Psych - development module - Day 3

Experiment

What we would consider the gold standard to research and allows us to say that a certain change in the independent variable will cause a certain change in the dependent variable

What makes it an experiment?

The ability to control the independent variable and its levels and be able to randomly assign your participants to those levels

Quasi-experiment

Some component of the independent variable that you don’t have control of as the researcher

Cross-sectional

Find different groups with a common age (look at a bunch if people who are 24)

Longitudinal

Select one group of participants and follow them as they age (visit when 14,24, and 34)

Field study

Rather than doing research in lab take it to the real world and see how the concept works when it is exposed to all the unpredictability of the real world

Naturalistic observation

Where you as the researcher unobtrusively observe the participants in their natural environment without them knowing they’re being watched but in a place where privacy is not guaranteed

Case study

Examining one person or a small group of people in order to gain some sort of understanding of a psychological concept

Survey

Asking people questions and getting their responses (quick method of research and you can get a large group of participants)

Between-subjects

Expose participants to one level of the independent variable (quicker for participants but need more participants overall to cancel out any chance)

Within-subjects

Expose one participant to multiple levels of the independent variable (longer period of time)

Reliability

If i give the same person the same task, measure, or survey i will get the same response across repeated tasks

Validity

I am measuring what i think i am measuring

Internal validity

How much control i have over my study as the researcher (higher levels of internal validity allow me to make stronger connections between my variables)

External validity

How similar my study is to the real world

What is typical with internal and external validity

Typically if i have more of one i have less than the other

What is the relationship between validity and reliability?

In order to have validity you have to have reliability

Sample

The participants that actually participate in the study

Population

Who I want to apply my results to

What do you want when it come to sample and population

You want your sample to be similar to your population

What does the acronym WEIRD stand for?

The participants come from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Richer, or Democratic societies

What is wrong with data collected from the WEIRD participants?

The data collected from WEIRD participants does not always represent the characteristics of the general population

Self-selection

People select themselves into specific studies that fit into their interests

Why does self selection prevent accurate research?

Someone who is terrified of heights wouldn’t sign up for a study that involves heights so we don’t know how those people would react and if someone is forced into a study they would behave differently

Descriptive Statistics

statistics that describe your data

What are examples of descriptive statistics?

• mean

• Median

• Mode

What are examples of inferential statistics?

• T-test

• F-stat

• P value

What is the psych p value?

0.5 - there is a 5 percent chance that our differences are due to pure chance (higher than 0.5 - not a significant difference between our groups, lower than 0.5 - there is a significant difference between our groups)

Correlation strength

The stronger the correlation the stronger the relationship between the variables (the further from zero the stronger my correlation)

Correlation direction

Positive correlation = my variables are moving together

Negative correlation = my variables are moving in different directions

Distributions

Different distributions tell us the proportions of our data

Measures of variance

How much range there is in our data

Fat distribution = more variance

Thin distribution = less variance

Informed consent

Any participant must be made aware of any risks they might encounter by participating in your study

Respect for persons

No one can be forced into participating in your study (psychical or emotional)

Beneficence

The benefits need to outweigh any potential costs when it comes to our study

Inferential statistics

Allow us to determine if there is a significant difference between our groups

Deception

Might have to tell a small lie in order to benefit the experiment

Confidentiality

Both the information you give in the study and your participation in the study is confidential

Fairness

Any benefits that one group of participants get from the study need to be made for all participants (only applies for after the study)

Debriefing

Telling the participants what they did in the study and why they did it (also where you would come clean from any deception)

What is different about animal research

There are more rules and regulations associated with it then human research

Misconduct

Someone does something that is unethical with the data they collect

Plagiarism

Claiming someone’s work as your own

Falsification

Taking data that you collected and altering that data usually to fit with your hypothesis

Fabrication

You are completely making up data

Observer bias

Bias on the experimenters part in their interactions with the participants

Demand characteristics

Behaviors on the experiments part that are being picked up on and influencing their behaviors or response

Blindness

If you as the experimenter don’t know what group your participant is in you can’t influence them

Hawthorne effect

The idea that people behave differently when they are aware that they are being observed

Social desirability bias

People may answer questions in a way that is socially acceptable but not what they actually think

Bogus pipeline

Make people believe that they will be caught in a lie to get people to tell the truth

Confound/third variable

Sometimes what’s driving the relationship between two variables is a third unmeasured variable

What is an example of confound/third variable?

Li (1975) - number of electrical appliances and birth control use (third variable was wealth: if i have the money to buy electrical appliances i have the money to buy birth control but here is no connection between electrical appliances and birth control use)

Universal perspective

All humans develop in a similar way

Ecological perspective

Emphasizes the effect that environment and culture can have on human development

Teratogens

Potentially dangerous components that the fetus is exposed to during development that can impact later development (most common is alcohol)

Critical period

If some sort of behavior or trait is not developed by a certain point it will never develop (it is critical that it develops during a certain time period)

Sensitive period

It is easier for a behavior or trait to develop but it can still develop after this time period

Stage theories

In order to move to the next stage of development the previous stage must be completed

Habituation

A baby eventually becomes bored of the same stimulant and if their attention is drawn to something they will view it as a new stimulant

Social clock

Cultural definitions of the right development time to achieve a certain milestone

Infantile amnesia

When people cannot recall memories from their early childhood