Sport Psych - Research & placebo

Can patient’s benefit from knowing they are taking placebos

Yes, it is shown that placebos are effective if a patient still knows they are taking a placebo.

Are placebos effe tive for elite athletes or just beginners?

Yes placebos are even effective for elite athletes as well as beginners.

What kind of evidence is there that placebos have direct effect on the brain?

release in brain’s own morphine (pain control) by tapping into the same network that opioids do on the brain; PGE2 neurotransmitter decreases which means less pain

pre-test sensitization

changes in before-after measures may be due to inhibition of initial performance

what experimental design is pre-test sensitization a potential problem?

before-after experiment

single-blind study

experimenters are not told the purpose of the study and not given information about the participants

double-blind study

experimenters are not told the purpose of the study and the subjects don’t know if they are receiving the real treatment or placebo

what are demand characteristics?

cues or clues given by the experimenter to the participant in the study - cues alert the participant of the hypothesis

what is the pact of ignorance?

participants does not admit to having any knowledge about the hypothesis or altering behavior

halo effect

contamination that occurs because the experimenter either actually knows or thinks they know something about the participant

hawthorne effect

reveals improvements in experimental treatments/conditions may be partly or entirely due to the special attention associated with these treatments

rosenthal effect

contamination that occurs because the experimenter actually knows or things they know something about the desired results

placebo effect

a substance or procedure that results in a genuine psychological or physiological effect but which lacks the active ingredients or therapeutic basis to cause those effects

what technique can be used to control pre-test sensitization

counterbalance or change the order of the treatments

why not use placebos sometimes?

placebos promote lack of credibility, effects of placebos are temporary, use of placebos may indirectly promote ergogenic drug use, costly, relying on it will not cure the problem

after only experiment

AKA cross sectional design

• randomly assign subjects to the groups

• control and experimental

• evaluate results

What is the problem with after only experiments

difference between the control and experimental groups could have been due to the chance (randomization failed)

before after experiment

AKA longitudinal design

• randomly assign to groups

• conduct a pre-test to ensure groups are similar

• administer the experiment and retest groups

• evaluate results

habituation

inhibition due to uncertainty with the procedure or environment

learning

improvement due to knowledge acquired between the pre and post test