Chapter 2: Research Methods

Question 1

What is facilitated communication? Why is it flawed?

Answer 1

-Technique use to assist autistic children, with the use of a fascinator (another person) as their guide.

• However, our thoughts can control our movements without our knowledge
• Proponents of facilitated communication neglected to consider this rival hypotheses.
• Research design matters.

Question 2

What is prefrontal lobotomy treatment? Why is it flawed?

Answer 2

-Treatment for schizophrenia. Involved the severing of neural fibres that connected the brain’s frontal lobes to the thalamus.

• Believers didn’t conduct systematic research.
• Operation produced radical changes in behaviour, but it didn’t target the specific behaviours associated with schizophrenia. (hearing voices for e.g.) Causes extreme apathy.
• Believers had been deceived by naive realism, & confirmation bias.

Question 3

What are the 2 modes of thinking? Explain:
What is a heuristic?
Which mode of thinking did facilitated communication, & prefrontal lobotomy rely on?

Answer 3

1. Intuitive thinking (system 1):
   - Quick, little mental effort.
   - Involves the use of heuristics-mental shortcuts. Heuristics can lead us to make mistakes.
2. Analytical (system 2):
   - Slow, takes mental effort.
   - We engage in this type of thinking when we reason through a problem, or figure out a complicated concept.

-They relied on intuitive thinking, & heuristics to infer whether treatment is effective.

Question 4

Is research design important? Explain:

Answer 4

• Yes
• Research design can help us avoid pitfalls that can result from an overreliance on intuitive thinking.
• They can also consider alternative explanations for findings that our intuitive thinking overlooks.

Question 5

What are the advantages & disadvantages of Naturalistic observation, case studies, correlational designs, & experimental designs?

Answer 5

-Naturalistic observation:
Advantage: High in external validity.
Disadvantage: Low in internal validity, does not allow us to infer causation.

-Case studies:
Advantage: Can prove evidence proofs, allow us to study rare or unusual phenomenon, can offer insight for later systematic testing.
Disadvantage: Typically anecdotal, don’t allow us to infer causation.

-Correlational studies:
Advantage: Allows us to infer causation, high in internal validity.
Disadvantage: Can sometimes be low in external validity.

Question 6

What is naturalistic observation?* Why can it be problematic?

Answer 6

• Watching behaviour in real-world settings without trying to manipulate peoples behaviour.
• Used to study animals mostly.
• No control over key variables.
• Problematic if people know they are being observed.

Question 7

What is external validity?

Answer 7

-Extent to which we can generalize our findings to real-world setting.

Question 8

What is internal validity?

Answer 8

-Extent to which we can draw cause-&-effect inferences.

Question 9

Well conducted experiments are high in: external or internal validy?

Answer 9

-Well conducted experiences are high in internal validity because we can manipulate the key variables ourselves.

Question 10

What are case studies? What are existing proofs?

Answer 10

• Researchers examine a person or people over a period of time.
• Helpful in providing existing proofs: demonstrations that a given psychological phenomenon can occur.
• Provide an opportunity to study rare phenomena that are difficult or impossible to re-create in a lab setting.
• Offers insight that researchers can follow up with & test.
• Helpful in generating a hypothesis.

Question 11

Explain the use of questionnaires & surveys?

Answer 11

• Questionnaires (self-report measures) are used to asses a variety of characteristics (mental illness for e.g.)
• Closely related are surveys, which are used to measure people’s opinions & attitudes.
• Difficult to interpret, but insightful.

Question 12

What is random selection?

Answer 12

• Every person in population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate.
• Crucial if we want to generalize our results to broader population.
• Can be very difficult to obtain samples that are truly random.
• Deals with how we initially choose our participants.

Question 13

What is reliability?

Answer 13

• Refers to consistency of measurement.

- Reliability also refers to interviews & observational data.

Question 14

What is test-reset reliability? How could you asses it?

Answer 14

• (e.g. a reliable questionnaire yields similar scores over time; test-reset reliability)
• We could administer a personality questionnaire to a large group of people today & re-administer it in 2 months. If the measures are reliable, participant’s scores should be similar at both times.

Question 15

What is interrater reliability?

