Research Methods and Psychological Concepts

Research Methods

• Correlation does not indicate causation.

• Naturalistic observation: Studying behavior in its most accurate and genuine form.

• Confounding Variable: A hidden factor that affects both variables being studied, creating a false appearance of causation.

  • Can make it look like one thing is causing the other, when really, the hidden factor is influencing both

• Illusory Correlations: Perceiving relationships between variables when none exist.

• Control group: Participants who do not experience the manipulated variable.

  • Serves as a basis for comparison.
  • Controls for chance factors influencing study results.
  • Experimental manipulation is the only difference between control group and experimental group

• Random Sample: Everyone in the population has an equal chance of being selected.

  • Best way to choose people because it ensures the group represents the larger population (gender, race, income, etc.).

• Random Assignment: Participants have an equal chance of being placed in any experimental group.

  • Ensures groups are similar, so differences in results are likely due to the experiment.
  • Required to state causation.

• Statistical analysis: Used to determine if differences between groups are significant.

  • Significant results have a $5$ or less chance of occurring randomly.
  • True experiments (random assignment, manipulation of the independent variable, control of extraneous variables) reduce the odds of chance results.

• Reliability: Consistency and reproducibility of results.

• Test-retest reliability: Taking the same test twice should yield similar results.

• Inter-rater reliability: Agreement among observers on recording and classifying events.

• A reliable measurement isn't always valid.

• Validity: Accuracy of a result in measuring what it's designed to measure.

  • A valid measure is always reliable, but a reliable measure isn't always valid.

• Quasi-Experiment: Similar to a regular experiment but lacks random assignment.

  • Causation cannot be definitively stated due to potential other factors influencing results.

• Quantitative Research:

  • Pros: Clear numbers, tests existing ideas, applicable to larger groups, less biased, quicker analysis.
  • Cons: Misinterpretation, unfair samples, hidden factors, time and money costs.

• Clinical or Case Studies: Focus on one individual, typically with extreme or unique psychological circumstances.

  *Example: Genie, who suffered severe abuse and social isolation.

  • Limitation: Results may not generalize to others.

• Observer Bias: Researcher's expectations influence their interpretation of events. Cross-Sectional Research:

• Compares multiple population segments at a single time (e.g., different age groups).

  • Can be quantitative or qualitative (e.g., studying food preferences).

• Attrition: Reduction in research participants due to drop-out over time.

• Institutional Review Board (IRB):

  • Reviews research proposals involving human participants.
  • Ensures ethical guidelines are followed.
  • Must approve research before it can proceed.

• Informed Consent: Participants must be informed of benefits, risks, alternatives, and have the opportunity to ask questions.

• Peer-Reviewed Journals: Experts review articles before publication to ensure quality, suggest improvements, and check replicability.

• Replication: Repeating original research to check reliability; can support or challenge original findings.

Learning

• Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936): Discovered classical conditioning through research on dog digestion.

  • Observed dogs salivating at the sound of lab assistant's footsteps.

• Reflexes: Some are naturally present (unconditioned), others depend on a stimulus (conditioned).

• Classical Conditioning: Dogs learned to associate a sound (neutral stimulus) with food (unconditioned stimulus), causing them to salivate at the sound alone

• Before Conditioning:

  • Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): Stimulus that elicits a reflexive response (food).
  • Unconditioned Response (UCR): Natural, unlearned reaction to a stimulus (salivation to food).
  • $food (UCS) \rightarrow salivation (UCR)$

• During Conditioning:

  • Neutral Stimulus (NS): Stimulus that doesn't naturally elicit a response (bell before conditioning).
  • The NS and UCS are paired repeatedly: $Bell (NS) + Food (UCS) \rightarrow salivation (UCR)$

• After Conditioning:

  • Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Stimulus that elicits a response after being paired with UCS.
  • Conditioned Response (CR): Behavior caused by the conditioned stimulus.
  • $bell (CS) \rightarrow Salivation (CR)$

• Higher-Order Conditioning: Established CS paired with a new NS (second-order stimulus), eventually eliciting the CR without the initial CS.

