Research Methods

1. Zimbardo Video2. Lecture w/ 2D

3. 2E, 2F4. Case Study for Chapter:

Milgram Experiment

Ethical Principles in Research

• Before conducting research, psychologists must submit their study to an ethics board. The board then reviews the project for ethical violations and/or procedural errors.

Ethical Principles: Animal Research

• Groups advocating the ethical treatment of animals are focusing more and more attention on how animals are treated in laboratory experiments. The APA developed strict guidelines about what animals and how animals can be used in psychological research.

• Studies using animals must meet the following requirements:1. They must have a clear scientific

purpose.1. The research must answer a

specific, important scientific question.

2. Animals chosen must be best-suited to the task at hand.

2. They must care for and house the animals in a humane way.

3. They must acquire the animal subjects legally through accredited companies. If wild animals must be used, they are to be trapped in a humane manner.

4. They must design experimental procedures that employ the least amount of suffering feasible.

Ethical Principles: Human Research

1. Coercion- Participation must be voluntary.

2. Informed Consent- Participants must know that they are involved in research and give their consent. 1. If the participants are deceived in any way about the

nature of the study, the deception must not be so extreme as to invalidate the informed consent.

2. The research participants thought they were consenting to must be similar enough to the actual study to give the consent meaning.

Ethical Principles: Human Research

3. Anonymity/Confidentiality: Participants’ privacy must be protected. 1. Identities and actions must not be revealed by the researcher. 2. Anonymity is ensured by not collecting data that enables them to match

a person’s responses with his or her name.3. If anonymity cannot be guaranteed, then confidentiality MUST be.

4. Risk: Participants cannot be placed at significant mental or physical risk.

1. It is permissible for participants to experience temporary discomfort or stress, must long-term mental or physical harm must be avoided.

2. Some review boards might allow a level of risk other boards would not.3. Stanley Milgram’s obedience study highlighted the effects of this

particular condition.

5. Debriefing: Participants must be told the purpose of the study and provided with a way to contact the researchers about study results.

1. If the research involves deception, it is particularly important to conduct a debriefing.

It was just after 3 a.m.

A red Fiat rolled slowly through the darkness into a parking space adjacent to the Long Island Rail Road station in Kew Gardens. The young woman behind the wheel emerged from the car and locked it. She began the 100-foot walk toward her apartment house at 82-70 Austin St.

But then she spotted a man standing along her route. Apparently afraid, she changed direction and headed toward the intersection of Austin and Lefferts Boulevard -- where there was a police call box.

Suddenly, the man overtook her and grabbed her. She screamed. Residents of nearby apartment houses turned on their lights and threw open their windows. The woman screamed again: ``Oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please help me!''

A man in a window shouted: ``Let that girl alone.'' The attacker walked away. Apartment lights went out and windows slammed shut. The victim staggered toward her apartment. But the attacker returned and stabbed her again.

``I'm dying!'' she cried.

Windows opened again. The attacker entered a car and drove away. Windows closed, but the attacker soon came back again. His victim had crawled inside the front door of an apartment house at 82-62 Austin St. He found her sprawled on the floor and stabbed her still again. This time he killed her.

It was not until 3:50 that morning -- March 13, 1964 -- that a neighbor of the victim called police. Officers arrived two minutes later and found the body. They identified the victim as Catherine Genovese, 28, who had been returning from her job as manager of a bar in Hollis.

Kitty Genovese

• Why didn’t anyone respond?

• The media called it “bystander apathy.”

• Some psychologists studied a phenomenon called “Bad Samaritanism.”

• How would you go about discovering the truth?

Scientific Process

1. Identify a Question of Interest:• observe something and ask a question about it.• Ex. Why did none of Genovese’s neighbors call the police

or offer assistance?

2. Gather Information and form a hypothesis: • Does any study or research already exist that might help

answer the question?• Formulate a hypothesis, a specific prediction about some

phenomenon.– Ex. Noting that each bystander was aware that other

bystanders were also witnessing Genovese’s plight, researchers proposed that a diffusion of responsibility reduced the likelihood that any one bystander would intervene.

Scientific Process3. Test Hypothesis by Conducting Research

• Using one of the many methods of research, test your hypothesis.• Ex. Researchers staged an “emergency” in their laboratory and

recorded people’s responses. Each student was actually alone, but was lead to believe that other rooms, connected by intercom, held other participants who were part of his group and would be discussing “college experiences.” During the discussion one of the students begins having a seizure during his time on the intercom. The student was led to believe that 1) he was alone with the victim, 2) there was another listener present, or 3) there were four other listeners present.

4. Analyze Data, Draw Tentative Conclusions, Report Findings• Draw your conclusion and publish your report.• Ex. Researchers found that all participants who thought they were

alone with the victim helped within 3 minutes of the seizure. As the number of ‘bystanders’ increased, the proportion of actual participants who helped decreased, and those who did help took longer to respond.

• So much for “Safety in Numbers”

Scientific Process

5. Build a Body of Knowledge• After the report is published and reviewed,

researchers build a body of knowledge about the topic in question.

• Researchers ask follow-up questions.• As additional evidence comes in, scientists may

build a theory.• Theory: a set of formal statements that explain how and

why certain events are related to one another• Theories are broader than hypotheses.

