Psychology Module 3 Notes

3-1

• Theory = Idea based on prediction, no real foundation
• Good theory leads to hypotheses that we can test
• Shouldn’t be biased to prove your hypothesis, use very specific word choice to make sure this doesn’t happen

How do theories advance psychological science?

• Theory organizes observed ideas, such as behavior and thoughts
• Theory can be supported or disproved by experiments, helps us learn more about the subject
• Operational Definitions - Used to be incredibly specific and unbiased in observations
  • Example: Instead of sleep deprived, list how many hours of sleep lost
  • Observations like this can be replicated
• Replication - Repeating a certain experiment, repeat the observations and see if the effects are the same
  • Allows for theories to correct themselves
• A good theory should…
  • Organize observations
  • Implies predictions for testing
  • Stimulate further research
• When testing hypotheses, we use
  • Descriptive methods - describing behaviors through gathered information
  • Correlational methods - associating different factors in behavior
  • Experimental methods - Manipulating factors to see effects

3-2

• Description is very important in science
  • Information from description can lead to big reveals and further advancements
• Big methods to find descriptions:
  • Case Study - Study of one individual or a group with a unique quality
  • Naturalistic Study - Study of people or animals in their natural state
  • Survey - Asking questions to a large group of people
  • Could also coincide with Laboratory Observations

How do psychologists use case studies, naturalistic observations, and surveys to observe and describe behavior, and why is random sampling important?

• Case Studies:
  • Individual studies give us ideas - possible that those ideas don’t just apply to that specific group: could apply to everyone
  • Although they could be specific to the group/individual being tested, ideas are useful for advancement in psychology
• Naturalistic observation:
  • By recording behavior in natural environments, psychologists can gain descriptions of common actions among people
  • These observations do not explain behavior, just describe it - but those descriptions will help us explain the behavior eventually
  • Can’t control outside factors in naturalistic study, makes it harder to draw definitive conclusions
  • Example: Twitter had a lot of positive posts on a Saturday evening, and barely any on Tuesday afternoons
• Survey:
  • Wording effects - by changing the wording of a question, the answer can change significantly
  • Should always go for a random sampling with surveying, otherwise researcher’s belief seeps into the research - by going with random sampling, everyone has the opportunity to participate

3-3

• The descriptions as described above are used to find connections between certain behaviors and actions
• Can graph data found as a scatter plot to find a trend - can be very difficult to notice any connections without seeing them

What does it mean when we say two things are correlated, and what are positive and negative correlations?

• Correlation = how close traits/behaviors are to each other; by understanding this relationship, we can make predictions on how the results of certain behaviors
• Positive correlation = two behaviors rise and fall together; Negative correlations = one behavior rises, the other one falls
  • Positive/negative says nothing about the strength of the correlation
• Correlation coefficient = slope of trendline in scatterplot, helps us see how connected behaviors are, and helps draw conclusions

3-4

• Illusory Correlation - Nonexisting correlation that the mind is convinced of
• Basically - when we believe in a correlation, we take note of things related to the correlation and ignore things that disprove it
  • This is called regressing towards the mean - illusion that uncontrollable events correlate with our actions
• Very damaging - need to notice when it’s actually happening

3-5

• Correlation =/= causation
• Basically: Correlation is used to predict things, but it’s unclear whether the two things that are correlating are directly causing each other
  • Example - just because parental support is associated with low grades in college, doesn’t mean that not supporting your student will lead to better grades
• Correlation suggests the possibility of a cause-effect relationship, but doesn’t confirm it

3-6

• Experimentation - Like correlation studies, but instead of just observing, factors are manipulated in order to see more concrete results
• Useful to see how an independent variable affects a dependent variable - provides focused results that explain behavior. Closer to causation than correlation

What are the characteristics of experimentation that make it possible to isolate cause and effect?

• If we see a correlation, we confirm a cause and effect through experimentation.
  • Manipulate factors of interest
  • Hold other factors constant
  • This means that experimentation is only possible in a controlled environment, and also will produce results that fully determine a cause-and-effect relationship
• Any differences at the end of an experiment (dependent variable) are caused by the manipulated factor (independent variable)
• Not all experiments are conclusive - need to be tested over and over again to be considered as a fact
• Double Blind Procedure - Recieving treatment without clarification as to what the treatment is to see the effects
• Placebo - Not recieving any real treatment and still feeling the effects of said treatment
• Confounding variables - Variables that could influence the outcome of an experiment if not controlled in some way

3-7

• Variables in experiments will not be exactly the same as variables in real life - can’t perfectly predict the real world results
• However - Experiments will show a certain principle that can be applied to the real world
  • Example - if shocking a patient makes them angry, then them getting slapped in the real world would also make them angry
• Psychological science doesn’t focus on specific behaviors; instead focuses on principles that explain behaviors

3-8

• Ethics of psychology and all sciences agree to test on animals in order to secure the safety of humans, as long as the treatment is humane
  • Animals are protected, as well as humans - in situations where humans are put under some sort of stress, there are warnings of what could happen and explanations after the experiment to help explain the reasoning for this stress

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