Psychology

1. Psychological
Research
Research &
Experimentation

2. INTUITION
It isn’t always right. In fact, and this may
suck, but sometimes, it is exactly
WRONG!

3. HINDSIGHT BIAS
(I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon)
It does not mean that your common sense (if
you have such) is wrong.
Our intuitive sense more easily describe what
JUST HAPPENED than what WILL HAPPEN in the
future.
Natural tendency toward OVERCONFIDENCE
Perception of ORDER IN RANDOM EVENTS 
FALSE ASSUMPTIONS

4. That is why we have…
…psychological research,
experimentation,
scientific inquiry,
to help us to get around these problems
that basically save the study of our minds
from the stupidity of our minds. 

5. OPERATIONALIZATION
Figuring out how to ask general questions about
subjects and turn them into measurable, testable
proposition

6. SCIENTIFIC METHOD
1. Question & a theory (what explains and
organizes lots of different observations and
predicts outcomes)
2. Hypothesis, testable prediction
3. Test with a replicable experiment

7. REPLICATION
Watching a person exhibit a certain
behavior once and it won’t prove very
much.
BUT(T)!
Getting consistent results even as you
change subjects and/or situations, you’re
prolly onto something

8. CASE STUDIES
Take an in-depth look at one individual
Can be misleading; can’t be replicated; run the risk
of overgeneralizing
Good at showing us what can happen; frame
questions for more extensive, generalizable studies
Great story-telling device psychologists use to
observe & describe human behavior
Rare cases

9. NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION
Researchers watch behavior in a natural
environment
To let the subjects do their “thing” without
trying to manipulate them or control the
situation
Great at describing behavior, limited in
explaining it

10. SURVEYS & INTERVIEWS
Asking people to report their opinions or
behaviors
Alfred Kinsey (Published Sexual Behavior in
the Human Male & Sexual Behavior in the
Human Female)
A great way to access people’s
consciously-held attitudes and beliefs

11. ISSUES IN QUESTIONS IN
SURVEYS
What words are used?
ban & censor vs. limit & not allow
Do you believe in space aliens?
Do you think that there is intelligent life
somewhere in the universe?
Who to ask?
Representativeness of sample
Random sampling – equal chance to be
selected to answer a question
Sampling bias

12. CORRELATION
NOT CAUSATION!
Predicts the possibility of cause-and-effect
relationships but cannot prove them

13. EXPERIMENTS
Allow investigators to isolate different effects to
a dependent variable by manipulating an
independent variable, and keeping other
variables constant.
Experimental group
Control group
Random assignment
Placebo
Double-blind procedure

14. Experiment Time!
Caffeine’s effect on the brain

15. QUESTION
DO HUMANS SOLVE
PROBLEMS WHEN
GIVEN CAFFEINE?

16. HYPOTHESIS
Caffeine makes me smarter.
Adult human given caffeine will navigate a
maze faster than adult human not given
caffeine.

17. IV
CAFFEINE DOSAGE

18. DV
SPEED AT WHICH A SUBJECT
NAVIGATES THROUGH THIS
GIANT CORN MAZE

19. Random selection
Informed consent
Random assignment

20. Manipulation of the IV
Control group……….Decaf
Experimental grp 1....100mg (Kopiko Black)
Experimental grp 2…500mg (Kopiko Black)

21. Dose everyone
Let them loose in the corn maze
Wait at the end of the maze with your
stopwatch
See if there is any conclusive results

22. Science– probably the
best tool that you have for understanding
other people