Chapter 2

Ability tests are expected to have reliability correlations of about...

0.8.

Scientific Method - Honor Experiments - Dependent Variables Examined

1. Observers positioned so they could see participant immediately after insulted. Southerners showed a flash of anger, Northerners looked amused or shrugged their shoulders. 2. Participants were asked to read a story in which a man made a pass at another man's fiancée. Insulted southerners = more violent ending. Non-Insulted Southerners = non-violent ending. Northerners = non-violent ending. 3. Participant's level of testosterone, which mediates aggression in males, were tested both before and after the insult. The level of testosterone increased for insulted Southerners but not for Southerners who had not been insulted. It did not increase for Northerners, whether insulted or not. 4. An assistant had to walk down the middle of the hall and force the participant to dodge out of his way. Dependent measure = how far away the participant was when he swerved out of the assistant's way. Southerners: stood aside at 9 feet if not insulted, bulled ahead until 3 feet away if insulted. Northerners = swerved at a distance of 5 feet from assistant.

Suppose some people were persuaded to lie about their beliefs. Would those people be more inclined to adjust their beliefs in the direction of the lie if: 1. paid a small amount of money 2. a large amount of money 3. no money at all

1. a large amount of money 2. no money at all

How can dependent variables be measured?

1. by verbal reports 2. behavior (getting inoculation or not) 3. physiological measures (heart rate stress measures such as cortisol level) 4. neural measures (increased amygdala activity)

Theory

A body of related propositions intended to describe some aspect of the world. In science, theories generally have support in the form of empirical data and they often have made predictions that are surprising except in light of the theory.

Control Condition

A condition comparable to the experimental condition in every way except that IT LACKS THE ONE INGREDIENT HYPOTHESIZED TO PRODUCE THE EXPECTED EFFECT ON THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE.

Statistical Significance

A measure of the probability that a given result could have occurred by chance. A finding has statistical significance if the probability of obtaining the finding by chance is LESS than some quantity (by convention 0.05 or 1 of 20).

Hypothesis

A prediction about what will happen under a particular circumstance.

Self-Selection

A problem that arises when the participant, rather than the investigator, selects his or her level on each variable, bringing with this value unknown other properties that make causal interpretation of a relationship difficult.

Longitudinal Study

A study conducted over a long period of time with the same population, which is periodically assessed regarding a particular behavior.

Institutional Review Board

A university committee that examines research proposals and makes judgments about the ethical appropriateness of the research. It must include one scientist, one non-scientist and one person not affiliated with the institution. If some aspect of the study procedures is deemed OVERLY harmful, that procedure must be changed before the research can be approved.

Intervention

An effort to change people's behavior.

Field Experiment

An experiment set up in the real world, usually with participants who are not aware that they are in a study of any kind.

External Validity

An experimental setup that closely resembles real-life situations so that results can safely be generalized to real-life situations.

Surveys

Asking people questions. They can be conducted using either interviews or written questionnaires. You need a random sample to do a survey.

Random Assignment

Assigning participants in experimental research to different groups randomly, such that they are as likely to be assigned to one condition as to another. On average, except for the manipulation of the independent variable, there should be no differences across experimental groups.

What do hypotheses often test?

Broader theories about behavior.

Slight Relationship

Correlation of 0.2

Moderately Strong Relationship

Correlation of 0.4

Very Strong Relationship

Correlation of 0.6

Correlational Research => Strength of relationship goes to 1

Covariation is perfect. The higher the level on one variable, the higher the level on the other. No exceptions.

Does familiarity breed liking or contempt? Would you be likely to prefer a song you had heard many times on the radio or one you had heard less often?

Familiarity, in general, breeds liking. The more a person has been exposed to a stimulus, within broad limits, the more the person likes it.

Carol Dweck

Her basic research on the nature of beliefs about intelligence and their relationship to work in school prompted her to design an intervention with minority junior high school students. She told some of them that their intelligence was under their control and gave them information about how working on school subjects actually changes the physical nature of the brain. Such students worked harder and got better grades than did students who did not get such an information.

Internal Validity

In experimental research, confidence that only the manipulated variable could have produced the results.

Independent Variable

In experimental research, the variable that is manipulated. It is hypothesized to be the cause of a particular outcome.

Dependent Variable

In experimental research, the variable that is measured, as opposed to manipulated. It is hypothesized to be affected by manipulation of independent variable.

Debriefing (later version)

In later versions, debriefings are used to educate participants about the questions being studied.

Debriefing (preliminary version)

In preliminary versions of an experiment, asking participants straightforwardly: 1. if they understood the instructions 2. if they found the setup to be reasonable

Experimental Research

In social psychology, research that randomly assigns people to different conditions or situations, and that enables researchers to make strong inferences about how these different conditions affect people's behavior.

Random sample

It is important that the sample of people in the survey be a random sample of the population as a whole. The only way to obtain a random sample is to give everyone in the population an equal chance of being chosen.

