Chapter 2 - Psychological Science (Notes)

● Basic research is research that answers fundamental questions about behavior.

Example: Biopsychologists study how nerves conduct impulses from the receptors in the
skin to the brain, and cognitive psychologists investigate how different types of studying
influence memory for pictures and words.

● Applied research is research that investigates issues that have implications for everyday
life and provides solutions to everyday problems.
● Scientific method - is the set of assumptions, rules, and procedures scientists use to
conduct research.
● Laws - principles that are so general as to apply to all situations in a given domain of
inquiry.
● Theory - is an integrated set of principles that explains and predicts many, but not all,
observed relationships within a given domain of inquiry.
● Four important characteristics of a Good Theory

1. General - they summarize many different outcomes.

2. Parsimonious - they provide the simplest possible account of those outcomes.
3. Provide ideas for future research
4. Falsifiable - the variables of interest can be adequately measured and the
relationships between the variables that are predicted by the theory can be
shown through research to be incorrect.

● Research hypothesis - is a specific and falsifiable prediction about the relationship

between or among two or more variables, where a variable is any attribute that can
assume different values among different people or across different times or places.
● Conceptual variables - are abstract ideas that form the basis of research hypotheses.
● Measured variables - variables consisting of numbers that represent the conceptual
variables.
● Operational definition - refer to a precise statement of how a conceptual variable is
turned into a measured variable.

● Ethical concerns to the participants in behavioral research are as follows:

1. Prevent harm to the research participants

2. Free of choice whether they wish to participate in the study
3. Protect the privacy of participants
4. Deception - occurs whenever research participants are not completely and fully
informed about the nature of the research project before participating in it.
● Cost-benefit analysis - costs are compared to the benefits. If the potential costs of the
research appear to outweigh any potential benefits that might come from it, then the
research should not proceed.
● Institutional Review Board (IRB) is a committee of at least five members whose goal it is
to determine the cost-benefit ratio of research conducted within an institution.
● Informed consent - is designed to explain the research procedures and inform the
participant of his or her rights during the investigation.
● Debriefing - is a procedure designed to fully explain the purposes and procedures of the
research and remove any harmful aftereffects of participation.

● Research design is the specific method a researcher uses to collect, analyze, and
interpret data.
● Descriptive research - is research designed to provide a snapshot of the current state of
affairs.

1. Case studies—descriptive records of one or more individual’s experiences and

behavior.
2. survey—a measure administered through either an interview or a written
questionnaire to get a picture of the beliefs or behaviors of a sample of people of
interest. The people chosen to participate in the research (known as the sample)
are selected to be representative of all the people that the researcher wishes to
know about (the population).
3. Naturalistic observation—is research based on the observation of everyday
events.

● Correlational research - is research designed to discover relationships among variables

and to allow the prediction of future events from present knowledge.
● Scatter plot - is a visual image of the relationship between two variables.

➢ Linear relationship - when the association between the variables on the scatter
plot can be easily approximated with a straight line, as in parts (a) and (b).

1. Positive Linear Relationship - when the straight line indicates that

individuals who have above-average values for one variable also tend to
have above-average values for the other variable, as in part (a), the
relationship.
2. Negative linear relationships - occur when above-average values for one
variable tend to be associated with below-average values for the other
variable.
➢ Nonlinear relationships - relationships between variables that cannot be
described with a straight line. In this case there is no relationship at all between
the two variables, and they are said to be independent.
 ➢ Curvilinear relationships - relationships that change in direction and thus are not
described by a single straight line

● Pearson correlation coefficient - the most common statistical measure of the strength of
linear relationships among variables.

1. Positive values of r (such as r = .54 or r = .67) indicate that the relationship is

positive linear (i.e., the pattern of the dots on the scatter plot runs from the lower
left to the upper right),

2. Negative values of r (such as r = –.30 or r = –.72) indicate negative linear

relationships (i.e., the dots run from the upper left to the lower right).

● Multiple regression - is a statistical technique, based on correlation coefficients among

variables, that allows predicting a single outcome variable from more than one predictor
variable.
● Common-causal variable is a variable that is not part of the research hypothesis but that
causes both the predictor and the outcome variable and thus produces the observed
correlation between them.

● Experimental research - is research in which initial equivalence among research

participants in more than one group is created, followed by a manipulation of a given
experience for these groups and a measurement of the influence of the manipulation.
● Independent variable - is the causing variable that is created (manipulated) by the
experimenter.
● Dependent variable is a measured - variable that is expected to be influenced by the
experimental manipulation.

● Descriptive statistics—numbers that summarize the distribution of scores on a measured

variable.
● Normal distribution - data distribution that is shaped like a bell.
● Central tendency—the point in the distribution around which the data are centered
● Dispersion - refers to the extent to which the scores are all tightly clustered around the
central tendency
● Arithmetic average OR arithmetic mean - is the most commonly used measure of central
tendency.
● Outliers - one or more extreme scores.
● Median - is the score in the center of the distribution, meaning that 50% of the scores are
greater than the median and 50% of the scores are less than the median.
● Mode - the value that occurs most frequently in the distribution.
● Standard deviation - is the most commonly used measure of dispersion.
● Threats to the Validity of Research

1. Threats to construct validity. Although it is claimed that the measured variables

measure the conceptual variables of interest, they actually may not.
2. Threats to statistical conclusion validity. Conclusions regarding the research may
be incorrect because no statistical tests were made or because the statistical
tests were incorrectly interpreted.
3. Threats to internal validity. Although it is claimed that the independent variable
caused the dependent variable, the dependent variable actually may have been
caused by a confounding variable.
4. Threats to external validity. Although it is claimed that the results are more
general, the observed effects may actually only be found under limited conditions
or for specific groups of people.

● Construct validity - refers to the extent to which the variables used in the research
adequately assess the conceptual variables they were designed to measure.
● Statistical conclusion validity refers to the extent to which we can be certain that the
researcher has drawn accurate conclusions about the statistical significance of the
research.
➢ Statistical significance - refers to the confidence with which a scientist can
conclude that data are not due to chance or random error.
● Internal validity - refers to the extent to which we can trust the conclusions that have
been drawn about the causal relationship between the independent and dependent
variables.
➢ Confounding variables—variables other than the independent variable on which
the participants in one experimental condition differ systematically from those in
other conditions.
➢ Experimenter bias - a situation in which the experimenter subtly treats the
research participants in the various experimental conditions differently, resulting
in an invalid confirmation of the research hypothesis.

❖ Double-blind experiment - both the researcher and the research

participants are blind to condition.

● External validity refers to the extent to which the results of a research design can be
generalized beyond the specific way the original experiment was conducted.

➢ Generalization refers to the extent to which relationships among conceptual

variables can be demonstrated in a wide variety of people and a wide variety of
manipulated or measured variables.
● Replication - the process of repeating previous research, which forms the basis of all
scientific inquiry.
● Meta-analysis - is a statistical technique that uses the results of existing studies to
integrate and draw conclusions about those studies.
 ➢ A meta-analysis provides a relatively objective method of reviewing research
findings because it:

1. specifies inclusion criteria that indicate exactly which studies will or will
not be included in the analysis;
2. systematically searches for all studies that meet the inclusion criteria,
and;
3. provides an objective measure of the strength of observed relationships.

● Features of good scientific theories (Kuhn, 2011)

 Chapter 3 - Research Ethics (Notes)

● Ethics - is the branch of philosophy that is concerned with morality—what it means to

behave morally and how people can achieve that goal. It can also refer to a set of
principles and practices that provide moral guidance in a particular field.

Four Moral Principles in Psychological Research

- Weighing Risks Against Benefits

● Scientific research in psychology can be ethical only if its risks are outweighed by its
benefits.

➢ Among the risks to research participants are that:

1. a treatment might fail to help or even be harmful;
2. a procedure might result in physical or psychological harm, and;
3. their right to privacy might be violated.

➢ Among the potential benefits are:

1. receiving a helpful treatment;
2. learning about psychology;
3. experiencing the satisfaction of contributing to scientific knowledge, and;
4. receiving money or course credit for participating

- Acting Responsibly and With Integrity

● Researchers must act responsibly and with integrity. This means carrying out their
research in a thorough and competent manner, meeting their professional obligations,
and being truthful.

- Seeking Justice

● Researchers must conduct their research in a just manner. They should treat their
participants fairly, for example, by giving them adequate compensation for their
participation and making sure that benefits and risks are distributed across all
participants.

