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PSY200 Research Methods in Psychology A Complete Course Notes
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PSY200 Research Methods in Psychology A Complete Course Notes Weeks 1-13 University of the Sunshine Coast.
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PSY200 Notes (Research Methods in Psychology A)WEEK 1: PSY200 INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH METHODS A
Kay Pozzebon Introduction to PSY200 lecture
Goals of Research Psychology
1. Prediction
2. Description
3. Explanation
4. Application
Psychological Research: Crash Course Psychology #2
- Hindsight bias: the tendency for people having perceived previous events as more
predictable than they actually were.
- Operationalising: turning questions about subject into testable and measurable
propositions.
Scientific Method
1. Questions and a theory.
2. Hypothesis, testable prediction.
Methods of Psychological Research
- Case Studies: takes an in-depth look at one individual. Case studies are often
misleading as by their nature they cannot be replicated meaning they run the risk of
being over generalised. Case studies however display what can happen and have
the ability to help researchers phase questions for more extensive future research
and generalisable studies.
- Naturalistic Observation: Allows subjects to behave and act as they normally would
without trying to manipulate or control the situation. Naturalistic observations are
successful at describing behaviour however, they fail to explain it.
- Self-report measures: E.g. surveys are a great way of gaining an understanding of an
individual’s consciously held beliefs and attitudes. These are tricky to organise
however as subtle word choices can influence results
- Sampling bias: Occurs when members of one population are systematically more
likely to be selected in a sample than others
- Random sample: all members of the target group have an equal chance of being
selected in the sample.
- Experiments: allow investigators to isolate different effects by manipulating an
independent variable and keeping the other variables constant. Requires 2 groups
firstly the experimental group that gets manipulated and the control group that does
not get manipulated.
- Double Blind: A double-blind study is one in which neither the participants nor the
experimenters know who is receiving a particular treatment. This procedure is utilised
to prevent bias in research results. Double-blind studies are particularly useful for
preventing bias due to demand characteristics or the placebo effect.
,
, Why Do We Believe Things That Are Not True? Phillip Fernbach
When someone does not believe what we believe we often think it is obvious what the
problem is “they are too stupid to see the truth”. It is likely this is somewhat correct as the
individual probably did not arrive at their position via a rational process of evidence
evaluation and they do not understand the issue in depth… but neither do you.
Psychology Research Methods Burton 1st edition Burton: Chapter 1 The Scientific
Method
- Wilhem Wundt established the first the psychological laboratory in 1879.
- 1892 American Psychological Association was founded.
- Psychology became a new domain that gradually forged an identity separate from
the disciplines of physiology and philosophy (new science of mind).
- In Australia psychology was originally taught in the university departments of
philosophy under the subject heading of mental philosophy.
- First Australian Psychology department was established at Sydney University by
Tasman Lovell in 1921.
- For early psychologists, the new psychology was to be a science of mental life, the
goal being to understand exactly how human consciousness is structured and how it
allows people to adapt to their environments. In order to study the mind, however,
generally agreed on methods have to be developed and taught. Hence students
found themselves in Labatories learning the basic procedures for studying mental
processes.
1.1 Why study research methods
1. The methods course teaches a process of acquiring knowledge about psychological
phenomena that is then applied to all the specific content areas represented by other
courses in the psychology curriculum.
2. Knowledge of research methods also forces students to think more critically, even if
they never collect data in their future careers. Especially helpful when it comes to
evaluating claims about psychologically based research; this requires being able to
judge the quality of the evidence used to support a claim, being fair and unbiased
when examining conflicting claims and drawing reasonable conclusions based on the
evidence at hand. This is integral when we consider the fact that we are continually
exposed to claims about behaviour from the people around us.
3. Should one work as a professional psychologist they must base their training on the
scientist-practitioner model. This term embodies several important principles,
including the notion that all practitioners need to understand the science of their
discipline and a recognition of the importance of the scientific research in their
practice. One of the key concepts underlying the model is the notion of evidence-
based practice (any treatment or intervention applied is based on a convincing body
of scientific research).
, 1.2 Ways of knowing
What do we believe to be true? How did we arrive at these beliefs?
- Whenever we accept the validity of information from a source we judge to be expert
we are relying on authority as a source of knowledge. As children we are
impressionable and believe what our parents tell as (e.g. some parents pass on
harmful prejudices). As students we typically accept the authority of textbooks and
lecturers.
- Relying on the information of the authority of others to establish our beliefs overlooks
the fact that authorities can be wrong. Contrastingly we learn important things from
authority figures, especially those who are recognised as experts in particular fields.
Use of reason
- Often, we arrive at conclusions by using logic and reason. The value of a logically
drawn conclusion depends on the truth of the premise (statement), and it takes more
than logic to determine whether or not the premises have merit.
- American pragmatist philosopher Charles pierce pointed out that logic and reason
can be used to reach opposing conclusions. Peirce labelled the use of reason, and a
developing consensus among those debating the merits of one belief over another, a
priori method for acquiring knowledge.
- Priori method: beliefs deduced from statements about what is thought to be true
according to the rules of logic (beliefs that develop as the result of a logical argument
before a person has direct experience with the phenomenon at hand). Priori
translates from the Latin as ‘from what comes before’.
Experience
Empiricism: the process of learning things through direct observation or experience and
reflection on those experiences. Asking empirical questions is an important component of
scientific thinking. Despite this it is dangerous to rely uncritically on one’s experience when
trying to determine the truth of some matter. The difficulty is that our experiences are
necessarily limited and our interpretations of our experiences can be influenced by a number
of what social psychologists refer to as social cognition biases.
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