Research Methods

Sex Study (survey of college students)

• What is the Operational Definition of Sex? (college students)

• 2%• 3%• 14%• 40%• 81%• 99%

Research Methods

• Guiding question:– How can we best use psychology to understand

why people think, feel, and act as they do?

• Intuition vs. skepticism– What’s the difference?

What’s it all about?

• Science is skeptical and focuses on the empirical

• Simply stated – “common sense” doesn’t exist because there are people in this world that believe that both “opposites attract” and “birds of a feather flock together” – and that ain’t right.

Research Methods• Importance of Scientific thought:

– because human intuition is ___________– HINDSIGHT BIAS:

– OVERCONFIDENCE EFFECT:

– FALSE-CONSENSUS EFFECT:

– BELIEF PERSERVERENCE:

– CONFIRMATION BIAS:

Overconfidence• We are generally bad at predicting human

behavior – our belief that we can predict our own or others’ behaviors is stronger than reality

• Reasons why people tend to be overconfident– they can’t imagine that they would have any reason to be wrong

(process of elimination)– Failure to seek disconfirming evidence (what’s that known as?)

The Gentleman Bandit: Hindsight Bias and Overconfidence in the Court of Law

Word Jumble: Human Skeleton

1.) AMEGLNSTI

2.) TIRGLAECA

Research Methods: Scientific Approach

• Empirical approach– What does that mean again? Who came up with

it?

• What do you mean? How do you know?– It’s about thinking smarter

• Basic vs. applied research• Critical thinking: examine assumptions, discern hidden

values, evaluate evidence, assess conditions

Scientific Method

• Have you ever wanted to know why?• Starts with a theory

– Aims to predict behavior thru observations• that theory then becomes a testable theory

(hypothesis) if we want to involve empiricism or an experimentation scenario to establish a conclusion or solution

• When testing, bias can rear it’s ugly head– To avoid bias, we came up with a need to

establish protocol

• Operational definition: describes concepts with precise procedures and measures– Definitions that must be able to be replicated

• The more you can replicate an experiment and get similar results, the more likely you are to trust or find the solution/conclusion valid

3 Pathways to Refining Theories for actual Practice or Use

• Descriptive methods• Correlational methods• Experimental methods

Descriptive Methods

• The aim is to describe what behavior is happening or has happened – evaluate attitudes

• Surveys, case studies, naturalistic observations

1. Case Study

• Examine one individual in hopes of revealing things true in us all– What’s true of all of us can be seen in any one of

use, but what’s true of one of us is not necessarily true for all

• Square vs. rectangle analogy

Case Studies

• In depth investigation of individual subjects

• Interviews, examination of records, psychological testing, etc

• Research based and most often done by/used by Clinical Psychologists– Not collecting empirical data, rather, you analyze

data for diagnostic purposes

Case Study: Finnish Suicide Study• Psychological autopsies• Finnish team of psychologists wanted to investigate

the following questions:

– What portion of people who commit suicide suffer from psychological disorders?

– Which disorders are most common among victims of suicide?

– In health care visits during the final month of their lives, do people who commit suicide communicate their intent to do so?

Study Revelations from Data Collection

• Interviews, examined medical records, and did some psychological testing and direct observation of subjects undergoing treatment

• Results– 93% of suicides suffered from psychological disorder (depression and

dependence on alcohol were prevalent)– In 571 victims who had health care appointments, 22% discussed

possibility of suicide– In 100 people who saw a health care professional the same day they

committed suicide, 21% raised the issue of suicide• Conclusions:

– Mental illness is linked with suicide, but vast majority don’t reveal intentions to do so

Advantages: CS

• Good for investigating certain phenomena– Psychological disorders and effects of therapeutic

practices

Disadvantages: CS

• HIGHLY subjective in nature (bias)• NOT representative of entire populations of

people

Other types of case studies

• Longitudinal studies

• Cohort studies

• Cross-sectional

2. Surveys

• Looks at many cases in less depth– aims to estimate from a representative sample

attitudes/behaviors of whole population

Surveys cont’d

• Wording effects – subtle change in wording can cause major effects

– “Do you approve of government censorship?”– “Should pornography be forbidden from network

TV?”

Surveys: Random sample

• Random sample: each member of a population has equal chance of selection– Must use representative sample to best generalize – Population: all cases in a group to be studied

where samples may be drawn

3. Naturalistic Observation

• Observing/recording behavior in natural environments without controlling the situation– Does not explain, just describes

Correlational Methods

• Correlate: one trait or behavior is related to the other– Correlation coefficient: statistical measure that

shows how two things vary and thus predict one another

• Negative vs. positive correlation

• Correlations range between -1 and 1– 0.2/-0.2 = relationship exists– 0.8/-0.8 = strong relationship

Correlation is not…

•CAUSATION

• Illusory Correlation:

• Example 1: Sugar makes children hyperactive• Example 2: Myth of the hot hand

– Belief that a professional basketball player is more likely to make a shot after they have just made a basket rather than after they have just missed one

• Larry Bird in his prime made 88% of his free throws after a “make” and 91% after a “miss”

– Misinterpretation of random sequences• Stats – if a 50% shooter makes 20 shots, there is a 50% chance

that there will be a sequence of 4 baskets in a row and about a 20% chance of 6 in a row

Meter Stick Experiment