Psychological Science and Research Methods Notes: Unit 0
Psychological Science & Research Methods
What is Psychology
Curiosity: The ability to always create new questions about a given topic.
Skepticism: To not accept information at face value without firm evidence.
Humility: A researcher’s ability to accept that experimental data may contradict their original hypothesis.
Modern Approaches to Psychology
Nature-nurture issue: The controversy on whether behaviors and traits are inherited or developed over time.
John Locke believed the mind is a blank slate that experience writes on.
Rene Descartes argued that some ideas are innate.
Natural Selection: Specific traits in nature that allows an organism to survive long enough for their genes to get passed down to the next generation.
Example: Polar bears have a white coat because that specific trait helped them to survive, and the gene was able to be passed down to current generations.
Positive Psychology: The study of human flourishing with the intent to learn virtues and increase strengths to further help humanity thrive.
Psychologists explore the meaning of a “good life” that helps to engage people’s skills.
Culture: Ideas and behaviors that each generation passes down to the next.
There are variations in language that impede communication, even though they share basic gestures and grammar structures.
Biopsychosocial approach: The levels of analysis involving biological, psychological, and social-culture factors to explain behavior or mental process.
Psychologists using this approach might look at genetic mutations, emotional responses, and cultural expectations to explain behavior.
Modern Approaches to Psychology - Different Perspectives
Psychoanalytic Perspective (Sigmund Freud) / Psychodynamic Perspective: Focuses on how the brain influences behavioral and mental processes because behaviors and mental processes stem from body chemistry, the brain, neurotransmitters, and other biological aspects found in the body.
Behaviorist Perspective (John Watson, Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner): Actions and thoughts that people have are a result of punishments, conditioning, and rewards.
Cognitive Perspective (Jean Piaget, Albert Bandura): Humans and animals are influenced by how they perceive, store, and process information from the world, which can change (influence) their actions or thoughts.
Humanist Perspective (Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow): Humans and animals’ thoughts are influenced by the need for love, growth, and acceptance in an environment that can nurture or even limit potential growth in thoughts or actions.
Evolutionary Perspective: Certain tendencies in both human and animal behaviors and thought processes can be explained by the adaptations previous ancestors used to survive. Those adaptations have been passed down to current generations.
Biological / Neuroscience: Behavioral traits, thoughts, and cognitive processes that stem from the brain, neurotransmitters, and body chemistry.
Socio-cultural Perspective: Explains how mannerisms, displayed behaviors, thoughts, and social interactions are due to the culture in which an organism was raised. The culture they grew up in will influence how they interact with others in society.
Psychoanalytic Practice - Freud's Personality Components
Id: Wants and Desires, pervasive in children and criminals, crying baby of the personality, Operates on the “Pleasure Principle”, Most impulsive part of the personality
Ego: “Stuck in the Middle”, Based on the “Reality Principle”, Negotiates what one wants within the boundaries of society
Superego: Conscience, The angel on your shoulder
Example: Id would tell someone to not do their work, while superego would tell them to finish all the homework to stay ahead. Ego would suggest doing a little bit of work at a time.
The Need for Psychological Science
Hindsight Bias: The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it. The I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon. For instance, in the 2020 presidential election, people claimed they knew Joe Biden was going to win, even though there’s no way they could’ve known.
Overconfidence: The tendency for people to overestimate their knowledge, and to be more confident than correct. For example, some men think they’re able to beat Caitlin Clark in a basketball game just because she’s a woman and they’re overconfident in their abilities.
Perceiving Order in Random Events: People will often find patterns in situations or events even though the occurrences are random. For instance, in the casino people will say slot machines are “hot” when there are multiple jackpots on one machine, even though the occurrence of a jackpot is random.
Confirmation Bias: When people search for information to validate their own opinions. For example, two people arguing about who’s the best basketball player, they will only research the specific player they have in mind, rather than the player who has the best statistics.
Social Desirability Bias: The bias where people lie about the truth to be more socially accepted. In a survey about recycling, someone would say that they recycle, even if they don’t recycle, just to appear socially acceptable.
Bias Practice
Confirmation Bias Example: Researchers who believe that participants will frown when shown particular photos may inadvertently interpret ambiguous faces as frowns. These interpretations happen without any direct knowledge of the researcher and do not relate to thoughts held before the start of the experiment.
Social Desirability Bias Example: When an army psychiatrist is evaluating soldiers to determine if they have any symptoms associated with anxiety disorders he has the soldiers fill out a questionnaire asking them to identify if they have been feeling agitated or have had trouble sleeping. If the soldiers are aware of why these questions are being asked, they may provide incorrect answers in order to avoid being given a diagnosis.
Hindsight Bias Example: After the results of the presidential election are announced in 2008 Professor Burton announces to his classes that he was certain that Obama would win easily.
Confirmation Bias Example: In a famous study by Rosenhan, healthy individuals had themselves admitted to psychiatric hospitals by stating that they were hearing voices. After being admitted they acted normally. Because they were given the diagnosis of schizophrenia staff often interpreted their normal behaviors as symptomatic of schizophrenia, while failing to recognize those instances in which the participants acted normally.
