EXPERIMENTAL

PSYCHOLOGY
Week 2: Introduction
OBJECTIVES
By the end of the chapter, students will be able to:

● Recognize the importance of experimentation.

● Define experimental psychology.
● Recognize important roles of both male and female
pioneers of experimentation.
● Enumerate significant events in the history of
experimental psychology.
● Practice ethical considerations in conducting experiment.
 Nature of
Experimental
Psychology
What is Experimental
Psychology?
The scientific study of behavior,
motives, or cognition in a laboratory or
other controlled setting in order to
predict, explain, or influence behavior
or other psychological phenomena.
Kita ko sa commercial, pag
gumamit ka daw ng sunsilk,
bibilis paghaba ng buhok mo.
Totoo kaya yun?

Sinubukan ko na yan sa
asawa kong kalbo. Di
naman gumana!
 Based on Lab test of
reduced breakage with
Sunsilk system vs. non
conditioning shampoo.
 Psychology as a science:

Relies on the scientific approach to

understand behavior and advance our
knowledge about psychological processes
based on scientific evidence accumulated
through research.
Ice Breaker!
In this activity, you will be needing the following materials:
● A clean sheet of paper
● Black Ball Pen

Instruction:
1. On a sheet of paper, make a list from 1-10.
2. In the slideshow, you will see 10 random words one by one in no
particular order.
3. Each word will appear on the screen for a 10 seconds only and in
a position that is either diagonal or vertical.
4. On the sheet of paper, write down the correct word of each.
B

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P

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L

R
M

C
I

D
H

Y
C

E
M

K
B

H
F

R
The need for
Scientific
Methodology
 Commonsense Psychology

The kind of everyday, non-scientific

data gathering that shapes our
expectations and beliefs and directs our
behavior towards others.
 I’ll come
back soon.

Have a safe
trip honey! I
trust you.
Stuck in a dilemma:
You trust your girlfriend but you are aware that
Paris is a famous tourist destination with
handsome foreigners. You’re worried that some
of those men may look like The Rock: Your
girlfriend’s crush. Trying to reassure yourself,
you gather non-scientific datas:

“absence makes the heart grow fonder”

but it can also be:

“out of sight, out of mind”

As consumers of commonsense psychology, we
find that our ability to gather data in a
systematic and impartial way is constrained by
two (2) important factors:

● Nonscientific sources of data

● Nonscientific inference
Nonscientific Sources of data

● The data we gather comes from sources that

we see as credible and trustworthy (i.e.,
friends, relatives, people in authority, people
we admire, media reports, books.
● Accepted without question and is stable as we
rarely test them.
 Confirmation Bias

Once we believe something, we tend to overlook

instances that might disconfirm our beliefs, and
instead, we seek confirmatory instances of behavior
(or events) that validates our beliefs.
“Tumingin si crush sakin kanina nung recess kaya ibig
sabihin nun may crush siya sakin kasi matagal pagkakatitig
niya!”

By focusing on one behavior, you fail to take into consideration

external factors that could disprove your belief such as
situational variables (Are you sure he was looking AT you and
not at the food BESIDES you. Maybe your crush is really hungry
hence, he was intently looking at the food and you associated his
behavior as attraction directed towards you when you were just
within his line of sight.
Nonscientific Sources of data (Cont.)

● Research has shown that we are likely to believe

information if it comes from certain kinds of
individuals.
● Frequently, we use our beliefs and feelings
about how things operate to explain behavior -
our own as well as others. (e.g., “Feeling ko
talaga sugar baby siya”)
Nonscientific Sources of data (Cont.)

● Research has shown that we are not always

aware of our own decision-making process
(Nisbett & Wilson, 1977).
Nonscientific Inference

● Data that we collect about others based on the traits

we assign to them.
● Fundamental Attribution Error: An individual's
tendency to attribute another's actions to their
character or personality, while attributing their
behavior to external situational factors outside of their
control (e.g., “Bumagsak lang ako kasi terror yung
prof. Hinulaan lang grade ko”.
Nonscientific Inference

● Perceiving others by their traits can be useful for

predicting their behavior, but it can also lead to
overestimations of the likelihood that they will act in
trait-inconsistent ways across a variety of different
situations.

traits = better predictor for behaviors that are stable over time.
situations = better predictor for momentary behavior.
 Gambler’s Fallacy

An erroneous belief that a random event is less

or more likely to happen based on the results
from a previous event.