  *Example: Dog salivates at bell (CS), then light is paired with the bell, and the dog eventually salivates at the light alone.

• Acquisition: Initial stage of learning when the NS is connected to something meaningful.

• Stimulus Discrimination: Organism learns to respond differently to similar stimuli.

  *Example: Dog learns to differentiate between two similar sounds, only responding to the one signaling food.

  • organism shows conditioned response to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus

• General Process in Classical Conditioning:

  • Extinction: Decrease in CR when the UCS isn't presented with the CS.
  • Spontaneous Recovery: Reappearance of an extinguished CR after a rest period.

• John B. Watson's Little Albert Experiment: Showed how fear can be learned by pairing neutral items (white rat) with a loud noise.

  • Albert generalized fear to all furry things.

• Operant Conditioning: B.F. Skinner's theory of learning through rewards and punishments.

  • Behavior is shaped by its consequences.

• Skinner Box: Operant conditioning chamber where animals learn to press a lever for food rewards.

• Pleasant consequences increase the likelihood of behavior; unpleasant consequences decrease it

• Positive Reinforcement: Adding something to increase behavior.

• Negative Reinforcement: Removing something to increase behavior.

• Positive Punishment: Adding something to decrease behavior.

• Negative Punishment: Removing something to decrease behavior.

• Primary Reinforcers: Naturally rewarding (food, sleep).

• Secondary Reinforcers: Rewarding through learning (money, praise).

• Continuous Reinforcement: Every time the desired behavior is made, the subject will receive some reinforcer

• Edward Tolman: Found that learning could still occur without reinforcement, introducing the cognitive aspect of learning.

• Cognitive Maps: Mental representation of an environment's layout.

• Latent Learning: Learning that occurs but isn't observable until there's a reason to demonstrate it.

  *Example: Children learning behaviors by watching parents but not showing them until later.

• Observational Learning: Albert Bandura's Bobo doll experiment demonstrated that children imitate aggressive behavior if adults are rewarded or ignored for it.

  • Social Learning Theory steps: attention, retention, reproduction, motivation.

• Vicarious Reinforcement: Observer sees the model rewarded, increasing the likelihood of imitating the model's behavior.

• Vicarious Punishment: Observer sees the model punished, decreasing the likelihood of imitating the model's behavior.

Lifespan Development

• Developments Across 3 Domains: Physical, cognitive, psychosocial.

• 3 Major Questions: Is development continuous or discontinuous? Is there one course of development or many? How do nature and nurture influence development?

• Continuous Development: Gradual, consistent development.

• Discontinuous Development: Stage-based, abrupt changes in development.

• Nature vs. Nurture Debate: Extent to which genetics or external influences affect development.

• Sigmund Freud: Stages of childhood development centering on erogenous zones.

  • Criticisms of Psychoanalysis: Lacks validity and generalizability; small, unrepresentative samples; unsystematic case studies; lacks scientific control; potential influence on patients' memories.

• Psychosocial Theory (Erikson): Personality develops through social interactions across the lifespan; each stage presents a challenge shaping self and confidence.

  • criticisms of psychosocial theory: include its assumption that stages must be completed in order, and that it may not account for cultural and social differences in development

• Cognitive Theory (Piaget): Children develop schemata to understand the world.

  • Assimilation: Incorporating new information into existing knowledge.
  • Accommodation: Adjusting existing knowledge based on new information.
  • Criticisms: Doesn't account for individual differences, overlooks social influences, suggests no changes after adolescence, and may underestimate children's capabilities.

• Theory of Moral Development (Kohlberg): Learning to discern right from wrong; stages associated with increasing complexity.

• Prenatal Development: zygote → embryo (up to 8 weeks) → fetus (9 weeks → birth).

