General Psychology

(350-PSY-SA)
Collégial International Sainte-Anne
Department of Social Sciences
Winter 2024
Psychological Research: Overview of
research methods used in psych.
Psychological Research
 Psychology’s image problem
Data show that large percentages of the public don’t perceive psychology as
scientific and harbor doubts about the field’s usefulness in society.
• The research is trivialized: e.g. rats in a maze
• Focus on specifics of the research rather than the underlying theoretical
issue…e.g. Pavlov’s dogs: not about dogs salivating!

Ivan Pavlov
Many of the specifics of (a) Freud's theories, such as (b) his division of the mind into id, ego, and superego, have fallen
out of favor in recent decades because they are not falsifiable.
In broader strokes, his views set the stage for much of psychological thinking today, such as the unconscious nature of
the majority of psychological processes.

A non-falsifiable hypothesis is something that wouldn't be disproven by any possible evidence.

E.g. If I said I had a dragon in my garage, it would be easy to disprove, just look, but if I said I had an
undetectable dragon in my garage, it wouldn't be falsifiable
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 Research: Good, Bad, and Bogus
Incompetent and/or fraudulent research

Bruno Bettelheim (Ice-box parenting and autism):

Diagnosed and ‘‘cured’’ autistic patients. Cause: frigid and detached
mothering, absent father. Most of his autistic patients weren’t autistic at all!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQY2oB3Rqdg
 So…Why is Research Important?
 At one time in history, people believed the earth was flat and that mental illnesses were caused by
possession.
 People can be very wrong in their ideas about the world when they do not rely on evidence to support
their claims (e.g. Bettelheim)
 Research is a mandatory process in validating claims.
Scientific research is empirical; it is grounded in objective, tangible
evidence that can be observed time and time again, regardless of
who is observing.

Without research, we would only have intuition and groundless

assumptions.

Through research we are able to prove certain ideas through study Figure 2.2 Some of our ancestors, across the
world and over the centuries, believed that
and testing. trephination—the practice of making a hole in
the skull, as shown here—allowed evil spirits
to leave the body, thus, curing mental illness
Psychology is a science, therefore, research is required to not only and other disorders. (credit:
further investigate something but provide verification and support of “taiproject”/Flickr)
the findings.
•Important to be able to critically evaluate the information that is presented to us.
•When someone makes a claim, we should examine the claim from a number of
different perspectives:
What is the expertise of the person making the claim, what might they gain if the claim is valid,
does the claim seem justified given the evidence, what do other researchers think of the claim?

• We need to develop our ‘’boloney detecting’’ skills (Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World.)

The Fine Art of Boloney Detection: available on Moodle

 The process of scientific research:
Inductive vs Deductive reasoning
Deductive reasoning - results are predicted based on a general premise.
- All living things require energy to survive (premise), ducks are living things, therefore ducks require
energy to survive (conclusion).

Inductive reasoning - conclusions are drawn from observations.

- You see many fruit growing on trees and therefore assume all fruit grows on trees.
1. Scientists form ideas
(theories/hypotheses) through
deductive reasoning.

2. Hypotheses are then tested through

empirical observations and scientists
form conclusions through inductive
reasoning. Psychological research relies on
both inductive and deductive
reasoning.
3. These conclusions lead to new
theories and hypotheses (or more
broad generalizations).
 Research Methods in Psychology
Theory: a general framework that allows us to make and test predictions. Well-developed set of ideas that propose
an explanation for observed phenomena.

•Ex. Social learning theory by Albert Bandura: aggression is learned from observing aggressive models (Bandura,
1977). Expand upon this theory to attempt to explain other behavioural patterns: (ex. Does watching violent movies
lead to aggressive behavior?)

Hypothesis: an educated guess about the answer to your question. entative and testable statement (prediction) about
the relationship between two or more variables. (e.g. If children watch violent movies, they will become violent).

Operational definitions: How YOU define the terms/concepts for your study. (e.g. how do you define violent
behavior? physical acts: kicking or punching? And/or angry verbal exchanges?) Operational definitions aids peoples’
ability to interpret our data as well as their capacity to repeat our experiment should they choose to do so.
 The Process of Scientific Research
The Scientific Method
1. Observation: You notice something interesting happening
and would like an explanation. 1 – Observation

2. The Question: ex. You wonder if violent videogames create

aggressive behaviour in children. 2- Ask a Questions

3. Form a Hypothesis: ‘Children who play violent video games

will become aggressive’.
3. Form a Hypothesis
4. Test Hypothesis (experiment):
-Choose method to gather information
-Look for information that proves or disproves your hypothesis. 4 - Gather Evidence (Test
Hypothesis)
5. Draw Conclusions/build a theory:
Results will show if hypothesis is supported or unsupported. 5 - Draw
Conclusions/build a
6. Report Your Results: theory
Write exactly what you did so study can be replicated. If someone
cannot replicate your study and have same outcomes, it means your
6 - Report/Publish Results
study is not valid.
 How Psychologists Gather Data and Test Hypotheses.
Types of Studies

1 - Naturalistic Observation (descriptive research)

2 - Clinical Method: Case study (descriptive research)

3 - Survey Method (descriptive research)

4 - Correlational Method (relationship)

5 - Experimental Method (cause and effect)

6- Others.
Descriptive Research
 1- Naturalistic Observation
Naturalistic Observation: observe, measure & record behavior of people or
animals in natural environment, schools, on the street, etc.
Ex. Observing children's behavior on a playground. Jane Goodall and
Chimpanzees.
Advantages:
• Allows us to study behaviour that hasn’t been tampered with.
• Useful in 1st stage of experiment: excellent starting point for scientific
research.
Limitations:

• Observer Effect (Hawthorne effect): Tendency for people and animals to act
differently from normal when they know they are being observed (hide their
natural behaviours).

• Observation Bias: Tendency of observers to see what they expect to see.

• Little or no control

• Weak Cause and Effect

 Naturalistic Observation (continued)

The Anthropomorphic Error:

A special trap that must be avoided while observing animals.

This is the error of attributing thoughts, feelings, or motives to
animals- especially as a way of explaining their behaviour
(Wynne, 2004).
The temptation is to assume that the animal is ‘’angry’’,
‘jealous’, ‘bored’, or ‘guilty’ can be strong, but it can lead to
false conclusions. If you have pets at home, you probably know
how difficult it is to avoid anthropomorphizing.
For example, if you dog growls at your girlfriend every time she
visits, you might assume that the dog doesn’t like her. But
maybe she wears a perfume that bothers the dogs nose.
 2- Clinical or case studies
Clinical or case studies in psychology focus on one individual.
The studied individual is typically in a extreme or unique psychological circumstance
that differentiates them for the general public.
It is an in-depth description of one person or just a few individuals to reveal
underlying behavioral principles.
Ex. Accidents (ex. Phineas Gage), brain tumors, provide much information about the
- Allows for a lot of insight into a case.
- Difficult to generalize results to the larger population.

Example: Genie Wiley

Genie was studied by psychologists after she was found
at age 13, having suffered severe abuse and social
isolation. Psychologists were interested in the effect
social isolation had on her development.
(Credit: Captive Humans)
 Clinical Method: Case Study

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXbAMHzYGJ0&t=34s

Advantages:
•The richness of information that is collected
• In-depth information.
Phineas Gage
• Study rare cases that would be unethical or impractical to study any
other way.

Disadvantage:
•Difficult to generalize any observations. *You cannot apply what you
learn from a case study to the entire population.
Krista and Tatiana Hogan
 3- Surveys
A list of questions that can be delivered in many
ways:
- Paper-and-pencil
- Electronically
- Verbally

Surveys can be used to gather a large amount of

data from a sample (subset of individuals) from a
larger population.

Surveys can be administered in a number of ways,

including electronically administered research,
like the survey shown here. (credit: Robert
Nyman).
 Survey Method (continued)

Population: The entire group of people or animal in which

the researcher is interested. (Ex. All social science students
at Collègial Sainte-Anne).

Random Sampling: Randomly selected small sample of

subjects that represents a larger population. Each member
of a population has an equal chance of inclusion in the sample.

Biased sample: does not accurately reflect the population

from which it was drawn, means results are not valid.
Survey Method (continued)
Advantages:
•Cheap and fast (e.g. internet surveys)
•Better generalizability.
Limitations:
• People may lie or misinterpret themselves
•‘Courtesy bias’/social desirability bias: polite answers. (e.g. alter answers
because embarrassed or don’t want to hurt the researchers feelings).
•No identification of cause and effect
•Wording effects
 4 - Correlational Study
Correlational Study: Look for a steady relationship between two measures, events, or variables.
Does not necessarily imply cause and effect! When two variables are correlated, it simply means
that as one variable changes, so does the other. Correlations have predictive value (ex. Admissions
in university, hours of study and grades).
Correlation Coefficient (r) : a number to measure strength and direction of the relationship
between the two variables.
Closer to + 1.00 or -1.00, the stronger the relationship

Correlation coefficient range in value from: -1.00 to +1.00

If correlation is + 1.00 = perfect positive relationship.
If correlations is – 1.00 = perfect negative relationship.
If no correlation is 0 or close to 0. Ex. Shoe size and intelligence, toe size and grade, tall and
aggression.
 Scatterplot: Graph of a collection of pairs of scores.

Y- Independent variable: X- axis (the thing you

Axis
are changing or manipulating).

Dependent variable: Y- axis (the thing you are

measuring).

X- Axis
(Y)

(Y) (Y)

(X)
(X) (X)
Positive Correlation: Higher X = Higher Y (hours studied to
grades), Lower X = Lower Y.

Negative Correlation: Higher X = Lower Y (beers drank to

grades), Lower X = Higher Y.
 Correlational research

Scatterplots are a graphical view of the strength and direction of

correlations. The stronger the correlation, the closer the data
points are to a straight line.
 Correlation Study
Advantages:
• Shows whether 2 or more variable are related.
• Allows to discover relationships and make general predictions.
Limitation:
• No cause and effect! (CORRELATION DOES NOT MEAN
CAUSATION!)
 Correlation does not indicate
causation
Cause-and-effect relationship: changes in one variable cause the changes in
the other variable; can be determined only through an experimental
research design (see slide 29).

Confounding variable: unanticipated outside factor that affects both variables

of interest, often giving the false impression that changes in one variable causes
changes in the other variable.
Example 1:
• As ice-cream sales increase, so does the overall rate in crime.
• A relationship exists between ice-cream and crime but is it
correlation or does one cause the other?
• In this example, temperature is a confounding variable. As the
temperature increases, ice-cream sales increase and people are
more likely to be outside increasing crime rates.
 Correlation Does Not Mean Causation!
Example 2: Headlines
‘‘Father was insane and killed 3 children’’ (‘’Schoenborn ‘not criminally
responsible’’’ 2010)
‘‘Schizophrenic mom kills and eat her daughter’’ (not criminally responsible,
2002)
Suggests? mental illness causes crime

• According to the Canadian Mental Health Association (2011)

The mentally ill are more likely to be victims of violence and no more likely
to commit crimes than those who are not mentally ill.
 Illusory correlations
As well as mistaking correlation for causation, people can also make
false correlations.

Illusory Correlations - Seeing relationships between two things

when in reality no such relationship exists.

Confirmation bias - tendency to ignore evidence that disproves

ideas or beliefs.

Illusory correlations can be involved in the formation of prejudicial

attitudes that can lead to discriminatory behavior.

Many people believe that a full moon makes people behave oddly.
Research demonstrates that this relationship does not exist.
E.g. (Illusory correlation- Many people believe that a full moon makes people behave
oddly. (credit: Cory Zanker)
 5- Causality: conducting experiments
& using the data

The only way to establish that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between

two variables is to conduct a scientific experiment.
A scientific experiment has precise requirements for design and implementation.

