Psychological Research (Test #1)

Anatomy of a research article

1. An abstract- The abstract is the second page of a lab report or APA-format paper and should immediately follow the title page. Think of an abstract as a highly condensed summary of your entire paper. The purpose of your abstract is to provide a brief yet thorough overview of your paper. It includes info about the hypothesis, the procedure, and broad patterns of results, usually runs no more than 120 words, little info is included from the discussion section. 2. An intro- outlines the problem being investigated, past research and relevant theories to the problem are described in detail, expectations are noted, shows how past research and theory are connected while introducing the research in a logical way. 3. A methods section- Is divided into subsections, with the number of subsections determined by the author and dependent on the complexity of the research design. Sometimes, the first subsection prepares the reader for the material that follows. The next subsection describes the characteristics of the participants. The following subsections includes procedures used in the study. Any other subsections are used to detail any equipment used or testing material. 4. Results- Presents all findings, usually in three ways. First, descriptive/narrative. Second, statistical language. Third, tables and graphs for visualization purposes. 5. Discussion section- Review of the research. Do the results support the hypothesis? Decisions are made to reject or accept the hypothesis. Explanations are provided for the results, instead of just listing the results. What might have gone wrong if rejecting hypothesis. Comparison between past research data. Suggestions for possible revision in the future.

Informed consent

A form that is signed by a participant that contains information that participants need to make their decision. This should include, purpose of research, procedures that will be used including time invloved (you don't have to tell participants exactly what is being studied, this is scary!), risks and benefits, any compensation being offered, confidentiality agreement, assurance of voluntary participation and permission to withdraw, and contact info for questions.

Experimental control

All extraneous variables that are kept constant. If a variable is held constant it can't be responsible for the results of the experiment. It can't be a confounding variable that may change and is unreliable. You would have to treat all participants in all groups identically besides the manipulated variable that you are testing for. Many factors make up the process for identical conditions.

Risks in Psychological research Physical harm, stress, confidentiality

An example, the Milgram's experiment may have subjected the participants to psychological stress. sleep for the purpose of research. Sometimes the benefits outweigh the potential risks of certain physical harm risks and careful evaluation needs to be taken. Physical harm- Procedures that can cause physical pain or bodily injury. For example, depriving people of sleep for the purpose of research. Stress- Psychological stress is more common than physical harm risks. For example, thinking they are going to receive electrode shock (even if they never receive it) will prompt anxiety and stress. For instance, even asking people to relive painful memories or experiences can cause this type of stress. Also, the participant could be given a fake test to determine personality or ability based on lowering self esteem and then evaluating after. Debriefing can help with stress, but it seems like this doesn't always suffice in eliminating the phycological stress. Confidentiality- Important when studying sexuality, divorce, family violence, drug abuse or any sensitive questions about people's private lives. These responses can be kept in confidence, anonymous or a release form of information about releasing information must be signed. The participant must have all detailed knowledge and understand their rights before signing. There are many different ways to separate the participant from the data, such as questionnaires or keeping their name in separate data, etc. Sometimes a researcher may need to go to extremes lengths to attain a Certificate of Confidentiality. Another controversial privacy issue arises when observations are done in the public setting, such as, shopping malls, etc. Technically rummaging through someones trash is not illegal, but is it ethical?

Variable

Any event, situation, behavior, or individual characteristic that varies. Any variables must have two or more levels or values. An example, cognitive task performance, depression, intelligence, reaction time, rate of forgetting, aggression, speaker credibility, attitude change, anger, stress, and self-esteem. Some variables may be numeric, quantitative (numeric). Other examples could include identifying different categories, like gender (male or female).

Third variable

Any variable that is extraneous to the two variables being studied. Any number of other third variables may be responsible for an observed relationship between two variables. For example, a correlation may be found between anxiety and exercise, but this could be due higher incomes people having more time to work out and the high income people and gym memberships and thus have lower levels of anxiety from the going to the gym and having the free time to do so. The income becomes the third variable. This is an alternative explanation. The variable is what varies but, the explanation is the alternative explanation for the observed relationship between two variables.

Basic and Applied Research

Basic Research- Tries to answer fundamental questions about the nature of behavior. Studies are often designed to address theoretical issues concerning phenomena such as cognition, emotion, motivation, learning, neuropsychology, personality development, and social behavior. Basic research is research that fills in the knowledge we don't have; it tries to learn things that aren't always directly applicable or useful immediately. For example, research that documented that people choose the least physically demanding option when choosing among different behaviors. Applied Research- Is conducted to address issues in which there are practical problems and potential solutions. Applied research is research that seeks to answer a question in the real world and to solve a problem. For example, research on employee turnover predictions by the fit of the person's sills and requirements of the job.

