Psych 1000: Introduction to Psychology

SCIENCE vs. PSEUDOSCIENCE

Developing Theories
Scientific Research
• Different Approaches
• Case Study
• Correlation
• Experiment
• Reliability & Validity

• Dr. Laura Fazakas-DeHoog [email protected]

 SAMPLE EXAM QUESTION
Q: Which of the following theories stress
that behavior is primarily shaped by
learning and/or environmental factors?

a. Empiricism
b. Nativism
c. Humanism
d. Rationalism
e. Structuralism
 SAMPLE EXAM QUESTION
Q: Which of the following Psychologists has
been credited with the development of
Behaviorism?

a. Wilhelm Wundt
b. Sigmund Freud
c. John B. Watson
d. William James
e. Wolfgang Kohler
 SCIENCE vs. PSEUDOSCIENCE
SCIENCE PSEUDOSCIENCE
• Peer-reviewed • NOT peer reviewed

• maintain rigorous standards • NO rigorous standards for

• for honesty & accuracy • Honesty & accuracy
• Reproducible results demanded • Results cannot be reproduced
• Failures are searched for and or verified
studied closely
• Failures are ignored, excused,
• Over time, more is learned about • or hidden
processes under study. • Overtime, very little new is
• Convinces by evidence or logical learned
reasoning
• Convinces by faith or belief.
Definitions
• Theories - Frameworks for explaining events
• Formal statements that explain how & why
certain events are related
• Theories are broader than hypothesis

• Hypothesis – tentative explanation/prediction

• Variable -
– The factor you want to explore
– Operational Definition
– How you are specifically going to define your variable
– Aggression → #of punches? #of verbal threats?
THEORIES
A GOOD THEORY
• Incorporates existing facts/observations
• within a single framework
• Are testable
• Supported by new research findings (not be
contradictive)
• Are parsimonious (simple)

Theories are not necessarily true

Steps in Scientific Research

• Initial observation/question
• Form hypothesis
• Test hypothesis
• - conduct research (have two groups like a
control group)
• Analyze data
• - do results support the hypothesis?
• Do further research & build a theory
• - adjust theory on the basis of new findings
 Scientific Research in Action…

Derive
Predictions

Formulate Test
Theory predictions
 WHO? The SAMPLE
• SAMPLE - a part of a population, or
group that a researcher wants to
study & make inferences about.
• GOOD SAMPLES:
• RANDOM – each person has equal chances
of being in the sample

• REPRESENTATIVE – the characteristics of

the larger group are in a smaller sample
The SAMPLE

REPRESENTATIVE
SAMPLE
- Same
characteristics
as population
• Age
• Gender
• Education

Important for
drawing
conclusions
HOW? Data Collection Method
DESCRIPTIVE DESIGN
• SURVEYS - interviews & questionnaires
• Types of Surveys
• TELEPHONE
• Fast & efficient
• Interviewer bias
• MAIL
• Avoids interviewer bias
• Response rate?
• PERSONAL INTERVIEW
• Flexibility
• Costly and interviewer bias
• * ALL Descriptive designs have a potential
• participant response bias.
 TYPES OF SURVEYS
Please tell us a little about your current relationship feelings

For each oftell

the
Likert Scale
Please us afollowing pairs
little about your of relationship
current oppositefeelings
adjectives, select
the circle that best describes HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR - Range of choices on a
For each of Base
relationship. the following
yourpairs of opposite adjectives,
responses on yourselectfirst impressions
the circle that best describes HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT YOUR
and immediate feelings
relationship. Base about
your responses on the item.
your first impressions
continuum
and immediate feelings about the item.
-
Interesting Boring
versus
Interesting Boring
Bad Bad Good Good
Unpleasant Pleasant
Unpleasant Pleasant
Full Empty
Full Empty
Forced-Choice
Weak Strong
Weak Satisfied Dissatisfied Strong
Lonely Friendly

- 1 of 2 options e.g
Satisfied Dissatisfied
Sturdy Fragile
Lonely Rewarding Disappointing Friendly
Sturdy Discouraging Hopeful Fragile True/False
Enjoyable Miserable
Rewarding Disappointing
Tense Relaxed

