Chapter 2: METHODS Sept-22

Rationalism: reason and logic, but not experience is most important for how we acquire
knowledge
Aristotle used rationalism to reason that human thoughts, perceptions and emotions
were part of the heart and not the brain, other organs like the brain and lungs are secondary
We used rationalism until the 19th century, mid-century experimental methods
emerged to collect data test theories and ultimately allowed experience and observation be the
primary sources of knowledge.
Murray Sidman (behavioral psychologist) = everyone, even people who are not
scientists ask questions about behavior. So, we naturally ask empirical questions.
The scientists somebody who continues to ask questions in a systematic way, using the
scientific method.
Flaw in rationalism (using reason and logic as the primary means to understand) is that what
we think is true about being here is not always the same as how we actually behave. So, we
conduct research because behavior does not always match our expectations.
Ex. if I asked you if you think that most people would refuse to obey an authority who told him
to hurt innocent person you would probably use reason to say “yes of course most people
would refuse”
Stanley Milgram experiment 65% of participants obey the instructions of an authority and
administer electrical shocks of dangerous intensity to an innocent person
This behavior is inconsistent with what is expected based on rationalism.
Using the scientific method to study behavior allows us to generate theories, test hypothesis,
and determine causal relations between variables.

The Scientific Method

Psychology is a science because it uses the scientific method. The scientific method: systematic
way of studying a problem or question.
1. Identify the problem: (based on your own observations, previous research, an
established theory, intuition)
ex. impulsive behavior, using the marshmallow test: a child is given a marshmallow and
then told that if they can wait 15 minutes before eating it then they can have two
marshmallows
Some of children will impulsively eat one marshmallow even though they would get
more marshmallows if they waited so this is considered a measure of impulsivity
2. Gather information: goal of gathering this information is to see what previous work has
been done and to help inform the development of the hypothesis
3. Hypothesis: develop an informed guess based on what we read; a good hypothesis
predicts how the variables in this study are related
Ex. If our goal is to try to understand how to change impulsive behavior and ultimately
influence risk taking behavior…. people who are impulsive might show less self-control
4. Design and conduct the experiment: to collect data and test that hypothesis
Need a control group
5. Analyze data and formulate conclusions: conclusions can be drawn about whether the
hypothesis is supported or not
 6. Restart the process: findings need to be replicated and extended in order to fully
understand the problem or alternatively the results may leave the researcher to ask an
entirely new question

Descriptive Methods
any means that are used to capture, report, record or describe a group
 interested in identifying what is without necessarily understanding why it is
Naturalistic observation
 goal is to observe behavior without manipulation
 observer tries to stay as unobtrusive as possible (stay unnoticed)
 ecologically valid because the observations are a product of genuine reactions and
representative of real-world behavior; difficult to determine the exact cause of behavior
 no Hawthorne effect (change the way we act because we know we’re being watched)
Participant observation
 goal is for the researcher to figure out what it's like to be in that situation, so the
researcher becomes a member of the group; allows for research insights from the
participants perspective
 may be subject to biases or interpretation of the observer; observations may not be
repeatable
Case studies
 in depth analysis of a unique circumstance or individual
 not an experiment so there's no manipulation
 because it's not an experiment (no manipulation of variables) it can be difficult to draw
causal relationships and to generalize to other cases
Ex. Phineas Gage had a large iron rod driven completely through his head; studying this case
provided information about the functions of the frontal lobe and its role in personality
Ex. HM suffered from epileptic seizures that didn't respond to medication; surgery was done to
remove the hippocampus; this cured his epilepsy, but he developed anterograde amnesia;
contributed to our understanding of the role of the hippocampus in the formation of memory
Surveys
 describe larger patterns of behavior
 collect information about the current state of people’s opinions/ attitudes
 susceptible to biases: the questions must be carefully worded by the researchers to
avoid biasing the outcome in either a positive or negative way
 Participants are susceptible to response bias, the tendency to answer the question the
way they feel they're expected to answer it

Research ethics for human participants

Established in response to early research studies that failed to treat people in ethical ways
Ex. Tuskegee syphilis study: individuals with syphilis were told that they would receive free
meals, medical treatment, and burial insurance but, the researchers were only interested in
following the progression of the disease and had no intention of providing medical treatment
(even though they had the means to treat syphilis)
Ex. Canadian examples: residential schools, nutrition experiments malnourished the children
and used chemicals to see if they could replace food (they couldn’t but they still continued)
1. beneficence and nonmaleficence: research should strive to do good and avoid creating
experiments that can intentionally harm participants; safeguards in place to protect the
mental and physical well-being of their participants
2. fidelity and responsibility: researchers’ responsibility to be honest and reliable with
participants (inform participants of all risks; hold themselves and their colleagues to
high standards of conduct and take action if needed (stop situations that cause harm)
3. integrity: honest and non-biased practices (study results must be accurate)
4. Justice (establish equality in the research process): participants in the research process
should be the same people who benefit from the research
5. respect for people's rights and dignity: researchers should take measures to respect
and protect participants rights, privacy, and welfare (communicate openly and honestly
about the study so that participants can provide informed consent & keep privacy)
Institutional review boards or IRBs assess if a research project will be carried out in a way that's
consistent with the general ethical principles
- Ensure the risks associated with the study are minimized/reasonable, the benefits of
the research outweigh any potential risks, that all participants can make an informed
decision to participate in the study and that decision may be withdrawn at any time
without consequence to the participant, that safeguards are in place to protect the
well-being of participants, and that privacy will be respected (confidential)
A researcher can only start their study once the IRB has approved the research
Researcher must obtain informed consent from their participant
Vulnerable participant populations (socioeconomic status, religion, race, or disability)
ensure that participants are not coerced into participating in an experiment that they
otherwise might not feel comfortable (high compensation)
The ethical principle of justice states that no person should be denied the possible benefits of
participating in research, therefore this includes vulnerable populations
-Decisional impairment (child, disability): informed consent is obtained from a parent or
guardian and the participant must provide ascent which is affirmative permission to take part in
the study
-Situational vulnerability (prisoners): additional safeguards should be put in place to
prevent exploitation such as including an impartial third party to advocate on behalf of the
potential participants
Deception: in some cases, the true purpose of a study is withheld from participants to ensure
that the research captures the true nature of behavior
IRB will approve a study that uses deception under the four conditions:
1. research poses no more than a minimal risk to participants
2. the well-being in the rights of the participant are not affected by the deception
3. using deception is the only way to conduct the study
4. after participation in the study participants should be debriefed