THE EXPERIMENTAL HYPOTHESIS

Hypotheses can be formulated through:
- Observation
- After review of previous research
 Experimental Method (continued)

Simplest experiment is based on two groups of subjects: control group and

experimental group.

Compare the two groups:

1) Experimental group: Participants in an experiment have the experiment

done on them. Group designed to answer the research question.
2) Control Group: The group used as a measure of comparison. Participants in
an experiment who do not have the experiment done on them and who may
receive a placebo*. Serve as a basis for comparison and controls for chance
factors that might influence the results of the study

The control group and experimental group are treated exactly alike except for
the condition you intentionally manipulate (X- variable). Experimental
manipulation is the only difference between the experimental and control
groups, so any differences between the two are due to experimental
manipulation rather than chance.
 Experimental Control Measures: against biases
*Placebo Effect: Changes in behaviours b/c expectations of drug will have an effect. Fake
treatment, inactive substance such as sugar pills and saltwater injection. Control group is often
given a placebo.
- When people are given a pill to improve their mood their mood may increase just because they
believe it will.
- To know if a medication is really having an effect or whether it us a placebo effect, the
experimental group receive the medication and the control group receive a placebo treatment (a
sugar pill). This is a double-blind study.
- Any differences between the groups will be due to the medication.
Random assignment: Same probability of being assigned to either group, probability of equal
selection. (Flip a coin).
 Placebo Effect

Providing the control group with a placebo treatment protects against bias caused by expectancy.
(credit: Elaine and Arthur Shapiro)
 Experimental Control Measures (continued)
1) Participant Bias: Participants change behaviour because of expectations (Researcher must be careful what
information he/she shares, ex. Hypothesis of study).
How to control? Single Blind Experiment- Subjects do not know if they are in the control or experimental group.
(e.g. Don’t know if they are receiving placebo or real drug. They all get the same instructions, everyone gets a pill
or injection).
2) Experimenter/Researcher Bias: Tendency of the experimenter’s expectations for a study to unintentionally
influence the results of the study.
How to control: Double Blind Experiment- Neither subject nor experimenter know which group subjects are in
(Both are ‘blind’, neither know who took the drug and who took the placebo). Best to use.
 Variables
 Independent Variable – Variable that is influenced/controlled by the experimenter. Ideally
this should be the only important difference between the experimental and control group.

 Dependent Variable – Variable that the researcher measures to see how much effect the
independent variable had.

In an experiment, manipulations of the independent variable are expected to result in

changes in the dependent variable. (credit “automatic weapon”: modification of work by Daniel
Oines; credit “toy gun”: modification of work by Emran Kassim)
 Interpreting experimental findings
Once data has been collected, a statistical analysis is conducted.
Statistical analysis - determines how likely any difference between experimental
groups is due to chance.
Psychologists usually discuss results as significant or non-significant.
If the odds that the differences occurred by chance are 5% or less, then the results
are significant.
A true experiment, including random assignment, manipulation of the independent
variable and control of extraneous variables reduce the odds of results occurring by
chance.
 Issues to consider in psychological research?
MANIPULATING VARIABLES
As stated, random assignment is required to state causation. Once randomly assigned, each group is then
manipulated in some way. However, some experimental designs are more complicated.
Example: The effect of sex (male/female) on spatial memory.
- Sex (independent variable) cannot be manipulated.
- Males and females cannot be randomly assigned.
This kind of an experiment is therefore called quasi-experimental.
A cause-and-effect relationship cannot be determined from this type of experiment.
ETHICS (see slides 41 +)
Some questions cannot be answered using an experimental design because they would be unethical.
Example: The effect of experiencing abuse as a child on levels of self-esteem.
- You cannot randomly assign participants to receive abuse.
- This would need to be studied using other approaches such as case studies or surveys.
 Other methods: Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional
Research

 Cross-Sectional Research – Compares multiple segments of a population at a

single time (such as different age groups).

 Longitudinal - Studies in which the same group of individuals is surveyed or

measured repeatedly over an extended period of time.

Researchers often expect some participants to drop out, particularly in this type of
study and therefore often initially recruit a lot of participants.