Example:
Discouraging
Stable Unstable Hopeful
Enjoyable
Happy Sad Miserable
Tense
Stressful Peaceful
Relaxed True? Or False?
Stable Unstable
“My relationship is very
Happy Sad
Stressful Peaceful
interesting”
Data Collection Method
• NATURALISTIC
OBSERVATION
– careful observation and
recording of behavior in
real-life settings
• e.g., watching children in
daycare
Advantages:
- Behaviour is observed where it typically
occurs
Disadvantages:
- Can’t establish cause and effect
- Costly to run
- Observer interfernce
HOW ? Research Design
• CASE STUDY
– In-depth examination of one
person

Advantages:
- Enables intensive study of rare
phenomena
e.g. study the deficits
or changes that occur Disadvantages:
to a person who - Geberalizabilty of the findings
suffers brain damage is questionable
- Potential researcher bias
 Correlational Design
• Correlations
– Assess relationships between naturally occurring
variables
• You can measure two variables & then compute a
correlation to see if there is a meaningful
relationship
• Addresses questions such as
- How does one behaviour relate yo the occurrence of another
behaviour?
- Know one behavviur, predict the another?

Advantages: allows study of relationships the cannot be

controlled be manipulated or controlled
Disadvantages: cannot access cause and effect relationships
An Example

high Participant 1

Remaining
Participants
Hand-Eye
Coordination
Participant 3

Participant 2

low
low high
Alcohol Consumption
Correlation Coefficients

+1 0

-1 +.8
 Correlation between smoking and cancer

90

80
r = .77
70
Cancer Rate

60
Cancer Rate

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
# of Cigarettes
Cigs per day / Day
 Correlation between self-esteem and suicide rate

100

90 r = -.59
80

70
Rate
Suicide Rate

60

50
Suicide

40

30

20

10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Self-Esteem
Self Esteem
 Correlation is NOT Causation
EXAM
The causation for both
can be warm weather

Weekly
Number of
Drownings
in Canada

Weekly Ice Cream Consumption (cones per capita)

 Research Design
THE EXPERIMENT
– Assess cause-effect relationships between
2 or more variables
• researcher manipulates one variable
• researcher then measures whether this variable
produces changes in another variable
• The researcher attempts to control for other
factors that might influence the results
• Why do we care about cause & effect?
• Do treatments really work?
• Controls: age, gender
• Compare experimental group to a control group (a control group is
 Research Design
THE EXPERIMENT
THE VARIABLES

Independent Variable (IV)

– The variable manipulated by the experimenter
e.g. alcohol consumption

Dependent Variable (DV)

– The variable effected by the independent variable.
e.g. hand-eye coordination
 An Example:
Comparing Treatment Effectiveness
Random Assignment

Experimental Group #1 Experimental Group #2 Control Group

(medication & psychotherapy) (medication only) No treatment/wait list

Then measure the dependent variable (e.g. symptom severity)

and calculate the mean for each group

Meds & Meds control

Therapy only
 IMPORTANT TERMS

Social desirability the tendency to respond in a

socially appropriate manner even if its not true

Placebo effect sometimes its hard to determine whether

it’s the treatment or the persons expectations that is responsible for
the change

Double-blind blind meaning the both the participant

and the researcher don’t know what group the participant’s in
(ie are they in the controlled group or the treatment group?)
Good experiments have high
– Reliability
• Stability & Consistency over time
– Internal Validity
• the IV truly causes the changes in the DV
– External Validity
• you can generalize your results
– Construct Validity
• your measure is truly tapping the variable
you want to assess
• (e.g. throeing a baseball to test jandeye
coordination rather than math problems to
determine handeye coordination)
Different Ways to Do Research
• SETTING
1. Field Study
2. Lab
• DATA
1. Self-Report
a) Surveys
b) Interviews
2. Observation
• DESIGN
1. Case Study
2. Correlational
3. Experimental
Examples...
• Subjects are randomly assigned
to watch either a violent or a
non-violent video and then are
watched for aggression while
playing with a large inflated
Bobo doll in the lab
– Setting? Lab
– Data? Observation
– Design? Experimental
Another Example...

• The relation between birth

order and the amount of
aggression on the school
playground is assessed during
recess
– Setting? Playground, Field study
– Data? Observation
– Design? Correlation
 NEXT LECTURE

• Statistics Overview

Reading: Chapter 2/Appendix