CHAPTER 2:
PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
CHAPTER OUTLINE
• Why Is Research Important
• Approaches to Research
• Analyzing Findings
• Ethics
• Have you ever wondered whether the violence you see on television affects
your behavior?
• Are you more likely to behave aggressively after watching people behave
violently in dramatic situations or on screen?
• Or, could seeing fictional violence actually get aggression out of your system,
causing you to be more peaceful.
WHY IS RESEARCH IMPORTANT?
• Better understand the world
• For decisions in our personal lives and in the public domain
• Is it better to understand others’ behaviors through:
• intinution?
• Personal experience?
• Common sense?
OR.. Through
Scientific research:
• There is evidence to support a claim.
• Scientific knowledge is empirical: it is grounded, objective, tangible evidence that
can be observed time and time again, regardless of who is observing.
WHY IS RESEARCH IMPORTANT?
• Research
• makes difference between facts and opinions
Facts: observable realities
Opinions: personal judgements, conclusions or attitudes that may or may not be
accurate
In the scientific community facts can be established only using evidence collected
through empirical research.
WHY IS RESEARCH IMPORTANT?
• The Processes of Scientific Research
• Hypothesis: is a testable prediction about how the world will behave if our idea is
correct, and it is often worded as and if-then statement (eg. if I study all night, I will
get a passing grade on the test).
• Theory: is a well developed set of ideas that propose and explanation for observed
phenomena
• Theories are too complex to be tested all at once; instead, researchers create
hypotheses to test specific aspects of a theory. Eg. James Lange Theory
• Scientific Hypothesis is also falsifiable (capable of being shown to be incorrect). Eg
Freud
Use the
theory to
Create or modify Theory form a
the theory. hypothesis.
The scientific method of
research includes:
• Proposing hypotheses Observation Hypothesis
• Conducting research
• Creating or modifying
theories based on
results
Perform the Design a study
research
Research to test the
hypothesis
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
• There are many research methods available to psychologists in their efforts to
understand, describe, and explain behavior and the cognitive and biological
processes that underlie it.
• Each research method has unique strengths and weaknesses.
• May only be appropriate for certain types of research questions.
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
• Clinical or case studies
• in observational research, scientists are conducting a clinical or case study when they focus on
one person of just a few individuals. Eg. Krista and Tatiana
• Some scientists spend their entire careers studying just 10-20 individuals. They focus their
attention of a very small number of people and gain tremendous amount of insight into those
cases
• Advantage: The richness of information that is collected in clinical or case studies in unmatched by
any other research method.
• Disadvantage: As it turns out, the major benefit of this particular approach is also a weakness
because focusing the attention on a special group of people make it difficult to generalize any
observations to the larger population as a whole
• Generalizing refers to the ability to apply findings of a particular research project to larger
segments of society
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
• Observational study
• A study in which the researcher carefully and systematically observes and records behavior
without interfering with the behavior; it may involve either naturalistic or laboratory observation
• Naturalistic Observation
• Find out how people or other animals act in their normal social environments.
• Psychologists use naturalistic observation wherever people happen to be: at home, on playgrounds
or streets, or in schoolrooms, offices, and bars.
• Laboratory Observation
• Making observations in a laboratory setting where you have more control.
• Researchers can use cameras and recording devices, determine how many people will be
observed at once… etc.
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
• Advantages of observational studies: descriptive study: describes behavior
rather than explaining it
• Advantages of naturalistic observation: validity and accuracy of the information
collected unobtrusively in a natural setting.
• Disadvantages of naturalistic : they are often difficult to set up and control
• observer bias : people who act ass observers are closely involved in the research project may
unconsciously skew their observations to fit their research goals or expectations
• One shortcoming of laboratory observation is that the presence of researchers and
special equipment may cause participants to behave differently than they would in their
usual surroundings.
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
• Surveys
• List of questions to be answered by research participants, and can be delivered as
paper-and-pencil questionnaires, administered electronically, or conducted verbally.
• Surveys allow researchers to gather data from larger samples than may be afforded by
other research methods.
• Sample: a subset of individuals selected from a population
• Population: the overall group of individuals that the researchers are interested in
• Researchers study the samples and seek to generalize their findings to the population
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
• Advantages • Disadvantages
• Collect information from a larger • Given the greater number of people
sample of people involved, we are not able to collect
• Better generalizability the same depth of information on
each person that would be collected
in case studies
• People may not always give accurate
answers
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
• Archival research
• Using existing records to answer various research questions without interactin with a
single research participant. [Link] records
Advantages Disadvantages
Less investment of time and Questions have to tailored so they can be
money to collect data answered within the structure of the existing data
sets
No guarantee of consistency between the records
from one source to another which can make
comparing and contrasting problematic
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
• Longitudinal Research
• A research design in which data-gathering is administered repeatedly over and
extended period of time
• To see how people change over time
Advantages Disadvantages
Very informative • Require an incredible investment by the
researcher and research participants
• The results will not be known for a considerable
period of time
• Require a substantial financial investment
• The reduction in number of participants over
time due to dropouts (attrition)
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
• Cross-sectional research
• a researcher compares multiple segments of the population at the same time
• A group of 20-year old individuals compared to a cgroup of 30 year old individuals
and a group of 40 year old individuals
Advantages Disadvantages
Requires a shorter term investmenet Limited differences that exist between
the different generations that have
nothing to do with the age per se, but
rather reflect the social and cultural
experiences of different generations of
individuals make them different from one
another.