Empiricism

Because scientists can't rely on intuition or authority alone, they have to have others ways to gain knowledge. Empiricism is the idea that knowledge is based on observations. Data are collected that form the basis of conclusions about the nature of the world. There are many rules for collecting and evaluating data.

Peer Review

Before a study is published in a scientific journal, other scientists who have the expertise to carefully evaluate the research review it. The process itself is called peer review. The role of these reviewers is to recommend whether the research should be published. This review process ensures that research with major flaws will not become part of the scientific literature. Science is a free market, but the best ideas are supported by research and scientists can build upon the research of others to make further advances.

Theories

Consists of a systematic body of ideas about a particular topic or phenomenon. For example, theories on learning, memory, and personality. These ideas form a coherent and logically consistent structure that serves two important functions. Theories first organize and explain. Secondly, theories generate new knowledge by focusing our thinking so that we notice new aspects of behavior and guide our observations of the world. A theory is not the same as a hypothesis. As a theory develops with more and more evidence that supports the theory. It is not just an idea, like a hypothesis would be. A theory may reveal in its research process a weakness or flaw and a new theory can be modified to account for the new data. Sometimes a new theory will even emerge from this or is elaborated upon. This is how science expands from other data.

Issues with deception

Deception occurs when there is active misrepresentation of information. In other words, it is acceptable to hold onto info that will not affect the person from participating, as long as debriefing occurs at the end. Autonomy issues can be present though because even though a participant believes they are signing up for a certain kind of study they may be tested on something completely different that could have risks they are unaware of, like the Milgram's experiment. Coercion is another threat that causes issues of deception, such as believing that you will be fired from your job if you don't participant. Psychology may also develop a pattern of deceiving society and less likely to gain participants willing to take part in studies. Participants may also start to try to outsmart researchers by going into a study with the thought that they are being deceived and react differently than they normally would. In opposition, if no deception ever happened then psychology would be altered by the participant behaving in a way that is unnatural and out of character. The informed consent form can even interrupt an experiments results. There is much debate. It seems as if deception is acceptable if the pros out way the cons and if risks factors/ethical treatment is limited as much as possible by the rules and regulations we currently have set in place today. Role-Playing (pretend you are in situation) and simulations (an environment that is still fake, but set in more realistic terms, such as, fake set, actors, etc. but participants know it's fake from the start), and honest experiments (no deception of any kind) have been offered up as an alternative It's difficult to know which side to take in this debate. I could probably argue both sides until I was blue in the face.

Fraud

Fabrication of data. Most serious in science and journalism. Although I could argue that the text should include government, but it does state that there are many other fields of fraud that can occur. People must be able to believe the reported results of research; otherwise the entire foundation of the scientific method as a means of knowledge is threatened. Fraud is detected when other scientists can't replicate results of a study, like in the grey goo film. Careful record keeping and documentation of procedures and results can prevent this from happening, but problems in replicating methodology can still occur and be seen as fraudulent.

Hypothesis & prediction

Hypothesis- A tentative idea or question that is waiting for evidence to support or refute it. Most research studies are done by researchers to test a hypothesis. Once a hypothesis is proposed, data must be gathered and evaluated in terms of whether the evidence is consistent or inconsistent with the hypothesis. A hypothesis can be formal (more specific) or informal (more general and broad). A hypothesis also includes a prediction of the outcome of the question that the researcher believes will happen, but has not yet been proven. We then device a research study based on the hypothesis to determine if we accept or reject the idea. Many complex things go into this, such as, participants, environment, the type of study, etc.

Nonexperimental method

Interested in the relationship between two variables, but not controlling the variables. For example, you could simply ask someone to provide self-reports of their exercise pattern and current anxiety level. There can be problems with this method though if trying to find cause and effect because it works better to find correlation.

