Psych chapter 2

Studying Behavior Scientifically

Scientific Attitudes- need all 3 of these to do well in science

Curiosity - naturally curious about the world

Open-Mindedness -open to being wrong

Skepticism - “I’m not sure let me look into that”

Steps in the scientific process

Identify a question

gather information - 5 minutes in the library saves 5 years in the lab, read read read.

conduct research -reading is not research, conduct experimental studies that identify casual factors

analyze data -look for statistical significance, quantify if necessary

build a body of knowledge

Hindsight- though the result may seem obvious once its known the is that you cannot unlearn what you found. putting the pieces together after the fact is easy, but it didn’t make sense to you prior to learning the outcome

Theory Building- Aims to eliminate bias through stepwise procedures. we gain a deep understanding of exactly what causes a phenomenon to occur. A body of knowledge aims to explain multiple behavioral patterns with a simple explanation (Law of parsimony)

Hypothesis- specific testable prediction about what you expect to happen

example hypothesis: Students who sleep continuously for 8 hours before an exam will score higher than those who sleep continuously for 4 hours

(issues with this hypothesis: students could be any age, no specific time frame, before could mean 2 weeks before or the night before)

EXAM**knowing the difference between theory and hypothesis and research question**

example of not hypothesis: The amount of sleep before an exam affects performance

Theory- well substantiated explanation of the natural world, based on a body of scientific evidence

Operational Definition- outlines precisely what you mean

precisely how a concept or variable is defined

Translates abstract concepts into measurable terms

Variables

Independent- something manipulated by the researcher to observe the effect on the dependent variable

Dependent- variable that is measured and expected to change based on independent variable

independent variable- students who sleep 8 hours, 4 hours

dependent variable- exam scores

Collecting Data

2 mains styles EXAM**

Subjective measures-subjectively reporting your own thoughts, feelings, perceptions, sensations, behaviors

-self report; questionnaire you fill out about yourself

-proxy report; questionnaire that your friends/ family fill out about you

Behavior measures- recording directly observable behavior

-Psychological tests; Validated inventories created by psychologists to measure a specific construct

-Physiological tests; Instruments used to monitor and measure physiological changes to infer behavior. (skin response, MRI)

You cannot use the word proof with science- scientific knowledge is always tentative- subject to change when new evidence arises- proof is a statement of irrefutable fact that does not consider new evidence

if you say all swans are white, you would have to find every single swan ever. “as far as we know all ones that have been recorded have been white or black”

Types of research methodology:

Research Methods

Descriptive method

describes- a population or a sample to obtain a detailed set of characteristics (example how long do students study per day? what are systems of depression?)

helps- understand more about a population, treatment, general characteristics

obtained through

case studies- in depth analysis on a specific event or person

natural observation - observe behavior as it occurs naturally. risk of subject/observer bias

lab studies

surveys - questionaries assessing attitudes

doesn't establish why or how something occurs, only that there is an occurrence.

Correlational method

describes- the relationship between two or more variables. easy to conduct easy to interpret

helps- to understand whether and how strongly pairs of variables are related

obtained through- same as descriptive studies case studies, natural observation, lab studies, surveys

correlation does not imply causation

Positive correlation-one variable increases so does the other one (hours studying increases, grades increase)

Negative correlation- one variable increases the other one decreases (Netflix watching increases, grade decreases)

correlational setbacks-does not convey the nature of the relationship

temporal precedence- cant tell which variable comes first

Scenario Amount of coffee drinking increases productivity Twist Does coffee increase productivity? Or do productive people drink more coffee

3rd variable- may be another unmeasured variable influencing the two variables

Scenario Sleep quality positively correlates with academic success Twist Highly successful people tend to prioritize both sleep and grade

Experimental Research

Describes: The relationship between manipulated variables and observed outcomes

Helps: to identify casual links between variables to better understand the world around us

Obtained through: conducting controlled experiments

differences between groups, testing two independent groups

by repeated measures testing the same group multiple times

could be a learning effect

Longitudinal, tracking participants over time

Does not: guarantee results will be replicable, valid, reliable, cannot determine whether experiment of free from confounding variables

Independent Variable -

Dependent Variable -

social desirability bias

Threats to Research- The big two

Validity: how well a research procedure is measuring a construct accurately

High Validity- well calibrated scale accurately measures weight

Low Validity- poor designed measure of anxiety that accidentally measures frustration

High reliability - consistently provides the same result when the same conditions are used

Low reliability- Provides widely different results even with the same conditions