People are not very good at using data to

estimate the true probabilities of events.
 Overconfidence Bias

Our predictions, guesses, and explanations tend

to feel much more correct than they actually are,
and the more data we have available (accurate or
not), the more confidence we have in our
judgement about a behavior.
 TAKEAWAY

If we rely only on commonsense psychology, we

would often be wrong.

As scientist, we should instead rely on the scientific

method to systematically and objectively gather and
verify information, answer questions, explain
relationships, and communicate information in an
unbiased way.
Characteristics of
Modern Science
 Réplication

Scientific
Good thinking
Mentality

Gathering
Self-Correction
Empirical Data

Seeking
Publicizing
General
Result
Principles
Scientific Mentality

● Psychologist’s goal of prediction rests on a

simple, but important, assumption: behavior
must follow a natural order.
● Research psychologists share the belief that
there are specifiable causes for the way people
behave and that these causes can be discovered
through research (Determinism).
Seeking General Principles

● Scientists do not merely observe data but they

go beyond it - they form general principles that
serves to provide structure to observations.
● When these principles have the generality to
apply to all situations, they are called laws.
 Spot the Difference!
Painstakingly Made Brahe’s
observations useful
gathered by explaining them
observations through a system
of the stars for of equations now
known as Kepler’s
nearly a Law.
lifetime.

Tycho Brahe Johannes Kepler

Seeking General Principles (Cont.)

● As behavioral scientists, we do not have enough

information to state a general law but we advance
understanding by devising and testing an interim
explanation called a theory.
● Theory: pull together, unify, diverse sets of scientific
facts into an organizing scheme, such as general
principles or sets of rules, that can be used to predict
new examples of behavior.
Seeking General Principles (Cont.)

● Testing predictions (hypothesis) stemming from a

theory has been the cornerstone of psychological
science.
● Karl Popper
○ A modern philosopher of science, wrote that
science progresses only through progressively
better theories.
● Old theories are replaced by new theories with greater
explanatory power.
Good Thinking

● Collection and interpretation of data should be

systematic, objective, and rational. Thus, private
beliefs or expectations that influence observations or
conclusions are avoided by scientists.
● Good thinking follows the rules of logic: conclusions
come from objective data, whether they are in
agreement with our predictions or not.
Good Thinking

● Principle of Parsimony
○ According to William of Occam, a 14th century
philosopher, entities should not be multiplied
without necessity.
○ When two explanations are equally defensible, the
simplest explanation is preferred until it is ruled
out by conflicting data.
Crandall (1998) conducted an experiment to investigate the cause of
Bulimia. He studied college women from two different popular and sought
after sororities. All participants were active members living in one of the
sorority houses. The participants answered a questionnaire anonymously
regarding their social networks, self-perceptions, and attitude about
Bulimia. The questionnaires were filled out in the fall and again in spring.
Based on the principle of parsimony, which of the following do you think
best explains Bulimia?

A. Social norms
B. Psychological Disorder
C. Epidemiological Risk Factors
D. Social Contagion
Findings: Even though the two sororities differed greatly in their group
norms for binge eating, over the academic year, the eating behavior of
women in BOTH sororities became more like the behavior of their own
friends (SOCIAL CONTAGION).
Self-Correction

● Modern scientists accept the uncertainty of their own

conclusions.
● Expérience favors a “weight-of-evidence” approach:
the more evidence that accumulates to support a
particular explanation or theory, the more confidence
we have that the theory is correct.
 “Media violence leads to aggressive behavior”

Old theory: Social Learning Theory

● People would perform the same kinds of aggressive

behavior they had observed in films or on television
by learning to imitate the aggressive behavior of the
media models.
 “Media violence leads to aggressive behavior”

New theory: Cognitive Priming Theory

● Observing violence triggers cognitive representations

of aggressive behavior stored in memory in our own
cognitive schemas.
● Largely replaced SLT.
Publicizing Results

● Scientists meet frequently through professional and

special interests groups and attend professional
conferences to exchange information about their
current work.
● Growing numbers of scientific papers published in
scientific journals.
Replication