Intuition, Skepticism & Authority

Intuition- People rely on intuition and authority as ways of knowing. Intuition helps us draw conclusions from the world around us. Intuition involves unquestionably accepting what your own personal judgement tells you or a single story about one's personal experience tell you. Intuition can take many forms and often helps you find an explanation of behaviors for yourself and others. The problem with this can be that you use your own biases that affects your perception and can result in errors in cause and effect. An example, you believe your roommate is mad at you for not doing the dishes because they have been in their room all day, but in reality they have been in their room all day because they just split up with their girlfriend and is having an emotional time with the event. Intuition is not scientific. Take for example the issue with people thinking that adoption and getting pregnant soon after. This is an illusionary correlation that occurs when we focus on two events that stand out in our minds and occur together, but really are unrelated scientifically. Authority- They are very persuasive. They can cause attitude change with their credibility, from their personal character or even just they way they present a speech. We tend to believe good men more fully than others, but just because they appear to be good, it doesn't mean they always will be. Prestige, respect from others and a trustworthy personality will make you more persuasive. Authority is very influential over society for these reasons. For example, the Internet, news, books, government, religion, all seem to hold these influences over us. Science does not immediately accept that these influences have true facts until proven correct. They don't accepts things on good faith alone, more evidence is needed before conclusions are made. Skepticism- As stated above, intuition can be incorrect and so can authority, so scientists are very skeptical about what they see and hear. Like anyone else, even their own intuition can be skeptical, until proven otherwise. The ideas must be evaluated on the basis of careful logic and results from scientific investigation. The advantage of this scientific approach to integrating intuition, skepticism, and authority provides an objective set of rules for gathering, evaluating, and reporting information without regarding intuition and authority as completely unimportant. As it is ok to acknowledge intuition and authority, as long as they are not accepted as scientific evidence. This allows for an open system for ideas to be supported or refuted by others. She things, like religion, are beyond the realm of science and this is a faith based system, this is not facts. Everyone is entitled to their belief system, but again this is dissimilar to science, which is based on observation and evidence. A great example of this was from the video that we watched about gray goo and how the scientists data was refuted by other scientists that realized that all of his graphs were exactly the same. It appeared as if he had copied and pasted all of his graphs in the journals. No other scientist was able to replicate his data or experiment.

Experimental method

Involves direct manipulation and control of variables. The researcher manipulates the first variable of interest and then observes the response. For example, giving someone a test and telling them that there will be a monetary payout for performance.

Randomization

Lottery picking mentality or drawing out of a hat, random assignment procedure, never using more of one group over another. Any outside variable could influence one group in the same way it could influence the other group in this way.

Alternative explanations

Nothing other than a casual variable could be responsible for the observed effect. There should be no other plausible alternative explanation for the relationship. For example, suppose kids who watch a lot of tv violence are left alone more than kids who don't watch a lot of tv violence. In this case, the increased aggression could be an alternative explanation: lack of parental supervision. So the term really explains itself in that it is an alternate explanation for a cause.

Debriefing

Occurs after the completion of the study. It is an opportunity for the researcher to deal with issues of withholding info, deception, and potential harmful effects of participation. This needs to be explained in great deal, interpreters would be given for people of different languages and resources must be given to allow participant to understand physical or psychological implications. Participants should be leaving the experiment without any ill feelings and may even leave with new insights. Sometimes debriefing can even occur at a later date.

Relationships between variables Positive/negative linear, curvilinear, no relationship

Positive linear relationship- Increases in the values of one variable are accompanied by increases in the values of the second variable. For example, higher rates of credibility are associated with greater attitude change. Both increase. Negative linear relationship- Increases in one variable are accompanied by the decreases in the values of another variable. For example, increasing the number of people working on a task may reduce group effort and productivity. One goes up and one goes down. Curvilinear- Increases in the values of one variable are accompanied by systematic increases AND decreases in the values of the other variable. The direction of the relationship changes at least once. For example, increases in visual complexity are accompanied by increases in liking for the stimulus, but only up to a point and then then relationship becomes more negative and decreases, make an upside down U-shape. No relationship- No relationship between the two variables. Flat line on the graph. For example, increases in crowding are NOT associated with ANY particular changes in performance.

Institutional review board

Responsible for the review of research conducted within the institution. The IRB is a local review agency composed of at least 5 individuals; at least one member of the IRB must be from outside the institution. Every college and university in the U.S. that receives federal funding has an IRB; in addition, most psychology departments have their own research review committee. They regulate faulty, students, staff and numerous different types of establishments, such as hospitals and schools, etc. The inclusion of the IRB depends on no risk, minimal risk or greater than minimal risk of research and is regulated based of assessment. This can be a lengthy process depending on how much risk is involved. The IRB also evolves as needed by society.

Issues with Common Sense

Sometimes what everyone thinks is true, is actually incorrect when scientifically tested. For example, do opposites really attract or birds of a feather flock together mentality. Statistics could show that this common sense thinking is wrong. There are many factors that can bias our thinking in common sense type of ways, such as, visual distraction, things that seem like a good idea at the time can generally not always help us in the end (hiding something in a common sense place and not being able to find it later). Studying common sense behavior in a scientific approach can actually lead to new discoveries and important ant implications, like taking a common sense idea from observation of dogs drooling to new heights in Pavlov's classical conditioning experiment, which created ideas of behavior modification techniques in humans.

