“How do I love thee? - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

“How do I love thee?Let me count the ways…” -Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Social Psychology as a Science

Chapter 9Slide2

Social Psychology as a Science Where do we find research ideas?

Personal Experience - Observation

Theory

Previous Research

News reports

Literature and poetry

Everywhere!Slide3

Social Psychology as a Science Narrowing the research question?

Descriptive questions

Measuring how often an event occurs

For example

: How often do people report falling in love?

Causal questions

Identifying why some event occurs

For example

: Why do some people report being deeper in

love than others?

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight…”

Increasing the precision of the question

Do people in long distance relationships report feeling more in love

than those in close relationships?Slide4

Social Psychology as a Science What makes a “good” research question?

One that defines its theoretical (conceptual) variables in

measurable terms.

Variables must be operationally defined (actual variables).

Definition never fully captures all of the conceptual variable.

Actual

Variable

Love

Number of

Text Messages

Conceptual

VariableSlide5

Social Psychology as a Science

Actual

Variable

Amount of Conceptual variable accounted for by the actual variable is called

Criterion Relevance (overlap of love and text messaging)

.

Love

Number of

Text Messages

Conceptual

Variable

Aspects of the Theoretical variable not accounted for by the operationally defined actual variable are called

Criterion Deficiency

.

Aspects of the operationally defined variable that are unrelated to the theoretical variable is called

Criterion Contamination

.Slide6

Social Psychology as a Science

Actual

Variable

Amount of Conceptual variable accounted for by the actual variable is called

Criterion Relevance (overlap of love and text messaging)

.

Long

Distance

Number of Driving Minutes apart

Conceptual

Variable

Aspects of the Theoretical variable not accounted for by the operationally defined actual variable are called

Criterion Deficiency

.

Aspects of the operationally defined variable that are unrelated to the theoretical variable is called

Criterion Contamination

.Slide7

Social Psychology as a Science Selecting a design (Experimental)Independent variable

(IV)

Must have at least two levels/conditions

Is manipulated by the experimenter

Is expected to have an effect on the participant’s behavior

Dependent Variable

(DV) Must be measurable (a number)

Is a measure of the participant’s response to the IV For example: The number of text messages sent per daySlide8

Social Psychology as a Science Selecting a design (Experimental)

Control Variable

(CV)

Any variable that potentially might have an effect on the participant’s behavior that the experimenter is not interested in assessing.

Held constant (one level)

For example: Only right handed people are participants

Hypothesis

: a statement that makes a prediction about how the IV will affect the

DV.Therefore, both variables should be present in the statement.The statement should be in the form of a prediction.Slide9

Social Psychology as a Science Selecting a design (Experimental)

Random assignment

Participants should be randomly assigned to each

level of IV (in a between-subjects design).

Different people are placed in each level of the IV.

Can be a simple randomization procedure.

(two levels of the IV… flip a coin)

Minimizes the chance of some types of confounding.

(e.g., too many highly social people in one level of the IV) Any single trait has an equal probability to be in a level. Works well with large sample sizes.Slide10

Social Psychology as a Science Selecting a design (Experimental) How do we find participants for our study?

Samples of convenience

(e.g., college students from a single class)

May share a common trait – problematic

Random

sample

A subset of people drawn from a population using a

random procedure

Can be problematic as well (e.g., unrepresentative) Representative random sample Key traits are identified and the subset of people drawn from the population still maintain the proportion of the key

traits in the populations (e.g., ratio of males to females).Slide11

Preschool school children were randomly divided into two groups. Children in one group were asked to wait in a room by themselves while they watched a short film. This film depicted adults engaging in violent behaviors directed at an inflatable clown doll (the Bobo doll). These behaviors included hitting the doll with a wooden mallet, throwing the doll in the air, and sitting astride the doll while punching it in the nose. Children in the other group were asked to sit alone in a room but watched a film of the adult playing with the doll in a nonviolent manner. After viewing the films, children in both groups were allowed to play by themselves in a room full of toys. These toys included those that they had seen the adult models play with. The children were observed at play for several minutes. Those children who had watched the violent films were much more likely to engage in violent behaviors than were the children who had watched the nonviolent films.

What is the Independent variable/s in this design?

What is the dependent variable/s in this design?

What control variables can you identify or think the experimenters should have used in the study?

Social Psychology as a Science

(Knowledge Check)Slide12

Selecting a design (Quasi-experimental)Appears similar to an experimental designA design where we cannot randomly assign to the levels of the IV

Therefore, levels of the IV are

selected

rather than manipulated

Examples of quasi-experimental variables:

Person characteristics: sex, IQ, personality traits

Environmental conditions: distance living apart, heat, snow storm

Social group affiliation: church, sorority, country club

Colorado Blizzard babies: compare birthrates of cities affected by storm and those not affected (nonequivalent control group)Difficulty employing proper controls (e.g., finding the proper nonequivalent control group)

Social Psychology as a ScienceSlide13

Selecting a design (Correlational)Assesses the relationship between two variables Strength of the relationship

(-1.00

to 1.00)

Strong correlation: 0.86

Weak correlation: 0.09

Direction of the relationship (positive or negative)

Positive: as one variable

increases,

the other increases, or as one variable decreases, the other decreases

Negative: as one variable increases, the other decreasesExample: As the number of bystanders increases,

the amount of helping a person receives decreases (-0.86)Social Psychology as a ScienceSlide14

Scatter Plots of Correlations

Selecting a design (Correlational)Slide15

Social Psychology as a Science(Knowledge Check)

It was reported in a research study that ownership of a dog may be therapeutic (Friedman, 1979).

One-year

follow-up studies were conducted on a group of 112 coronary patients after their release from the hospital. They were divided into two groups: patients who were dog owners and patients who were not. When the death rates of the two groups were compared, a surprising difference emerged. Fully 30 of 53 (57%) dog owners survived at least a year, whereas only 28 of the 59 (47%)

nonowners

enjoyed a one-year survival record. The appropriate statistical analysis revealed that the difference was statistically significant.

What conclusions can we draw from this study?

What if any confounding variables can you identify?

If you could repeat this study, what would you attempt to control?Slide16

Social Psychology as a Science Less commonly used designs in social psychology

Developmental designs

Cross-sectional

Longitudinal

Cross-lagged panel designs

Self-reports (questionnaires)

Advantages?

Disadvantages?

Observations Unobtrusive observation

Unobtrusive measuresSlide17

Social Psychology as a Science Slide18

Social Psychology as a Science "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.“

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with a passion put to useIn my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to loseWith my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,I shall but love thee better after death

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning