Methods of psychology

Question 1

Clever Hans

Answer 1

Mr. von Osten - He taught his horse to correctly answer mathematical problems and other question by tapping his hoof and moving his head. He could answer any questions.

Question 2

Solution to Hans

Answer 2

He was responding to visual cues unintentionally produced by the questioner or other observers. He couldnt answer the question with blinders or if no one who knew the answer was in sight.

Question 3

fact

Answer 3

An observation, an objective statement usually based on direct observation that reasonable observers agree is true.

Question 4

theory

Answer 4

An conceptual model designed to explain existing facts and make predictions about new facts that might be discovered.

Question 5

hypothesis

Answer 5

Any prediction about new facts that is made from a theory

Question 6

In the case of Osten and Pfungst

Answer 6

fact - the horse could correcrtly answer any question
Osten’s theory - Horses have humanlike intelligence
Osten’s hypothesis - Hans could learn to give correct answers to verbally stated questions
Pfungst’s theory - the horse responded to visual cues produced by people who were present and knew the answers.
Pfungst hypothesis - Hans would not answer questions correctly

Question 7

The essence of science

Answer 7

Facts lead to theories, which lead to hypotheses, which are tested with experiments or other research studies, which lead to new facts, which sometimes leadto new theories, which. “Science walks on two legs: theory and facts.” Theory without
facts is merely speculation, and facts without theory are simply observations
without explanations.

Question 8

the value of skepticism

Answer 8

People are fascinated by extraordinary claims, they want to believe that they are true. Skeptics set out to prove claims wrong and this enables them to notice what others have failed to recognize. Mundane against the astonishing.
The ideal scientist always tries to disprove theories,
even those that are his or her own. The theories that scientists accept as cor-
rect, or most likely to be correct, are those that could potentially be disproved but have survived all attempts so far to disprove them.

Question 9

The value of careful observations under controlled conditions.

Answer 9

He examined in which conditions the animal could and couldn’t answer the questions and what visual cues the audience might be giving. Then he purposefully produced or whitheld the information.
To test hypotheses,
scientists control the
conditions in which they
make observations so as
to rule out alternative
explanations.

Question 10

The problem of observer-expectancy effects.

Answer 10

In studies of humans and other sentient animals, the observers (the people conducting the research) may unintentionally communicate to subjects (the individuals being studied) their expectations about how they “should” behave, and the subjects, intentionally or not, may respond by doing just what the researchers expect.

Question 11

research design

Answer 11

• experiment
• correlational study
• descriptive study

Question 12

setting

Answer 12

field and labratory

Question 13

data-collection method

Answer 13

self-report and observation

Question 14

a variable

Answer 14

Anything that can vary, condition of the environment, amount of noise, a score on the test
- independent or dependent

Question 15

independent variable

Answer 15

The variable that is hypothized to cause some effect on another variable.

Question 16

dependent variable

Answer 16

The variable that is hypothized to be affected.

Question 17

the aim of experiments

Answer 17

The aim of any experiment is to learn whether and how the dependent variable is affected by
(depends on) the independent variable. In psychology, dependent variables are usually measures of behavior, and independent variables are factors that are hy-
pothesized to infl uence those measures.

Question 18

Example of a Within-Subject Experiment

Answer 18

In most within-subject experiments a number of subject are tested repetadly in each condition of the independent variable.
The experiment could
be described as a study of the effect of blinders (independent variable) on Hans’s percentage of correct responses to questions (dependent variable). The other variables are constant.
This experiment is a within-subject experiment because it applied the different conditions of the independent variable (blinders) to the same subject (Hans).

Question 19

Between group experiment

Answer 19

Alberto DiMascio and his colleagues (1979).
This is a between-groups experiment because the manipulations of the independent variable (that is, the different treatments used) were applied to different groups of subjects.
independent variable: different kinds of treatment
dependent variable: the degree of depression of the groups
- drug only
- drug and psychotheraphy
- theraphy only

Question 20

correlation study

Answer 20

As a study in which the researcher does not manipulate any variable, but observes or measures two or more already existing variables to find relationships between them.

Question 21

Diana Baumrind’s (1971) study of correlation between parenting styles and childern’s behaviour

Answer 21

Parenting styles:
- authoritarian
- authoritative
- passive
She also rated the children on various aspects of behavior, such as cooperation and friendliness, through observations in their nursery schools.
Children raised with authoritative parenting style score highest in these traits.

Question 22

why cause and effect cannot be determined

Answer 22

But because the study was not an experiment, we cannot justifably come to that conclusion. The researcher did not control either variable, so we cannot be sure what was cause and what was effect.

Question 23

Other possible causes for children’s behaviour

Answer 23

• Differences in children’s behavior may cause differences in parents’ disciplinary style.
• The causal relationship may go in both directions, with parents and children
  infl uencing each other’s behavior.
• Anything that makes a family feel good about themselves might cause authorotive parenting or similar genes

Question 24

descriptive studies

Answer 24

Sometimes the aim of research is to describe the behavior of an individual or set of individuals without assessing relationships between different variables. It can be narrow (a certain behaviour) or broad (particular group of people, species).
Example: Jane Goodall on chimpanzees

Question 25

laboratory study

Answer 25

A laboratory study is any research study in
which the subjects are brought to a specially designated area that has been set up to facilitate the researcher’s collection of data or control over environmental conditions.

Question 26

field study

Answer 26

In contrast to laboratory studies, a field study is any research study conducted
in a setting in which the researcher does not have control over the experiences
that a subject has. Field studies in psychology may be conducted in people’s
homes, at their workplaces, at shopping malls, or in any place that is part of the
subjects’ natural environment.

Question 27

adventages and disadventages of labratory study

Answer 27

• More uniform, controlled conditions that are not possible in the field.
• The strangeness and afrificiality of the place may conceal the behaviours researchers wish to study. The subjects actions are a response to being watched.

Question 28

Self-report

Answer 28

Self-report methods are procedures in which people are asked to rate or describe their own behavior or mental state in some way.
Introspection used by Wilhelm Wundt.
Modern methods for measuring neural activity (discussed in Chapter 5 and elsewhere in this book) are able to correlate people’s introspections with what’s happening in the brain, providing more objective, “observable behavior” than was available to the pioneers of psychology.

Question 29

observational methods

Answer 29

include all procedures by which researchers observe
and record the behavior of interest rather than relying on subjects’ self-reports.

Question 30

observation (test)

Answer 30

A researcher deliberately presents problems, tasks or situations to which the subject responds.

Question 31

naturalistic observation

Answer 31

The researcher avoids interfering with the subjects’ behavior. The researchers may inadvertently, by their mere presence influence the the behaviour they are observing.

Question 32

Hawthorne effect

Answer 32

This result, however, was not due to the specific
factor being changed (better lighting, for example), but simply to the subjects’ knowledge that they were being watched and their belief that they were receiving special treatment.

Question 33

To minimaze Hawthorne effect

Answer 33

One technique for minimizing the Hawthorne effect takes advantage of the phenomenon of habituation, a decline in response when a stimulus is repeatedly or continuously present. Thus, over time, subjects may habituate to the presence of the researcher and go about their daily activities more naturally than they would if suddenly placed under observation.