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Exam 1 Study Guide: Psychology Research Methods, Exams of Design

Design

This study guide provides an overview of the first six lectures in a Psychology Research Methods course. Topics covered include the importance of taking the course, the scientific method, the canons of scientific method, scientific cycles, and the steps in the research process. Students will learn about the role of empiricism, determinism, parsimony, and testability in scientific research, as well as the difference between theory and hypothesis. The guide also covers the importance of a literature review and developing a hypothesis.

Typology: Exams

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Exam # 1 Study Guide Lectures: 1 - 12
Lecture 1 (1/06/14)
Why Take This Course?
•Provides a foundation
◦process vs. content
◦How do psychologists know what they know?
•Learn how to be a critical consumer of media studies
•Essential for graduate school
•Develops scientific thinking skills
The Scientific Method
•Psychological research relies on the scientific method
◦THEORY -> RESEARCH QUESTIONS -> RESEARCH DESIGN -> HYPOTHESES -> DATA
■If the DATA supports the THEORY -> the theory is strengthened
■If the DATA does NOT support the THEORY -> revised theory or research
design is performed
Lecture 2 (01/08/14)
4 Canons of Scientific Method
PSYC 3980 1st
Edition
1. Empiricism
- self corrective mechanism of science
• Harlow study -> cupboard vs. comfort theories (revisions based on data
received from the study)
- marker variables -> variables that take the place of what it is we are interested
in studying
2. Determinism
- concept that there are identifiable causes of behavioral changes
3. Parsimony
- simple explanations can be provided
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pf4
pf5

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Exam # 1 Study Guide Lectures: 1 - 12

Lecture 1 (1/06/14) Why Take This Course?

  • Provides a foundation ◦ process vs. content ◦ How do psychologists know what they know?
  • Learn how to be a critical consumer of media studies
  • Essential for graduate school
  • Develops scientific thinking skills The Scientific Method
  • Psychological research relies on the scientific method ◦ THEORY -> RESEARCH QUESTIONS -> RESEARCH DESIGN -> HYPOTHESES -> DATA ■ If the DATA supports the THEORY -> the theory is strengthened ■ If the DATA does NOT support the THEORY -> revised theory or research design is performed

Lecture 2 (01/08/14) 4 Canons of Scientific Method

PSYC 3980 1 st Edition

  1. Empiricism
    • self corrective mechanism of science
      • Harlow study -> cupboard vs. comfort theories (revisions based on data received from the study)
    • marker variables -> variables that take the place of what it is we are interested in studying
  2. Determinism
    • concept that there are identifiable causes of behavioral changes
  3. Parsimony
    • simple explanations can be provided
  1. Testability
    • studies can be conducted and the hypothesis can be rejected if the data indicates 4 Scientific Cycles
  2. Theory-data cycle
  3. ask particular series of questions that reflect your theory
  4. questions lead to specific predications
  5. test predictions by collecting data
  6. collect data from that test, apply to prediction of what will happen next
  7. Basic-Applied Research Cycle
  • influence and overlap seen between the two of them
  1. Peer-Review Cycle
  • when research is submitted to a journal, editors send to group of experts to review the paper; very rigorously done in psychology
  1. Journal-to-Journal Cycle
  • news and commentary from media (television, newspapers, magazines, etc.)

SELECT CHAPTER 1 QUESTIONS AND VOCABULARY What does it mean to reason empirically? To reason empirically is to base a conclusion on systematic observation Explain what the consumer of research and producer of research roles have in common, and describe how they differ. Psychologists can be both a consumer and producer of research. Both require a curiosity about behavior, emotion, and cognition; they ask, answer, and communicate questions; and they prac- tice empiricism. Producers of research conduct the actual research and carry out the actual ex-

weight of the evidence - a conclusion drawn from reviewing scientific literature and con- sidering the proportion of the studies that is consistent with a theory

Lecture 3 (01/13/14) Steps in the Research Process

  1. Choosing a research question
  2. Conducting a literature review
  3. Making a hypothesis
  4. Designing the study
  5. Conducting the study
  6. Analyzing the data
  7. Reporting the results

We will be focusing on the first three steps of the research process for this test (which is why they are marked in red).

Choosing the Research Question

  • research questions stem from the researcher’s own interest, intuition, personal experi- ence - look to help gain new knowledge in the field - important to try and eliminate biases that come from intuition, experience, sto- ries, cherry-picking evidence, etc.
  • three types of research questions:
    1. Descriptive
      • e.g. observational research -> “What is the prevalence of eating disor- ders?”
    2. Predictive
      • e.g. correlational research -> “Is perfectionism related to eating disor- ders?”
    3. Causal
      • e.g. experimental research -> “Do negative media influences lead to eating disorders?”

Lecture 4 (01/17/14)

  • The ways we gain knowledge -> intuition, deduction, authority, observation
  • The importance of empirical research -> present-present bias ◦ we are most likely to notice the times when both the treatment and the outcome were present
  • availability heuristic (pop-up principle) -> mental shortcut that relies on immediate exam- ples that come to mind

◦ after 9/11, more Middle Easterners were believed to be terrorists and suffered more hate crimes middle eastern males are therefore more likely to "look like" terrorists as opposed to a white, middle-aged woman

Lecture 5 (01/22/14)

Conducting a Literature Review

  • thorough search and review of studies that have already been conducted in an area of re- search ◦ examples of literature to review: ■ books on a topic ■ journal articles ■ conferences
  • PsycINFO
  • Google Scholar
  • Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)
  • Psychological Bulletin ◦ monthly volumes of review articles ◦ meta-analysis -> statistical technique; "a study of a study" ■ i.e. hundreds of studies of effect of alcohol on memory exist, so a meta analysis would group all the studies together with a certain methodology, and determine whether or not there is an effect Structure of an Empirical Journal Article
  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Method -> participants, materials/apparatus, design, procedure
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • References Lecture 6 (01/24/14)

Developing a Hypothesis

  • Hypotheses can be predictive or causal
  • follow “if ____, then ______” structure ◦ causal -> "If leaf color change is caused by drops in temperature, then plants ex- posed to low temperature will show more leaf color variation than plants ex- posed to high temperatures." ◦ predictive -> "If leaf color change is related to temperature, then the lower the average temperature, the greater the leaf color variation." SELECT CHAPTER 2 QUESTIONS AND VOCAB