- Respecting People’s Rights and Dignity

● Researchers must respect people’s rights and dignity as human beings. One element of
this is respecting their autonomy—their right to make their own choices and take their
own actions free from coercion. Of fundamental importance here is the concept of
informed consent.
● Another element of respecting people’s rights and dignity is respecting their
privacy—their right to decide what information about them is shared with others. This
means that researchers must maintain confidentiality, which is essentially an agreement
not to disclose participants’ personal information without their consent or some
appropriate legal authorization.

Ethics Codes

● Nuremberg Code—a set of 10 principles written in 1947 in conjunction with the trials of
Nazi physicians accused of shockingly cruel research on concentration camp prisoners
during World War II. It provided a standard against which to compare the behavior of the
men on trial—many of whom were eventually convicted and either imprisoned or
sentenced to death.
● The Declaration of Helsinki - is a similar ethics code that was created by the World
Medical Council in 1964. Among the standards that it added to the Nuremberg Code was
that research with human participants should be based on a written protocol—a detailed
description of the research—that is reviewed by an independent committee.
● Belmont Report - explicitly recognized the principle of seeking justice, including the
importance of conducting research in a way that distributes risks and benefits fairly
across different groups at the societal level.
● Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects— apply to research conducted,
supported, or regulated by the federal government. An extremely important part of these
regulations is that universities, hospitals, and other institutions that receive support from
the federal government must establish an institutional review board (IRB).
● Institutional Review Board (IRB)—a committee that is responsible for reviewing research
protocols for potential ethical problems. It helps to make sure that the risks of the
proposed research are minimized, the benefits outweigh the risks, the research is carried
out in a fair manner, and the informed consent procedure is adequate.

Three Levels of Risk

● Exempt research - includes research on the effectiveness of normal educational

activities, the use of standard psychological measures and surveys of a nonsensitive
nature that are administered in a way that maintains confidentiality, and research using
existing data from public sources.
● Minimal risk research - exposes participants to risks that are no greater than those
encountered by healthy people in daily life or during routine physical or psychological
examinations.
● At-risk research - poses greater than minimal risk and must be reviewed by the IRB.

● The APA’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct /APA Ethics Code)
was first published in 1953 and has been revised several times since then, most recently
 in 2002. It includes about 150 specific ethical standards that psychologists and their
students are expected to follow. Much of the APA Ethics Code concerns the clinical
practice of psychology—advertising one’s services, setting and collecting fees, having
personal relationships with clients, and so on.

Standard 8: Research and Publication (Most Important Aspects)

1. Informed Consent - means obtaining and documenting people’s agreement to participate

in a study, having informed them of everything that might reasonably be expected to
affect their decision. This includes details of the procedure, the risks and benefits of the
research, the fact that they have the right to decline to participate or to withdraw from the
study, the consequences of doing so, and any legal limits to confidentiality. For example,
some states require researchers who learn of child abuse or other crimes to report this
information to authorities.
2. Deception - can take a variety of forms: misinforming participants about the purpose of a
study, using confederates, using phony equipment like Milgram’s shock generator, and
presenting participants with false feedback about their performance (e.g., telling them
they did poorly on a test when they actually did well). Deception also includes not
informing participants of the full design or true purpose of the research even if they are
not actively misinformed
3. Debriefing - the process of informing research participants as soon as possible of the
purpose of the study, revealing any deception, and correcting any other misconceptions
they might have as a result of participating. Debriefing also involves minimizing harm
that might have occurred.
4. Nonhuman Animal Subjects - nonhuman animals are incapable of giving informed
consent. Yet they can be subjected to numerous procedures that are likely to cause
them suffering. They can be confined, deprived of food and water, subjected to pain,
operated on, and ultimately euthanized. (Of course, they can also be observed benignly
in natural or zoolike settings.) Others point out that psychological research on nonhuman
animals has resulted in many important benefits to humans, including the development
of behavioral therapies for many disorders, more effective pain control methods, and
antipsychotic drugs.
5. Scholarly Integrity - these include the obvious points that researchers must not fabricate
data or plagiarize. Plagiarism means using others’ words or ideas without proper
acknowledgment. Proper acknowledgment generally means indicating direct quotations
with quotation marks and providing a citation to the source of any quotation or idea used.

