―The trigger mechanism for creative thinking is
the disposition to be curious, to wonder, to
inquire.‖ (Ruggiero 1988)
Essential Guidelines
Ask Questions
Define Your Terms
Examine the Evidence
Bruno Bettelheim concluded that autistic children were the result of rejecting cold
―refrigerator mothers‖
Conclusions based on insufficient data but went unchallenged because he was an
eminent psychologist!
Analyze Assumptions and Biases
Principle of Falsifiability
Theory must make predictions specific enough to disconfirm
Avoid Emotional Reasoning
―The intensity of the conviction that a hypothesis is true has no bearing on
whether it is true or not.‖ (Medawar 1979)
Don’t Oversimplify
Crime committed by paroled convict, we should abolish parole.
Consider Other Interpretations
Tolerate Uncertainty
Study in Demark (2007)
Would young people’s attitudes towards health
influence their behavior?
What would researchers need to do to carry out this
type of study effectively?
Participants
Method for collecting data
Method for analyzing data
Aim
Purpose of the study
Which behavior or mental processes will be studied
Target population
Group whose behavior you are studying
Ex.: Studying whether bilingual students are better able to recall items
on a list than monolingual students.
Procedure
After identifying aim
Step-by-step process to carry out the study
Always written in a way that makes it possible for others to
understand how the data was collected
Findings
How the researcher interpreted the data that was collected
Flaws?
Bias?
If other research can confirm, study more credible!
FINDINGS SAY SOMETHING ONLY ABOUT TARGET GROUP AND
MAY NOT BE RELEVANT TO OTHER CULTURES (CULTURAL BIAS)
The Pygmalion Effect (Rosenthal and Jacobson 1968)
Professor Robert Rosenthal, of Harvard University in the USA, and
Leonore Jacobson, a principal of elementary school in San Francisco,
carried out an interesting field experiment to determine whether teachers’
expectations of students’ performance actually had any effect on how well
the students learned throughout the year. In other words, when teachers
expect students to excel or fail, is that what is going to happen?
To begin their study, Rosenthal and Jacobs gave 18 classes of students
(from kindergarten to sixth grade) an intelligence test so that the
researchers could see if there was a development during the year in which
they carried out the study. Then they chose 20% of the students at random
and told the teachers that these children showed ―unusual potential for
intellectual growth‖, and that they could be expected to ―bloom‖ during
the year. However, because they were randomly selected, there was no
relationship whatsoever between the score they achieved on the test and
this claim made by the psychologists.
At the end of the school year, the students were retested. Those labeled as
intelligent showed significantly greater increase in test scores than the
other children who were not singled out for the teacher’s attention. The
researchers explained by the ―self-fulfilling prophecy‖ – that is, the
teachers’ expectations influenced the performance of the students.
Apply your knowledge
1. State the aim, procedure, and findings of the
study undertaken by Rosenthal and Jacobson.
2. Do you think the teachers were informed about
the aim of the study? Comment on this.
Participants , Sample
Ex.: Adolescents who live with one parent; women
who have given birth to twins; people who have
moved from one country to another
Obtain a sample that is representative of the target
population. (Representative sample)
Ex.: If the researcher is interested in teenage drinking habits,
the population would be teenagers.
Size matters
Small groups are more open to distortions than large ones.
Opportunity Sampling (Convenience Sampling)
Sample of whoever happens to be there and agrees to
participate
Ex.: Setting up a table at a supermarket and offering free food or
drinks to participate
Problematic?
What type of people shop at the supermarket?
Is there a gender imbalance?
Can lead to biased results
Sears (1986)
Found that over 2/3 of research performed at
universities exclusively used students as
participants.
Can these findings be generalized to the larger
population?
Students have a strong need for peer approval
They were pre-selected for competence in cognitive skills
They are more egocentric than adults
Roses are red
Violets are blue
I have MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder)
And so do I
How many psychologists does it take to
change a light bulb?
Just one, but the bulb will have to be ready to
change.
Self-selected sample
Volunteers
Advantage?
Easy to obtain
Highly motivated
Problems?
Rarely reflect the general population
Why?
Difficult to make generalizations
Snowball sampling
Participants recruit other participants from among friends
Used where it may be difficult to access research participants
Ex.: Target population is drug users
Ex.: Students who do volunteer work in the community
The extent to which the participants may share
a common set of traits that can bias the
outcome of the study.