Milgram's Obedience Experiment

Stanley Milgram conducted a series of experiments to study the phenomenon of obedience to an authority figure. He put an ad in a newspaper offering a stipend for any males willing to participate. When the men showed up for the experiment they were introduced to the scientist dressed in a lab coat and also someone who they believed to be another participant, but was actually an accomplice to the scientist in reality. The scientist explained that the study would examine the effects of punishment on learning. One person would be the teacher and the other person would be the learner. Slips of paper were drawn to decide who would play who. The drawing was rigged of course to allow the accomplice to play the learner. The outsider was always the teacher. Electrodes were attached to the learner and the teacher was in control of various levels of the shock administered to the learner. The leaner was instructed to learn a series of word pairs and given a test on them. Every time there was a mistake the teacher was supposed to deliver a shock to the learner. The voltage was supposed to be increased by every wrong answer. The accomplice never actually received these shocks, but the teacher believed he had. The learner screamed out that he wanted to stop. Although, hesitation to continue to administer shocks were present at this point, the teachers were encouraged to persist. The teachers were given a choice to stop but given a series of verbal prods that stressed the importance of the experiment. Milgram was really interested in learning whether participants would continue to obey the experimenter by administering ever higher levels of shock to the learner, he was ultimately deceiving the participants in this way. In the end, 65% of the participants continued to deliver the stocks all the way to 450 volts! These results provide important insight into the Holocaust in Nazi Germany and the Jonestown mass suicide. The ethics were challenged in this study on the basis of deception of participants, however, the study provides valuable implications for understanding why history can sometimes repeat itself, that people may do things they never thought they actually would do and why they would.

Risk & benefits revisited

Steps of analysis of risks and benefits - Assess potential benefits to participants, science, and society. - Assess potential risks to participants. - Do to the potential benefits of the study outweigh the risks involved with the procedure? - No- Study can't be conducted in its current form; alternative procedures must be found. -Yes- Research may be carried out. - Make sure not to commit fraud or plagiarism ( refers to misrepresenting another's work as your own).

Temporal Presedence

The cause precedes (comes before something) the effect. There is a temporal order of events. For example, knowing that television viewing occurred first and aggression followed.

Operational definition

The set of procedures used to measure or manipulate a variable. A variable must have an operational definition to be studied empirically. For example, the variable "bowling skill" could be operationalized as a person's average bowling score, or it could be operationalized as a number of pins kicked down in a single roll. It can get more complicated with other variables, such as someone's pain level, but you can use different forms to rate this like questionnaires or a pain scale chart. People can have different perceptions of how they see the world or themselves, so it is important to have an operational definition to more clearly define variables. For instance, aggression can be viewed as extreme to one person and mild to another.

Goals of Science

To make sure that there is no bias that is interfering with cause and effect. To make sure that an experiment is credible and true. To verify their ideas about the world. To develop theories, conduct research and prove or disprove data, even disproving something in science can promote growth from knowing what not to do or what doesn't work. To make sure that research/experiments can be replicated by other scientists. To have a free market of ideas in which the best ideas are supported by research and scientists can build upon the research of others to make further advances. To grow in our knowledge as a human race. To cure and save lives and to make life more sustainable and easier for all. Goals of Behavioral Science- To describe behavior (done by objective observation), to predict behavior (after objective observation is recorded an education guess or prediction occurs), to determine the causes of behavior (3rd step is analyses of temporal precedence, covariation of causes and effect, or any alternative explanations), to understand or explain behavior (4th step is clarity of comprehension to the researcher and to others).

Covariation of the cause and effect

When the cause is present, the effect occurs; when the cause is not present, the effect does not occur. For example, children who watch tv violence behave aggressively and that children who don't watch tv violence don't behave aggressively.

Confounding variables

When we know that an uncontrolled third variable is operating, we can call the third variable a confounding variable. If two variables are confounded, they are intertwined so you can't determine which of the variables is operating in a given situation. The experimental method can help with this. For example, saying they found a positive relationship between amount of coffee consumed and likelihood of a heart attack. This is not cause and effect. There could be so many other factors in why a person could have a heart attack, occupation, personality, genetics, stress, weight, etc. Saying that coffee has a relationship can sway someones opinion though from drinking it. This is why this would be viewed as skepticism.