RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY A. Theoretical Framework - Explain what a theory is, Assignments of Psychology

Download RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY A. Theoretical Framework - Explain what a theory is and more Assignments Psychology in PDF only on Docsity!

General Psychology-online

Fall 2019

RESEARCH METHODS IN

PSYCHOLOGY

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Research Methods in Psychology I. Characteristics of Psychology Research A. Theoretical Framework

- Explain what a theory is A theory is a reasonable principle or set of principles provided, by organized observations, to explain what causes phenomena and to explain the relationship between variables within the phenomena or events. A theory is important because it sets the base on what to look for and how. It can also be tested and verified with the scientific method. - Explain what a hypothesis , is. Explain how it is different than a theory – use an example. A hypothesis is a statement of prediction or supposition, supported by limited evidence, about the relationship between two or more variables. It is testable to determine if the observation in the real world agree or not with the aforesaid predictions. The difference between a theory and a hypothesis is that a hypothesis is an unproven statement that was created to be tested, it relies on a suggestion or a prediction. A theory has been already set to explain phenomena which is constantly validated over experimentation and observation. It is supported by evidence from all the observations previously made and implies a great likelihood of truth. Example of theory: The theory of relativity by Einstein explains the behavior of objects in space and time. What makes it a theory is the fact that it has been tested and verified countless times, obtaining with consistent results that corroborate Einstein’s conclusions. Example of hypothesis: The effect of fertilizers on plant growth. We know that plants need various types of nutrients to grow. The hypothesis could be that fertilizers add many of those nutrients to the soil and hence allow plants to grow better, if more fertilizer is added to my plant then it will grow more. The prediction in the hypothesis (more fertilizer = more growth in plant) sets the basis for the experimentation. After the experimentation it can be determined if the results are in accordance or not with the prediction, corroborating it or falsifying it. - Explain what a variable is. Use an example. A variable is a trait that could change or vary across situations or from one person to another. It can take different values that can be counted or measured. In a scientific experiment we find the next two types of variables: General Psychology

Chapter 2 D. Measurement  What is a measure of behavior? Behavior is the response of an individual to various stimuli, whether external or internal. A measure is the method of representing an abstract concept, in this case, expressing behavior into a quantifiable variable. Thus, a measure of behavior given specific stimuli, could be how many times it occurs, or repeats. In other words, repeatability is a measure of behavior.  Explain what test-retest reliability is Reliability is attributed to a measure’s capacity to generate the same results on repeated trials. Test-retest reliability is the measure’s generated results on repeated tests when applying the test over time. That is obtaining test measures today and retesting two months later with the same subjects and obtaining the same results as before. The testing is not limited to two times and can be applied as many times as needed.  Explain what inter-rater reliability is (You don’t need to explain interitem reliability) Inter-rater reliability determines the external consistency of a test. It is the degree of the consistency in the measures that two or more different raters or evaluators obtained when applying a test. If two or more different people performed the evaluation, their obtained result must be consistent.  Explain what validity is. The text describes different kinds of validity – just explain what it means if a measure is valid****. The word ‘valid’ is derived from the Latin Validus, meaning ‘strong.’ Valid claims are solid claims. Validity is the degree to which a test measures what it claims to measure. How well a conclusion or measurement is supported and how likely it correlates to the real world. It means that the findings truly represent the phenomenon that you are claiming to measure. II. Descriptive Research Methods A. Case Study Methods Case studies deal with detailed investigations of a single individual, group, event or community. In general, the evidence or data are collected from a variety of sources and by using different methods like observations and interviews. General Psychology

Chapter 2 Strengths:  They are effective for isolated, rare, or very complex phenomena.  They emphasize in-depth content. The researcher can dig deep and use a variety of data sources to get a complete picture.  They can be used in combination with quantitative or experimental procedures.  They are flexible. While scientists are trying to prove or disprove a hypothesis, a case study might introduce new and unexpected results during the research and lead it to new directions. Weaknesses/ limitations:  Due to their uniqueness, they cannot be generalized to a whole population.  Research bias might represent a problem. Bias is a preconceived opinion, feeling, or judgement.  The aforementioned point influences the reliability, validity, and generalizability of the results.  Its complexity means that it might not be able to be reproduced. B. Naturalistic Observation This technique implicates observing subjects in their natural environment, where no manipulation of variables is involved. Strengths:  It offers a ‘real-world’ experience.  First-hand look at natural social behavior data can be collected.  The results of the work are more believable and usable in the future. It has external validity. Weaknesses/ limitations:  It cannot explain the why of the observed behaviors. In a natural setting a researcher might struggle to identify the variables involved and how they influence such behaviors.  It does not always produce conclusive or accurate data. Even when subjects are being observed in their natural environment, their action can be affected by observation, affecting the collected data validity.  Researcher bias. The information gathered can be treated in a subjective way.  Time invested in this kind of observation can be lengthy. It can take longer for specific phenomena to occur naturally. C. Survey General Psychology

Chapter 2 This relationship is inversed between variables, while one variable increases, the other decreases, and vice versa, as one variable decreases, the other tends to increase. They act opposed to each other. For example: the more pages you print, the less ink supply you will have. As variable 1 (number of pages printed) increases, variable 2 (ink supply) decreases. If a driver slows the driving speed, the time to get from point A to point B will increase. When variable 1 (speed) declines, variable 2 (time) raises. The variables behave opposite to each other. B. Strength of correlation: correlation coefficient **Explain what it is. Use an example. The statistic has a value from 0 to 1: 0 = no relationship between 2 variables

