Welcome to Survey of Research Methods and Statistics! PS 510

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Welcome to Survey of Research Methods and
Statistics!PS 510
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Why are you taking this course?

• Its required for my major and I need it to
  graduate.
• I dont knowI will never conduct research after
  this course.
• My advisor told me to take it.
• This class is important for your life beyond
  Caldwell College!

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Goal of this Course

• To help you think like a scientist about
  behavior.
• To help you evaluate the results of psychological
  research.

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Why Conduct Research?

• Progress in science based on new facts that lead
  to new theories.
• Research advances our scientific understanding
  about a problem.

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Why Conduct Research?

• Progress in science based on new facts that lead
  to new theories.
• Research advances our scientific understanding
  about a problem.
• Ex Tells us that reading is an automatic process
  
• Allows us to make predictions - good readers may
  have more difficulty when 2 processes are
  combined compared to not good readers.
• Research allows for practical applications
• What reading methods work to improve reading?

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How do we evaluate research?

• Become a critical thinker
• Experiment
• attempt to determine cause-effect relations in
  the world.
• Ex the effects of inhibiting reading on the time
  it takes to count digits
• Composed of
• Independent variable (IV)
• Dependent variable (DV)
• Control variables

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Independent Variable

• A factor the experimenter directly manipulates
• cause part of cause-effect relation
• must have at least 2 values or levels
• Ex1 IV lighting
• 2 levels normal lighting vs. bright
  lighting
• 2- IV type of music
• 3 levels Rock vs. classical vs. no music

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Dependent Variable

• The response or behavior being measured.
• The results that depend on the manipulation of
  the IV
• effect part of cause-effect relation
• Ex 1 measuring productivity of workers
• Ex 2 number of math problems solved correctly

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Control Variables

• Variables that are held constant throughout the
  experiment.
• Reduce the chances that differences between
  conditions are caused by something other than the
  effects of your IV.
• Ex 1 the duration of the time the workers
  worked. All workers worked 8 hour shift in each
  condition.
• Ex 2 the type of math problems students
  completed. All students completed problems of
  medium difficulty in each condition.

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Confounding Variables

• Undesirable variable that may influence the DV
  and change results.
• Confound is present when 2 factors are varying
  together in the experiment.
• Important to avoid to be clear of cause-effect
  relations.

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Ex Coke vs. Root Beer vs. Pepsi Challenge
Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
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General Steps in Research

1. Get an idea
2. Review the literature
3. Prepare a testable hypothesis
4. Research Design
5. Conduct pilot research
6. Conduct research
7. Analyze results
8. Interpret the results
9. Prepare manuscript or presentation

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Research Ideas

• Find a gap in current knowledge
• Good ideas are 1) testable
• 2) approximate reality

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Sources of Knowledge

• Psychologists seek new knowledge.
• Validity degree to which a knowledge claim is
  accurate.
• 4 sources of beliefs tenacity, authority,
  rationalism, scientific method (empirical)
• 1- Tenacity
• acceptance due to repetition of information.
• sometimes the information may not be true.

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Sources of Knowledge

• 2- Authority
• acceptance of knowledge from authorities
• ex- pharmacist, TV star, lawyers, teachers

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Sources of Knowledge

• 3- Rationalism
• belief is based on a reasonable assumption
• lacks proof or study to support the claim
• deals with form of reasoning and not its content
• Ex The world is flat.

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Sources of Knowledge

• 4- Scientific Method
• empiricism fixing beliefs based on experience
  and objective observations.
• Scientific data is comes from observations that
  can be repeatedly obtained by others.
• Self-correcting new beliefs are compared to old
  beliefs. Old beliefs are discarded if they do not
  fit the data.

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Scientific Approach

• Advantages
• Objectivity
• Open to public scrutiny and ability to verify
  results
• Self-correction of errors
• Use of control variables to rule out unwanted
  factors or to manipulate a factor of importance
  to research

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DATA (empirical observations)
SCIENCE
THEORY
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Research Process

• Theory
• Organizes and explains data
• Offer predictions when no new data is available
• Characteristics
• 1. testable
• 2. parsimonious- short, concise and to the point
• 3. precise

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Research Process

• Hypothesis
• Specific statement about relations between IVs
  and DVs
• How variables will be measured?
• How variables will be related?
• Research or experimental hypothesis the
  experimenters predicted outcome of a study.
• Must indicate the IV and DVs in the statement
• students who are paid based on their reaction
  time during a group activity are less likely to
  show social loafing than students who are not
  paid to perform a task.
• IV payment (Yes vs. No )
• DV reaction time

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Directional vs. Nondirectional Hypotheses

• Directional hypothesis makes specific prediction
  about the direction of the outcome.
• Ex reaction time will be faster for group A than
  group B.
• Nondirectional hypothesis does not predict
  direction of outcome predicts that groups will
  differ.
• Ex reaction time will differ between group A and
  group B.

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Testable Hypotheses

• 1) consuming sugar and violent behavior
• Children who consume 15 grams of sugar per day
  report higher levels of violence (times they hit
  a bobo doll) than children who do not consume 15
  grams of sugar per day.
• 2) Listening to loud music using headphones and
  hearing ability.
• Individuals who listen to music above 60
  decibels using headphones for 20 minutes per day
  show decreased ability to detect sounds below 40
  decibels.
• Operational definitions the definition of a
  variable in terms of the operations (activities)
  a researcher uses to measure or manipulate it.
• allows other researchers to study the topic in a
  similar way.

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Research Process
Hypotheses
Hypotheses
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Principle of Falsifiability

• A scientific theory or hypothesis must be stated
  in a way that it is possible to disconfirm it.
• must predict what will happen and what will not
  happen. It cannot cover all the bases.
• If sufficient evidence is obtained that falsifies
  a theory, then the theory must be modified (or
  discarded).
• If the theory survives many tests that try to
  falsify it, then the theory has more evidence to
  organize information and make predictions.

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