INTRODUCTIONTO

EXPERIMENTALPSYCHOLOGY

Presented by:Mary Anne A. Portuguez, MP, RPm

What is the goal of scientific psychology?

– To understand why people think and act as they do.

– Follows the five major goals in Psychology.

Describe, explain, predict, control, and influence.

How important is science in Psychology?

– It offers systematic and objective procedure to gather information.

– It provides framework.– It offers evidence-based solutions to problems.– It guides practitioners.

LET’S DIVE INTO THE REAL WORLD!

– There are times in a company wherein newly installed machines are not effective to use.

– More people in the streets take more time to help another person.

– The negative effects of social media use.

OBJECTIVES:

– To be well-versed in experimental methods.– To apply the insights in real world.– To apply the learnings in making psychological

research.

Psychology as a Science– Establish relationships between

circumstances and behaviors.– Fit these relationships into an orderly body

of knowledge.

Major Concern of Psychologists

– Humans and animals are variable.

– We cannot repeat what has been done. (as in exact)

How can we manage variability?

– Statistical treatment– Control

Research Techniques–Quantitative design–Qualitative design

QuantitativeMethods

Important terms to remember:

Inductive theories: – Created from a solid database of empirical

observations.Deductive theories: – Can be precisely stated and tested.– Hypotheses are created as tentative answers to

problems.

Postulates - fundamental or core assumptions of a theory that are taken as self-evidently true.Propositions - general relational statements that may be true or false; not tested directly but used to derive hypotheses.

Important terms to remember:

Important terms to remember:

Conceptual definitions - concepts in the hypotheses are defined precisely so that accurate measures of the concepts can be devised.

Operational definitions - procedures (or operations) used to define particular constructs.

Replication - duplication or repetition of an experiment or study to determine whether or not the original findings are reliable.

Experimental Method– the relationship of interest is between a set of

circumstances and a behavior.• Independent variables • Dependent variables • Experimental group • Control group

Experimental Method• Informed consent - practice of telling study participants

about the nature of their participation in a proposed experiment and then obtaining their written agreement to participate

• Debriefing - informing study participants of the true nature and purpose of a study after it is completed

Correlational Method– It is a general procedure for establishing an association

or relationship between events.– Correlational coefficient - numerical index of the size

and direction of an association between two variables.

– Correlation coefficients do not provide us with any information about which variable causes the other.

Surveys

Typically ask people about their behavior or their opinions.

Archival Research

It involves using previously collected data or records to answer a research question (Ex. Determine good performers from poor performers).

Quasi-ExperimentIt is a design involves selecting groups, upon which a variable is tested, without any random pre-selection processes (Ex. Noise in the workplace).

True positives – Hits; see the presence False positives – ‘false alarms’ ; identify presence of actual absence False negatives – Misses; fails to see the target True negative – Correct rejection; correctly see the absence of target

Qualitative Methods

EthnographyA science that concerns itself with the division of mankind into races and their origin, distribution, relations and characteristics.

Naturalistic ObservationSometimes called field studies because the investigator goes into the field to collect data.

Case HistoryIt is a detailed account of the events in a case; the case is usually a person’s life.