Module 1: Experimental Psychology

Nonscientific approaches of acquiring knowledge

Empirical methods, rational method, method of authority, method of intuition, and method of tenacity.

Empirical Methods

Observation or direct sensory experience

Rational Method

Logical reasoning (uses facts, or assumptions) to form a conclusion

Method of Authority

Relies on information or answers from an expert in the field

Method of Intuition

Based on hunch or gut feeling

Method of Tenacity

Holding beliefs based on tradition or superstition

Definition of Research in the context of the scientific method

A systematic inquiry, varying in technique and method, directed towards the clarification and/or resolution of problems or question posed by an individual, utilizes scientific method.

Scientific Method

An approach to acquiring knowledge that involves formulating specific questions and systematically finding answers through direct and indirect observations.

Steps involved in the scientific method

1. Observation 2. Formation of Hypothesis 3. Creation of a Testable Prediction 4. Data Collection and Evaluation 5. Comparison of the collected data with hypothesis.

Observation

Are commonly generalized through inductive reasoning that uses a small set of observations as basis for the formation of a general statement

Formation of Hypothesis

Identifying other factors (variables) associated with the observation, possible explanation for the observation which describes the relationship among variables

Creation of a Testable Prediction

Applying the hypothesis to a specific, observable, real-world situation, deductive reasoning (uses a general statement to conclude about specific examples)

Science is Public

Science must be public to allow for verification and scrutiny by the scientific community.

Data Collection and Evaluation

Evaluating the prediction using direct observation, actual research or data collection

Comparison of the collected data with hypothesis

The data may support, refute, or refine the hypothesis

Science is Objective

Science aims to be free from personal biases and subjective influences.

The main components of the research process

- CDEAD

1. Conceptualization 2. Design 3. Empirical 4. Analytical 5. Dissemination.

Conceptualization

Topic selection, literature review, and objective framing.

Design

Planning phase, research plan formulation, and detailed procedure.

Empirical Phase

Data gathering and collection through observations, surveys, and interviews.

Analytical Phase

Preparing and assessing the data using thematic maps, transcripts, and statistical analyses.

Dissemination

Communication and utilization of results, typically through a research manuscript.

Common sources of research topics

Personal interests, casual observation, reports of others' observations, practical problems or questions, and behavioral theories.

Primary Source

A firsthand report of observations or results written by individuals who conducted the research and made the observations; typically published in scientific journals

- examples: empirical journal articles, theses, dissertations, conference presentations

Secondary Source

Description or summary of another person's work

- examples: books and textbooks, review articles or meta-analyses, introductory section of research reports, newspaper and magazine articles

Purpose of Secondary Sources

1. Gain a general familiarity with the current research in your specific area of interest; find a small set of research studies that will serve as the basis for your own research idea

2. identify a knowledge gap

3. provides introductory elements that should be logically organized to support and justify the purpose of the study

Variables

Characteristics or conditions that change or vary between individuals

APA ethical guidelines

Standards set by the American Psychological Association to ensure ethical practices in psychological research.

Nonexperimental Research

- Variables observed as they naturally occur

- All variables considered dependent

- Example: Relationship between diabetes and genetic heritage

Experimental Research

1. Independent Variable (IV)

2. Dependent Variable (DV)

3. Extraneous Variables

• Confounding Variables - type of extraneous variable that distorts the true relationship

- Example: Activity level (IV) and weight gain (DV), with age as confounding variable

Independent Variable (IV)

Presumed cause; manipulated (X variable)

- Example: Effect of nutrition (IV) on reading ability, Effects of classical music (IV) to reading ability

Dependent Variable (DV)

Presumed effect; measured (Y variable)

- Example: Effect of nutrition on reading ability (DV), Effects of classical music to reading ability (DV)

Extraneous Variables

Variables that are not intentionally measured but can influence the outcome of the research.

Confounding Variables

Type of extraneous variable that distorts the true relationship

- Example: Activity level (IV) and weight gain (DV), with age as confounding variable

Types of variables in research

Independent variables, dependent variables, and controlled variables.

Ethical Concerns in Research

Issues related to the treatment of participants, informed consent, confidentiality, and potential harm.

Research Ethics

- the responsibility of the researchers to be honest and respectful to individuals who are and will be involved in the research process and the reports of the results of the study

- rules of conduct when in carrying out a research

- governed by a set of ethical guidelines that assists in making proper decisions and actions (i.e., American Psychological Association and British Psychological Society)

Basic categories of ethical responsibility

(1) responsibility to ensure the welfare and dignity of the individuals

(2) responsibility to ensure that public reports are accurate and honest

Nuremberg Code (Nuremberg Trials, 1947)

Ten guidelines for ethical treatment of human participants

Examples of research with unethical treatment of participants (after Nuremberg Trial)

(1) in 1963, unsuspecting patients have been injected with liver cancer cells

(2) Tuskegee Study - 400 men had been left to suffer with syphilis long after a cure was available

(3) Milgram's Obedience Study

Hypothesis in Research

A proposed explanation or prediction that can be tested through research.