Who would volunteer for an advertised study about
attitudes towards homosexuality?
Who would volunteer for a study about how to
improve spatial reasoning?
Or anxiety about mathematics?
Random Sampling
Every member of the target population has an equal
chance of being selected.
A study to find out how anxiety affects test
performance—you could put all the names of the
students into a hat, then draw out 30 names.
Considered one of the most effective techniques
If the sample is large enough, it will likely contain
the characteristics of the population
Makes it easier to generalize findings
Random sample not always successful
A study is conducted in a school with a diverse
student body, and one particular group was
overrepresented in the randomly chosen sample, the
findings might not be representative.
Stratified Sample
Takes into account diversity of a target population
Draw random samples from each subpopulation
within the target population
Ex.: School has 20% Indian students, then for a sample
of 30 students the researcher would randomly select 6
students from the Indian population.
There are three guys going through an exit interview
at a mental hospital. The doctor says he can release
them if they can answer the simple mathematical
problem: What is 8 times 5?
The first patient says, "139."
The second one says, "Wednesday."
The third says, "What a stupid question. It's obvious:
The answer is 40."
The doctor is delighted. He gives the guy his release.
As the man is leaving, the doctor asks how he came
up with the correct answer so quickly.
"It was easy, Doc. I just divided Wednesday into
139."
You want to make a study of people’s
motivation to engage in exercise. You decide
to go to the local fitness centre and conduct
some interviews. Discuss the following:
If you use an opportunity sample at a local fitness
centre, which group of people would be
overrepresented? Which group would be
underrepresented?
Explain how you would conduct a self-selected
sample and a stratified sample.
Would you get a more representative sample if you
advertised for participants in your school? Explain.
Research IRBs
History?
Responsibilities?
Other countries?
1999 Columbia University
Aim: To determine how restaurants would respond to
customer complaints.
240 restaurants in New York received a letter that was
supposedly written by a Columbia professor who became
ill after celebrating his wedding anniversary at the
restaurant
―[I suffered from] extended nausea, diarrhoea, and
abdominal cramps—all which point to one thing: food
poisoning. Our special romantic evening became reduced to
my wife watching me curl up in a fetal position on the tiled
floor of our bathroom between rounds of throwing
up….Although it is not my intent to file any reports, I want
you, Mr. (he named each restaurant owner here) to
understand what I went through in anticipation that you will
respond accordingly.‖
Eventually, one of the restaurants determined that the letter did not
match up with its internal paperwork. The owner wrote his own letter to
the dean of the business school, Meyer Feldberg.
"On Thursday, we messengered letters of apology to all 240 restaurants.
We’ve already had one-on-one conversations with 60 of the businesses."
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF NEW YORK
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -X
CHEZ JOSEPHINE, et. al.,
Index No. 101362/02
Plaintiffs, P.C. No. 17890
-against-
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, COLUMBIA
UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL and
FRANCIS FLYNN,
Defendants.
Why does this study not meet ethical
guidelines?
Hours lost checking records for reservations or credit
card stubs
Food stocks were controlled
Kitchen workers were questioned
Stress for restaurants
1-800-PSYCH
Hello, Welcome to the Psychiatric Hotline.
If you are obsessive-compulsive, please press 1 repeatedly.
If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2.
If you have multiple personalities, please press 3, 4, 5 and 6.
If you are paranoid-delusional, we know who you are and what
you want. Just stay on the line so we can trace the call.
If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell
you which number to press.
If you are depressed, it doesn't matter which number you press.
No one will answer.
"These results will be shown in a
subsequent report" . . .
Useful Research Phrases and [I might get around to this sometime if I'm
pushed.]
what they Really Mean
"The most reliable results are those
"It has long been known" . . . obtained by Jones" . . .
[I didn't look up the original reference.] [He was my graduate assistant.]
"A definite trend is evident" . . . "It is believed that" . . .
[These data are practically meaningless.] [I think]
"Of great theoretical and practical "It is generally believed that" . . .
importance" . . . [A couple of other guys think so, too.]
[Interesting to me.]
"It is clear that much additional work will
"While it has not been possible to provide be required before
definite answers a complete understanding occurs" . . .
to these questions" . . . [I don't understand it.]
[An unsuccessful experiment but I still have
"Correct within an order of magnitude" . .
to get it published.]
.
"Three of the samples were chosen for [Wrong]
detailed study" . . .
