Experimental Psychology Notes Major Concerns of Psychologists

by daniGÜrl - Humans and animals are

variables
Intro to Experimental Psychology - We cannot repeat what has been
done (as it is)
Wilhem Wundt - first established
experimental labs in Germany How Can We Manage Variability?
- Statistical treatment (ito yung
*Psychology is a science mga correlation, multiple
regression etc)
Hard Science = TANGIBLE - Control the IV and DV
Soft Science = abstract concepts
(constructs), INTANGIBLE Research Techniques
1. Quantitative Research
Goals of Scientific Psychology 2. Qualitative Research
- To understand WHY people think
and act as they do Terms to Remember:
- Describe, Explain, Predict, Inductive Theories
Control, and Influence - Created from a solid database
of empirical observations
How important is Science in Deductive Theories
Psychology? - Can be precisely stated and
- Offers systematic and objective tested
procedures to gather information - Hypotheses are created as
- Provides a framework tentative answers to problems
- Offers evidence-based solutions Postulates
to problems - Fundamental or core
assumptions of a theory that are
Objectives taken as self-evidently true
- Be well-versed in experimental Propositions
methods - General relational statements
- Apply insights in the real world that may be true of false; not
- Apply the learnings in making tested directly but used to derive
psychological research hypotheses
Psychology as a Science Conceptual Definitions
- Establish relationships - Concepts in the hypotheses are
between circumstances and defined precisely so that
behavior accurate measures of the
- Fit these relationships into an concepts can be derived
orderly body of knowledge
Operational Definitions How to do Experiments
Procedures (or operations) used to Sources of Belief
define particular constructs - American philosopher, Charles
Replication Sanders Pierce, compared the
- Duplication or repetition of an scientific way of knowing with
experiment or study to determine three other methods of
whether or not the original developing beliefs
findings are reliable
Method of Authority (religion, parents,
Experimental Methods teachers)
- The relationship of interest is - Believing people in authority
between a set of *Stanley Millgram Experiment
circumstances and a behavior Method of Tenacity
- IV and DV - Commonly seen in racial bigots
- Experimental and Control Group who rigidly cling to stereotypes
even in the presence of a good
Informed Consent counter example
- Practice of telling participants *Informational Influence - ambiguous
about the nature of their Normative Influence - aware
participation in a proposed ^ito yung example ni miss about
experiment and then obtaining emergencies, na pag may nakita kayong
their written agreement to patakbo sa isang direction susunod
participate kayo
Debriefing A Priori
- Informing participants of the true - Refers to something that is
nature of a study after it is believed without prior study or
completed examination
Surveys
- Typically ask people about their
behavior The Cure: Scientific Method
Archival Research - Fixes the belief on the basis of
- It involves using previously experience that science is based
collected data or records to on the assumption that events
answer a research question have causes and that we can
discover these causes through
Case History causal observation
- It is a detailed account of the
events in a case; the case is
usually a person’s life
Advantages of Scientific Method Control Variable
- Empirical evidence - “Rule of thumb, do not control all
- Offers procedures for variables”
establishing the superiority of one External Validity
belief over another - The generalizability of an
- Self-correctivity experiment finding
Random Variables
Theory - It is used to ensure external
- A set of related assumptions that validity, that is, to ensure that
allows scientists to use logical the sample of items randomly
deductive reasoning to selected from the population is
formulate testable hypotheses generalizable to the population
Confounding Variable
Hypotheses - Any circumstance that changes
- An educated guess or prediction systematically as the
specific enough for its validity experimenter manipulates the IV
to be tested through the use of
scientific method Threats Internal Validity
History
What Makes a Theory Useful? - The occurrence of an
- General research (heuristic) uncontrolled event during the
- Falsifiable (test to be valid) experiment
- Organizes data Maturation
- Guides action - The change in age or
- Internally consistent experience of individuals during
- Parsimonious (simple) experimentation
Know the Lenses Selection
- Philosopher - The biased assignment of
- Scientists individuals to groups
- Artists Mortality
- The non-random loss of
Variables individuals from groups
Independent Variables Testing
- Two or more levels - The change in participants due
- Variable being manipulated to the testing process
Dependent Variables
- Variable being assessed or
observed (measured)
 How to Decide on an Experimental Between Subject Between Subject
