Lecture 2 (psych 111) PDF

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Notes for Lecture 2 of Psych 111....

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lecture 2: june 2, 2021 research strategies: how psychologists ask and answer questions the need for psychological science humans cannot rely solely on intuition and common sense sources of intuition overestimation: ● hindsight bias ● overconfidence ● tendency to perceive patterns in random events why do we overuse intuition and make errors? psychological science in a post-truth world post-truth: describing a modern culture where people’s emotionsna dpersonal beliefs often override their acceptance of objective facts ● false news ● repetition ● availability of powerful examples ● group identity and the echo chamber of the like-minded the scientific method scientific method is the process of testing ideas about the world ● setting up situations that test our ideas ○ if the data do not fit our ideas, then our ideas are modified and tested again ● making careful, organized observations ● analyzeing whether the data fit with our ideas theory: an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events ● a good theory: ○ effectively organizes ○ leads to clear predictions ○ often stimulates research ○ may be replicated hypothesis: a testable prediction, often implied by a theory operational definition: a carefully worded statement of the exact procedures (operations) used in a research study replication: repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances testing hypotheses and refining theories:  ● description ● correlation ● causation ● experiments research strategies: description ● descriptive research is a systematic, objective, observation of people

it’s goal is to provide a clear, accurate picture of people’s behaviors, thoughts, and attributes ● case study: ○ examines one individual in depth ○ provides fruitful ideas ○ cannot be used to generalize conclusions ● naturalistic observation: ○ records behabior in natural environment ○ describes but does not explain behavior ○ can be revealing ● survey and interview: ○ examine many cases in less depth ○ wording effect ● random sampling: uses random sampling of the population for best results research strategies: correlation ● general definition: an observation that two traits or attributes are related to each other (that is, they are “co”-related)  ● scientific definition: a measure of how closely two factors vary together, or how well you can predict a change in one from observing a change in the other research strategies: regression towards the mean  ● illusory correlation: the perception fo a relationship between two  variables when only a minor or no relationship actuall exists [may be fed by regression towards the mean]  ● regression towards the mean: the tendency for extreme or unusual scores or events to fall back (regress towards the average)  research strategies: experimentation ● with experiments, researchers can focus on the possible effects of one or more factors in several ways  ○ they can manipulate the factors of interest to determine their effects ○ they can hold constant {controlling} other factors  experimental group/ control group  ● double-blind procedure [eliminating bias]: neither those in the study nore those collecting the data know which group is receiving the treatment  ○ treatment’s actual effects can be separated from potential placebo  effect ● placebo effect: effect involves results cause by expectations alone  ● variables: ○ independent variable: factor that is manipulated, the variable whose effect is being studied  ○ confounding variable: factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect  ○

dependent variable: factor that is measured, the variable that may change when the independent variable is manipulated  correlation and causation  positive correlation (between 0 and 1.00): indicates a direct relationship [two things increase together or decrease together]  negative correlation (between 0 and -1.00): indicates an inverse relationship [as one thing increases, the other decreases]  correlation coefficient: provides a statistical measure of how closely two things  vary together and how well one predicts the other  variable: includes anything that can vary and is feasible and ethical the measure scatterplot: a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables:  ● slope of the points  ● amount of scatter  CORRELATION DOES NOT PROVE CAUSATION  ● a correlation coefficient helps to provide a clearer view of the world by revealing the extent to which two things relate  psychology’s research ethics  how do researchers know which research design to use?  ● researchers: ○ design each study  ○ measure target behavior  ○ interpret results ○ contribute to understanding of behavior and mental processes  predicting everyday behavior:  ● experiment purpose: test theoretical principles; do not re-create exact everyday life behaviors  ● resulting principles: help explain everyday behabior, not specific findings  ● psychological science: focuses primarily on seeking general principles that help explain many behaviors and less on particular behaviors  ● controlled artificial environments are created in laboratory experiments to test general theoretical principles (these general principles help explain  everyday behaviors)  studying and protecting animals:  ● British Psychological Society (BPS): has established guidelines for  reasonably natural living conditions and companions for social animals  ● American Psychological Assocation (APA): has established guidelines for  human treatment and minization of infection, illness, and pain  ● ethics codes of APA and BPS:  ○ obtain potential participants’ informed consent before the experiment begins ○ protect participants from harm and discomfort  ○ keep information about individual participants confidential  ○ fully debrief people (explain the research afterward)  ○

values in research:  ● affect what is studied, how it is studied, and how results are interpreted  ● can color “facts” ● can be influenced by popular application of psychology  statistical reasoning in everyday life  accurate statistical understanding is important: casual estimates often misread reality and misinform  big, round, undocumented numbers warrant caution  describing data: mode: most frequently occuring score(s) in a distribution  mean: arithmetic average of a distribution, obtained by adding the scores and then dividing by the number of scores; can be distorted by a few atypical scores median: middle score in a distribution; half the scores are above it, and half are below it  range: difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution  standard deviation: computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score normal curve (normal distribution): symmetrical, bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of many types of data [68% of data fall within one standard deviation]  generalizations based on a few unrepresentative cases are unreliable  significant differences: when is an observed difference significant? -> the odds of an outcomes occurrence by chance are less than 5%.  statistical significance indicates the likelihood that a result could have happened by chance [it does not say anything about the importance of the result]    true or false? 1. Human intuition is remarkably accurate and free from error. 2. Most people seem to lack confidence in the accuracy of their beliefs. 3. In science, a theory is merely suspicion. 4. Happy people would rather talk than tweet. 5. The opinions of 1500 randomly selected people can provide a very accurate picture of the opinions of an entire nation. 6. The scientific finding that depressed people tend to have low self-esteem proves that depression causes people to be down on themselves, 7. The prupose of the experiment is to re-create behaviors exactly as they occur in everyday life. 8. Under ethical and legal guidelines, researchers must ensure the comfort, health, and humane treatment of animals.  9. As a science, psychology is objective and value free. 10. Using the mean, the 2010 Census calculates that nearly 65% of households have “below average” income” ...