Conducting research in Phychogy

• Research designs 


  1.Experimental research

  2. Correlational designs

  3. Qualitative designs

  4. Quasi-experimental designs

  5. Longitudinal designs

  6. Surveys
• (1) Experiments


  Researchers keep everything under control and manipulate the variable under interest (based on hypothesis)
• Variables


  Independent (what you measure) and dependent (outcome of your measuring) variables
• Conditions in experiments 


  Experimental - test the hypothesis by applying independent variable to see causes on dependent one;

  Control - what happens to dependent variable in the absence of independent one (placebo)
• Experiment features


  Random experiments, find CAUSE and EFFECT
• Placebo effect


  People often convince their brains that taking smth influences them and change their behaviour (=drugs)
• Participation effect


  People’s behaviour or opinions are influenced by their participation in a certain activity or group
• Preventing confounds: be aware of

  • Participant demand
  • Researcher bias
  • Pygmalion effect
• Participant demand


  Participants act in the way they think the experimenter wants them to behave;

  solution - placebo
• Researcher bias


  Expectancy bias = researcher observes WHAT HE WANTS TO OBSERVE and unknowingly interferes in what is going on
• Pygmalion effect


  Self-fulfilling prophecy where higher expectations lead to an increase in performance or achievement. Ex: students perform better if teachers treat them better after being told that trey are smarter
• Rosenthal & Lawson


  ex researcher bias: rats as fast/slow learners. Students treated fast labeled rats better, which resulted in a better performance
• Double-blind procedure 


  Solution to researcher bias. You dont know which group receives the experimental treatment and which receiving a placebo or control treatment
• Experimental research limitations

  • ethical concerns
  • some effects are hard to address experimentally (the effect of income on happiness)
  • no focus on causality but mere description
• (2) Correlational studies 


  The relationship between variables is studied without experimental manipulation of an independent variable: positive, negative correlation or no association
• (3) Qualitative designs


  Naturalistic observations. A form of descriptive research involving behaviour assesssment of people or animals in their natural surroundings
• In qualitative designs watch out for


  Subjectivity, small sample size, lack of control + research bias
• Qualitative designs CASES


  Research involving a single individual, unusual talens;

  prosopagnosia- inability to recognise faces (after brain injury)
• (4) Quasi-experimental designs

  Estimates casual relationships without random assignment, but the researcher still manipulates an independent variable.

  Ex: the effects of marriage on happiness
• (5) Longitudinal studies 


  Tracking people over time to see how certain variables change over time
• Longitudinal studies are used

  • to study effect of life events
  • developments across the life span of people
  • very valuable evidence but high cost
• Cross-sectional studies 


  Observe all participants at one specific point in time to identify patterns and relationships
• (6) Surveys 


  A technique used in DESCRIPTIVE/CORRELATIONAL research, can he experimental;

  seek answers to prepared questions;

  be aware of biases
• Pygmalion Effect factors

  1. Climate
  2. Input
  3. Response opportunity
  4. Feedback
• Research needs to find balance between

  Internal and external validity, with first being emphasized
• Internal validity


  Degree to which a study allows unambiguous casual interfaces;

  the ability to draw conclusions about a certain relationship from data: experiments are common in this
• External validity


  Degree to which a study ensures that potential findings apply to settings and samples other than ones being studied.

  • generalisability
  • experiments are uncommon
• The laboratory experiment 


  The gold standard- leads to a high internal validity, but sometimes lacks info about what people have in daily lifes
• Ecological validity 


  Degree to which an effect has been obtained under conditions that are typical for what happens in everyday life
• Kurt Lewin


  Put emphasis on the importance of studying behaviour in real-life contexts. Ecological validity
• Studying daily experiences


  collect in the moment self-report data (via smartphone)
• Mindfulness


  Psychological process of bringing one’s attention to the internal and external experiences occurring in the present moment.

  suggests that wandering mind is unhappy
• Study of Killingsworth and Gilbert about mindfulness

  A wandering mind is unhappy mind
• DRM


  Day Reconstruction Model;

  participants report experiences of a given day by systematically reconstructing a day
• Studying daily behaviour (2)

  EAR (electronic activated recorder)

  participants carry a portable audio recorder that is programmed to periodically record brief snippets of ambient sounds
• Ambulatory physiological monitoring


  Measures: blood pressure, temperature, cortisol etc
• Trier Social Stress test


  what is stressful for one person might not be for another;

  Limited correspondence between how people respond physiologically to a standardised lab stressor and how they respond to stressfull experiences in their lives.
• Sampling online behaviour 


  Acting and interaction on the internet;

  ex: social networking on facebook
• Study by Cohn et al


  Study of psychological changes in response to unpredictable life events (9/11)
• Smartphone psychology 


  Immense potential for large scale data collection and intervention;

  poses challenges like DATA PRIVACY and data analysis and synthesis