• Ex: experiments revealed that diffusion of responsibility occurred across a range of situations. The original researchers then combined the principle with other principles of group behavior to develop a theory of social impact which has since been used to explain a variety of human social behaviors.

Research Methods• Determine what question you want to ask.• Determine what kind of evidence you need, this will determine

your research method.• Methods:

• Naturalistic Observation-subject is observed in the field• Case Study- intensive investigation of a small group of participants• Survey- ask a large group of individuals a set of questions• Longitudinal study- observe a group of participants over a number of

years• Cross-sectional study- participants grouped by age for results

comparison• Correlations- descriptive study measuring a relationship between

two variables or sets of data• Experiments- a study which allows the investigator to control the

situation and decrease outside influences, must be possible to replicate the results in independent studies.

Problems and Solutions

• Self-fulfilling prophecy: a situation in which the researcher’s expectations influence their own behavior, thereby influencing a participant’s behavior.– Single-blind experiment: participants are

unaware of who has received what treatment– Double-blind experiment: neither the

experimenter nor the participants know who has received which treatment

Clever Hans

• How did Mr. von Osteen (Hans’ owner) test his hypothesis?

• What errors did von Osteen make while testing his hypothesis?

• If Pfungst had not discovered the truth, how could we discover today how Hans answered the questions?

Handout 2-D What type of Experiment? Descriptive, Correlational or Experimental Design For each example, determine whether it demands a Descriptive, Correlational, or Experimental Design. Descriptive Correlational Experimental Students will learn more in a cool room than in a hot one.

Students do better on exams with spaced reviews that with last minute cramming.

The greater the street noise level in an urban area, the more learning disabilities the children growing up in that area will have.

Individuals who were abused as children are more likely to become abusive in dating relationships.

Teenage guys are more likely to accompany girls who are shorter than girls who are taller.

Drinking a cup of coffee before an exam will improve performance.

Children who live in cities mature faster than children who live in the suburbs.

It is easier to remember words that rhyme than words that are completely unrelated.

Girls read better than boys during elementary school.

The Placebo Effect

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a drug, researchers must test it against the ‘placebo effect’: the instance in which a participant’s belief that they are receiving a drug can lead them to experience identical, or near-identical effects as actually receiving the drug.

Variables: Defining and Measuring

Psychologists study variables and the relationships among them.– Variable: any

characteristic or factor that can vary.

– EX: birth order, age, GPA, typing speed, weather, number of participants

• Because any variable may mean different things to different people, scientists must define their terms clearly.– Operational Definition:

defines a variable in terms of the specific procedures used to produce or measure it

Variables: Confounding Variables

1. To determine if students retain more information with spaced reviews, Dr. X compares exam scores from students from a parochial school who used spaced reviews with students from a public school who crammed.

2. To see if blondes have more fun, Dr. Y compared fun surveys of blondes from a modeling agency with those of brunettes from a temp agency.

3. To determine if jogging increases lung capacity in members of the track team, Dr. Z compared their lung capacity with that of members of the wrestling team.

4. To determine if brains process information faster as children mature, 2-year-olds in a university day care center were compared with 4-year-olds in a head start program.

Defining and Measuring Variables• Self-Report Measures:

– People report on their own knowledge, attitudes, feelings, experiences, or behavior

– Interviews and questionnaires

– Accuracy hinges on people’s ability and willingness to respond honestly.

– When questions focus on sensitive topics, social desirability bias may affect the answer.

• Social Desirability Bias: the tendency to respond in a socially acceptable manner rather than according to how one truly feels or behaves.

• Measures of overt behavior: (observable behavior)– Observers must be trained

to use the coding system properly to ensure reliability

– Unobtrusive measures, which record behavior in a way that keeps participants unaware that they are being observed, is generally observed to prevent social desirability bias.

– Archival measures, which use records and documents that already exist, are also used when available.

Overview of Research MethodsMethodMethod Primary FeaturesPrimary Features Main AdvantagesMain Advantages Main DisadvantagesMain Disadvantages

Descriptive: Case Study

An individual, group, or event is examined in detail.

Provides rich descriptive information, suggesting hypotheses for further study. Can study rare phenomena in depth.

Poor method for establishing cause-effect. Case may not be representative. Often relies on the researcher’s interpretation.

Descriptive: Naturalistic Observation

Behavior is observed in the setting in which it naturally occurs.

Can provide detailed information about the nature, frequency, and context of behaviors.

Poor method for establishing causation. Observer’s presence may influence participants.

Descriptive: Survey

Questions or tests are administered to a sample drawn from a larger population.

A representative sample typically yields accurate information about the broader pop.

Unrepresentative samples yield misleading results. Interviewer bias and social desirability bias can distort findings.

Correlational Study

Variables are measured and the strength of their association determined.

Correlation allows prediction. May help establish how well findings generalize to more natural settings. Can examine issues that cannot otherwise be studied ethically or practically.

Correlation does not imply causation. Often involves confounding variables.

Experiment Independent variables are manipulated and their effects on dependent variables are measured.

Optimal method for examining cause-effect relationships. Ability to control extraneous factors helps rule out alternative explanations.

Confounding of variables, placebo effects, and experimenter expectancies can threaten the validity of causal conclusions.

Activity

• Handout 2F