Heather Tomlin

Chapter 2
Psychology 101

1. Why psychology research is scientific

a. Precision
i. Starts with a theory
a. An organized system of assumptions and principals that
support and explain certain phenomena & how they are
related.
ii.Then goes to a hypothesis
a. A statement that attempts to describe or explain a given
behavior
iii.Then the hypothesis are given operational definitions
a. Which explain how the phenomena in question are to be
observed or measured

b. Skepticism
i. Don’t believe it because it is thought to be true
ii.Treating conclusions both old and new with caution
iii.Openness to new ideas and evidence

c. Reliance upon empirical evidence

i. Rely on evidence gathered by scientifically proven facts, not
common belief

d. Willingness to make “risky predictions”

i. Principle of falsifability
a. Theory must predict what will and will not happen
ii.Must state a theory in a way that it cannot be disproved are
refuted by counterevidence
iii.Confirmation bias
a. To look evidence that supports our theories and to ignore
evidence that counterdicts our beliefs
e. Openness
i. Scientists must be willing to let others know how they got their
ideas, testedtheir ideas, and their results in detail so other
scientists can replicate their studies and verify or challenge their
findings
ii.Encourages scientists to “ask questions” and consider their
interpretations.
iii.Submit findings to professional journals for peer review to
ensure that their work lives up to scientific standards.
iv.Peer review
a. Forces scientists to subject their findings to scrutiny and
justify their claims.
2. Descriptive Studies:
 a. Gather evidence to support their hypothesis by using
different methods, depending on the kind of questions
they want to answer.
b. Representative sample:
i. Group of participants that represent the population the
researcher is interested in and important characteristics.
ii.Met analysis: statistical overview of a lot of different studies.
c. Descriptive methods:
i. Methods used most commonly in psychological research.
ii.Describe and predict behavior, but not necessarily explanations.
d. Case studies:
i. Detailed description of an individual based on observation or
psychological testing.
ii.May include information that will provide insite into the persons
behavior “exp childhood, dreams, experiences”
e. Observational Studies:
i. Researcher observes, measures, and records behavior without
interfering on the people/ animals being observed.
f. Naturalistic observation:
i. Primary purpose is to find out how people or animals act in their
normal environments
ii.Researcher counts, rates, or measures behavior to help
minimize the tendency of observers only notice what they want
or expect to see.
g. Laboratory observation:
i. Researchers have more control of the situation and can use
special equipment and determine the number of people to be
observed.
ii.Shortcomings are that the presence of researchers and
equipment may cause the subject to act differently than they
would in their normal environment.

3. Test:
a. Psychological Test:
i. Procedures for measuring and evaluating personality traits,
emotional states, aptitudes, interest, abilities, and values.
”sometimes called assessment instruments”
ii.Objective test:
a. Measure beliefs, feelings, or behaviors that people are
aware of, “also called inventories”
iii.Projective test:
a. Designed to tap into unconscious feelings or motives.
iv.Standardized test:
a. Standardized procedures for giving and scoring a test.
v.Norms:
a. Is the scoring of a test to a large group of people to
establish standards of performance.
vi.Reliability:
 a. It produces the same test results from one time and place
to the next or one scorer to another.
vii.Test Retest:
a. Giving the test two times to see if the test is reliable.
viii.Alternate-forms reliability:
a. -Is giving different versions of the test to the same group
on two -different occasions to prevent familiarity.
ix.Validity:
a. Is the ability of a test to measure what it is designed to
measure.
x.Content validity:
a. Are items that broadly represent the trait in question.
xi.Criterion validity:
a. The ability to predict independent measures or criteria of
the trait.

