Research methods (8/26 Notes)

Hindsight bias- the tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that you knew it all along.
Ex. Chris brown / Rihanna incident, friend said she knew all along he would be violent.
RESEARCH METHODS

Overconfidence- we tend to think we know more than we do.
Ex. 82% drivers consider themselves to be in the top 30% of their group in terms of safety


THE BARNUM EFFECT- the tendency for people to accept very general or vague characterizations of themselves and take them to be accurate.

Examples- Very vague descriptions like cute, nice, mean etc.

Applied vs. basic research -
Applied research has clear, practical applications
You can use it
Ex. Research in drug therapy has a clear purpose

Basic research explores questions that you may be curious about but not intended to be immediately used.

Hypothesis-

• expresses a relationship between two variables
• A variable is anything that can vary among participants in a study 
• Participating in class leads to better grades than not participating 

Independent variable

• Whatever is being manipulated in the experiment 

Dependent variable

• Whatever is being measured in an experiment 
• It is dependent on the independent variable 

OPERATIONAL  DEFINITION-  A statement of the specific methods used to measure a variable. (Survey, experiment etc.) 

- explain what you mean in your hypothesis 

Sampling-  The sample must be representative of the population you want to study. (MUST BE A RANDOM SURVEY)

Stratified sampling - allows a researcher to ensure that the sample represents the population on some criteria 

EXPERIMENTAL METHOD 

• Looking to prove casual relationships 
• Cause = effect 

Experimental group vs. Control group 

Experimental group is the group receiving or reacting to the independent variable in an experiment 

Control group is the group that does not receive the independent variable in an experiment (not tested on) 

HAWTHORNE EFFECT 

• Just the fact that you know you are in an experiment can cause change 

EXPERIMENTER BIAS

• Another confounding variable 
• Not a conscious act 
• Double-blind procedure
• 
• 
  

Single blind- where one group is unaware of the experiment 

Double blind- neither the researcher or participant is aware of who’s receiving the treatment and who is receiving the placebo 

PLACEBO EFFECT- A harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for psychological effect than a physiological effect.

CORRELATION  METHOD 

• Correlation expresses a relationship between two variable 
• Does not show causation 

Positive correlation- the variables go in the same direction 

Negative correlation- the variables go in opposite directions 

SURVEY METHOD 

• most common type of study in psychology
• Measures correlation
• Cheap and fast
• Need a good random sample 
• Low response rate 

NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION 

• watch their subjects in their natural environment 
• Do not manipulate the environment 
• The food is that there is Hawthorne effect (no changes in behavior because you know you’re being looked at
• The bad is that we can never really show cause and effect

CORRELATION COEFFICIENT

• the number that measures the strength of a relationship 
• Range is from -1 to +1 
• The relationship gets weaker the closer you get to zero

CASE STUDIES 

• A detailed picture of one or a few subjects 
• Tell us a great story... but it is just a descriptive research 
• Does not even give us correlation data

CROSS SECTIONAL RESEARCH 

• Analyzes a sample of a population at one point in time 

Ex. grade level 

LONGITUDINAL

• analyzing the same people over a period of time 

Ex. The district is filling you from third grade until 12 grade 

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS 

• Describes sets of data 

Other measures of variability- 

Range: distance from highest to lowest scores 

Standard deviation: the variance of scores around the mean. The higher the variance or SD, the more spread out the distribution is. 

Non

ETHICAL GUIDELINES 

• Clear purpose
• Treated in a humane way 
• Acquire animals legally 
• Least amount of suffering possible 

HUMAN RESEARCH 

• Non coercion- must be voluntary 
• Informed consent 
• Anonymity
• No significant risk 
• Must debrief