Social Desirability Bias Example: Treena is completing a survey during her high school psychology class that asks if she would be willing to bungee jump off of a tall building. If she answers yes, because she believes that is what her teacher who she knows enjoys extreme sports wants to hear, which type of bias is she exhibiting?
Hindsight Bias Example: On Wednesday Skye told her best friend Violet that she was really excited about her date with Dustin who she met in her chemistry lab at the University of Illinois. On Monday Violet asked her about her date and Skye said that it was awful. Sky went on to say that she could not believe she even agreed to go in the first place because she knew he was going to be pompous and dull.
The Scientific Method
Theory: A theory is a structured explanation based on research and understanding principles. Exercising can cause people to have an increase energy.
Hypothesis: A specific and testable prediction that’s based on theory. Human adults that exercise for 2 hours each day have more energy than the adults that don’t.
Operational Definition: It specifies how a concept is manipulated or measured within a study. To measure participation levels in a classroom, count how many times a student raises their hand.
Replication: The ability for something to be repeated multiple times across different studies. The exercises used in the study was 50 jumping jacks, 30 push ups, 40 sit ups, and 30 minutes on a treadmill that went at 10 mph. There were 20-minute breaks between each exercise. Someone could use this information for the next experiment.
Descriptive Research
Case Study: An in-depth research about a specific scenario regarding an individual or small group.
Advantages: Case studies provide unique and specific information. They’re very useful when it comes to describing behaviors.
Disadvantages: Case studies aren’t applicable to all individuals, and they can’t be replicated. Additionally, it doesn’t explain behaviors.
Naturalistic Observation: A descriptive method to record information and data of organisms in their natural habitat.
Advantages: Naturalistic observation enables authentic data, and it allows an easy way to student and describe natural behaviors.
Disadvantages: Naturalistic observation is subject to observer and confirmation bias. In addition, it isn’t useful to explain behaviors.
Survey: A short study that asks people about themselves or their opinions through questions.
Advantages: Surveys are fast and efficiently gathers data. Surveys are useful to gather information about a large group of people.
Disadvantages: Surveys are subject to social desirability bias, which can lead to unreliable information. Surveys don’t provide in depth information about the subjects.
Correlation
Correlation: The relationship in data between the independent and dependent variable. It predicts the possibility of cause and effect in relationships. The number of hours someone spends studying for a quiz and test scores are positively correlated.
Scatterplot: A scatterplot is a type of graph that shows multiple data points on the x-axis (independent variable) and y axis (dependent variable). A scatter plot has a x axis and a y axis. There are numerical values on both axis of the graph and numerical data points on the graph itself that can show cause and effect.
Illusory Correlation: The illusion that outcomes can be controlled (or related) through a correlated action, even when it’s not possible. If someone has a poor experience with their relator, they might think that all relators are bad.
Regression toward the mean: The idea that after an extreme score occurs, the data will go back towards the average (mean). A student doesn’t prepare for a test, yet they get an 84%. Their average for tests they don’t study for is 64%. The next test they take without studying for, they got a 61%
Experimentation
Experimental Group: The experimental group are participants that are subject to change. In a study on whether music helps teens sleep, the experimental group would be the teens who listens to different amounts of music before they go to sleep.
Control Group: The group of participants that are not subject to change. In a study on whether music helps teens sleep, the control group would be the teens that don’t listen to music before they go to sleep.
Random Assignment: The participants in a sample have an equal chance of being randomly chosen (assigned) to different parts of the study (control group and experimental group). 17,000 Belarus newborns and their mothers are equally assigned (split) into either a control group given normal pediatric care, or to an experimental group that promoted breast feeding.
Double-Blind Procedure: When the researcher and the participants are unaware of who’s in the control group or who’s in the experimental group. In a study on how a drug can cause weight loss, the drug is administered by a third party (such as a non-participating doctor), so the participants and researchers are unaware of who’s taking the drug or not taking the drug.
Single-Blind Procedure: When the participants are unaware of who’s in the control group or the experimental group. In a study on how a drug can cause weight loss, the researchers administer the drug along with a placebo, so the participants are unaware of who’s in the experimental or control group.
Placebo Effect: When an individual or group is tricked into believing something occurred even though it didn’t, in order to see if it affects the outcomes. Decaf coffee drinkers have been reported to increase alertness when they thought their coffee had caffeine in it.
Independent Variable: The independent variable is the variable that is being manipulated with. In a study about how a drug can affect alertness, the independent variable are the drugs levels (or the drug dosage) used in the experiment.
Dependent Variable: The dependent variable is the variable that isn’t being manipulated with. In a study about how a drug can affect alertness, the dependent variable are how alert the participants are.
Confounding Variable: The variable that can affect the dependent variable, but it isn’t a part of the independent variable. In the study about how a drug can affect alertness, a confounding variable could be caffeinated beverages consumed prior to the consumption of the drug.