Today’s Class

 The essence of science

 Theory and hypothesis-testing
 Research methods
 Measurement
 Getting information on variables of interest
 Designs
 Descriptive research
 Correlational research
 Experimental research
 Ethics

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The Essence of Science
 What is a theory?
 Definition: Broad explanations and predictions
concerning phenomena of interest
 Key features
 Falsifiable: “It must make definite (testable)
predictions about the results of future observations.”
– Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time
 Generalizable: “It must accurately describe a large
class of observations.” – Stephen Hawking, A Brief
History of Time
 Parsimonious: “It is vain to do with more than what
can be done with fewer.” – “Occam’s razor”

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 The Essence of Science

Everything should be
made as simple as
possible, but not simpler.
– Albert Einstein

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The Essence of Science
 What is a hypothesis?
 A statement that is derived from a theory and
can be operationalized into specific and directly
testable procedures.
 “近朱者赤，近墨者黑” “孟母三迁”
 Theory: Environment affects child development.
 Find the hypothesis:
 Children should not watch violent TV programs.
 Violent TV programs are harmful to child development.
 Children who spend more time watching violent TV
programs are more aggressive.

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The Essence of Science
 What is a hypothesis?
 A statement that is derived from a theory and
can be operationalized into specific and directly
testable procedures
 “近朱者赤，近墨者黑” “孟母三迁”
 Theory: Environment affects child development.
 Find the hypothesis:
 Children should not watch violent TV programs.
 Violent TV programs are harmful to child development.
 Children who spend more time watching violent TV
programs are more aggressive.

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Measurement
 Variable: A behavior or mental process
that vary across individuals, time, and/or
situations.
 Getting information on variables of interest
 Observation
 Survey
 Psychophysiology
 Case study
 Archival study

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Measurement
 Observation
 Naturalistic
 Structured

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Measurement
 Survey
 Rating (Likert-scale)
 Ranking
 Checklist
 Open-ended

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Measurement
 Psychophysiology
 Heart rate, skin conductance
 EEG (electro-en’cephalo-gram)
 fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging)

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Designs
 What are we interested to find out about
variables?
 Descriptive research
 Between-individual comparison on a variable
 Within-individual comparison on a variable
 Between-group comparison on a variable
 Correlational research
 Relation between two variables
 Experimental research
 Cause-and-effect relation between two variables

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Designs
 Descriptive research
 Between-individual comparison on a variable
Number of individuals

Standardized score
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Designs
 Descriptive research
 Within-individual comparison on a variable

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Designs
 Descriptive research
 Between-group comparison on a variable
45
40
35
30
25 Girls
20 Boys
15
10
5
0

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Designs
 Correlational research
 Relation between two variables
 Two naturally occurring variables
 Their relation can be statistically estimated as a
correlation coefficient
 Ranging from -1.00 to +1.00
 Direction
 Positive (+): one variable increases, so does the other.
 Negative (-): one variable increases, the other decreases.
 Strength
 The bigger the correlation, the stronger the relation.
 Zero or near zero: no relation between the two variables.

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Designs
 Correlational research
 Relation between two variables
 Two naturally occurring variables
 Their relation can be statistically estimated as a
correlation coefficient

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Designs
 Correlation  Causation
 Direction of cause and effect?
 A  B, A  B, or A  B
 3rd variable? cause?
 XA&B
Violent TV cause?
Aggression

Harsh Parenting
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Designs
 Correlation  Causation

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Designs
 Experimental research
 Cause-and-effect relation between two variables
 Deliberately producing a difference (experimental
manipulation) in one variable (IV) and observing
the effect of that difference (treatment) on
another variable (DV)
 Independent Variable (IV): the variable that is
manipulated by the experimenter
 Dependent Variable (DV): the variable that is
observed, not manipulated, and expected to be
affected by the difference in IV

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Designs
 Experimental research
 Cause-and-effect relation between two variables
 Deliberately producing a difference (experimental
manipulation) in one variable (IV) and observing
the effect of that difference (treatment) on
another variable (DV)
 Experimental Group: the group of participants who
receives a treatment.
 Control Group: the group of participants who receives
no treatment.

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Designs
 Experimental research
 Why is control group necessary?
If just: pre-assessment – treatment – post-assessment

 Confounding factors: e.g.,
 Anything associated with the experiment other than
the treatment
 Time passage (cumulative effects)
 Random assignment: Using a chance procedure to
make sure that every participant has the same
probability as any other participant of being
assigned to a given group (experimental or control).

 There may be more than one experimental group.

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Designs
 Experimental research
 Watching violent TV causes aggression.

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Designs
 Experimental research
 Potential problems and solutions
 Participant expectations

Using a placebo group:

Single- or double-blind
procedure

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Designs
 Experimental research
 Potential problems and solutions
 Experimenter expectations

E.g.,
preferential
looking studies
of infants in the
old days

Use of double-
blind procedure
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Ethics
 Informed consent
 Protection from harm
 Voluntariness
 Confidentiality
 Debriefing
 Knowledge of results
 Deception Safeguards:
Ethics Committee
 Animal research Internal Review Board

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 Ethics
• Milgram’s Obedience Experiment (Yale, 1961-1962)
• Subject introduced to stern experimenter in a white lab
coat and a rather pleasant and friendly co-subject.
• Experimenter explains the experiment is on the role of
punishment in learning, and that one will be the "teacher"
and one will be the "learner.”
• Co-subject taken to a room, strapped in a chair to prevent
movement and an electrode placed on his arm. The
"teacher" is taken to an adjoining room which contains a
generator. The "teacher" is instructed to read a list of two
word pairs and ask the "learner" to read them back. If the
"learner" gets the answer correct, then they move on to
the next word. If the answer is incorrect, the "teacher" is
supposed to shock the "learner" starting at 15 volts.

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 Ethics
• Milgram’s Obedience Experiment (Yale, 1961-1962)
The generator has 30 switches
in 15 volt increments, each is
labeled with a voltage ranging
from 15 up to 450 volts. Each
switch also has a rating,
ranging from "slight shock" to
"danger: severe shock". The
final two switches are labeled
"XXX". The "teacher"
automatically is supposed to
increase the shock each time
the "learner" misses a word in
the list.
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 Ethics
• Milgram’s Obedience Experiment (Yale, 1961-1962)
• 65% of all of the "teachers"
punished the "learners" to the
maximum 450 volts. No subject
stopped before reaching 300
volts!
• Milgram's obedience
experiment was replicated
many times. The experiments
spanned a 25-year period from
1961 to 1985, in Australia,
South Africa and in several
European countries. In some
cases, over 85% of the
subjects administered a lethal
electric shock to the learner.

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 Ethics
• Ainsworth’s “Strange Situation”
Strange situation episodes Infant’s behavior
1. Infant, caregiver & experimenter
2. Infant & caregiver Quality of play
3. Infant, caregiver & stranger Reaction to stranger
4. Infant & stranger (separation 1) Separation anxiety
5. Infant & caregiver (reunion 1) Reaction to reunion
6. Infant alone (separation 2) Separation anxiety
7. Infant & stranger Ability to be soothed by
stranger
8. Infant & caregiver (reunion 2) Reaction to reunion
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 Ethics
• Harlow’s Surrogate Mothers Study
with Monkeys

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 No Easy Answers
 “All our science, measured against reality,
is primitive and childlike. And yet it is the
most precious thing we have.”
– Albert Einstein

 Convergent evidence (replicated research

and meta-analysis)
 “Becoming an informed consumer
of psychology” – “Think critically”

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