• Teratogens: agents that disrupt normal development (chemicals, metals, radiation, viruses, bacteria, drugs, maternal stresses).

• Rubella: Virus spread through coughing or sneezing; can cause severe birth defects if caught in early pregnancy.

  • No cure; must be vaccinated before pregnancy.

• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Can harm the baby at any stage of pregnancy; no amount is safe.

  • Can lead to fetal death, brain damage, long-term developmental and behavioral problems.

• Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) include:

  • Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: facial, growth, and brain abnormalities, issues with learning, memory, and communication.
  • Alcohol-Related Neurodevelopmental Disorder: Learning and behavior issues, especially with memory, attention, and self-control.
  • Alcohol-Related Birth Defects: Problems with heart, kidneys, bones, or hearing.

• Air Crib: Skinner's invention designed to provide a controlled, comfortable environment for infants.

• Phases of Development:

  • 1. Newborn Indiscriminate Social (1-2 months): Attachment behaviors signal the baby's needs, and association of parents with relief from distress is learned.
  • 2. Discriminating Sociability (2-7 months of age): Infants prefer to interact with familiar people, playing face-to-face games (trust, adapting behavior).
  • 3. Attachments (7-24 months): Babies take a more active role, crawling to stay close, starting social interactions, balancing closeness with exploring the environment
  • Person permanence: understanding that people still exist even when infant cant see them
  • *End of this phase: Infants begin more interactions, engage w strangers, tolerate more distance from caregivers
  • 4. Goal-Corrected Partnership (3+): Children take parents' needs into account when interacting.

• Theories of Attachment:

  • John Bowlby: Early social attachment between infant and caretaker is essential for normal social development.
  • Mary Ainsworth: Infant attachment to caregiver differs in the degree of security from infancy to adulthood.

• Strange Situation: Procedure to assess attachment style.

  • Infant/caregiver enter room and explore, stranger enters room and interacts with infant, caregiver leaves infant w stranger, caregiver returns and infant and caregiver reunite, caregiver leaves infant alone, the stranger return, the stranger leaves, and the caregiver returns, infant and caregiver reunite

• Secure Attachment: Explores freely with caregiver present, engages with strangers, upset when caregiver leaves, happy upon return.

• Insecure Avoidant: Avoids or ignores caregiver, minimal exploration, little emotion when caregiver leaves or returns.

• Insecure Ambivalent/Resistant: Explores little, wary of strangers, highly distressed when caregivers leaves, ambivalent or angry when caregiver returns.

• Insecure Disorganized: Displays fear, freezing, erratic movement, no consistent way of dealing with stress.

• Adult Attachment Styles:

  • Secure: Describes relationships as friendly, trusting, and happy; accepts partners regardless of faults; long and fulfilling relationships.
  • Fearful Avoidant: Afraid of intimacy, experiences emotional highs and lows, and is jealous during relationships.
  • Anxious/Preoccupied: Views love obsessively, needs constant reciprocation and validation, emotional highs and lows, and jealousy.
  • Dismissive Avoidant: Prefers not to depend on others or become too attached, hides feelings, sometimes avoids attachment altogether.

• Infant Anxiety:

  • Stranger anxiety: Peaks at 8-10 months; response to unfamiliar people.
  • Separation anxiety: Peaks at 13-15 months; response to being away from caregiver.

• Does attachment style change?: From 14-24 months $73$ stayed secure, $67$ stayed insecure from 14-58 months $59$ stayed secure, $55$ stayed insecure

• Influences on Attachment:

  • Parental factors: Depressed mothers often have lower-quality interactions; parental conflict and parents' own attachment history also affect infant bond.
  • Infant factors: Temperament and chronic illness can impact attachment.

• Autonomous: (secure attached infants) Open, self-reflective, and value relationships; can come from nurturing or even difficult parenting.

• Dismissing: (insecure avoidant infants) Downplay the importance of relationships, idealize parents but lack clear examples.

• Preoccupied: (insecure resistant infants) Conflicted and angry about attachment relationships, overly focused on past hurts but unable to describe them clearly.

• Unresolved:(insecure disorganized infants) Struggle with confusion or disorganization due to past trauma, such as abuse or loss

• Infant Temperament Types:

  • Easy (40%): Cheerful, regular routines, adaptable, mild reactions.
  • Slow-to-Warm-Up (15%): Shy, low activity, slow to adapt, mild reactions.
  • Difficult (10%): Moody, active, irregular routines, intense emotions, not adaptable.
  • Average (35%): Show a mix of traits, not extreme in any area.

• Measurement of Infant Temperament: Parent questionnaires, observational assessments, laboratory assessments, physiological measures (EEG, cortisol levels, heart rate).

• Stability of Temperament: High reactivity and negative emotions at 4 months can predict fear of new things, less social behavior, and anxiety later in life.

• Infants with an easy temperament or positive emotions often get more positive responses from caregivers, which can help support their social development and learning

• Physical changes during puberty include genital growth, body hair, breast development or facial hair, voice deepening, and skin changes.

• Neuro-behavioral changes include increased sensation-seeking, focus on peers, desire for social status, and growing romantic and sexual interests

• Types of Cognitive Enrichment: Physical exercise, Social, creative, cognitive engagement, Brain training

Motivation and Emotion

• Perceived Source of Reinforcement:

  • Internal: Believe they are in control and take responsibility for their own actions
  • External: Blame external forces for their own circumstances

• Research has shown people with internal locus of control tend to be physically/mentally healthier than external

• Emotion emphasizes arousal, both physical and mental. Motivation emphasizes how this arousal becomes action

• Instinct Theory of Motivation: Innate drives or genetically predisposed behaviors for survival.

• Drive Reduction theory: Driven to fulfill physiological needs homeostasis (biological needs)

• Arousal Theory of Motivation: People aim to balance arousal levels for each situation.

  • If arousal is too high, they try to calm down; if arousal is too low, they seek stimulation to boost it → known as optimal arousal

• Yerkes-Dodson Law: Theory that a degree of psychological arousal helps performance, but only to a certain point

  • Too much or too little arousal can decrease performance (inverted U).

• Bandura's Self-Efficacy: Belief in one's ability to handle life's challenges; higher self-efficacy is linked to better outcomes.

• Abraham Maslow (1908-1970): The drive for self-actualization—reaching our full potential—motivates us to achieve greatness. This idea, based on studying exceptional individuals, suggests we must first meet basic needs before reaching higher personal growth

• Self-Determination Theory: 3 basic needs.

  • Best to be autonomous- motivations come from within (does not exclude extrinsic rewards.).

• Third Tier: social bonds/cooperation: humans evolved to be social for survival. The need to belong shapes how we think, feel, act. Love activates reward and safety systems in brain, while social isolation raises the risk of mental and physical health issues- activating brain areas similar to those triggered by physical pain

• Regulatory Focus Theory: Two motivational systems:

  • Promotion system: Hope/dream/aspire to gain positive outcomes.
  • Prevention system: Duties/responsibilities are to avoid negative outcomes.

• Achievement Goal Theory: Motivation is influenced by an individual's goal orientation.

• Social Comparison Theory: Innate need to compare oneself with others.

• Individualistic tend to work harder on tasks they know they can do well.Collectivist tend to work hard on tasks they know they can't do well

• Grit: Individual’s passion to achieve a long term goal. Desire for significant accomplishment. Mastery of skills or ideas. Control, attaining a high standard

• Mindset: Mental attitude that determines how people will interpret and respond to situations

• Imposter Syndrome: High achievers may struggle to recognize their own success and fear being seen as a fraud

• Emotions: Feelings that involve both body reactions and thoughts, affecting how we behave.