Answer 15

• Extent to which different people who conduct an interview, or who make behavioural observations, agree on characteristics being measured.
• Interrater reliability is low if 2 psychologists disagree with one another.

Question 16

What is validity?

Answer 16

• Extent to which a measure assesses what it claims to measure.
• “truth of advertising.”

Question 17

Are reliability & validity different concepts? Is reliability necessary for validity?

Answer 17

• Yes, they are different concepts
• Yes, reliability is necessary for validity because we need to measure something consistently before we can measure it well.

-However, reliability does not guarantee validity.

Question 18

What are the advantages & disadvantages of self report measures? What are response sets? What is malingering?

Answer 18

• Advantages: East to administer, work reasonably well
• Disadvantages:

1. Typically assume people possess enough insight into their personality characteristics to report them accurately.
2. Typically assume that participants are honest.
   - Some participants engage in response sets: Tendencies to distort their answers. (to look better)
   - Malingering: Tendency to make ourselves appear psychologically disturbed with the aim to achieve a clear-cut personal goal.

Question 19

Alternative to self-report measures:

What are the disadvantages of rating data? What is the halo effect? What is the horns effect?

Answer 19

-Ask others who know a person well to provide ratings on them.

• Disadvantage:
• The halo effect: Tendency of ratings of one positive characteristic to “spill over” to influence the ratings of other positive characteristics.
• The horns effect: The ratings of 1 negative trait spill over to influences the ratings of other negative traits.

Question 20

What are correlational designs?

Answer 20

• Psychologists examine the extent to which 2 variables are associated.
• Allow us to generate prediction behaviour, & generate predictions about the future.
• Correlation does not mean causation.
• Researchers are measuring preexisting differences in participants (researchers have no control).

Question 21

Explain positive, zero, & negative correlations:

What is the range for correlation coefficients?

What is a perfect negative correlation? What is a perfect positive correlation? What is a less-than-perfect correlation coefficient?

How do you find how strong a correlation is?

Answer 21

+: As the value of one variable changes, the other goes in same direction.

0: Variables don’t go together at all.

-: As the value of one variable changes, the other goes
in the opposite direction.

• Correlation coefficients range in values from -1.0-+1.0.
• Perfect - correlation: -1.0
• Perfect + correlation: +1.0
• Less-than-perfect correlation: Values such as .23, or .69.
• To find how strong a correlation is: Look at the absolute value size of coefficient w/o + or - signs).

Question 22

What is a scatterplot?

Answer 22

• Grouping of points on a graph. Dot=a person.
• Unless the correlation coefficient is perfect, they will always be exceptions to general trend.

-Psych is a science of exceptions

Question 23

What is an illusory correlation? What does it teach us?

Answer 23

• Perception of a statistical association between 2 variables where none exist.
  (e. g. correlation between full moon & variety of strange occurrences is r=0)
• Forms basis of many superstitions.

-Explains why we can’t rely on our subjective impressions to tell us whether 2 variables are associated-& why we need correlational designs.

Question 24

Why do we fall prey to illusory correlation?

Answer 24

• We tend to pay too much attention to (for e.g.) if a full moon was present at the same time as a crime. -We tend to remember instances that are most dramatic.
• Our minds are not good at remembering non-events.
• Confirmation bias kicks in.

Question 25

What are experimental designs?

Answer 25

• Allow us to draw cause-&-effect conclusions (observational designs, case studies, & correlation designs.)
• When preformed correctly, they permit cause-&-effect inferences.

Question 26

What makes a study an experiment?

Answer 26

1. Random assignment of participants to conditions
2. Manipulation of an independent variable.
   - Both are necessary.

Question 27

What is random assignment? What is the diff between the experimental & the control group?

Answer 27

• Experimenter randomly sorts participants into 1 of 2 groups. By doing so, we cancel preexisting differences between 2 groups.
• Deals with how assign participants after we have already chosen them.
• One is the experimental group: Receives manipulation.
• Other is the control group: Doesn’t receive manipulation.

Question 28

What is a between-subject-design?

Answer 28

-1 group is randomly assigned to receive some level of independent variable, while another group will be assigned to the control conditions.

Question 29

What is a within-subject-design?

Answer 29

-Participants act as their own control group. Researcher take a measurement before the independent variable manipulation, & then measures same participant again after independent variable measurement.

