PSYC 3650 Exam 1 study guide

What year did Wundt set up for the first laboratory dedicated to applying the scientific method to psychology?

1879

Why should you care about research if you plan to be a practicing clinician or counselor?

Research helps inform better treatments

The empiricism canon of the scientific method states that new knowledge is gained from ______.

 

observations

The parsimony canon of the scientific method states that ______.

the simplest explanation of a phenomenon is most likely to be correct

A psychologist investigating the research question “What type of work environment increases productivity of employees?” is most likely conducting ______ research.

applied

Which if the following is an example of a descriptiveresearch question?

What percentage of people living in China have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder?

A literature review is ________.

a detailed review of past research in a topic area

In a journal article, the abstract is:

a brief (~150 words) summary of the entire journal article

According to APA guidelines, the participants section is a subsection of the ________ section.

method

Articles that have not been peer reviewed are typically __________.

 

less reliable sources of information

Informed consent involves ______.

informing participants about what they will experience in a study

The first APA ethical code was based on ______.

the Nuremberg code

Adherence to ethical guidelines in psychological studies with humans is currently monitored by ______.

a review board at each institution where research is conducted (IRB)

Fair selection of participants is covered by the ______ principle.

justice

Forcing participants to participate in research without their consent is ______.

coercion

Prior to 1879 mental and behavioral disturbances were caused by what??

Evil spirits and demons

Prior to 1879 treatments used for mental and behavioral disturbances were??

Trepanation and exorcism

Prior to 1879 there were places that the mentally disturbed people went. where did they go??

Freak shows for profit and Insane Asylums

What happened in 1879?

The first psychology laboratory was made

Who made the first psychology laboratory and where was it established

Wilhelm Wundt, Leipzig Germany in 1879

Examples of research that has made a difference

Identification of mental illness, use of medication to treat Schizophrenia, Bipolar and more, use of therapies to treat depression, PTSD, and Anxiety

Milgrams Obedience studies

Zimbardo’s Prison study

When did Zimbardo’s prison study happen?

1970s

Why Should I Care About Research If IDon’t Want to Do Research in My Career?

It is the foundation of the field of psychology,

If you want to effectively treat a disorder, you MUST understand underlying cause of disorder

Better understanding =Better Treatment

what are the Knowledge of psychological research?

– Helps deeper understanding of behavior

– Results in more effective treatments

Truths about common Misconceptions

Twinkies have a shelf life of 45 days (not decades)

People use way more than 10% of their brain

How do we know things (hint there are 4)

Intuition, Deduction, Authority, Observation

Intuition

based on previous knowledge example poker hands

Deduction

the act of using knowledge to make inferences, Example If: Then reasonings

Authority

a source of information that is most likely accurate, Example is GOT: “it is known” another example is I want to know what my pancreas does. I know that my pancreas produces hormones important for digestion because that is what my high school biology teacher told me.

Observation

direct gathering of information

How Psychologists Use the Scientific Method? Primary facets or canons of scientific method

– Empiricism
– Determinism
– Parsimony

– Testability

Empiricism

• Gaining knowledge through systematic observation/Scientific method

• Observation provides more accurate understanding than other methods

• Show Me The DATA!!!

Determinism

• All phenomena have identifiable causes

• Studies conducted to understand factors that cause certain behaviours

• Assumption: behaviors have a specific cause or set of causes

Parsimony

• Simple explanations are more likely to be correct

• Developing complex explanations only when research doesn’t support simple explanations

-Clever Hans the horse

Testability

• Only ideas that can be tested through observation are examined by scientific method

• Confirmation bias

• What news stories we are fed by Google/FaceBook/Twitter, etc.

Testability

• Falsification

• Religions
• Sigmund Freud’s ideas difficult to test using scientific method

• Making predictions

• “Economicinequalitycausesracism”–canit account for past racism AND predict future racism?

Basic research

to understand fundamental process of behavior, how they operate

• Why do we dream?

Applied research

to answer questions related to solving real-world problems
• Testing treatments for sleep problems

Example: Researchers showed that writing to-do list helps people fall asleep faster than making a list of completed tasks

The science of psychology has only been around

140 years

Clinicians/Counselors rely on psychological research to improve their practice

What’s the difference between a systematic review and meta analysis ?

A systematic review is a summary of ANY study
A meta analysis is data driven

Developing a Research Question, First step in a research process

• Questions can be real world problems • e.g. “How can we reduce racial bias?”

• Questions can be descriptive or causal

• e.g. “What percentage of Americans are vegetarians?”

• e.g. “Is a vegetarian diet healthier?”
  • Behavior or cause of behavior is questioned

• e.g. “What are some predictors of developing an eating disorder?”

Developing a Research Question

• “Is a vegetarian diet healthier?” noooo

. Do vegetarians have a lower average BMI?” yesss

Developing a Research Question

• Conduct literature review before preparing questions  

  • That way we don’t do the EXACT same thing as someone else  

what helps find existing info on topic???

Literature review

what should add to what is already known

new studies

How to Conduct a Literature Review? What is the primary step?

Primary step is searching databases of peer- reviewed research

what are some databases of PEER REVIEWED research??

• PsycInfo

-This is the best one, only peer reviewed, similar to google easy to use
• PubMed and ERIC

• Google Scholar

What is PsycINFO

• Useful database for conducting literature review

• Contains articles, books, and book chapters

How to conduct PsycINFO research?

• Simple way is searching for “keyword”

• Finding the right keyword can be tricky

• Start broad, using 1-2 keywords

• If too many results, add more keywords to narrow your search

• Can also search by Author

• And/Or feature

• Search Options
• e.g. Publication Date

• May want to filter out dissertations

Details of an Individual Search Result

• Authors, Source, Abstract, etc.
• Save, Email features
• Cite feature

• Find Full Text

• Interlibrary Loan (ILL):

what are PubMed and ERIC?

• Contains articles with topics that overlap with psychology

• Research in biological and medical areas can be found

• Search by topic, author, journal with year, and language of publication

• PubMed is third best, ERIC is mid  

• Can access both through UNT. EDU. library 

Other Sources

• Google Scholar can be used to find journals

• Search engines may yield non-peer-reviewed articles

• Wikipedia provides unverified information
• Psychology conferences provide most up-to-

date information

Three Types of Publications

Research Articles

Reviews

-meta analysis and systematic review

books and book chapters

The Nuremberg Code

a set of 10 principles that govern the ethics of human experimentation. It was created in 1947 by American judges during the Nuremberg trials of Nazi doctors who performed experiments on concentration camp prisoners. 

Sections or structure of a research articles  

• Abstract 150 summary of entire paper 

• intro  

• methods 

• 4 subsets in methods are participants (number and types), design of the study, materials (and apparatus) used, procedure that participants went through

• Results 

• discussion 

• conclusion 

The bar for Proven fact 

• SHOW ME THE DATA to support  

• You cannot prove but only support  

Where to go to research peer-reviewed articles  

• Psyc info, google, pub med 

Canons of scientific method 

• Testability 

• Parsimony is like the easiest or most likely is prob the right answer 

• Determinism- nothing happens by chance  

Why is confirmation bias important  

• Looking for an answer 

• Only want to  look for answers that support or confirms our beliefs  

Descriptive versus causal research questions 

• Descriptive is like how many UNT students are atheist 

• Causal is like does my new therapy cause decreases in depression 

Ethical violations in past research studies  

• Stanford prison experiment  

• Milgram studies  

Special ethical considerations when conducting research with animals  

• Animals have their own IRB and special questions  

IRBs and how they operate  

Institutional Review board, any place that does research has one  

WUNDT  

Wilhelm Wundt that man that made the first PSYC lab in 1879 in Germany

Why is research methods required class for all psych majors  

Because it helps you be a better person, student and a skilled consumer of scientific evidence  

one of the 3 types of publications

Research Articles

Research article may describe one or more studies

• Researcher submits article to psychological journal to publish it

• Article is reviewed by experts (Peer review)

Meta-Analysis

A study that combines results from multiple studies

Structure of Research Article:

Abstract

• Short summary of the study which includes:

– General topic
– Description of methodology
– Results of study

– What was learned

Structure of Research Article:

Introduction

• Introduction to topic of study

• Gives reader background info necessary to

  understand the current study(ies)

• Justification of present study

• Problem that study addresses

• Hypotheses

Structure of Research Article:

Method

• Info about how study was conducted • Has four subsections

– Participants—number and type
– Design of the study
– Materials (and apparatus) used
– Procedure that participants went through

Structure of Research Article:

Results

• Author provides summary of data

• Provides description of findings

Structure of Research Article:

Discussion

• Compares findings to predictions
• If predictions are correct, what is learned is

shown
• Explanation provided if predictions are wrong

. summary of main findings in regular words

Structure of Research Article:

References

• Alphabetical list of references for all cited papers

Structure of Research Article:

Multiple Experiment/Study Articles

• Some articles have multiple studies

• Introduction, method, result for each study

• Separate as well as general discussion of results

. this is only for multiple study

One of the 3 types of publication that

Summarize past findings (do not present new findings)
Some journals are dedicated to review papers, often present new theories

