“DOING” PSYCHOLOGY: RESEARCH STRATEGIES

It gives reliable and systematic ways to answer psychological questions like:

How do I analyze dreams?Why are boys so weird?

Other sources of info like the media can be biased

WHY IS RESEARCH IMPORTANT?

Types of Research:-Observation-Case Studies

-Correlational Study-Survey

-Longitudinal Study-Cross Sectional Study

-Experiments (MOST powerful research technique)

WHAT IS RESEARCH?

Just look at what people do!

Problem: Sometimes you can’t see the whole picture.

OBSERVATION

Studies single individuals in depth

Problem: doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone.

CASE STUDIES

2 variables increase or decrease together.

Problem: Correlation DOESN’T = Causation!

CORRELATIONAL STUDY

SURVEY METHOD

Follows same group of people over a long period of time.

Problems: Takes a long time, expensive and difficult to conduct.

LONGITUDINAL STUDY

Compares people of different ages at the same time.

CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Most powerful research method.

Researchers control certain variables to observe the effects of other variables.

They must isolate one variable to be sure that it is the cause of an event.

EXPERIMENTS

1. Develop A Hypothesis

2. Create and define the Independent Variable (IV) and the Dependent Variable (DV)

3. Randomly select participants

4. Randomly assign control group.

5. Expose experimental group to IV (maybe use placebo on control group)

6. Control for confounding variables

7. Learn effect of IV by measuring DV for both groups

8. Use statistical analysis to determine whether differences in DV are a result of the IV

HOW DOES AN EXPERIMENT WORK?

Watch out for confounding variables

Double-Blind: subject and administrator don’t know what they are testing for

Placebo Effect: Any pill will effect me!

Replication: If I did the experiment again, would I get the same results?

OTHER THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND

Human: informed consent; no harm or discomfort caused; confidentiality; debriefing AFTER experiment is over

Animals: Don’t have to worry so much but you can’t hurt them

RESEARCH ETHICS

As you watch Phil’s movie, answer the following questions to help you learn about how psychologists do research:

1. Why is sample size important to consider when conducting an experiment?

2. How many factors should be altered in a valid experiment?

3. What is the difference between correlation and causation?

4. In what circumstances could a polygraph test work?

5. List 7 things to look out for when evaluating the validity of an experiment.

UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH