Module 2

1. Module 2 Psychology & Science

2. Pseudopsychology • Pseudopsychology: false psychology (unsupported information) which is passed off as being scientific fact. • Psychics: individuals who are supposedly sensitive to nonphysical or supernatural forces • Mediums: individuals who serve as a channel of communication between the earthly world & a world of spirits • Palmistry: reading a person’s future or character from the lines on the palms • Psychometry: determining facts about an object by merely handling it • Psychokinesis: moving objects by purely mental means • Astrology: study of how the positions of the stars & planets supposedly influence people’s personalities & affairs

3. Answering Questions • Research methods • Survey • Case study • Experiment each method provides a different kind of information

4. Surveys • Survey • way to obtain information by asking many individuals • answer a fixed set of questions about particular subjects • Disadvantages • information can contain errors • results can be biased • Advantage • efficient way to obtain much information from a large number of people

5. Case study • Case study • an in-depth analysis of the thoughts, feelings, beliefs, experiences, behaviors, or problems of a single individual • Disadvantage • detailed information about a particular person may not apply to others • Advantage • detailed information allows greater understanding of a particular person’s life

6. Case study • Example: testimonial: statement in support of a particular viewpoint based on detailed observations of a person’s own experience. • Problems that make testimonials susceptible to error: • personal beliefs • self-fulfilling prophecy.

7. Experiment • Experiment • a method for identifying cause-and-effect relationships by following a set of rules and guidelines that minimize the possibility of error, bias, and chance occurrences. • Disadvantage • information obtained in one experimental situation or laboratory setting may not apply to other situations • Advantage • has the greatest potential for identifying cause-and-effect relationships with less error and bias than either surveys or case studies

8. Cultural Diversity: Use of Placebos • Placebo • intervention, such as taking a pill, that resembles medical therapy but which in fact, has no medical effects • Placebo effect • change in the patient’s illness that is attributable to an imagined treatment rather than to a medical treatment

9. Cultural Diversity: Use of Placebos (cont.) • researchers believe that placebos work by reducing tension and distress and by creating powerful self-fulfilling prophecies • individuals think and behave as if the drug, actually a placebo, is effective

10. Correlation • Correlation • an association or relationship between the occurrence of two or more events • Correlation coefficient • a number that indicates the strength of a relationship between two or more events: the closer the number is to –1.00 or +1.00, the greater is the strength of the relationship

11. Correlation (cont.) • Perfect positive correlation coefficient • +1.00 means that an increase in one event is always matched by an equal increase in a second event • Positive correlation coefficient • indicates that as one event tends to increase, the second event tends to, but does not always, increase • increases from +0.01 to +0.99 indicate a strengthening of the relationship between the occurrence of two events

12. Correlation (cont.) • Zero correlation • indicates that there is no relationship between the occurrence of one event and the occurrence of a second event • Negative correlation coefficient • indicates that as one event tends to increase, the second event tends to, but does not always, decrease • -0.01 to -0.99 indicates a strengthening in the relationship of one event increasing and the other decreasing

13. Correlation (cont.) • Perfect negative correlation coefficient • -1.00 means that an increase in one event is always matched by an equal decrease in a second event • correlations such as –1.00 are virtually never found in applied psychological research • r= +0.37 R=correlation coefficient, + indicates the direction of relationship & number indicates the strength (0.00 to 1.00)

14. Type of Correlation Practice 1. The more TV is on in the homes of young children, the less time they spend reading (Kaiser, 2003). type? 2. The more sexual content teens see on TV, the more likely they are to have sex (Collins & others, 2004). type? 3. The longer children are breast-fed, the greater their later academic achievement (Horwood & Ferguson, 1998). type? 4. The more income rose among a sample of poor families, the fewer psychiatric symptoms their children experienced (Costello & others, 2003) type?

