In full sentences on your index card; list three (3) differences between 9th and 12th graders.

Do Now:

How would you prove it!

Objective: How is Experimentation Used in Psychology?

• Experimental psychology is an area of psychology that utilizes scientific methods to research the mind and behavior. In the past, psychological experimentation has been controversial due to unethical experiments. It is now strictly regulated by the American Psychological Association (APA).

DO NOW:

Write Down

Objective (Focus)

in your notes.

We are going to play a short game.

Is everyone ready to play? If so raise your hand.Is everyone comfortable?

Turn your index card over and put your answers on there

Look at the list of words below for one minute. Memorize as many words as you can in this amount of time. 

Nine Swap Cell Ring RustPlugs Lamp Apple Table SwayArmy Bank Fire Hold WormClock Horse Color Baby SwordDesk Hold Find Bird Rock

Horse Cat Dog Fish BirdOrange Yellow Blue Green BlackTable Chair Desk Bookcase BedTeacher School Student Homework ClassApple Banana Kiwi Grape Mango

Good Job! (a little positive reinforcement ), now same thing with these.

Please sign your index card and hand up your answers and put them in the box so I can lock

them up.

Experimental Psychologist George A. Miller says the typical storage capacity for short-term memory is seven to five items. However, strategies such as chunking can significantly based on category, can increase memorization and recall and people remember more words.

Who got 7 or more the first time? Who got at least 5? Who got less? Who got more the second time?

In dealing with human subjects, psychologists follow a code of ethical principles published by the A.P.A.• obtain informed consent from all subjects• protect subjects from harm and discomfort• treat all experimental data confidentially• explain the experiment and the results to the subjects

afterward• Prior to 1970 – this wasn’t always followed.

What are Ethics?The American

Psychological

Association 1992

How do we use the Scientific Method in Psychological Research?

Hypothesis:Statement of

expected results

Subjects chosen

Subjects divided up

Experimental Group

(get the experiment)

Control Group

(do not get the

experiment)

Variables: Factors that change in an experiment

How to tell the difference between variables

Inde

pend

ent V

aria

ble

IFA request is made by a person in a uniform

Dep

ende

nt V

aria

ble

THENMore people will reply to this request

What is the experimental group?

Group on which critical part of

experiment is

performed

This group gets the

real sleeping

pills

What is the Control Group?

Control Group• Subjects who are just like the experimental

group except will not participate in the study

This group will receive a placebo• A Placebo is a medicine that has no active

ingredients and works by power of suggestion

What is a Control?

Examples: Subject with cold, on

medication, etc.

Something that could

skew results

Experimental Subjects removed

Do Sleeping Pills Work?

Dependent VariableWhat results from the experimenter manipulating the independent variableEx. Better sleep, less sleep, etc.

SubjectsTwo groups of people in similar health, same age, similar sleep issues

Contr

ol

Re

moval

of fact

ors t

hat

may

pr

ove

hy

pot

hesis –

but

woul

d alter res

ults.

Ol

der

pe

ople,

pe

ople

wit

h c

ol

ds,

on

ot

her

me

dicati

on, etc.

Independent Variable(The variable the experimenter changes)Experimenter gives one group real sleeping pills and one group placebos

Hypothesis2 of my newly developed

sleeping pills will help people with insomnia

Don’t

write…you

will have

this as a

handout

What is a double-blind study?

• Patient’s expectations• Wondering which group gets real drug

Subject

Are researchers responsible for their subjects – even if they

volunteer for an experiment?

Are researchers responsible for their subjects – even if they

volunteer for an experiment?

Reading:

Stanley Milgram Experiment

Stanford Prison Experiment

1. What is a hypothesis?

Wrap Up

2. What part of an experiment is the Independent Variable?

3. What part of the experiment is the Dependent Variable?

4. What is the experimental group?

5. What is a control group?

6. When would you use a control?

7. What is a placebo and what is its purpose?

8. What are some ethics psychologists must follow in

experimentation?

Has anyone ever asked you to participate in a research study?

Answer survey questions? (Phone, mall, school, online, etc.)

What was it about?