Design Design Advantages Design
Between Subject Design Disadvantages
- Variable is manipulated
between at least two subjects - Transfer - Differences
effects between
or participants
between groups are
Within Subject Design conditions possible
- The independent variable is are not
being manipulated within a possible
single subject or participant
- Counterbala - More
ncing is not participants
required are
Within Subject Design Within Subject
required
Advantages Design
Disadvantages - Matching - More
can reduce experiment
- Fewer - Transfer
variability al time and
participants between
between effort
conditions is
groups
possible
- Random - assumes
- Experimental - All
assignments no transfer
time is shorter counterbalanc
of from
ing assumes
participants matching
symmetrical
eliminates operations
transfer
bias
- Variability - Range effects
between can cause
groups is problems
What is a Group?
smaller
- A collection of two or more
people
- People interact with one another
to pursue some goals
- The group members share the
same beliefs, principles, and
standards about areas of
common interest
*DDD - Discuss, Decide,
Delegate
 that enhances the quality of life for all
What is a Team? human beings
- More specific
- Working on a specific cause Principle of Beneficence
- Working to achieve common - Welfare of participants as a goal
goals of any clinical trial or other
- Shared responsibility research study
*Discuss, Decide, Do - Balancing treatment against risks
and costs involved
Effective Team - Researcher is legally liable for
- One that achieves high levels of any harm of the subjects
task performance, member
satisfaction, and team viability Three Reasons Why Poorly Designed
- assumes no transfer from m Research is Unethical (Rosenthal,
1999)
Social Loafing 1. Student’s, researcher, and
- The tendency of people to work administrator’s time will be
less hard in a group than they taken from potentially more
would individually beneficial educational
- Bibb Latane, a social experience
psychologist noticed this 2. Poorly designed research can
tendency and decided to study it also lead to unwanted and
experimentally inaccurate conclusions that
may be damaging to the
Research Ethics in Psychology society directly or indirectly
3. Allocating time and money to
PAP Code of Ethics poorly quality science will keep
- Ensures that all members of the those finite resources from
PAP and the larger community of better quality science
PH psychologists will know,
understand, and be properly Informed Consent
guided by this code - It means that the subject agrees
to participate after having been
**Psychologists are committed to fully informed about the nature
placing the welfare of society and its of the study
members above the self-interest of - The participant should give their
the discipline and its members. consent freely, without the use
They recognize that adherence to of force, duress, or coercion
ethical principles in the context of their
work contributes to a stable society
 - They must be free to withdraw The Weber Fraction
from the experiment at any - The smallest amount of weight
time change detectable by human
- Researchers must give subjects touch is 2%
full explanation of the - Two stimuli must differ by a
procedures to be followed and constant proportion in order for
offer to answer any questions their difference to be perceived
about them
- Must make clear the potential Terms to Remember:
risks and benefits of the Just Noticeable Difference (JND)
experiment - Minimum level of stimulation that
- Must provide assurance that all a person can detect 50% of the
data will remain private and time
confidential Difference Threshold (DT)
- Objects may not be asked to - Ability to detect differences in
release researchers from liability stimulation levels
or to waive their legal rights in the Absolute Threshold (AT)
case of an injury - Smallest detectable level of
- Consent should be obtained in simulation
writing and subjects should
receive a copy Gustav Fechner
*yung principles, refer to your copy of - Formalized the psychophysical
the Code of Ethics. Also read about the methods, which measure
Universal Declaration of Ethical attributes of the world in terms
Principles for Psychologists of the psychological values
- If you can measure sensation,
Psychophysics then you can do science on the
- Involves the determination of mind, on conscious experience
the psychological reaction to
events that lie along physical
dimension Physical Visual - Psychological
Intensity brightness
Edwin G. Boring (1950)
- Claims that the deduction of Physical Auditory - Psychological
techniques to measure the Intensity loudness
relation between internal Physical Measure of - Psychological
impressions and the external Weight heaviness
world marked the onset of
scientific psychology Physical Electrical - Psychological
Intensity pain
ΔI = difference threshold (meaning nung
triangle ay change, you read that as
Delta I)
I = represents the initial stimulus
intensity
K = is the weber constant

Formulas:

ΔI = I x K
I = ΔI/K
K= ΔI/I