Key characteristics of a research hypothesis

A research hypothesis must be testable, logical, refutable, and positive.

Testable

It must be observable and measurable.

Logical

It should be grounded in existing knowledge.

Refutable

It allows for the possibility of contrary results.

Positive

It asserts the existence of something.

The purpose of research regarding variables

To explain variance, which refers to natural or manipulated differences.

A historical event that prompted a shift to formal ethical guidelines in research

The brutal experiments conducted in Nazi concentration camps during WWII.

Three principles outlined in the Belmont Report

1. Principle of respect for persons (autonomy) - consent. 2. Principle of beneficence - benefits over risks. 3. Principle of justice - nonexploitative selection and treatment procedures.

American Psychological Association (APA) ethical guidelines

Guidelines that govern the conduct of researchers to ensure ethical treatment of participants.

NO HARM (PROTECTION OF PARTICIPANTS)

- The researcher is obligated to protect the participant from physical or psychological harm

- Identify and minimize risks or whenever necessary, the risk of harm must be justified (i.e., scientific benefits outweigh temporary harm or greater harm is likely to occur unless some minor risk is accepted)

- Participants must be informed of potential risks

- Psychological harm is more common during and after the study; hence, the researcher should:

(1) explain what will be done and why

(2) provide a complete explanation and justification for the research after the study is completed

- Researcher must monitor the well-being of the participants and halt the study at any sign of trouble

› example: Zimbardo's Prison/Guard Experiment

Clinical Equipoise

In certain studies, participants are randomly assigned to different treatment groups for comparison; if clinician knows that that one of the treatment conditions are inferior to others, then the participants are denied the best possible treatment and ethical principle of no harm is violated

- compare equally preferred treatments:

a. there is honest uncertainty about which treatment is best

b. there is honest professional disagreement among experts concerning which treatment is best

Informed Consent

- human participants should be given complete information about the research and their roles in it before agreeing to participate

- most studies provide consent form

Components of informed consent

information, understanding, voluntary participation

Information

- Inform participants what will be done in the study but do not explain why

- Inform participants of potential risks

Understanding

- Assent form (special population) and consent form (guardian)

- question must be answered in a manner that the participants would be able to understand

Deception

Researcher purposefully withholds information or misleads participants with regards to information about the study

Passive Deception

The withholding or omitting of information; the researcher intentionally does not tell participants some information about the study

Active Deception

- presenting of misinformation about the study to participants

- most common form: misleading participants about the specific purpose of the study

- (a) state an explicit lie about the study, (b) give false information about stimulus materials, (c) give false feedback about a participant's performance, or (d) use confederates to create a false environment

Debriefing

A post-experimental explanation of the purpose of a study that is given to a participant.

Purposes of Debriefing

- Conveying what the study was really all about, if deception was used.

- Counteracting or minimizing any negative effects of the study

- Conveying the educational objective of the research

- Explaining the nature of and justification for any deception used

- Answering any question the participants has

Things that influence debriefing effectively

- Participants' suspicious

- Nature of the deception (less effective with active deception)

- Sincerity of the experimenter

- time interval between the end of the study and the delivery of the debriefing (the sooner the better)

Confidentiality

- practice of keeping strictly secret and private the information or measurements obtained from an individual during a research study

- benefits:

(1) participants are protected from embarrassment or emotional stress from public exposure

(2) researchers are more likely to obtain willing and honest participants

Anonimity

Practice of ensuring that an individual's name is not directly associated with the Information or measurements obtained from that individual either during the course of the study or in the written report of the research results

Collection Information can be categorized as

- Attitudes and opinions

- Measures of performance

- Demographic characteristics

Fraud

- explicit effort to falsify or misrepresent data

- fabrication and/or changes made in the data to support the hypothesis

Error

- honest mistake that occurs in the research process

- check and re-check the data to minimize mistakes

Reasons for Committing Fraud

1. competitive nature of an academic career

2. obtain significant findings for publication and research

3. need for success and admiration

Safeguards against Fraud

Replication, Peer Review, Data Verification through the sharing of research data

Replication

Repetition of a research study using the same basic procedures used in the original

Peer Review

Takes place when a researcher submits a research article for publication

Plagiarism

- unethical representation of someone else's ideas or words as one's own

- reference citations must be included

Guidelines to prevent Plagiarism

(1) take complete notes, including complete citation of the source

(2) identify the source of any ideas, words, information that are not one's own

(3) identify any direct quotes by quotation marks at the beginning and end of the quotes, and indicate where you got them