Correlation
 identifies both the direction and the strength of the relation between two variables
  scatter plot provides a visual representation of the relation between variables
 positive means that the two variables change in the same direction (+)
 negative means that the two variables change in opposite (-)
 correlation of zero means there's no apparent relation between the variables
 the more closely the data points in the scatterplot resembled a straight line, the more
closely the variables are related
 -1 to +1; +/-1 means there’s a perfect correlation; 0 means there’s no correlation
 no cause-and-effect relation  correlation does not equal causation
 confounding/extraneous variable is a 3rd variable that may influence one/both variables
 only way to determine causation is with a true experiment

Experimental methods
- only way to establish cause and effect relations between variables
- hypothesis: educated guess about the outcome of an experiment
Characteristics of a good hypothesis
- consistent with prior observation or an existing theory
- educated prediction based on the information that you gathered in step two of the
scientific method
- it's simple but specific (who we’re measuring? What will be manipulated? What
affect we're expecting to see because of the manipulation?)
- measurable and testable
- establish causality
- should be falsifiable (clear conditions/outcomes proving the hypothesis is false)
Ex. if we move bins closer to/ in individual offices people will recycle more often
consistent with prior observation (bins are far away from offices and are empty)
simple (if bins are closer, more items will be recycled)
specific (move bins closer to improve recycling behavior)
measurable and testable
establishes causality (comparing bins that are far to those that are close)
falsifiable
Experimental researchers manipulate and measure variables
Independent variable is the variable that is manipulated (it's what the experimenter is
interested in), the dependent variable is the variable that we measure in an experiment (the
outcome)
Extraneous/confounding variables are variables that the researcher isn't interested in, but they
can affect the experimental outcome
Sample of participants that represents the population so that the conclusions of the experiment
can be generalized to the entire population of interest
- Simple random sample (equal chance of being selected) to approximate the larger
population
- Stratified random sample: useful when there are subgroups within the population,
the population is first divided into subgroups, then simple random sampling is used
to select a sample from each subgroup
 - Non-random sample not all individuals are equally likely to be selected to
participate (ex. smoking during pregnancy- not ethical)
- Convenience samples participants who are available and easy to recruit
Dived into 2 groups: Experimental group (manipulated by exposure to independent variable) is
compared to the control group (not manipulated)
Placebo effect which is when the effect of the treatment arises from a patient’s expectations
not from the independent variable
How do researchers know if their experiment is valid?
- Internal validity is the degree to which results can be attributed to the independent
variable and not other external factors (ex. confounding variables)
- External validity is the degree to which results from a study can be applied or
generalized to other people (can be generalized across settings)

Making sense of data

Researchers want answers to questions: was there an effect of the independent variable? Is
there a difference between the control group and the experimental group that was caused by
the manipulation? Is the hypothesis supported?
Descriptive statistics answer these questions and describe the data quantitatively
Central tendencies
- Mean: average; disadvantage is that it can be significantly affected by extreme
values known as outliers
- Median: score that falls in the middle of ordered data (less affected by outliers or
when the graph is skewed)
- Mode: most frequent value (ex. colour)
Spread of the data
Range= highest score – lowest score (measure of spread of all data points)
Standard deviation the average deviation of scores from the mean (variance=
subtracting each individual score from the mean then squaring it) variance = sqrt(s.d.)
Inferential statistics are used to make inferences about the causal relationship between the
independent and dependent variables
5% rule if the probability of an event is less than 5% we call that a rare event; these
are extreme values and are more than 1.64 standard deviations away from the mean
Normal distribution (assumed): data is symmetrical with a single central peak at the
mean (50% of the distribution lies to the left of the mean and vice-versa)
Use this normal distribution to decide whether the sample that they tested in their
experiment comes from the population of interestif the manipulation of the
independent variable has a significant effect, then the mean of the experimental group
should be different than the population mean
When we use the statistical process, we're making decisions using a rational process and we're
removing the subjective elements
Statistics are used to describe the empirical data that researchers collect, and they are also
used to guide researchers’ decisions about whether their expectations and hypothesis are
supported by the research process