● As scientists, we must be able to repeat our

procedures and get the same results again if we have
gathered data objectively and if we have followed
good thinking.
● Findings obtained by only one researchers has limited
scientific value.
Why can’t we conduct
an experiment on
dreams? Say, we want
to find the difference
between frequency of
social interaction in
dreams and
productivity level in
real life?
Objectives of
Psychological Science
Description

● A systematic and unbiased account of the observed

characteristics of behavior.
● What will the behavior be like.
○ A description of grief will allow us to understand
that people who are grieving will very likely be
sad and cry.
● Examples of descriptive research designs include case
studies and field studies.
Prediction

● The capacity for knowing in advance when certain

behaviors would be expected to occur because have
identified other conditions with which the behaviors
are linked or associated.
● A number of research designs, called correlational and
quasi-experimental designs, are used to predict
behavior.
Explanation

● Knowledge of the conditions that reliably reproduce

the occurrence of a behavior
● To explain a behavior, we have to use an experimental
research design to systematically manipulate aspects
of the settings with the intention of producing the
specific behavior.
● Only the results of a true experiment allow us to make
inferences about cause and effect.
Control

● The application of what has been learned about

behavior to effect change or improve behavior.
● Rarely the intent of experimentation but some
research is conducted with the intent of producing
behavioral change along with increase knowledge.
● Example: “
Efficacy of SSRI and cognitive-behavioral therapy in
the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder.
”
The Four (4) Objectives of
Psychological Science are…

● Description
● Prediction
● Explanation
● Control
Tools of Psychological
Science
 Measurement

Observation
Expérimentation
 Necessary Sufficient
Conditions Conditions
The cause-and-effect relationships established
through scientific research commonly involve
identifying sufficient conditions.

Example: A number of research have studied the

factors behind altruistic behavior (sufficient
conditions). However, to investigate the cause of
the cause behind altruistic behavior would be
impossible (necessary condition).
Brief History of
Experimental
Psychology
Origin of
Experimental
Psychology
 1885
19th Century 1879 1890 1918
First laboratory in
Kant’s declaration in Wilhelm Wundt psychology in J. Mckeen Cattell Mary Whiton
Metaphysical Foundation of established the first America was publishes mental Calkins was elected
psychological established at John test and as the first woman
Natural Science that scientific
laboratory in Hopkins University measurements president of the APA
psychological is an Leipzig, Germany by G. Stanley Hall
impossibility.

350 B.C 1875 1880 1888 1912

Aristotle and Plato William James Francis Galton J. Mckeen Cattell Max Wertheimer published,
becomes the first “Experimental studies of
wrote about taught the course makes systematic
professor of the perception of
memory and Relationship use of movement” that marked the
among the questionnaire psychology in
perception beginning of Gestalt
University of
physiology and the Psychology
Pennsylvania
psychology
 Contribution of Helmholtz

● Hermann von Helmholtz

○ A physiologist who was famous for his reaction-time
experiment to study the speed of neural impulses. He
argued that the transmission of neural impulses were
instantaneous. The idea was simple: Stimulate a nerve at
two different distance from the brain and measure the
difference between the two points of stimulation and the
difference in time taken to respond, then one can calculate
the rate of the nervous impulse, since rate=distance/time.
 Four Pioneers of Early Scientific Psychology

● Ernst Weber
○ Discovered the Weber’s law which relates the size of an
increase in physical stimulation to the just-noticeable
difference (minimum amount of change required to detect a
stimulus).
 Four Pioneers of Early Scientific Psychology

● Gustav Fechner
○ Extended Wechler’s law (Fechner’s law) and founded
psychophysics.
● Wilhelm Wundt
■ Established the first laboratory of experimental psychology
in 1879.
■ He was instrumental in establishing the field of experimental
psychology as a separate discipline and believed that higher
mental processes (e.g., memory, thought, and creativity)
could never be studied experimentally.
■ Considered the father of modern psychology.
 Four Pioneers of Early Scientific Psychology