Attrition - reduction in number of research participants as some drop out of the study
over time.

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Longitudinal research like the CPS-3 (Cancer Prevention 40 year Study) help us to better understand how smoking is
associated with cancer and other diseases. (credit: CDC/Debora Cartagena).
See: https://www.cancer.org/research/cps3-cancer-prevention-study-3.html
 Other methods: Archival research
Uses past records or data sets to answer various research
questions, or to search for interesting patterns or relationships.

A researcher doing archival research examines records, whether archived as a (a) hardcopy or (b)
electronically. (credit “paper files”: modification of work by “Newtown graffiti”/Flickr; “computer”:
modification of work by INPIVIC Family/Flickr)
Ethics in Research: Working with Human Subjects
 The
Nuremberg
Code
The Nuremberg Code (German:
Nürnberger Kodex) established in
1947, is a set of research ethics
principles for human
experimentation .
Created as a result of the Nuremberg
trials at the end of the Second World
War.. (War crimes against humanity).
The trial dealt with doctors and nurses
who had participated in the killing of
physically and mentally impaired
Germans and who had performed
medical experiments on people
 Ethics:
research involving human participants
Research involving human participants must adhere to strict guidelines.
Institutional Review Board (IRB) – Committee of administrators, scientists, and community members that
reviews proposals for research involving human participants.

- Exist at any research institution that receives federal support for research involving human participants.
- Generally, IRB must approve research proposal before it can proceed.

Any research institution that receives federal support for research involving human participants must
have access to an institutional review board (IRB).
The IRB is a committee of individuals often made up of members of the institution’s administration,
scientists, and community members. The purpose of the IRB is to review proposals for research that
involves human participants.
Informed consent - process of informing a research
participant about what to expect during an experiment and
then obtaining the person’s consent to participate. Includes:
- Potential risks involved
- Implications of the research An institution’s IRB meets regularly to review
- Notification that participation is voluntary experimental proposals that involve human
participants. (credit: modification of work by
- Notification that any data collected will be kept Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange
confidential (LAKE)/Flickr)
 Deception
Sometimes deception is necessary to prevent the participant’s knowledge of the research question affecting the
results as long as it is not considered harmful.

Deception – Purposely misleading experiment participants in order to maintain the integrity of the
experiment.
Debriefing - when an experiment involved deception, participants are told complete and truthful information
about the experiment at its conclusion.
The Tuskegee Syphilis study
Ethical guidelines have not always existed.
In 1932, participants were recruited in an experiment studying syphilis
in black men.

Participants that tested positive were not informed that they had the
disease.

Although no cure existed at the beginning of the study, a cure was

found in 1947 (penicillin), but it was not administered to participants.

Many participants unknowingly spread the disease and many died.

A participant in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study
receives an injection.
 Studying ‘Special People’
Informed consent requires agreement that is made willingly, intelligently, and knowingly.

Willingly = agreement that is not the result of duress

Intelligently= intellectually capable of giving consent and of understanding what it means to agree to participate.

Knowingly= means you have been told the risks and benefits of participating in the study.

Children= presumed not competent to give consent. If under 18- parent permission is required.
Inmates= people who are institutionnalized (confined against their will to prisons, hospitals, nursing home, or others) are particularly
vulnerable when it comes to research. Difficult to know if participation is truly voluntary (especially when it is given in return for
rewards from the institution).
People engaged in illegal behaviors -> scientist’s responsibility to respect the confidentiality of data is particularly great, need to conceal
actions from the police and similar agencies.
 Research with Animal Subjects
Animals are used as subjects in many different
areas of psychological research, including research
on the brain, brain functioning, and the
relationship of the brain to behaviour; research
on sexual behavior, and research on learning.