Putting Ethics Into Practice

1. Know and Accept Your Ethical Responsibilities - At a minimum, this means
reading and understanding the relevant standards of the APA Ethics Code,
distinguishing minimal risk from at-risk research, and knowing the specific
 policies and procedures of your institution—including how to prepare and submit
a research protocol for institutional review board (IRB) review.
2. Identify and Minimize Risks - As you design your study, you must identify and
minimize risks to participants. Start by listing all the risks, including risks of
physical and psychological harm and violations of confidentiality. Once you have
identified the risks, you can often reduce or eliminate many of them. One way is
to modify the research design.A second way to minimize risks is to use a
prescreening procedure to identify and eliminate participants who are at high risk.
A third way to minimize risks is to take active steps to maintain confidentiality.
3. Identify and Minimize Deception - According to the APA Ethics Code, deception
is ethically acceptable only if there is no way to answer your research question
without it. Therefore, if your research design includes any form of active
deception, you should consider whether it is truly necessary.
4. Weigh the Risks Against the Benefits - This requires identifying all the benefits.
Remember to consider benefits to the research participants, to science, and to
society. If you are a student researcher, remember that one of the benefits is the
knowledge you will gain about how to conduct scientific research in
psychology—knowledge you can then use to complete your studies and succeed
in graduate school or in your career.
5. Create Informed Consent and Debriefing Procedures - Once you have settled on
a research design, you need to create your informed consent and debriefing
procedures. Start by deciding whether informed consent is necessary according
to APA Standard 8.05. If informed consent is necessary, there are several things
you should do.
6. Get Approval - The next step is to get institutional approval for your research
based on the specific policies and procedures at your institution or for your
course. This will generally require writing a protocol that describes the purpose of
the study, the research design and procedure, the risks and benefits, the steps
taken to minimize risks, and the informed consent and debriefing procedures
7. Follow Through - Your concern with ethics should not end when your study
receives institutional approval. It now becomes important to stick to the protocol
you submitted or to seek additional approval for anything other than a minor
change. During the research, you should monitor your participants for
unanticipated reactions and seek feedback from them during debriefing. Finally,
you must maintain your integrity through the publication process and beyond.
Address publication credit—who will be authors on the research and the order of
authors—with your collaborators early and avoid plagiarism in your writing.

APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct

● The American Psychological Association's (APA) Ethical Principles of

Psychologists and Code of Conduct (hereinafter referred to as the Ethics
Code) - consists of an Introduction, a Preamble, five General Principles
(A-E) and specific Ethical Standards.
 ● General Pinciples - their intent is to guide and inspire psychologists
toward the very highest ethical ideals of the profession.

1. Principle A: Beneficence and Nonmaleficence - In their

professional actions, psychologists seek to safeguard the welfare
and rights of those with whom they interact professionally and
other affected persons, and the welfare of animal subjects of
research.
2. Principle B: Fidelity and Responsibility - Psychologists uphold
professional standards of conduct, clarify their professional roles
and obligations, accept appropriate responsibility for their
behavior, and seek to manage conflicts of interest that could lead
to exploitation or harm.
3. Principle C: Integrity - Psychologists seek to promote accuracy,
honesty, and truthfulness in the science, teaching, and practice of
psychology. In these activities psychologists do not steal, cheat or
engage in fraud, subterfuge, or intentional misrepresentation of
fact.
4. Principle D: Justice - Psychologists exercise reasonable judgment
and take precautions to ensure that their potential biases, the
boundaries of their competence, and the limitations of their
expertise do not lead to or condone unjust practices.
5. Principle E: Respect for People's Rights and Dignity -
Psychologists are aware of and respect cultural, individual, and
role differences, including those based on age, gender, gender
identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual
orientation, disability, language, and socioeconomic status, and
consider these factors when working with members of such
groups.

● Section 1: Resolving Ethical Issues

● Section 2: Competence
● Section 3: Human Relations
● Section 4: Privacy and Confidentiality
● Section 5: Advertising and Other Public Statements
● Section 6: Record Keeping and Fees
● Section 7: Education and Training
● Section 8: Research and Publication
● Section 9: Assessment
● Section 10: Therapy

—----- NOTHING FOLLOWS —--- NOTHING FOLLOWS--—------ NOTHING FOLLOWS —-------