● Hermann Ebbinghaus
○ Wrote Memory in 1885, showing that complex mental
phenomena could be studied that contained
experimental work on psychological topics such as
memory.
○ Forgetting Curve
■ The exponential loss of information that one has
learned. For example, in just 20 minutes after
learning, we only remember about 60% of it and
after 1 hour, we can only recall about 45%.
Schools of
Thought
● Structuralism
○ Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener.
○ Primarily concerned with uncovering the structure and
content of the mind rather than its dynamic of
function.
○ Focused on breaking down complex mental
process/experiences into their most basic component
parts in the belief that by understanding the
fundamental elements of conscious experience, one
could understand how they combine into complex
mental phenomena.
● Structuralism (describing structure that compose the mind)
○ Basic elements of experience:
■ sensations (e.g., sight, sound, smell, etc)
■ images
■ ideas
represented experience that are not present
■ affection (e.g., emotional reactions)
● Mental events are broken down through introspection that
refers to a specific and technical method of viewing
experience. Thus, introspectionists are trained to see the
elements of experience of seeing an object (e.g., chair).
● Functionalism
○ Edward Thorndlike, James McKeen Cattell, John
Dewey.
○ Influenced by William James and the theory of Charles
Darwin and sought to explain mental process in a
systematic way.
○ Focus is on the purpose of behavior, consciousness,
and basic psychological processes that is integral to
adaptation and survival.
○ Minimized the role of introspection
● Psychoanalytic
○ Sigmund Freud
○ Emphasized the influence of the unconscious
mental process in explaining behavior.
○ Freud believed that the human mind was
composed of three elements: id, ego, and superego
and that interaction among the three led to all
complex behavioral expressions.
● Behaviorism
○ John Watson, Ivan Pavlov, BF Skinner.
○ Sought to align psychology with the natural science by
focusing on directly observable behaviors that can be
measured, trained, and changed.
○ Believed that all behavior can be explained by
environmental causes rather than internal forces. As
such, the role of consciousness, impulses, and drives
are strictly de-emphasized.
Ethics
 “A researcher’s foremost
concern in recruiting and using
subjects is to treat them ethically
and responsibly.“
Important points
to remember
➢ Responsible research is aimed at advancing our understanding of
feelings, thoughts, and behaviors in ways that will ultimately benefit
humanity.
➢ A researcher is liable for any harm to subjects, even if it occurs
unintentionally.
➢ To protect the subjects of psychological research from harm, a review
committee called Institutional Review Board (IRB) is used,
particularly in institutions, to evaluate proposed studies before they are
conducted.
○ An IRB’s first task is to decide whether the proposed study puts
the subjects at risk.
■ A subject at risk is one who is more likely to be harmed in
some way by participating in the research.
● The IRB must determine whether any risks to
the individual are outweighed by potential
benefits or the importance of the knowledge to
be gained. This is called risk/benefit analysis.
● An understanding of research design is critical to
such an analysis as research that is improperly
design has few benefits.
According to Psychologist Robert Rosenthal, there are three (3)
important reasons why a poorly designed research is unethical:

1. Students’, teachers’, and administrators’ time will be taken from

potentially more beneficial educational experiences.
2. Poorly designed research can lead to unwarranted and inaccurate
conclusions that may be damaging to society that directly or
indirectly pays for the research.
3. Allocating time and money to poor-quality science will keep
those finite resources from better-quality science.
Another important task of an IRB is to safeguard the rights of
individuals by ensuring that they gave their informed consent to
participate.

An informed consent means that the subject agrees to participate

after having been fully informed about the nature of the study.

1) Individuals must give their consent freely, without the use of

force, duress, or coercion.
2) They must be free to drop out of the experiment any time.
3) Researchers must give subjects a full explanation of the
procedures to be followed and offer to answer any questions
about them.
4) Researchers must make clear the potential risks and benefits of
the experiment.
5) Researchers must provide assurances that all data will remain
private and confidential/
6) Subjects may not be asked to release the researchers (or study
sponsors, institutions, or other agents) from liability or to waive
their legal rights in the case of an injury.
Consent should be obtained in writing and subjects should receive a
copy to keep.

Whenever the subject is a minor (children ages 7 and below) or is

cognitively impaired, the researcher need to obtain consent from the
parent or guardian.

The assent or agreement of minors ages 7 and below is usually a

requirement for their participation and to the extent possible, can be
given to subjects with cognitive impairment as well.
Consent forms need to be written in clear, understandable language
at the appropriate reading level for participants.

The consent form provides subjects with information relevant to

their participation in the experiment:
● nature of the experiment
● overview of the procedures that will occur
● duration of the procedure
● potential risks and benefits
● what subjects are required to do
 “Why do you think hypothesis is
typically not disclosed in the
informed consent?”
Demand characteristic: If subjects are made aware of the
researcher’s expectations, their reactions during the
experiment may be unintentionally or intentionally altered
by this information.
Evolution of Ethics
in Research
After World War II, ethics came to the forefront after the discoveries
of brutal experiments conducted on Jewish concentration camp
prisoners by about 200 Nazi doctors. According to information
provided by th Simon Wiesenthal Center, more than 7,000 prisoners
were forced to be subjects in cruel experiments that “broke all the
rules and norms of medical research”. During international trials that
followed after the war (Nuremberg War Crimes Trials), a code of
ethical standards for scientific research was created.

The Nuremberg Code of 1947 formed the basis of today’s ethical

standards.
Belmont report: a statement of government policy in the US Department
of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1979 that contained three (3) basic
ethical principles:
● Respect for persons
○ every human being is an autonomous person with the right
to make his or her own decisions about research.
● Beneficence
○ obligation to minimize risk of harm and maximize possible
benefits to individuals.
● Justice
○ fairness in both the burdens and benefits of research.
Deception and
Full Disclosure
The relationship between researcher and participants should be as
open and honest as possible. However, in some psychological
studies, the true purpose of the study is disguised.

To create a situation in which the experimental hypothesis can be

tested, the researchers sometimes enlist the help of a confederate
(the accomplice or aid of the experimenter who poses as a
participant but whose behavior is rehearsed prior to the
experiment).
How can deception be reconciled with the principles of informed
consent?

Answer: the deception must not influence a subject’s decision to take

part in the research - any deception that is used must be such that
subjects would not refuse to participate if they knew what was really
happening.

Researchers must adhere to the principle of full disclose if deception has

occurred by completely debriefing (explaining the true nature of
purpose of the study) the subjects at the end of the experiment.
Anonymity and
Confidentiality
Whenever possible, data should be collected anonymously and
identified by code numbers or fictitious names. In actual practice, we do
not need to identify subjects by name.

Data must be stored in a secure place, kept confidential, and used only
for purposes explained to the subjects. Subjects’ reactions in
experiments do not become item of gossips to be shared with friends.

When shared with colleagues, data must be treated with discretion and
subjects’ identities protected. Identifying details must be disguised.
Protecting
welfare of
animal subject
Animal welfare- the humane care and treatment of animals that is
regulated by the Animal Welfare Act of 1966 that deals with the
standards for animal care.

As in the case with research using human subjects, institutions engaged

in animal research must have a review board, called institutional
animal care and use committee (IACUC) that evaluates animal
research before it can be conducted. It is comprised of scientists and
laypeople as in the case of IRB, with the addition of veterinarians with
experience in laboratory science.
As with human participants, animal welfare includes avoiding any
unnecessary pain or risks. Research involving any potentially painful
procedure such as surgery, drug use, or shock must be closely
supervised by a researcher specifically trained in the procedures and
monitored by the research facility’s veterinarian.

However, despite the existence of legal and ethical guidelines, some

critics have argued that animals have been abused in some
psychological studies - a violation of ethical principles.
Animal Rights
Movement
Animal Rights - The idea that all sensate species, particularly those that
feel pain, are of equal value and have equal rights.

Miller (1985) has pointed out that psychological experiments with

animals have led to treatments if many psychological problems (e.g.,
depression and OCD).

CARE reports that animal research has contributed significantly to

knowledge about drug abuse and physical dependence as well as
development of drugs for psychological disorder.
Many different species of animals have been used in psychology
research but only about 7-8% of psychology research involves the use
of animals.

According to APA (2007), 90% of animal research involves rodents and

birds (especially rats, mice, and pigeons); about 5% includes monkeys
or other nonhuman primates. The use of dogs or cats is extremely rare.

We must remember that researchers have an obligation to behave

responsibly.
Plous (1996) conducted surveys of psychologists and psychology
majors to study their attitudes towards animal research. Not
surprisingly, both group showed overwhelming support for animal
research and felt that it was both justified and necessary - as long as it
did not cause pain or death.