Depending on the study, they may be unharmed or

may undergo various types of brain or other
operations.
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)
committee of administrators, scientists, veterinarians, and
Some studies require the animal’s death so that community members that reviews proposals for research
areas of the brain and other organs may be involving non-human animals.
examined to determine the effects of a procedure.
 The Ethics of Animal use in Research | Courtney
Bannerman | TEDxQueensU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTD7tQbRpmA
‘’For decades laboratory animals have contributed to a multitude of medical advancements, ranging
from insulin to cutting edge cancer treatments. Their use in research, although vital, has been
controversial with many claiming that technology has progressed to a point where they are no longer
needed. Computational modeling, cell, and tissue culturing techniques have made leaps and bounds but
ultimately we are not yet in a place where animals and their products can be completely removed from
the research process. In the past scientists who use animals in their work and spoke out in support have
been threatened and harmed but Ph.D. candidate Courtney Bannerman believes it is important for
people to hear both sides of the argument for the public to make an informed stance on animal use.’’

Answer the questionnaire on Moodle while watching the TED talk.

 Ethics in Research: Working with Animal Subjects
Why use animals? The APA (American Psychological Association) estimates
that 90% of all animal research in psychology uses these
1. Simple behaviors that are easy to identify or change. species (often birds or rodents).
2.When not able or not ethical to study on humans. Ex. smoking during pregnancy.
3. Shorter life span so we can see result over lifetime. Easier to study the entire lifespan and multiple generations in some
animal species. (e.g. rats gestation period 24 days, lifespan 1-4 years).
4. Are easier to control. Thus, more certain of a study’s conclusion. E.g. In some cases, such as learning, comparable
behaviours in humans are either too complex or complicated by other factors (we don’t usually worry that a rat had a fight
with his girlfriend on the night before a big experiment).
5. A wider range of medical and other manipulations can be used with animals.
6. Animals are cheaper to use and are available at the researcher’s convenience. (of course, researchers also use animals when
they want to learn more about the animals themselves). Rats, like the one shown
 Researcher must ensure discomfort is minimal, few animals as possible are used, benefits of research are maximized (clear here, often serve as the
scientific purpose). Least amount of suffering possible. subjects of animal research
 All care be taken of the animals when they are not actively participating in the research (e.g. that social animals e.g.
chimpanzees and rats, are not isolated in individual cages) and that all animals be provided with an enriched environment.
3 R’s of animal research: The goal of the 3Rs is to find alternatives to animal testing (replacement), to optimize the amount of
information obtained from fewer animals (reduction), and to adopt methods that alleviate distress (refinement).
 Reporting findings
Research is usually reported in scientific journals.
- Usually aimed at an audience of professionals/scholars.
- Articles published are peer-reviewed journal articles.
Peer-reviewed journal article – article read by several other scientists (usually anonymously) with
expertise in the subject matter, who provide feedback regarding the quality of the manuscript before
it is accepted for publication.
- Helps to weed out poorly conceived or executed studies.
- Improves articles with suggested revisions.
- Determines whether the research is described clearly enough to be replicated by other
researchers.
Replication:
- Determines reliability of original research design.
- Can include additional measures that expand on the original findings.
- Provide more evidence to support the original finding or to cast doubt on those findings.
 Reliability and Validity
Reliability - consistency and reproducibility of a given result.
- Would the same test give the same results every time?
- Do the instruments/tools used to collect data do so in consistent, reproducible ways?
When a study involves observations by multiple people, it is important that they all make observations and record
them in the same way.

Inter-rater reliability - measure of agreement among observers on how they record and classify a particular
event.

A reliable, consistent measurement does not always meant that it is measuring something correctly.
Validity - accuracy of a given result in measuring what it is designed to measure.
- Does a test measure what it is meant to measure?
A valid measure is always reliable but a reliable measure is not always valid.
 Bad science & Retraction:
The vaccine-autism myth

• Many peer-reviewed publications published research making

claims that routine childhood vaccines cause some children to
develop autism.

• Since these reports, large-scale research was carried out

suggesting that vaccinations are not responsible for causing
autism.
• Many of the original studies have since been retracted.

• It was found that the leading research in the original study had
a financial interest in establishing a link between childhood
vaccines and autism.

• Unfortunately the initial claims were publicized and many

people still think vaccinations cause autism.
What do you know now, that you
did not know at the start of the
lesson? (at least 3 things)
Kahoot time!