Question 30

What is an independent variable? What is a dependent variable?

Answer 30

-Independent variable: Variable being manipulated
-Dependant variable: Variable being measured to see whether this manipulation has had an effect.
(depended on the level of independent variable).

Question 31

What is an operational definition?

Answer 31

-When we find our independent & dependant variables.

Question 32

What is a confounding variable? Why is it important?

Answer 32

• Refers to any variable that differs between experimental & control groups, other than independent variable.
• For an experiment to possess adequate internal validity, the level of independent variables must be the only difference between the experimental & control groups.

Question 33

How do you know when to infer a cause-&-effect relation?

Answer 33

1. Ask yourself whether the study is an experiment.

2. If it isn’t, don’t draw casual conclusions from it.

Question 34

What is the placebo effect? How is it administered?

Answer 34

• Improvement resulting from mere expectation of improvement.
• Expectations can create reality.
• To avoid, patients must not know whether they are receiving real meds or the placebo.

-Researchers administer a sugar pill (placebo) to members of control group. In this way, patients in both groups don’t know whether they’re taking the actual meds or the placebo.

Question 35

What will happen if patients are aware that they are taking a placebo? (2)

Answer 35

1. Patients in experimental group might improve more than patients in control group because they know their treatment is the real one.
2. Patients in control group might become resentful that they’re receiving placebo & might try to beat out patients in experimental group.

Question 36

Who was among the first to both discover, & isolate the placebo effect?

Answer 36

-Benjamin Franklin.

Question 37

What is the nocebo effect?

Answer 37

-Voodoo (for e.g.) capitalizes on the nocebo effect: People who believe that others are sticking them with pins sometimes experience pain themselves.

Question 38

What is the experimenter expectancy effect?

Answer 38

• In some cases, participant doesn’t know the condition assignment, but the experimenter does.
• It occurs when researchers’ hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias outcome of the study. Instead, in the experimenter effect, researchers’ biases affect the results in subtle ways.

-E.g. The Clever Hans story (Wilhem Von Osten & his horse) -Oscar Pfungst challenged this.

Question 39

Why do researchers try to conduct their experiments in a double-blind fashion?

Answer 39

• To avoid the experimenter expectancy effect
• Double-blind: Neither researcher nor participants know who’s in the experimental or control group. (guard against confirmation bias)
• Shows good scientists take special precautions to avoid fooling themselves & others.

Question 40

What are demand characteristics? How do researchers combat demand characteristics?

Answer 40

• Research participants can pick up cues, known as demand characteristics from an experimenter’s hypotheses.
• This can lead to altered behaviour.

-They combat it by disguising the purpose of the study (cover story for e.g.) that differs from the investigation’s actual purpose.

Question 41

What is the purpose of REB’s? (research ethics boards) What is informed consent?

Answer 41

• They review all research carefully, & protect participants against abuse.
• REB’s insist on a procedure called informed consent: Researchers must tell subjects what they’re getting into before asking them to participate, however REB’s may sometimes allow researchers to forgo some elements of informed consent. (such as the use of deception, but it needs to be justified).

Question 42

Explain deception & debriefing techniques:

Answer 42

• When deceptive techniques are used in research, participants should be informed of the deception asap after it takes place, & they should be fully debriefed about the true nature of the research.
• Debriefing: A process whereby researchers inform participants what the study was about, & sometimes it is used to explain the researchers hypothesis.

Question 43

Explain the ethical issues in animal research:

Answer 43

• Researchers must follow the guidelines of the CCAC. Research involving animals must first be reviewed by animal care & committees.
• W/o animal research, we’d know relatively little abput the physiology of the brain, & we’d be unable to test the safety & effectiveness of medications.

Question 44

What are the two maybe types of statistics? (2)

Answer 44

• Application of mathematics to describe & analyze data.
  1. Central Tendency
  2. Variability

Question 45

What is central tendency in statistics?

Describe the 3 measures of central tendency:

Which measure is the best statistic to report when data forms a bell-shaped or “normal” distribution? When wouldn’t you use this measure?

Answer 45

• It gives us the sense of the “central” score in our data set or where the group tends to cluster.
• There are 3 measures of central tendency: mean, median, & mode.