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
• Correlational Research
• Correlation: means that there is a relationship between two or more variables, but
this relationship does not necessarily imply cause and effect.
• When two variables are correlated, it simply means that as one variable changes, so
does the other.
Advantages Disadvantages
Allows us to discover the strength and Inability to establish causality (cause and
direction of relationships that exist effect)
between two variables
ANALYZING FINDINGS
• Correlational research
• Positive Correlation: means that the variables move in the same direction. Put
another way, it means that one variable increases so does the other, and conversely,
when one variable decreases so does the other. [Link] and hight
• Negative Correlation: means that the variables move in opposite directions. If two
variables are negatively correlated, a decrease in associated with an increase in the
other and vice versa. Eg. Hours of sleep and tiredness
• No correlation is not negative correlation. Eg. Hours of sleep and shoe size
ANALYZING FINDINGS
ANALYZING FINDINGS
• Illusory Correlations
• Or false correlations occur when people believe the relationships exist between two
things when no such relationship exists.
• Example: Many people believe that a full moon makes people behave oddly
• Reason: ignoring evidence that would tell us our hunch (guess) is false; this is know as
confirmation bias
ANALYZING FINDINGS
• Experiment
• A controlled test of hypotheses in which the researcher manipulates one variable
to discover its effect on another one
• To answer a research question
• Make statements about cause and effect
ANALYZING FINDINGS
• Designing an Experiment
• The most basic experimental design involves two groups.
• The two groups are designed to be the same except for one difference--- experimental manipulation
• Random sample: subset of larger population in which every member of the population has an equal chance of
being selected
• Random assignment: a procedure for assigning people to experimental and control groups on which each
individual has the same probability as any other of being assigned to a given group
• Experimental group: the group that gets experimental manipulation
• Control group: doesn’t get experimental manipulation
• Operational definition: a description of how we will measure our variables, and it is important in
allowing others understand exactly how and what a researcher measures in a particular experiment.
Eg. Define: violence
ANALYZING FINDINGS
• Designing and experiment
• Experimenter bias: refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might
skew the results of the study.
• Single- blind study: one of the groups (participants) are unaware as to which group
they are in (control or experimenter group) while the researcher who developed the
experiment know which participants are in which group
• Double-blind study: both the researchers and the participants are blind to group
assignments
• Placebo effect: simply expecting something to happen can actually make it happen
ANALYZING FINDINGS
• Independent and Dependent Variables
• Independent variable is manipulated or controlled by the experimenter
• Dependent variable is what the researcher measures to see how much effect the
independent variable had
ANALYZING FINDINGS
• Independent and Dependent Variables
ANALYZING FINDINGS
• Statistical Analysis:
• Is conducted to find out if there are meaningful differences between two groups
• Determines how likely any difference found is due to chance (and thus not
meaningful).eg: if we repeat and experiment 100 times, we would expect to find the
same results at least 95 times out of 100
• Reporting Research:
• Scientific journals generally publish peer-reviewed journal articles aimed at an
audience of professionals and scholars who are actively involved in research
themselves.
ANALYZING FINDINGS
• Reliability and Validity
• Reliability: refers to the ability to consistently produce a given result. In the context of
psychological research, this would mean that any instruments or tools used to collect
data do so in consistent ways
• Validity: refers to the extent to which a given instrument or tool accurately measures
what it’s supposed to measure.
ETHICS
• Informed consent:
• Form provides a written description of what participants can expect during the experiment,
including potential risks and implications of the research.
• Less participants know that their involvement is completely voluntary and can be
discontinued without penalty at any time
• Guarantees that any data collected in the experiment will remain completely confidential
• must warn against mental or physical harms/ risks and give them an opportuinity to
withdraw at any time
• Must know enough about a study to make an intelligent decision about whether to
participate
• Where research participants are under age of 18, the parent or legal guardians are required
to sign the informed consent form
ETHICS
• Deception:
• Involves purposely misleading experiment participants in order to maintain the
integrity of the experiment, but not to the point where the deception could be
considered harmful
• Debriefing:
• upon conclusion of the study– complete, honest information about the purpose of
the experiment, how the data collected will be used, the reasons why deception was
necessary, and information about how to obtain additional information about the
study
ETHICS
• Research Animals:
• Used in only a small minority of psychological studies but are crucial to progress in
some fields, especially biological psychology and behavioral research
• Require humane and ethical treatment
• Researchers must design their experiments to minimize any pain or distress
experienced by animals serving as research subjects.