Learn: Psychology around us: Chapter 2

2 core beliefs of science

1. The universe operates according to certain natural laws

2. Such laws are discoverable and testable

scientific method

a process that moves from making controlled, direct observations to generating progressively broader conclusions and tests and attempting to disprove hypotheses

deductive reasoning

Starting with general ideas then applying those ideas to specific situations

Sir francis Bacon and deductive reasoning...

- first to question the approach

- felt that _______ was too susceptible to the thinkers biases - personal beliefs or conventional wisdom that a particular thinker mistakenly accepts a broad, basic truths

inductive reasoning

Starts with specific observations and uses them to form a general rule or theory.

empirical

able to be tested in objective ways

theories

ideas about laws that govern phenomena

hypothetic-deductive reasoning

Make a hypothesis, then use deductive logic to test predictions through experiments.

hypotheses

A testable prediction or educated guess about the relationship between variables.

3 parts of deductive reasoning

- theory

- predictions

- observations/ experiment

3 parts of inductive reasoning

- observation/ experiment

- predictions

- theory

3 parts of hypo. deductive reasoning

- hypothesis

- observation/ experiment

- hypothesis supported or not supported: theory built

Scientific approach steps

1. make observations

2. develop hypotheses

3. test hypotheses

4. build a theory

Psychology uses scientific method...

to study human behaviour and mental processes

psychology shares with every science the primary goals of....

describing, explaining, predicting, and controlling the objects of study

pseudo psychology (pseudoscience)

no use of the scientific method when commenting on human behaviour and mental processes

examples of pseudopsychology

parapsychology, astrology, psychics

6 steps in the scientific method

1. identify questions of interest and review the literation

2. develop a testable hypothesis

3. select a research method, choose participants, and collect data

4. analyze the data and accept or reject the hypothesis

5. seek scientific review, publish and replicate

6. build a theory

psychological research is rooted in first generating a ___________ about the relationship between two or more variable based on observations

hypothesis or prediction

variable

condition, event, or situation that is studied in an experiment

What are the two types of variables

independent and dependent

Independent Variable (IV)

the variable that you manipulate

Dependent Variable (DV)

the variable that you measure (or the variable that is changed by the IV)

operationalize

to develop a working definition of a variable that allows you to test it

operational definition

is how we (the researcher) decide to measure our variable

population

the entire group that is of interest to the research

sample

the group of people studied in an experiment, used to stand in for an entire group of people

random selection

randomly choosing a sample from a population

sampling bias

choosing a sample that does not represent your population

psychologist conduct research with a _____, a small group meant to represent the larger population of interest

sample

the best means of selecting a sample is ________, a procedure in which everyone in the population has an equal chance of being selected to be in the sample

random selection

2 types of research methods

descriptive and experimental

Descriptive research methods

studies that allow researchers to demonstrate a relationship between the variables of interest, without specifying a casual relationship

purpose of descriptive research

observe, collect, and record data

advantages of descriptive research

good for developing early ideas; more reflective of actual behaviour that other methods; easier to collect data

disadvantages of descriptive research

little or no control over variables, researcher and participant biases, cannot explain cause and effect

purpose of experimental research

Identify cause and effect

advantages of experimental research

allows researchers precise control over variables and to identify cause and effect

disadvantages of experimental research

Ethical concerns, practical limitations, artificiality of lab conditions, uncontrolled variables may confound results, researcher and participant biases.

types of descriptive research

case studies, naturalistic observation, surveys

naturalistic observation

study in which researchers directly observe people in a study behaving as they normally do

case study

study focusing on a single person

hawthorne affect

what happens when people who are being observed in studies or at their workplace improve or change some of their behaviours simply because they are being watched or studied, not in response to an experimental manipulation

survey

study in which researchers give participants a questionnaire or interview them

pitfalls of case studies

researcher bias

pitfalls of naturalistic observation

hawthorne effect

pitfalls of surveys

participant bias

advantages of case studies

- the only method you can use if the type of behaviour you are looking at is rare

- very detailed

advantages of naturalistic observation

can study things that are too unethical to do in an experiment or that people might lie about

advantages of surveys

data collection is quick

and cheap

disadvantages of case studies

- you cannot generalize your results to all people

- cannot determine cause and effect

disadvantages of naturalistic observation

- time consuming

- cannot determine cause and effect

disadvantages of surveys

- sometimes people don't tell the truth

- cannot determine cause and effect

experiment

controlled observation in which researchers manipulate the presence or amount of the independent variable to see what affect it has on the dependent variable

experimental group

the group that is exposed to the IV (manipulation of treatment)

control group

the group that isn't exposed to the IV; this group is used to compare how the IV changes the DV

random assignment

the researcher should randomly assign who goes in which group; this should make the groups similar before the study begins

to avoid bias in an experiment, one can use the __________ - neither the participant nor the research knows who is in which group

double blind procedure

________ indicate if there is a relationship between the variable within descriptive research

correlations

________ indicate if the hypothesis has been supported or if there is a meaningful difference between the groups within experimental research

statistics

correlation

predictable relationship between two or more variables

correlation coefficient

statistics expressing the strength and nature of a relationship between two variables

negative correlation

relationship in which, on average, scores on one variable increase as scores on another variable decrease

perfect correlation

one in which two variables are exactly related, such that low, medium, and high scores on both variables are always exactly related

correlation values range

+1.00 = perfect positive

0.00 = no relationship

-1.00 = perfect negative

advantages of correlation

describes how the variables are related

disadvantage of correlation

cannot determine cause and effect

positive correlation

when on variable increases, the other increases

researchers use the ___________ to describe and summarize their results

mean and standard deviation

mean

average of all of the score

standard deviation

how much the participants' scores vary from one another

p-value

tells you the probability that the results of your experiment are not due to chance

significant

tells us how likely it is that the difference found between groups (drawn from a larger population) are due to experimental manipulations rather than due to chance

replication

repeated testing of a hypothesis to ensure that the results you achieve in one experiment are not due to chance

_________ are considered the ethics police. They are a research oversight group that evaluated research to protect the rights of participants in the study

research ethics boards (REB)

Ethical guidelines

- obtain informed consent

- protect participants from harm and discomfort

- protect confidentiality

- participation must be voluntary

- deception or incomplete disclosure

-provide complete debriefing

informed consent

obtaining permission from the participant after they know what the study involves and the risks and benefits of participating

debriefing

revealing to participants any information that was withheld during the study

________ oversees research involving animals as subjects

Canadian Council on Animal Care

Animal ethical guidelines

- animals are used only is the research promises significant benefit to humans to animal

- animals are used it there is no other alternative

- humane methods must be used

- the smaller number of animals possible bust be used

- all pain and distress must be limited

What are the steps in the scientific method?

1. Identify question

2. Develop hypothesis

3. Desgin study & collect data

4. Analyse data

5. Report findings

6. Build theory