  • They include subjective experience, expression, thought evaluation, and physical responses
  • Emotions are not the same thing as “moods” →Emotion is a strong, short-term feeling triggered by a specific event (e.g., joy after an A). Mood is a longer-lasting, milder feeling that isn't always tied to a clear cause or consciously noticed

• Components of Emotion: physiological arousal → emotions ← subjective experiences

• 7 Universal Emotions: happiness, surprise, sadness, fright, disgust, contempt, anger

Personality

• Hippocrates: physiology of the body underlies temperament and personality

  • Four numbers: yellow bile from the liver, black bile from kidneys, red blood from heart, white phlegm from the lungs

• Galen: Believed both diseases and personality differences were explained by imbalances in the humors

  • Choleric (yellow bile) passionate, ambitious, bold. Melancholic (black bile) reserved, anxious, unhappy. Sanguine (blood) joyful, eager, optimistic. Phlegmatic (phlegm) calm, reliable, thoughtful

• Kant: Divided 4 temperaments into 2 categories

  • Feeling: sanguine (strong but short lived emotions), Melancholic ( weak but long lasting emotions)
  • Activity: Choleric (intense but short lived activity), Phlegmatic (low intensity but long lasting activity)

• Wundt: Emotional vs. Non-emotional: Emotional (strong emotions): Melancholic, Choleric / Non-emotional (weak emotions): Phlegmatic, Sanguine. Changeable vs. Unchangeable: Changeable: Choleric, Sanguine / Unchangeable: Melancholic, Phlegmatic

• Phrenology: Franz Joseph Gall

  • Core Idea: The shape and bumps on the skull reflect the underlying brain structure. Belief: Different areas of the brain control different personality traits and mental abilities. Implication: By feeling the skull's bumps, one could supposedly assess a person's character and talents.

• Reforms in the treatment of mental illness: Psychiatry split into somatic (physical causes) and psychic (mental causes) approaches. Emmanuel Movement introduced talk therapy. Hypnosis used as a treatment method. Shift toward treating mental rather than just physical causes of emotional disorders

• Levels of Consciousness: Unconscious: mental activity that we are aware of and are unable to access. According to Freud→ Only about one-tenth of our mind's activities are conscious, while most remain in the unconscious. Repression keeps unacceptable urges and desires hidden in the unconscious. These unconscious thoughts influence our behavior, even though we're unaware of them.

• Freudian Slip: saying a word you did not intend to say are sexual/aggresive urges accidently slipping out of our unconscious

• Instincts: mental representations of internal stimuli that motivate personality and behavior (life instinct (libido) (death instincts)

• Levels of personality: Conscious versus unconscious, Id (present from birth, unconscious, driven by instincts and desires (e.g, hunger, aggression) ), Ego (Balances Id/ reality, makes rational decisions), Superego (Moral conscience, judges right and wrong)

• Anxiety: acts as a warning that the ego is under threat (defense mechanism: are unconscious behaviors that distort or deny reality to protect the ego)

• Competing Factions: psychoanalysis later split into factions that disagreed on basic points (alfred Adler, Erik Eriksoj, Carl jung, Karen horney, abraham maslow, carl rogers)

• Neo-Freudians and Ego Psychology: Loyalists expanded Freud’s concept of the ego. Saw the ego as more independent from the id, with its own energy and functions. Believed the ego could operate without constant conflict with the id. Placed less emphasis on biology and more on ego's role in shaping personality

• Individual Psychology: Adler’s theory of personality that incorporates social as well as biological factors ( Social interest is our natural ability to cooperate with others for personal and societal goals. We're influenced more by our future goals than past experiences. Striving toward goals and anticipating the future shapes our current behavior )

  • Everyone has a universal drive for superiority or perfection. We each shape our own unique personality or style of life. Birth order affects personality due to differences in family dynamics and treatment

• Inferiority Complex: conditions that develops when a person is unable to compensate for normal inferiority feelings
  Additional Information:

• Interval: based on time

• Ratio: based on number of behaviors

• Fixed: predictable

• Variable: unpredictable