Do Now:

Experiments: Harlow’s Monkeys

• In subsequent experiments, Harlow’s monkeys proved that “better late than never” was not a slogan applicable to attachment. When Harlow placed his subjects in total isolation for the first eights months of life, denying them contact with other infants or with either type of surrogate mother, they were permanently damaged. Harlow and his colleagues repeated these experiments, subjecting infant monkeys to varied periods of motherlessness. They concluded that the impact of early maternal deprivation could be reversed in monkeys only if it had lasted less than 90 days, and estimated that the equivalent for humans was six months. After these critical periods, no amount of exposure to mothers or peers could alter the monkeys’ abnormal behaviors and make up for the emotional damage that had already occurred.

Primetime Live

Milgram RevistedStanford Prison

ExperimentAbu Ghraib

McDonalds (2003)

Reading: Little Albert Experiment

Whatever happened to Little Albert?

1. What was the Stanley Milgram Study?2. What was the major outcome?3. What was the most common answer subjects gave for “following authority”?4. Why didn’t the Stanford Prison subjects leave the experiment?5. What happens to Harlow’s monkeys as time goes on?6. How can this be compared to R.A.D.?7. Years after these experiments – incidents still occur. Like what?

Wrap Up

What types of Research Studies are Used in Psychology?• Objective: There are a variety of ways to

conduct psychological experiments. Some are good for one thing, but not for another. There are always pros/cons to each type.

• Certain types of studies are: Case Studies, Longitudinal Studies, Cross Sectional Studies, Naturalistic Observation, Lab Studies, Field Studies. There will often be common pitfalls to each type.

Write down in notes as focus.

Cross Sectional Studies

Random sample of population

May not truly measure

generational issues

Case Study

Detailed information

Very detailed, no

comparisons

ProCon

Survey

Quick way to gather a lot of

information

Questions can be misunderstood

Interview

One on one information

Subject can be less than truthful – interpretation

issues

ProCon

Lab Experiment

Research completely objective

Artificial Setting

Field Setting

More realistic than Lab setting

Difficult to control

variables

ProCon

Naturalistic Observation

Observe in natural

environment

No subject feedback

Longitudinal Study

Gathers information over

a subject’s life

Expensive to undertake and keep

track of subjects

ProCon

What bothers you the most about high school?

What is it?How would you prove it?

How would you find out if it bothers others?How would you find out WHY it’s done?

Which method of research would best yield the most accurate data for your question?

• Use divergent thinking to understand causation and correlation in reference to timing, demographics and how results can be analyzed, choose your question.

• Choose your groups. Design your questions. • Discuss how you will collect and measure data. (See me …there are many

online survey sites that make this easier). • Delineate tasks in order of group convenience. (Who has study hall which

period, who has lunch, who has proximity to target subjects. Who may be busy with sports, play, etc. ….how to include them. All members share accountability. You will work in your group to create surveys to administer to chosen groups earlier in the unit.

• Collection/analysis will be performed by group. Schedules for presentations will follow on what expectations the group had, the hypothesis, the results, the controls, the variables, and what they learned from this experiment.

Scientific Research Project

Summary• Scientific Method is used in Psychology

experiments• Hypothesis: statement of expected results.

Can be proved or disproved through observation and experimentation

• Experimental Group: Group participating in experiment

• Control Group: Group not participating in the experiment

• Control: removal of subjects that could skew results

• Variables: factors introduced or resulting from experiment

• Independent Variable: Variable controlled by Researcher

• Dependent Variable: Result of Experiment• Placebo: medicine with no active ingredients

– works by power of suggestion

• Double Blind Study: Experiment with neither

• the subject nor researcher knowing who has the placebo – removes expectations that can skew results

• Ethics: Guidelines for Psychological Experiments – results must outweigh risks.

• There are many types of psychological studies – each has their pros and cons.

• Types: Field Studies, Lab Experiments, Naturalistic Observation, Case Studies, Surveys, Longitudinal and Cross Sectional Studies, and Interviews.

• Classical Conditioning: is a learning process that occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus.

Research Methods Test

Test: 40 Multiple Choice(5 Paragraph) Essay

(please refer to one of the psych studies: Milgram,

Zimbardo, Harlow, or Watson and Rayner