"It is hoped that this study will stimulate
[The results of the others didn't make any
further
sense.]
investigations in this field" . . .
"Typical results are shown" . . . [This is a lousy paper, but so are all the others
[The best results are shown.] on this
"A careful analysis of obtainable data" . . . miserable topic.]
[Three pages of notes were obliterated when I "Thanks are due to Joe Blotz for
knocked over a assistance with the experiment
glass of beer.] and to George Frink for valuable
assistance" . . .
[Blotz did the work and Frink explained to me
what it meant.]
Respect dignity of participants (animal and
human)
Ethical guidelines (APA) (apa.org)
―Based in Washington, D.C., the American
Psychological Association (APA) is a scientific and
professional organization that represents psychology
in the United States. With 150,000 members, APA is
the largest association of psychologists worldwide.‖
―The mission of the APA is to advance the creation,
communication and application of psychological
knowledge to benefit society and improve people’s
lives.‖
Informed Consent
Must agree to participate
Deception
Slight deception is ok…or is it?
Debriefing
True aims and purpose are identified
Any deception must be revealed and justified
Leave without undue stress
Withdrawal from a study
Leave at any time
Confidentiality
Protection from physical and mental harm
Visit the psychological association’s website of
three different countries.
Find
Aims and Responsibilities
Info about membership
Where it is based
Any other relevant/interesting information
Animals and Human Participants
Read the article ―Should Animal Research in Psychology Be
Elminated?‖
Yes or No
Prepare an argument with your group to debate.
Take notes on the article you read.
Summarize key points and arguments.
Each person in the group must respond in some way.
Helpful hints
Divide the argument into parts
Establish who will talk about what
Establish your own thoughts that you can share
Animals and Human Participants Debate
Debriefing
Why might some people distinguish between medical
and psychological research regarding justification of
animal research? Are there subject matter and
philosophy of science differences between the two
disciplines? Support your answer.
Do you agree with Frey’s argument that animals cannot
be distinguished from humans absolutely (i.e., without
some exceptions?) Why or why not?
Do you find Frey’s emphasis on quality of life pertinent
to the debate over animal research? What is this
quality, and how might it be relevant to committees
that approve the use of animals for experimentation?
Patient: Doctor, my wife thinks I'm crazy
because I like sausages.
Psychiatrist: Nonsense! I like sausages too.
Patient: Good, you should come and see my
collection. I've got hundreds of them.
-------------
One out of every four people is suffering from
some form of mental illness.
Check three friends. If they're OK, then it's you.
Validity
Does the research do what it claims to do?
Ecological validity
The study represents what happens in real life.
If an experiment has been carried out in a lab and the participants have done
things that they would never do in real life, the experiment is said to lack
ecological validity. (Ex.: Remembering nonsense syllables)
What happens in the lab, does not necessarily predict what will happen outside
the lab
Cross-cultural validity
Is the research relevant to other cultures? Or is it ethnocentric?
Ex.: US study of children’s behaviors, psychologists developed a checklist of
behaviors that were the norm among American children. When the
checklist was used with Native American children, the parents did not feel
that the behaviors listed were healthy normal behaviors for children in their
society.
Reliability
Results can be replicated
Used in reference to experimental study
If procedure is standardized, it should give same
results
Is the study based on a representative sample?
Was the study conducted in a lab or in a
natural setting?
Were the participants asked to do things that
are far from real life? (ecological validity)
Are the findings supported/questioned by the
findings of other studies?
Do the findings have practical relevance?
Ethical considerations
Goal of experiments
Establish a cause-and-effect relationship between
two variables
Quantitative in nature
Generates numerical data
Statistically tested for significance to rule out
chance
Variable need to be operationalized
Written so that it is clear what is being
measured
Ex.: Studying ―noise‖ vs ―no noise‖(IV) to
measure ―number of words recalled‖(DV)—
operationalize ―noise‖- high music at volume
35, operationalize ―number of words‖ – from a
list of 20….Now we know exactly what the IV
is expected to change
Operationalize your variables by considering
each of the following descriptions and deciding
whether it is an example of aggression or not.
When you have finished working through the
list with a partner, write a well-worded
definition of aggression.
Two men fight over a parking space.
A football player kicks the ball into the goal.
Two girls give a boy the ―silent treatment‖ on the playground
A man kicks the back of his car when it will not start
Three students have a heated debate about whether global
warming is happening.
Experimental Hypothesis
Predicts relationship between IV and DV (what we expect
will come out of the manipulation of the independent
variable.)
