View
216
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Research Methods in Psychology
Who? … YOU!
What? …Scientific Method and Communication
Where? … Here
When? … Now
WHY?????
1. Assist you in other psychology courses2. Provide you with skills necessary for graduate school (if that is your choice)3. Provide you with skills appreciated by employers (critical thinking, analysis, clear communication, etc).4. SCIENTIFIC EMPOWERMENT5. And the list goes on and on….6. But mostly
To avoid being a chump!!
“There are lies, damned lies and statistics”. Mark Twain
oops, I lied
Stretching the truth…. Selective calculations….
But who would ever LIE to us?????
Statistics are a start…. but not the end.
Examples of statistical abuse (aka “sadistics”)
……who, indeed.
What is “Truth”?How do we search for it?
How do we know anything… …REALLY?
Sources of Knowledge:
- authority - tenacity - experience - reason and logic
- SCIENCE
List one thing about human behavior that you have learned from each source.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each source of knowledge?
The Scientific Enterprise
Definition of Science – it’s a VERB!!!!
Four canons (with one n) of science: (Canon = a generally accepted principle)
Objective measurement
Independent verifiability
Self correction
Control
Types of Research:
QualitativeDescriptiveCorrelationalExperimental
Pieces of the Pie
DV – dependentIV – independentEV - extraneousCV – confounding
OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS
Beware of BAD SCIENCE
Small group project::
Search for examples of bad science on the internet. For your example, be able to answer the following questions:
1.What makes this science BAD?2.What is the source of this science?
INDEPENDENT VARIABLE
Manipulation
DEPENDENT VARIABLE
Measurement
If done properly, will establish a causal
relationship
EXTRANEOUS VARIABLES - UNCONTROLLED VARIATION - CONFOUNDING VARIABLES
GROUP PROJECT: 1. Analyze your example of “bad science” with specific reference to this flow chart. Where does your example go wrong? 2. Using the same topic, describe how you could turn your example of bad science into good science.