b. Surveys:
a. Questionnaires and interviews asking people directly
about their experience, attitudes, or opinions.
ii.Volunteer bias;
a. Volunteers opinions and may be different from those that
did not volunteer.
4. Coo relational Studies:
a. Looking for relationships
ii.Study that looks for a consistent relationship between two or
more phenomena and if they are related and if so how strongly?
iii.Measuring Correlations
a. Coloration is often used as a synonym for relationship
b. Correlation measures the strength of a relationship
between two things. Things may be anything that can be
recorded or tallied, is also called a variable, because they
can vary.
a. Variable are anything that can be measured, rated,
or scored.
c. Positive correlations
a. High values of one variable are associated with the
high values of the other and that low values of the
variable are associated with the other.
d. Negative correlation:
a. Means that more of one thing means less of the
other.
e. No correlation:
a. No relationship between the variables.
f. Coefficient of correlation;
a. Measure of correlation that ranges in value for a
perfect positive coefficient of +100, and perfect
negative correlation of -100
iv.Cautions about correlations;
a. When two variables are associated on variable may or
may not be causing the other
 a. A correlation does not establish causes
5. Experiments: Hunting for causes
a. Experiment;
i. Lets the researcher control or manipulate the situation being
studied to discover its effect on another
ii.Allows the experimenter to draw conclusion about draw and
effect
b. Experiment variables
i. Independent variables
a. Outcome of study depends on reaction of subjects
ii.Dependent variables
a. The behavior the researcher is trying to predict
b. Very experiment has at least one independent and on
dependent variable
c. Experimental and control conditions
i. They are treated the same as the independent group except for
the are not manipulated or given the same treatment
ii.Random assignments
a. Procedure for assigning to experimental and control
groups so individuals have the same probability as any
other to be assigned to a given group
b. Placebo
a. Fake treatment
d. Experimenter effects
i. Single blind study:
a. Subjects don’t know if there in a control or in a
experimental group
ii.Double-blind study
a. Neither experimenter or subjects know which group the
subjects are in
e. Advantages and limitations of experiment:
i. College students may not represent the larger population
ii.Researchers determine the questions asked and which behaviors
are recorded.
iii.Field Research:
-Experimental research conducted in a natural setting outside a
libratory.

6. Evaluate the findings:

i. Once you have the results you must
a. Describe them
b. Access how reliable they are
c. Explain them
ii.Descriptive statistics: (Finding out what is so)
iii.Descriptive statistics
a. Numbers that sum up data
iv.Arithmetic mean
a. Adding up all the individual scores in a distribution and
their mean
v.Standard deviation
 a. Average differences between scores in a distribution and
their mean
b. Inferential Statistics ( asking what so is?)
i. Inferential statistics
a. Allow a researcher to draw inferences (conclusions based
on evidence) about how meaningful the findings are using
mathematical formulas on the data
ii.Significance test;
a. Tells the researcher how likely a result happens by chance
iii.Statistically significant
a. Probability the difference is real or over whelming not
certain but over whelming
b. Statistically significant
a. Results allow a psychologist to make general
predictions about human behavior. (usually stated
as probilities)
iv.Interpreting findings
a. Figuring out what the findings mean
b. Psychologists use hypothesis and theories to
explain how facts and research fit together
c. Choosing the best explanation
I. When interpreting the findings we must
not go far beyond the facts. Several
explanations may fit may fit those facts,
which means that more research will
have to be done to determine which the
best is.
d. Cross sectional study
I. Different age groups compared at one
time
e. Longitudinal studies
I. Some people are studied over a period
of time and reassessed at regular
intervals
v.Judging the results importance
a. Effect size
a. How much of the variation in the data the variable
accounts for
b. Meta-analysis
a. Combines the analysis data from many studies
instead of assessing each studies results separately
7. Keeping the enterprise ethnical
a. The ethics of studying human beings
i. APA code requires psychological scientists to respect the dignity
of the human subjects
ii.Informal consent
a. Research subjects may be voluntary and know enough
about the study to make an intelligent decision whether to
participate
 b. Researchers must protect subjects from physical and
mental harm, and warn of any risk and give them the
opportunity to withdraw at any time
b. The ethnics of studying animals
i. Reasons psychologists study animals
a. To do basic research on a species
b. To discover practical applications
c. To study species that cannot be studied experimentally
with human beings because of practical or ethical
considerations
d. To clarify theoretical questions
e. To improve human welfare
f.