15. Correlation vs. Causation • Correlations cannot indicate cause-and –effect relationships; however, • Correlations • Help predict behavior • Point where to look for possible causes

16. Decisions About Doing Research • What is the best technique for answering a question? • Questionnaires and interviews • Laboratory experiments • Standardized tests • Animal models

17. Decisions About Doing Research (cont.) • Interview • technique for obtaining information by asking questions, ranging from open-ended to highly structured, about a subject’s behaviors and attitudes, usually in a one-on-one situation • Questionnaire • technique for obtaining information by asking subjects to read a list of written questions and check off specific answers

18. Decisions About Doing Research (cont.) • Laboratory experiments • techniques to gather information about the brain, genes, or behavior with the least error and bias by using a controlled environment that allows careful observation and measurement • Standardized tests • technique to obtain information by administering a psychological test that has been given to hundreds of people and shown to reliably measure thought patterns, personality traits, emotions, or behaviors

19. Decisions About Doing Research (cont.) • Animal Models • involves examining or manipulating some behavioral, genetic, or physiological factor that closely approximates some human problem, disease, or condition

20. Decisions About Doing Research (cont.) Choosing research settings • Naturalistic setting • relatively normal environment in which researchers gather information by observing individuals’ behaviors without attempting to change or control the situation • Laboratory setting • involves studying individuals under systematic and controlled conditions, with many of the real-world influences eliminated

21. Scientific Method: Experiment • Advantages of scientific method • scientific Method • approach of gathering information and answering questions so that errors and biases are minimized

22. Scientific Method: Experiment (cont.) • Conducting and Experiment: seven rules • Rule 1: Ask • Rule 2: Identify • Rule 3: Choose • Rule 4: Assign • Rule 5: Manipulate • Rule 6: Measure • Rule 7: Analyze

23. Scientific Method: Experiment (cont.) • Rule 1: Ask • hypothesis • educated guess about some phenomenon stated in precise, concrete language to rule out any confusion or error in the meaning of its terms

24. Scientific Method: Experiment (cont.) • Rule 2: Identify • independent variable • a treatment or something that the researcher controls or manipulates • dependent variable • one or more of the subjects’ behaviors that are used to measure the potential effects of the treatment or independent variable

25. Scientific Method: Experiment (cont.) • Rule 3: Choose • random selection • each participant in a sample population has an equal chance of being selected for the experiment • Rule 4: Assign • experimental group • those who receive the treatment • control group-participants who undergo all the same procedures as the experimental participants except that the control participants do not receive the treatment

26. Scientific Method: Experiment (cont.) • Rule 5: Manipulate • double blind procedure • neither participants nor researchers know which group is receiving which treatment • Rule 6: Measure • by manipulating the treatment so that the experimental group receives a different treatment than the control group, researchers are able to measure how the independent variable (treatment) affects those behaviors that have been selected as the dependent variables

27. Scientific Method: Experiment (cont.) • Rule 7: Analyze • statistical procedures • used to determine whether differences observed in dependent variables (behaviors) are due to independent variables (treatment) or to error or chance occurrence

28. Application: Research Concerns • Concerns about being a subject • human and animal • Code of ethics • the American Psychological Association publishes a code of ethics and conduct for psychologists to follow when doing research, counseling, teaching, and related activities

29. Application: Research Concerns (cont.) • Role of deception • one way that researchers control for participants’ expectations is to use bogus procedures or instructions that prevent participants from learning the experiment’s true purpose • Researchers must debrief study subjects-explain the purpose & method

30. Hindsight Bias • Hindsight bias (or I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon): tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that we would have foreseen it; outcome of a study may seem like obvious common sense. • Scientific inquiry & critical thinking may help us overcome this tendency to overestimate our unaided intuition

31. Application: Research Concerns (cont.) • Ethics of animal research • How many animals are used in research? • 18 to 22 million animals are used each year in biomedical research • Are research animals mistreated? • Of the millions of animals used in research, only a few cases of animal mistreatment have been confirmed.

32. Application: Research Concerns (cont.) • Ethics of animal research • Is the use of animals justified? • researchers are currently using animals to study epilepsy, Alzheimer’s disease, fetal alcohol syndrome, schizophrenia, AIDS, and transplantation of brain tissue, none of which is possible with human subjects • Who checks on the use of animals in research? • U. S. Department of Agriculture • universities hire veterinarians • universities have animal subject committees

33. Application: Research Concerns (cont.) • Ethics of animal research • How do we strike a balance? • many experts in the scientific, medical, and mental health communities believe that the conscientious and responsible use of animals in research is justified and should continue

34. ADHD • Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder • Diagnosed by occurrence of behavioral problems • Must have six or more symptoms of inattention, such as careless mistakes on schoolwork & • Six or more symptoms of hyperactivity, talking excessively • Controversial because • accuracy & reliability diagnosis, based on reported behavioral symptoms, not medical tests • treatment for: nondrug, behavioral or drug & behavioral treatment • Long-term effects