PSY 492 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Longitudinal Study, Twin Study, Likert Scale
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Research in Health Psychology
Critical Thinking
"Unscientific" thinking = dangerous
o Belief bias
o
We go into a situation with some kind of pre-obtained
understanding/thinking of how it works, and we need to distance ourselves
from that
Science nowadays fights against this
o Inaccurate assumptions
o
E.g. swine flu- connecting that term to the disease hurt the pork industry
o Deception
o
People presenting research may not have the best purpose in mind
Human nature requires that we will fall for things if they're pitched in the
right way
Research methods
o Descriptive
o
Researchers observe and record participants' behaviors, often forming
hypotheses that are later tested more systematically
A good starting point when trying to understand a phenomenon and first
start building a hypothesis
Case studies
E.g. Little Albert
Can be intensive and costly
Limited generalizability
Observational
Unstructured (naturalistic observation)
Structured (lab observation)
Surveys
Self-report measures
Open vs. closed-ended questions
Likert scale
Answer 1-7; still closed-ended, but there is more
room for diversity within responses
Low cost
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