Mean: (average) total score divided by number of people
Median: middle score. We obtain it by lining up our scores in order from lowest to highest & finding middle one.
Mode: most frequent score in data set.

• The mean is the best statistics to use when data forms a bell-shape.
• If the mean is a misleading picture of central tendency, it is better to use median or mode instead, as the statistics are less affected by extreme scores at either low or high end.

Question 46

What is variability (dispersion) in statistics? What is the simplest measure of variability? What is standard deviation?

Answer 46

• Variability gives us the sense of how loosely or tightly bunched scores are.
• The simplest measure of variability is the range. It is the difference between the highest & lowest scores.

-Standard deviation: Used to depict variability. it is the average amount that an individual data point differs from the mean. Less likely to be deceptive than the range because it takes into account how far each data point is from the mean.

Question 47

What are inferential statistics?

Answer 47

• They allow us to determine how much we can generalize findings from our sample to the full population.
• When using inferential stats, we are asking whether we can draw “inferences” (conclusions) regarding whether the differences we’ve observed in our sample apply to similar samples.

Question 48

What is statistical significance?

Answer 48

• To determine whether or not the differences observed in our samples are believable, we need to conduct statistical tests to determine if we can generalize the findings to the broader population.
• We can use a variety of stats depending on the research design.
• We use a 0.05 level of confidence.
• Min level 5 in 100 is taken as the probability that the finding occurred by chance.
• When the finding would have occurred by less than 5 in 100 times, we say that it is statistically significant.

-p < 0.05 means the probability that our finding would have occurred by chance alone is less than 5 in 100.

-Major determinant of statistical significance is population size. The larger the size, the greater the odds.
A large size can yield a statistically significant result, but this result may have little or no practical significance.

Question 49

What are base rates?

Answer 49

• A term for how common a behaviour is.

- Useful in interpreting the results of studies.

Question 50

Why is peer-review so important?

Answer 50

• Reviewers screen articles carefully for quality control.

- One crucial task of peer reviewers is to identify flaws that could undermine a study’s findings & conclusions.

Question 51

What are some tips for evaluating the accuracy of psychological reports in the media?

Answer 51

1. Consider the source.
   - Place more confidence in a finding from primary sources, such as the original journal articles themselves.
2. Be on the lookout for excessive sharpening & levelling.
   - Sharpening: Tendency to exaggerate the gist of a study.
   - Levelling: Refers to tendency to minimize the less central details of a study.
   - Bring most important facts into sharper focus, which can lead to a misleading picture.
3. We can easily be mislead by seemly “balanced” coverage of a story.
   - Balanced coverage sometimes creates pseudo symmetry: appearance of a scientific controversy where none exists.

Question 52

What are the 3 major categories of ESP? Explain:

Answer 52

1. Precognition:
   - Acquiring knowledge of future events before they occur through paranormal means.
2. Telepathy:
   - Reading other people’s minds.
3. Clairvoyance:
   - Detecting the presence of objects or people that are hidden from view.

Question 53

Is there scientific evidence for ESP?

Answer 53

• J.B. Rhine coined the term extrasensory perception, & launched a full-scale study of ESP.
• However, investigators could not replicate Rhine’s findings.

Question 54

What is the Ganzfeld technique?

Answer 54

• Experimenters cover participants’ eyes with googles to create a uniform visual field when a red floodlight is directed towards the eyes. The sender attempts to transmit a target picture while the participant reports mental images that come to mind. Participant then rates each of 4 pictures for how well it matches imagery experienced. Only one of the pictures is the target the sender tried to transmit.
• Size of Ganzfeld effects was small & corresponded to chance differences in preformance.

Question 55

How do ESP proponents explain away negative findings?

Answer 55

• ESP proponents have come up with ad hoc hypotheses to explain away negative findings.
• However, ESP is difficult to falsify.

Question 56

Why do people believe in ESP?

Answer 56

-Illusory correlation offers one likely answer. We attend to recall events that are striking coincidences & ignore or forget events that aren’t.

Question 57

What does it mean when we say that psychic forecasters make use of multiple end points?

Answer 57

-They keep their predictions so open-ended that they’re consistent with almost any conceivable set of outcomes.