Research Methods
Features of the experimental situation which give away the aims. They can cause participants to try to change their behavior to match the beliefs about what is supposed to happen.
What is Demand Characteristics?
The three aspects of validity are Control, ________, and generalizability.
(Mundane) Realism
Bandura et al. (aggression) calculated the mean number of aggressive acts in each condition...
Identify an alternative measure of central tendency that Bandura et al. could have used.
Mode or Median
Hanif is investigating helping behavior in animals. As part of his experiment, two chimpanzees are put together but it is possible that they might hurt each other, for example, by fighting rather than helping.
Explain how one ethical guideline, which relates to animals, is relevant to this study.
Ex: The minimum necessary number of animals should be used because this is a potentially distressing study because they could get hurt/because at least two chimpanzees are needed.
Investigated Child Aggression
Bandura
In this research method the independent variable cannot be directly manipulated. (Not a true experiment).
Natural Experiment
Weakness of a ________________________ Research Method: Control of extraneous variables is difficult, lowering reliability and making replication difficult.
What is a Field Experiment/Natural Experiment?
Describe two of the controls from the study by Andrade (doodling).
All participants were made equally bored/tired (by taking them just after another study); standardized instructions. etc.
Elea is conducting an experiment to test whether people who sleep for more than eight hours per night are happier than people who sleep less than this.
Elea’s dependent variable is ‘happiness’. Suggest how this could be operationalized.
ex: by counting how many times the participant smiles (in an hour); a rating scale from 0–10 answering the question ‘ How happy do you feel?’ (0 = not at all, 10 = very)
An assumption of the Cognitive approach to psychology.
Assumes that our thought processes affect the way in which we behave.
In an Independent Measures Design, different participants are used in each level of the IV so there are no __________________.
What are Order effects?
Extraneous factors that affect the performance of participants. They could possibly affect the scores on the DV and also the effect of the IV.
What are Confounding variables?
The study by Canli et al. (brain scans and emotions) used only righthanded, female participants.
Suggest one way in which this sample may limit the generalisability of the findings.
Ex: Right-handed and left-handed people may differ in their emotions and or the way they respond in a scanner so the results would not generalize to left-handed people.
Hanif is investigating helping behavior in animals. As part of his experiment, two chimpanzees are put together but it is possible that they might hurt each other, for example, by fighting rather than helping.
Explain why Hanif may be more objective if he collects quantitative data rather than qualitative data.
Ex: Because it is numerical so does not need to be interpreted.
Name two studies which use animals as participants and two studies which use children as participants.
Animal studies: Pepperberg (Same/Different); Yamamoto (Helping behavior)
Child studies: Bandura (Aggression); Saavedra & Silverman (Button Phobia)
The degree to which the sample in a study can be generalized to the larger population.
What is population validity?
A process of defining the measurement of a phenomenon that is not directly measurable.
What is Operationalization?
Milgram investigated whether the prestigious location (Yale University) affected obedience. He used the experimental method to compare the obedience in the original study at the university with the same study carried out in an old office block.
(a) Write an operationalized directional hypothesis for this experiment.
Ex: More participants will reach 300 V / 450 V in the study at Yale than in the office.
Two students, Hilja and Sakri, are investigating the exercise that people take. They are using a questionnaire with 10 questions. Both students are worried about reliability in their investigation.
Write one open and one closed question that Hilja and Sakri could ask.
Closed: Do you exercise more than twice a week?
Open: What exercises do you perform most often and how effective do you find them?
Identify one similarity and one difference between Yamamoto's Chimp study and Canli's brain imaging Study?
Similarity: Lab
Difference: Use of Animals
Predicts and measures a significant difference or correlation of results and also the direction of the results.
What is an operationalized directional one-tailed hypothesis?
Used to overcome order effects in a repeated measures design. Each possible order of levels of the IVs is performed by a different group of participants.
What is Counterbalancing?
A hypothesis in a study says 'Emotions will differ following exposure to a happy or an angry stooge'...
(a) Is this a directional (one-tailed) hypothesis or a non-directional (two-tailed) hypothesis? Include a reason for your answer.
(b) Write a null hypothesis that could be used with the hypothesis given above.
(a) non-directional (two-tailed) hypothesis
(b) There is no difference in emotions following exposure to a happy or an angry stooge/The difference in emotions following exposure to a happy or an angry stooge is due to chance.
Elea is conducting an experiment to test whether people who sleep for more than eight hours per night are happier than people who sleep less than this.
Suggest one disadvantage of operationalizing happiness in this study.
1) there may be individual differences (e.g. if counting smiles in an hour: people might be more naturally smiley, e.g. using a rating scale: people may interpret the 0–10 scale differently)
2) subjectivity (e.g. if interviewing/using open questions on a questionnaire, researcher’s interpretation of answers may differ from their intended expression of happiness)
Identify the studies from each the biological and cognitive psychological approaches. Briefly state in parentheses what the study investigates.
Biological Approach:
1. Canli (Brain Imaging); 2. Schacter & singer (Two-Factor Theory of Emotion); 3. Dement & Kleitman (Brain-Waves/REM sleep)
Cognitive Approach:
1. Baron-Cohen (Eyes-test/Autism/Theory of Mind); 2. Laney (False Memory); Andrade (Doodling)