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Chapter Two: Doing Social Psychology Research

Developing Ideas: Beginning the Research Process

Coming Up with Ideas

  • Social psych studies begin with questions
  • Ideas can come from reading about research that has already been done
  • Hypothesis: An explicit, testable prediction about the conditions under which an event will occur
  • Theory: An organized set of principles used to explain observed phenomena
    • Goal is to explain findings, articulate connections between the variables, and predict our social worlds
  • Basic Research: Seeks to increase our understanding of human behavior. often designed to test a specific hypothesis from a specific theory
  • Applied Research: Focuses on making applications to the world and contributing to the solution of social problems

Refining Ideas

  • Operational Definition: The specific procedures for manipulating / measuring a conceptual variable
  • Construct Validity: The extent to which
    • The manipulations in an experiment manipulate the variables they’re supposed to
    • The measures used in a study measure the variables they’re supposed to
  • Measuring Variables using self-reports, observations, and tech
    • Self-Reports: Participants disclose their thoughts, feelings, desires, and actions
    • The desire to look good to ourselves and others can influence how we respond
    • Bogus Pipeline Technique: Participants are led to believe that their responses will be verified by an infallible lie detector
    • Affected by the way questions are asked (wording, context)
    • Interrater Reliability: Level of agreement among multiple observers of the same behavior
    • Technology
    • Measure cognitive and physiological responses (reaction time, heart rate, levels of hormones, sexual arousal, eye-tracking)
    • Brain imaging tech

Testing Ideas

  • Descriptive Research: Record how frequently or how typically people think, feel, or behave in particular ways
    • Observational studies
    • Archival Studies: Examining existing records of past events and behaviors
    • Surveys
  • Correlational Research: Measures the relationship between variables
    • Correlation Coefficient: A statistical measure of the strength and direction of the association between two variables
    • Correlation is not causation
  • Experiment: Form of research that can demonstrate causal relationships
    • Random Assignment: Participants are not assigned to a group based on their characteristics
    • Random Sampling: Selecting participants for a study in a way that everyone in a population has an equal chance
    • Lab Research: Environment is controlled and participants are carefully studied
    • Field Research: Conducted in real-world settings outside the lab
    • Independent Variable: A variable whose variation doesn’t depend on that of another. The manipulated variable in an experiment
    • Dependent Variable: A variable whose variation depends on that of another. In an experiment, it is measured to see if it’s affected
    • Subject Variables: Characterize preexisting differences among the participants in a study
    • Internal Validity: When an experiment is properly conducted
    • Confound: A factor other than the independent variable that has an effect on the dependent variable
    • Experimenter Expectancy Effects: The effects produced when an experimenter’s expectations about the results of an experiment affect his or her behavior toward a participant and thereby influence the participant’s responses.
    • External Validity: The extent to which the results obtained under one set of circumstances would also occur in a different set of circumstances
    • Mundane Realism: Extent to which the research setting resembles the real-world setting
    • Experimental Realism: Degree to which the experimental setting and procedures are real and involving to the participant
    • Deception: Providing participants with false info
    • Confederates: People working for the experimenter who pretend they’re part of the experiment

Interpreting the Meaning of the Results Obtained

  • Meta-Analysis: Combining results across studies
  • Informed Consent: An individual’s deliberate, voluntary decision to participate in research
  • Debriefing: Researchers fully inform their participants about the nature of the research at the end of the experiment