Chapter 9: Social Psychology as a Science Flashcards
What is the:
scientific method
What Is the Scientific Method?
- Make observations.
- Make guesses as to why those observable things are happening.
- Make a testable hypothesis.
- Do an experiment that tests the hypothesis.
Define:
independent variable
Designing an Experiment
Also known as the manipulated variable, this is the variable that the experimenter controls.
Define:
dependent variable
Designing an Experiment
This is the variable that the experimenter measures, and is a response to the independent variable.
What are the disadvantages to laboratory experiments?
Designing an Experiment
There are several disadvantages to experiments, therefore advantages to real-life situations. Real-life situations would have more impact on the participants; researchers would not have to go to great lengths to design a setting the participants find convincing; the social interactions would involve real people; we would eliminated the ethical problem created by the use of deception and the use of a difficult and unpleasant experience; and, finally, it could all have been accomplished in a fraction of the time experiments consume.
What is one important advantage to laboratory experiments?
Designing an Experiment
Experiments have the advantage of controlling the environment and the variables so that the effects of each variable can be precisely studied. Experiments eliminate a lot of the extraneous variation that exists in the real world.
Define:
random assignment
The Importance of Random Assignment
Even more important than control, is random assignment in experiments. Random assignment means that each participant has an equal chance to be in any condition in the study. By using random assignment, any variables not thoroughly controlled are, in theory, distributed randomly across the conditions.
What is the relationship between impact and control?
The Challenge of Experimentation in Social Psychology
The difficulty for social psychologists is that these two crucial factors, impact and control, often work in opposite ways: As one increases, the other tends to decrease. The dilemma facing experimenters is how to maximize the impact on the participants without sacrificing control over the situation. Resolving this dilemma requires considerable creativity and ingenuity in the design and construction of experimental situations.
Define:
experimental realism
The Challenge of Experimentation in Social Psychology
The extent to which an experiment has an impact on the participants, forces them to take the matter seriously, and involves them in the procedures.
Define:
mundane realism
The Challenge of Experimentation in Social Psychology
How similar a laboratory experiment is to the events that frequently happen to people in the outside world.
Why is deception needed in experiments?
The Challenge of Experimentation in Social Psychology
Because people are always trying to figure things out, if participants knew what an experiment was trying to get at, they might be apt to behave in a manner consistent with their own hypotheses—instead of behaving in a way that is natural and usual for them. For this reason, we try to conceal the true nature of the experiment from the participants.
What are:
cover stories
The Challenge of Experimentation in Social Psychology
Settings in which the experimenter acts as a director, setting the stage for action but not telling the actor what the play is all about. They are designed to increase experimental realism by producing a situation in which the participant can act naturally, without being inhibited by knowing just which aspect of behavior is being studied.
What are the three main ethical problems surrounding deception?
The Challenge of Experimentation in Social Psychology
- It is simply unethical to tell lies to people.
- Such deception frequently leads to an invasion of privacy. When participants do not know what the experimenter is really studying, they are in no position to give their informed consent.
- Experimental procedures often entail some unpleasant experiences, such as pain, boredom, anxiety, and the like.
Despite measures taken to reduce ethical breeches, no code of ethics can anticipate all problems, especially those created when participants discover something unpleasant about themselves or others in the course of their participation.