Ex.: Noise will decrease the number of words that an
individual is able to recall from a list of words.
IV noise is predicted to have an effect on DV recall
Null hypothesis
States that IV will have no effect on DV, or that any change in the
IV will be due to chance
Ex.: Noise has no effect on an individual’s ability to recall a list of
words; or any change in the individual’s ability to recall a list of
words is due to chance.
We would accept the null hypothesis if the results showed no
relationship between noise and recall.
People are more likely to make a risky decision
when they are in a group than when they are
alone.
An increase in carbohydrates decreases one’s
ability to concentrate.
Children who have watched a film with a
model hitting a blow-up doll will exhibit more
aggressive acts towards a blow-up doll than
children who have not watched the film.
Lab experiment
Strict control of variable, easy to replicate
Limit.: Environment is artificial, part. may react differently than in real
life
Ecological validity helps evaluate results
Field experiment
Natural environment, but still manipulate variables
Strong ecological validity
Limit: Cannot control all the variables
Ex.: Piliavan and Rodin (1969)-helping behavior in NY subway; used a
confederate who collapsed in front of people in the subway; used man
with cane (lame condition) and man with bottle (drunk
condition)…90% more likely to help man with cane
Natural experiment
No control over variables
Ex.: Children kept in isolation by their parents, or stroke victims
Confounding variables
Occurs when any other variable except the IV affects the
DV in a systematic way.
2 examples:
Demand Characteristics (Participant Bias)
Participants act differently bc/ they know they are in an
experiment-may try to guess aim (Example, Hawthorne
Works Factory)
Use single-blind control to limit (participants do not
know what study is about)
Example: (Milgram’s Experiment)
Confirmation Bias (Observer Bias/Researcher Bias)
Expectations consciously or unconsciously affect findings
Example: Interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their
opinion
Example: Selecting participants that you know will support
findings
Double-blind control to limit (participants and experimenter do
not know aim of study, or treatment or control group)
Example: Subliminal learning tapes (1991)—Tapes that program the
unconscious mind by giving very weak instructions, too quiet to be heard,
while a person is resting or sleeping. The researchers gave the tapes to
subjects who used them for a month. The tape label indicated the tape was
for 1)self-esteem improvement or 2) memory improvement…Half the tapes
were deliberately mislabeled. Neither the researchers nor the subjects knew
which tapes had the wrong label until after the data was collected.
Results found that subjects claimed improvement…however, the
improvements corresponded to the label
If the researchers had not used a double-blind procedure, they
might have concluded tapes were effective
One day a guy went to a psychologist for the
first time. After telling him his troubles, the
man says, "So doc, what's wrong with me?"
The doctor replies, "Well, you're crazy."
Indignant, the man replies, "I am not, I want
another opinion."
To which the doctor replies, "OK... You're also
ugly."
Case example: Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, Lion, Toto
Rationale: This group of four individuals and a little dog is being denied
in one paragraph since their reports were submitted together; we
concluded that none have conditions requiring medical treatment, and
that all of them would be considered prime examples of "worried well"
individuals who are constantly in search of some kind of magical solution
to their problems.
While the little girl who ran away from her Aunty Em's home may have a
conduct disorder (after all, she did kill the so-called wicked witch whose
assertiveness she found threatening), we would point out that running
away from home, singing and dancing, hanging around with peculiar,
oddly attired friends with grandiose expectations, and occasionally
indulging a fetish for fancy footwear are all normative among
adolescents, just as among psychologists attending out-of-town meetings.
...Finally, we feel that the most cost-effective alternative for the little dog,
Toto, is that he be put to sleep.
Correlation does not mean causation
No IV is manipulated
Shows relationship
Ex.: We could study number of hours a child watches tv and the
child’s level of aggression, but not as an experiment…why?
Bidirectional ambiguity: does the tv watching cause aggression or
is it aggression that led the child to watch tv?
Positive correlation
Both affected in same way
More examples:
Ice cream consumption and violence
Appliance ownership and safe sex
Negative correlation
One variable increases, the other decreases
Television and exam scores
Out with the old…and a lack of ecological
validity
Triangulation
Combining methods of research (correlational,
experimental, survey –quantitative data, interview,
case study, cross-sectional study, questionnaire,
observation)
Instead of just manipulating hunger (experimental),
you could also ask people ―how hungry are you on a
scale of 1-10‖