In addition, the study found an age trend among psychologists: younger

psychologists showed less support for animal research than older
psychologists. Generally, those who support animal research say they do
so because it benefits human health and well-being and is well
regulated.
Fraud in
Science
We report our procedures and findings honestly and accurately.

When we think of fraud in science, we typically think about data

falsification which is a serious breach of ethical principle stated in APA
standard 8.10: “Psychologists do not fabricate dara.

Several important safeguards to keep fraud in check:

1. Research articles submitted for publication are reviewed by the
editor of the periodical and by several experts in the field before
they can be accepted for publication.
2. Research articles submitted for publication are reviewed by the
editor of the periodical and by several experts in the field before
they can be accepted for publication.
3. Researchers replicate the published findings of others, particularly
those that are surprising, novel, or important.
4. The competitive nature of academic psychology works against
fraud.
Plagiarism
To plagiarize means to represent someone else’s ideas, words, or
written work as your own. Thus, it is a serious breach of ethics and can
result in legal action

It can include:
● “borrowing” facts and figures from someone else.
● using someone else’s ideas without giving proper credit.
● paraphrasing (using the ideas of others but changing the words
around) without giving credit.

Modern solutions: many professors who give writing assignments now

use web-based tools to detect plagiarism.
Ethical Reports
The Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct provides further
guidance concerning ethics and research reports.

Section 8.12(a) states, “Psychologists take responsibility and credit, including

ownership credit, only for work they have actually performed or to which they
have substantially contributed” (APA, 2002).

To be given authorship credit, students must have made an important

contribution that does not include handing out questionnaires of entering data
into the computer. However, their efforts can be recognized in
acknowledgements or footnotes.

Researchers do not take credit for the same research more than once.
Case-Based
Exercise #1
As part of their course requirement, students enrolled in Research 1 must
submit a thesis proposal to their respective professor in preparation for their
defense. In Section Cadbury, only 1 group haven’t submitted their thesis
proposal on time for the reason that they chose to procrastinate for the past
weeks that led them to cram chapter 1-3 (“You cannot cram the RRL).
Fearing that their “terror” prof would give them a failing grade for not
meeting the deadline and being pressured to submit within the week which
will only give them 3 days to finish, they decided to copy paste the results of
research findings they found online. And while they thankfully remembered
to cite the authors, their professor got hold of their misconduct after a
thorough assessment and gave them a failing grade.
Question #1: Which of the following concepts in Ethics accurately describe
the case presented?
A. Deception
B. Plagiarism
C. Risk
D. Data Falsification
Question #2: Based on your answer on the first question, how will you
prevent similar misconduct on your part taking into account the scientific
qualities that you have to possess?
Case-Based
Exercise #2
Aya is a student in social psychology and as part of her finals requirement, their
professor instructed the class to conduct a social experiment in groups of 3. Aya’s
group decided to conduct a systematic observation in which they unobtrusively
observed people in their natural setting and recorded their behavior in a systematic
way using codes for later scoring and analysis. Aya’s group wanted to study public
display of affection (PDA) in children’s park and they devised a scoring system based
on the following categories that described participants behavior:
Holding Hands (>5 seconds)- 1
Caressing cheek- 2
Quick Kiss on cheek- 3
Quick kiss on lips- 4
Long kiss on lips (>5 seconds)- 5
Question #1: Which of the following objectives in
psychological science does naturalistic observation belong in?
A. Description
B. Prediction
C. Explanation
D. Control
Question #2: Explain one limitation of naturalistic observation
based on your own understanding.
 Take Home Assessment:

Make a reflection paper on key concepts discussed in

this lecture that you like. You can choose any topic that
is not limited to one.

Format:
Times New Roman, 12, 1.5 spacing, align left, letter

Indicate your Name, Year Level and Section, Course, and

Date of Submission on the Word Document. Deadline is
UNTIL September 25.
RUBRIC
 Reference List

Mandler, G. (2007). A history of modern experimental psychology. MIT Press,

55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, MA 02142.

Mcguigan, F.G.(1997). Experimental psychology: Methods of research. 7th Ed.

Prentice Hall International. Philippines

Myers, A. & Hansen, C. (2006). Experimental psychology. 6th Ed. Cengage

Learning Asia Pte Ltd. Singapore 068808