AP Psych ch. 1 (part #1)

Research Methods Ch. 1 Part #1

1. Research Methods It is actually way more exciting than it sounds!!!!

2. Why do we have to learn this stuff? Psychology is first and foremost a science . Thus it is based in research.

3. Who does what? Psychologist : studies patients, tests disorders, talks and counsels Psychiatrist : works inside a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders Provides medical (drug) treatment http://www.diffen.com/difference/Psychiatrist_vs_Psychologist

4. Why do we need research? Why? Because just asking people how/why they felt and acted the way they did can be misleading. Common sense isn’t all it is cracked up to be.

5. Before we delve into how to do research, you should be aware of three hurdles that tend to skew our logic. Hindsight Bias Overconfidence The Barnum Effect

6. Hindsight Bias The tendency to believe, after learning the outcome, that you knew it all along. Monday Morning Quarterbacking!!! After the Chris Brown/Rihanna incident….my friend said she knew Chris Brown was a violent kid!!! Did she really?

7. Overconfidence We tend to think we know more than we do . 82% of U.S. drivers consider themselves to be in the top 30% of their group in terms of safety. 81% of new business owners felt they had an excellent chance of their businesses succeeding. When asked about the success of their peers, the answer was only 39%. (Now that's overconfidence!!!)

8. The Barnum Effect It is the tendency for people to accept very general or vague characterizations of themselves and take them to be accurate.

9. Terminology

10. Applied V. Basic Research Applied Research has clear, practical applications. YOU CAN USE IT!!! Basic Research explores questions that you may be curious about, but not intended to be immediately used. Research on therapies for drug addicts has a clear purpose. Studying how kissing changes when you get older is interesting…but that’s about it.

11. Who will be researched? Control Group Group that does not receive the test variable Experimental Group The group in an experiment that receives the variable being tested

12. Sampling Identify the population you want to study. The sample must be representative of the population you want to study. GET A RANDOM SAMPLE. Stratified Sampling

13. Random Assignment Once you have a random sample , randomly assigning them into two groups helps control for confounding variables. Experimental Group v. Control Group. Group Matching

14. 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.

15. Clever Hans Clever Hans the horse could do simple math and spell out the answers to simple questions. He wasn’t always correct, but he was most of the time. While a team of scientists, veterinarians, zoologists and circus trainers could not figure out how Hans was correctly answer the questions, Oskar Pfungst, a psychologist did. What did he discover?

16. Hans’ Secret While Hans could not do math or correctly answer questions on his own, he was very perceptive. Hans was picking up on subtle body language given off by his owner who asked the questions. When the owner was hidden from view, suddenly Hans could not answer the questions correctly. How does this story relate to methodology?