.3, a** significant relationship .5, a strong relationship The correlation coefficient is the statistical relationship between variables, the indicator of the magnitude or strength of that relationship. The strength of the relationship varies in accordance to the value of the correlation coefficient. For example: If the variables ‘stress’ and ‘blood pressure,’ and the variables ‘obesity’ and ‘blood pressure’ have a correlation coefficient values of 0.4 and 0.8 respectively it can be concluded that even though the correlation between variables is positive, the strength in the relationship between variables ‘obesity’ and ‘blood pressure’ is stronger than the relationship between variables ‘stress’ and ‘blood pressure’. In other words, obesity has more influence on blood pressure than stress. C. Weakness of correlational research Explain how correlational research only describes relationships between variables. It can’t be used to test for cause and effect. Correlation doesn’t imply causation, only co-occurrence. As explained before, correlation research assesses the degree in which two variables are related but it only quantifies the association between the variables. The aim of this kind of research is to find if one variable has any effect over another. This is because neither variable can be manipulated. For example: if researches have the idea that daily challenges (traffic, work load, people interactions, etc.) affect various psychological symptoms (anger, stress, anxiety, etc.), they wouldn’t be able to manipulate the variables, but they might find that there’s a relationship between them and it would be consistent with their idea. The limitation here is that because of the lack of manipulation of the variables, an experimentation is very difficult to be carried out, thus, there’s an inability of deduce cause and effect between variables. General Psychology

Chapter 2 V. Experimental Research In an experiment , a researcher manipulates one variable – the independent variable – to see how it affects at least one other variable – the dependent variable. Explain by using the famous experiment by Pennebaker that began the chapter - effect of emotional expressiveness on health. The main characteristic that determines an experimental research is that it is conducted with a scientific approach. It targets to establish the cause and effect of a phenomenon. In this kind of research independent and dependent variables are the key parts of the experiments. _You don’t need to explain each of the 6 steps of constructing an experiment in the text – just the items below._* A. Variables and Conditions/Groups  Independent variable (IV): always manipulated, creating experimental and control conditions/groups. Use Pennebaker’s experiment, explain what an IV is, and to explain what the experimental and control groups are.  An independent variable is the one that is changed or controlled in a scientific experiment.  Experimental group is referred to the group that is given the variable being tested in an experiment and the control group is the one that does not receive the variable you are testing. In Pennebaker’s experiment researchers wanted to find out if writing about traumatic events would influence long term measures of health. The participants were assigned to one of two groups. Each group was handed a series of instructions, the first one to write about their deepest thoughts and feelings regarding going to college (group 1), and the other group to write about what they did during their days since waking up, without mentioning their feelings at all (group 2). These activities were performed for 20 minutes a day on three consecutive days. Taking Pennebaker’s experiment, ‘writing about traumatic events’ and ‘measures of health,’ later determined as number of visits to the health services, can be identified as its variables. The one variable that can be manipulated is “writing about traumatic events,’ thus, becoming the independent variable. The experimental group given the instructions associated with the tested variable ‘writing about traumatic events’ would be ‘group 1’ and the control group that received different instructions, not associated with the variable that was tested, makes it the control group is ‘group 2.’ General Psychology

Chapter 2 C. Strengths and weaknesses of experiments Explain each: Strength: can test cause-effect relationships between variables. In an experiment the environment can be controlled, the independent variable can be manipulated and isolated, and any other affecting variable could be eliminated. This helps the observer to identify the effect or response on the dependent variable, making an experiment a cause-effect establisher. Weaknesses: -Sometimes, the findings of an experiment – a highly controlled procedure - don’t generalize to real-life. Conducting an experiment can be done under highly controlled and standardized procedures and conditions. This can give the setting an artificial-like feeling and produce unnatural behaviors, two aspects that don’t represent real life, thus making the experiment impossible to be generalized, or applied outside of the laboratory.

- Some phenomena can’t be studied with an experiment. The complexity and/or uniqueness of some phenomena makes them impossible to be brought into the lab settings to be studied and/or replicated. Some variables can be hard or impossible to manipulate to mimic natural phenomena. For example: A volcano can’t be brought to eruption and replicate this activity only for an experimenter to investigate how it would affect its surrounding ecosystem.

Very well done, particularly on the Pennebaker experiment. You explain just

about all of the concepts quite well. Keep up the well developed explanations -

you will continue to get As.

In psychology, most variables are behaviors that vary, or differ, among

people: gender, race, intelligence, personality traits, etc. "Variable" means that

people vary in the extent to which people exhibit a behavior, such as shyness

or aggression or intelligence. People exhibit more or less of a variable. Just

about everything you will study in this course - any behavior - is a variable.

Explanations of negative/ positive correlation are not quite correct

because orrelations don’t describe relationships between variables for a

particular person, but for people in general. A correlation is a general

relationship – it may not pertain to particular individuals. Take

negative correlation, for example: when people score high on one variable

(how much they smoke), they tend to score low on another variable (how long

General Psychology

Chapter 2

the live). Socioeconomic status (SES, essentially a measure of income) is

negatively correlated with episodes of mental illness: the higher SES tends to

be, the fewer episodes of mental illness people tend to have. Again, a

correlation describes a general relationship between two variables - it's far

from perfect. There are obviously lots of people of high SES who suffer from

multiple episodes of mental illness. But in general, people of higher SES tend

to have fewer episodes.

Regarding the confounding variable of participant characteristics: People differ

in various characteristics (gender, race, intelligence - the list is endless). Any

one of them could affect the outcome of an experiment. That is why the

participants are randomly assigned to the groups - to try to distribute such

characteristics across the groups and thus minimize the possibility they will

contaminate the experiment and affect the results.

General Psychology