Scatter of dots

Marked spread of dots

Scientific Method: Honor Experiments - Hypothesis

Members of a culture of honor such as U. S. Southerners will respond with more anger and aggression when insulted than will other people, such as U. S. Northerners.

Natural Experiments

Naturally occurring events or phenomena having somewhat different conditions that can be compared with almost as much rigor as in experiments where the investigator manipulates the conditions.

Participant Observation

Observing phenomenon at close range. An anthropologist may live with a group of people for a long time, just noting what they do and coming up with guesses, sometimes inspired by conversations with the people being studied - about why those people do certain things or have certain beliefs.

Informed Consent

Participant's willingness to participate in a procedure or research study after learning all relevant aspects about the procedure or study.

Scientific Method - Honor Experiments - Research Method

Participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire, take it down a long, narrow hallway lined with filing cabinets, and leave it on the table at the end. Some participants had to pass another student in the hall with a drawer pulled out. This student would have to close the drawer and move out of the way each time the participant passed. When the participant passed the student for the second time, the student slammed the file drawer shut, pushed into the participant's shoulder and said ****.

Hindsight Bias

People's tendency to be overconfident about whether they could have predicted a given outcome.

Observational Research

Research can be a matter of: merely looking at phenomenon in some reasonably systematic way with a view to understanding what is going on and coming up with hypotheses about why things are happening as they are.

Deception Research

Research in which the participants are misled about the purpose of the research or the meaning of something that is done to them.

Correlational Research

Research that does NOT involve random assignment to different situations, or conditions, and that psychologists conduct just to see whether there is a relationship between the variables.

Applied Science

Science concerned with solving a real-world problem of importance.

Basic Science

Science concerned with trying to understand some phenomenon in its own right, with a view toward using that understanding to build valid theories about the nature of some aspect of the world.

Shirley Brice Heath

She used participant observation to study preparation for schooling by middle class and working-class families in a North Carolina town. Middle-class families: 1. read to their children 2. included them in dinner-table conversations 3. used the printed word to guide their behaviour 4. taught them how to categorize objects 5. taught them how to answer why questions 6. taught them how to evaluate and make judgments about things. The working-class families didn't do those things as much. Although their children were reasonably prepared for the early grades of school, their lack of preparation showed up in later grades, when they faced more complex tasks involving categorization and evaluation.

Scientific Method - Honor Experiments - Conclusion

Southerners do indeed experience more anger when insulted and are more biologically prepared for aggression.

Scientific Method - Honor Experiments - Results

Southerners responded with more facial and bodily expressions of anger when insulted, and their testosterone level increased. Northerners did not show either of these responses.

Convenience sample

Taken from available subgroup of the population. It is not random and may be biased in some way. It may include too many of some kinds of people and too few of others.

Measurement Validity

The correlation between some measure and some outcome that the measure is supposed to predict.

Cohen and Nisbett

The created a fictional letter about a man who had murdered someone and sent it to potential employers to see how cooperative potential employers were with the fictional applicant. Retailers from the South complied with the applicant's requests more than the retailers from the North did. Southern reply letters were more sympathetic.

Reliability

The degree to which the particular way that researchers measure a given variable is likely to yield consistent results.

Balance Theory

The theory that people like to have consistent thoughts and behavior and will do substantial mental work to achieve such cognitive consistency.

Correlational Research => Strength of relationship ranges from 0.

The variables have no relationship at all.

What are more general, theories or hypotheses?

Theories

Cohen Nisbett studies of FBI Reports - Archival Research

They studied FBI reports of homicides and found that homicides were more common in the South than in the North. In the South, the most common type of homicide involved some kind of insult.

Validity Coefficients

They typically do not exceed 0.5.

Cohen and Nisbett - Published Surveys vs. Their Findings

They used surveys to pursue questions concerning attitudes toward violence. Southerners were actually more likely to agree that "when a person harms you, you should turn the other check and forgive him". The researchers found that Southerners were more likely to favor violence in response to insults and to think that a man would be justified to fight an acquaintance who "looks over his girlfriend" and "talks to her in a suggestive way". They also think that a man has a right to kill to defend his house. They were also more approving of violence in socializing children.

Archival Research

Using this method, researchers look at evidence found in archives of various kinds: 1. databases containing ethnographic descriptions of people in different cultures. 2. newspaper articles 3. police reports 4. record books 5. sport statistics

Poor External Validity

When the experiment is unlike what you would find in real-life situations.

Third Variable

When variable 1 does not cause variable 2 and variable 2 does not cause variable 1, but rather, some other variable exerts a causal influence on both.

Reverse Causation

When variable 1 is assumed to cause variable 2, yet the opposite direction of causation may be the case.

Scientific Method - Honor Experiments - What were the 2 independent variables of the study?

Whether the participant was Northern or Southern. Whether the participant was insulted or not.

Reliability is usually measured by...

correlations between 0 and 1.