• Principal of Falsifiability Hypotheses could be
  disproved if contradictory evidence were
  observed/introduced.
• 5. Complete the Result Section
• Collected data from experiment, prove or disprove
  the null
• Statistical Significance Results are probably
  true, not due to chance.
• Occams Razor When conflicting results/solutions
  to a given problem occur, the shortest and least
  complex one is the correct choice.

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Potential Contamination of Results

• Selection Bias Occurs when differences between
  groups are present at the beginning of the
  experiment.
• Solution
• Random Assignment- Assigning the subjects to each
  group based on chance rather than human decision.
  
• Placebo Effect Involves the influencing of
  performance due to the subject's belief about the
  results.
• Solution
• Blind Study- Subjects are not informed of the
  purpose of the experiment. Subjects are
  basically blind to the expected results.
• Experimenter Bias Changes in the results caused
  by the experimenter. Experimenter behaves in a
  manner that influences the participant.
• Solution
• Double-Blind Study- Both the experimenter and the
  subjects are blind to the purpose and anticipated
  results of the study.
• Volunteer Bias If they care enough to be there
  then their opinions/results may differ from ones
  that remain silent.
• Solution
• None

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Standardization

• After an experiment is complete and the results
  obtained are successful the next step is to
  standardize the experiment
• All subjects must be given the same instructions
• All subjects must be presented with the
  instructions in the same manner
• All data must be collected in exactly the same
  way
• Experiment needs to be replicated with different
  subjects
• Experiment must be reliable and valid
• Reliable Test/Experiment produces the same
  results from one time and place to the next.
• Valid Test/Experiment measures what it is
  suppose to measure.
• Basically a test is considered to be standardized
  when it is said to have
• Stood the test of time

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Types of Research

• Naturalistic Observation Observing behavior in
  its natural environment. Can involve counting
  specific behaviors.
• Advantage Provides more qualitative information
  than the other methods.
• Disadvantage Presence of an observer modifies
  the participants behavior. No two observers
  produce the same results.
• Case Study Following a single case for an
  extended period of time.
• Advantage Gather extensive information, both
  qualitative and quantitative and can be helpful
  in better understanding rare cases or very
  specific interventions
• Disadvantage Only one case is involved severely
  limiting generalization.

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Types of Research

• Survey Questionnaires gather info from asking
  people directly.
• Advantage Can gather large amounts of
  information in a relatively short time, cost
  effective.
• Disadvantage Based solely on subjects responses
  which can be inaccurate due to outright lying,
  misunderstanding of the question, placebo effect,
  and even the manner in which the question is
  asked.
• Correlational Study Determine if a relationship
  exists, what direction the relationship is, and
  how strong it is.
• Positive Correlation As one increases the other
  increases, as one decreases the other decreases.
• Negative Correlation As one increases the other
  decreases, as one decreases the other increases.
• Advantage Measures the strength of a
  relationship between two groups.
• Disadvantage Cant make any assumptions of cause
  and effect. No knowledge of effect of a third
  variable.

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Psychological Testing

• Measure personality traits, emotional states,
  aptitudes, interests, abilities, and values.
• Usually measured as a single score.
• Objective Tests
• Participants is aware
• Feelings, attitudes, beliefs
• Asking questions directly
• Projective Tests
• Participants are unaware
• Unconscious feelings
• Examples Rorschach Test, Draw a Person, Play
  Therapy, Draw-A-Person, Sentence Completion

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Psychological Testing

• Psychological testing categories

• Justification for using tests

• Achievement and aptitude
• Intelligence
• Neuropsychological
• Occupational
• Personality
• Specific Clinical

• It is easier to get information from tests than
  by clinical interview.
• The information from tests is more scientifically
  consistent than the information from a clinical
  interview.
• It is harder to get away with lying on a test
  than an interview.

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Popular Personality Tests

• Inventories (Objective Tests)
• Standardized questionnaires requiring written
  responses
• Typically include scales on which people are
  asked to rate themselves.
• Likert Scale
• MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
  Inventory)
• Huge multiple choice test designed to determine
  personality traits and predict future behavior.
• This is the most famous personality test.
• Used by
• Police Departments
• Mental Hospitals
• FBI
• 911 operators

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Popular Personality Tests

• Aims to describe aspects of a person's character
  that remain stable throughout that person's
  lifetime, the individual's character pattern of
  behavior, thoughts, and feelings.
• Examples
• Woodworth Personal Data Sheet (1919)-used to
  screen army recruits.
• Rorschach Inkblot Test (1921)
• Thematic Apperception Test (TAT-1930s)
• MMPI (1942)-aids in detection of psychopathology
  in a clinical setting.
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator-Based on Carl Jungs
  psychological types.
• Keirsey Temperament Sorter
• 16PF Questionnaire (1940s-1950s)-Developed by
  Raymond Cattell.

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Raymond B. Cattell

• Developed an influential theory of personality
• Created new methods for statistical analysis
• Helped Develop the Cattell-Horn theory of fluid
  and crystallized intelligence
• There are five main clusters of personality
  traits (The big Five)
• Extroversion versus introversion (outgoing or
  shy)
• Neuroticism versus emotional stability (how much
  does a person suffer from anxiety)
• Agreeableness versus antagonism (good natured or
  irritable, cooperative or abrasive)
• Conscientiousness versus impulsiveness
  (responsible or undependable)
• Openness to experience versus resistance to new
  experience (curious, imaginative or unimaginative)

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Raymond B. Cattell

• Used factor analysis to separate
• and further understand 16
• personality factors.

• Warmth
• Reasoning
• Emotional Stability
• Dominance
• Liveliness
• Rule-Consciousness
• Social Boldness
• Sensitivity
• Vigilance
• Abstractedness
• Privateness
• Apprehension
• Openness to change
• Self-Reliance
• Perfectionism
• Tension