Psychology in Your Life: Key Concepts and Research Methods

Psychology

The scientific study of mental activity and behavior, which depend on the processing in the brain.

Empiricism

Conducting psychological research using an objective, evidence-based approach.

Intuition/Assumption

People order healthier meals when the calories are included on a fast-food menu.

Empirical evidence

Seeing calorie information on fast-food menus is not related to long-term changes in food purchases at those restaurants.

Sciences of learning

Psychological principles to improve your study skills, learning, and academic performance.

Critical thinking

Systematically evaluating information to reach conclusions based on the evidence presented.

Three steps in thinking critically

1. Is the source of the claim believable? 2. Is there strong evidence for the claim? 3. Do other believable sources agree about the claim?

Credible sources in psychology

Experts with an advanced degree in psychology and professionally published scientific journals.

Professionally published scientific journals

Can provide credible information.

Intuition

A personal, instinctive, gut feeling about something, but it is not scientific.

Beliefs

Personal convictions that are not necessarily factually accurate.

Opinions

Personal judgments about a topic that are not necessarily based on scientific evidence.

Five domains of psychology

Biological, Cognitive, Developmental, Social and personality, Mental and physical health.

Experimental psychology

Began when Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology laboratory in 1879.

Purpose of the psychology laboratory

To identify the basic parts, or structures, of the conscious mind.

Interdisciplinary approach

Some psychologists work collaboratively with researchers who specialize in topics studied in other domains.

Psychologists and K-pop

Psychologists working across social and personality, developmental, and cognitive domains have explored why people love K-pop.

Owning a pet

Psychologists have found that it improves our well-being.

Diversity in psychology

Refers to characteristics that make us seem different from one another in a specific context or situation.

Characteristics of diversity

Includes differences in race, ethnicity, biological sex, language, religion, gender, age, socioeconomic status, etc.

Mary Whiton Calkins

One of the first females to receive a doctorate degree in psychology in 1890.

Percentage of female psychologists in 2019

70 percent of psychologists identified themselves as women.

Francis Cecil Sumner

The first Black person in the United States to be awarded a doctoral degree in psychology in 1920.

Black doctoral recipients (1876-1920)

Sumner was one of only eleven Black people to earn a doctorate in any field, compared to the 10,000 White recipients.

Diverse Participants

Psychology research must include diverse participants.

Western Participants

96 percent of the participants in psychology research lived in Western, industrialized countries, which only represents 12 percent of the world's population.

Culture

Culture refers to the beliefs, values, rules, and customs that exist within a group of people who share a common language or environment.

Cultural Impact on Psychology

The culture of research participants can affect their psychological processes.

Diversity in Psychology Students

Only 27 percent of students earning a bachelor's degree in psychology in 2004 were people of color; by 2019, the percentage had increased to 44 percent.

Ethical Issues in Research

When psychologists conduct research, they must fully consider the ethical issues involved.

Ethics

Ethics are accepted standards of right and wrong that guide how today's psychologists should go about conducting research.

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

Groups of people responsible for reviewing proposed research to ensure that it meets the accepted standards of science and provides for the physical and emotional well-being of research participants.

Privacy in Research

Researchers must respect participants' privacy.

Confidentiality

Participants' information must be kept secret.

Informed Consent

Informed consent means that people must be told about the research and can choose whether to participate.

Protection from Harm

Researchers cannot ask participants to endure unreasonable pain or discomfort; risk/benefit ratio.

Scientific Method Goals

Science has four goals: Describing what happens, Predicting when it happens, Controlling what causes it to happen, Explaining why it happens.

Scientific Method

A systematic procedure of observing and measuring phenomena (observable things) to answer questions about what happens, when it happens, what causes it, and why.

Steps in the Scientific Method

Five steps in the scientific method: Formulate a theory, Develop a testable hypothesis, Test with a research method, Analyze the data, Share the results and conduct more research.

Formulate a Theory

A theory is an explanation of how some mental process or behavior occurs, formulated by performing a literature review.

Developing a Testable Hypothesis

A hypothesis is an attempt to answer a theory's questions and consists of a testable prediction that should be observed if the theory is correct.

Testing with a Research Method

Research is the systematic collection of data to prove or disprove a hypothesis.

Types of Research Methods

Three main types of research methods are descriptive, correlational, and experimental.

Analyzing Data

Analyzing the data is one of the steps in the scientific method.

Sharing Results

Sharing the results and conducting more research is a step in the scientific method.

Data analysis

Allows you to determine whether you found a significant effect.

Replication

Repeating an experiment to confirm results.

Descriptive methods

Provide a systematic and objective description of what is occurring.

Case studies

Involve intensive examination of a few unique people or organizations.

Observational studies

A specific type of descriptive method involving systematically assessing and coding observable behavior.

Hawthorne Effect

The phenomenon where individuals modify an aspect of their behavior in response to their awareness of being observed.

Observer bias

Bias that comes from researchers during observational studies.

Reactivity

Changes in behavior that occur when participants are aware they are being observed.

Self-reports

A descriptive method that consists of obtaining self-reports from research participants.

Questionnaires or surveys

Can be used to gather data from a large number of people in a short time.

Self-report bias

Must be considered when analyzing self-reports.

Correlational methods

Examine how variables are naturally related in the real world.

Degree of association

Measured by determining how two factors are related.

Correlation is not causality

Indicates that correlation does not imply one variable causes the other.

Directionality problem

Exists when researchers are uncertain which variable caused the other.

Third variable problem

Exists when researchers are uncertain if a cause should be attributed to a third variable.

Experimental methods

Research methods that test causal hypotheses by manipulating independent variables and measuring the effects on dependent variables.

Dependent variable

The variable that is affected by the manipulation of the independent variable.

Independent variable

The variable that the experimenter manipulates to examine its impact on the dependent variable.

Operational definitions of variables

Qualify (describe) and quantify (measure) variables so that they can be understood objectively.

Control group

A comparison group of participants who receive no intervention or one unrelated to the independent variable being investigated.

Experimental group

One or more treatment groups of participants who receive the intervention of the independent variable being investigated.

Control in experiments

Necessary to determine causality and minimize the influence of other variables.

Confound

Anything that affects a dependent variable and that may unintentionally vary between the study's different experimental conditions.

Population

The general group an experimenter wants to know.

Sampling

The process an experimenter uses to select people from the population to participate in a study.

Sample

The subset of people chosen to participate in a study.

Convenience sample

A sample consisting of people who are conveniently available for the study such as college students.

Random sample

A sample that fairly represents the population by allowing each member of the population an equal chance of being included.

Random assignment

Placing research participants in the conditions of an experiment such that each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to any level of the independent variable.