(4) be careful about para-phrasing; use one's own words instead, or use direct quotes

(5) include a complete list of references at the end of the paper

(6) if in doubt about whether a citation is necessary, cite the source

Direct Quotations

(1) direct quotes are used very infrequently; they should be used only when it is absolutely necessary; use of extensive quoting in a paper constitutes lazy writing

(2) when paraphrasing or directly quoting, always include citations as a form of credit

(3) paraphrasing entails rewording the meaning or content, not simply repeating it

Population

- entire set of individuals of interest to a researcher

- results are generalized to a population

Sample

a set of individuals selected from a population, usually intended to represent the population in a research study

Target Population

- group defined by the researcher's specific interests

- typically share one characteristic

Accessible Population

a portion of the target population consisting of individuals who are accessible to be recruited as participants in the study

Representativeness

The extent to which the characteristics of the sample accurately reflect the characteristics of the population

Representative Sample

- sample with the same characteristics as the population

- generalizability may be limited by the specific characteristics of the accessible population

Biased Sample

- sample with different characteristics from those of the population

- may occur by chance or through biased sampling

Selection Bias/Sampling Bias

- participants are selected in a manner that increases the probability of obtaining a biased sample

- sampling procedure favors the selection of some individuals over others

Law of Large Numbers

The larger the sample size, the more likely it is that values obtained from the sample are similar to the actual values of the population

Research Ethics in choosing sample size

If a sample is too large, then it is unnecessarily using extra subjects or participants

Probability Sampling

(1) odds of selecting a particular individual are known and can be calculated

(2) each individual from the population has a specifiable probability (equal chance) of selection

(3) random process or random selection: a process that produces an unpredictable outcome from a set of possible outcomes wherein each possible outcome is equally likely to occur

Non-Probability Sampling

(1) odds of selecting a particular individual are not known due to the population size

(2) individual probabilities cannot be known; no equal chances

(3) increased chances for sampling bias and thus, biased sample

Simple Random Sampling

- most basic

- each individual has an equal chance of being selected

- each individual is independent of others

- process:

(1) define the population

(2) list all the members

(3) use a random process

- principal methods:

(1) sampling with replacement

- selected individual is recorded as a sample then returned for the next selection

- probability is constant

(2) sampling without replacement

- selected individual is recorded and is removed from the next selection

- probability changes

Systematic Sampling

- begins by listing all individuals and randomly picking a starting point

- uses the kth interval formula

K = N/ n

K = interval width

N = population

- less random than simple random sampling but produces higher representativeness

Stratafied Random Sampling

- useful when population is divided into subgroups/strata

- each of the different subgroups is adequately represented

- identify specific subgroups select equal-sized random samples using the steps from simple random sampling; combine subgroup samples

- distorted picture of the population as certain subgroups may be underrepresented

- Proportionate Stratified Random Sampling

- the composition of sample matches the composition of the population

Cluster Sampling

- useful when individuals are clustered in pre-existing groups

- random selection of groups

- advantages:

(1) relatively quick and easy

(2) measurement of Individuals can be done in groups

- disadvantages:

(1) independence of individual scores

Convenience Sampling

- researchers use as participants those individuals who are easy to get

- selection based on availability and willingness to respond

- weak due to limited knowledge about respondents and lack of randomization

- little control over representativeness; strong possibility of bias

- easier, less expensive, more timely

Snowball Sampling

- referral system

- initial sample members are asked to refer other individuals who meet the criteria

- people who share the same characteristics know each other

- useful for participants who are hard to find

Purposive Sampling

- judgmental, selective or subjective sampling

- relies on the judgment of the researcher in selecting participants

- includes the use of a set of criteria

Quota Sampling

- useful when population is divided into subgroups/strata

- subgroups/strata are usually based on variables that are relevant to the study

- may also use proportionate stratified random sampling to ensure that the composition of the sample matches the composition of the population

Strategies to ensure confidentiality of data

(1) no names or other identification appears on data records

(2) researchers use a coding system to keep track of which participant names go with which sets of data

Components of Informed Consent Forms

overview, description of procedures, risks and inconveniences, benefits, costs and economic considerations, confidentiality, alternative treatments, voluntary participation, questions and further information, and signature lines

Overview

Goals of the study; why is the study being conducted; who is responsible for the study and its execution

Description of Procedures

Clarification of the experimental conditions, assessment procedures, and requirements of the participants.

Risks/Inconveniences

Statement of any physical and psychological risks and demands to be placed on the participants

Benefits

What the participants can reasonably hope to gain from participation (psychological, physical, and monetary benefits)