• Only reviewing a particular article  

• Similar to the intro in a research paper just longer 

reviews

Systematic review

summarizes ALL papers in a particular area 

• Must include ALL PAPERS EVEN DIFFERENT languages, from different countries  

• This makes systematic reviews very rare  

• Similar to Meta-analysis but this only summarizes while a Meta-analysis adds new information 

one of the 3 types of publications

• Summarizes past findings  

• More extensive than a single paper  

• Sometimes includes new data  

  • New data just means never been published  

    • Could even be 10 years old but if it's never been published its new data, no set amount of time

Books and Book chapters

• Using the literature review to make hypotheses:

• Primary goal of literature review  

• Avoid duplicating previous research  

  • Previous research can even be something that is very similar to your research question  

  • You can do the same research (replicate) after multiple years  

  • No set amount of years  

  • Good research gets replicated multiple times 

  • Try to add to new information to the replicated research  

   

• Make informed hypotheses 

 

We cannot prove but only support hypotheses!

• Research questions should be relevant to current knowledge 

• Research questions in a field 

• Literature reviews are the foundation to achieving the two goals above  

ABA and BA master degrees are very competitive  

Historical Context for Ethical Guidelines

• Difficult for researchers to be objective about effects of a study on participants

• Ill treatment of participants in the name of research raised questions against ethics of research

Nuremberg Code

• Formed as a result of learnings of Nazi experiments

• Focussed on issues like

– Informed consent
– Coercion

the nuremberg code stated that??

– Participation is voluntary

– Participants must be informed about risks

– Research must contribute to scientific knowledge

– Research must be conducted by qualified researchers

The Nuremberg code makes sure that researchers must

– Avoid unnecessary harm

– Take precautions against risks

– Ensure benefits outweigh the risks

– Terminate study if unforeseen harm is caused

– Allow participants to discontinue upon will

What does APA Code stand for

American psychological association

The APA code has its own what?

ethical standards

APA code is similar to what

Nuremberg code but the APA includes two additional guidelines

– Researchers must reduce harm by deception

– Ensure confidentiality of participant data

milgrim obedience study

happened in 1963

Conducted by Stanley milgrim to answer questions raised during nuremberg trails

participants recruited to administer a memory task to a condederate

study concluded that presence of authority greatly influences people’s behaviors

electric shocks

Current Ethical Guidelines for Human Participants Research

Respect for persons

.Provide information about the study before it begins

• Obtain consent from participants
• Give participants opportunity to ask questions
• Inform participants of right to withdraw

.participants must be informed of their right to withdraw from a study

Current Ethical Guidelines for Human Participants Research

Beneficence

• Reduce risk of harm to participants

• Benefits of study must outweigh risks

• Confidentiality must be maintained

• Inhumane treatment of participants is never justified

Current Ethical Guidelines for Human Participants Research

Justice

• Selection of participants must be fair

• All participants must receive benefits of research

• No participant may be selected for harmful research

Milgram obedience study

• Method:

  -Participants believed they were administering electric shocks to a learner.

  -Shock levels increased with each wrong answer, up to a lethal level.

• Findings:

  -67% of participants administered what they thought were lethal shocks.

• Ethical Violations:
  -Participants experienced extreme psychological distress.

  -Violated the principle of informed withdrawal.

  -Raised questions about research ethics and the balance of risks and benefits

• 67% of participants went 'all' the way to kill the person  

• The reason it was so bad was because you DID NOT let the participants to leave the study when they wanted to  

Stanford prison experiment

• Background:
  -Simulated prison environment to study
  effects on behavior.

• Method:

  -Participants were randomly assigned as guards or prisoners.

  -Intended to last two weeks, but stopped after six days due to severe distress

• Ethical concerns

  -Participants experienced extreme psychological distress and dehumanization.

  -Raised questions about the ethics of simulating real-life distress in research.

Tuskegee Syphilis study

• Background:

-Examined the effects of untreated syphilis.

• Method:
  - Participants were misled about receiving treatment.
  - Even after penicillin was discovered as a cure, it was withheld.

• Ethical Violations:

  -Lack of informed consent.

  -Deception and withholding of treatment.

  -Resulted in mistrust in the medical community particularly among African Americans

Nazi medical experiments

• Background:

  -Conducted during WWII, involved inhumane treatment and experimentation.

• Ethical Violations:
  -Extreme violations of human rights and ethics.

  -Conducted without consent, often resulting in death or severe harm.

Some of the experiments

-twins

-Bone, muscle, and nerve transplants

-freezing

-sea water

-high altitude

Unt 731 experiements

It was done by imperial Japanese army during WW2

-General Shiro Ishii (combat doctor) would do the experiments

-Criminals, political prisoners, homeless, handicapped where the test subjects

-they would remove organs, limbs on live patients

-Injected with typhoid, bubonic plague, forced syphilis (via rape)

-Women impregnated and given diseases

~500,000k dead