PSY 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Institutional Review Board, Statistical Inference, Standard Deviation
2 Jul 2018
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Week 2 Class 2
Chapter 2 Notes continued
Illusory Correlation
● the perception of a relationship where no relationship actually exists
● parents conceive children after adoption
○ not actually more likely to conceive after adoption
Order in Random Events
● given random data, we look for order and meaningful patterns
● chance of being dealt different hands of cards is exactly the same
Experimentation-Exploring Cause and Effect
● like other sciences, experimentation is the backbone of psychological research
● experiments isolate causes and their effects
● Many factors influence our behavior
● experiments manipulate factors that interest us while other factors are kept under control
● effect generated by manipulated factors isolate cause and effect relationships
● Indépendant variable: the variable manipulated by the experimenter; the cause
● Dependant variable: the variable measured by the experimenter; the effect
Zimbardo (1970)
● Noticed a relationship between anonymity and antisocial behavior
● Does anonymity cause antisocial behavior?
● Brought participants into lab, told them they were going to deliver electric shock to other
participants
○ half wore their own clothes and wore name tags
○ half were dressed in white coats and hoods that covered their faces
● Findings: those who were anonymous delivered twice as many shocks
● Indépendant variable: anonymity
● dependent variable: number of shocks delivered
Random Assignment
● assigning participants to experimental (breast-fed) and control (formula-fed) conditions by
random assignment minimizes pre-existing differences between two groups
Data Analysis
● Reliability: The extent to which a measure is stable and consistent
● Validity: the extent to which the experimenter can make confident statements about cause
and effect
● Accuracy: the extent to which an experimental measure if free from error
○ random error: value of error differs each time
○ systematic error: value of error is constant
● Statistical reasoning: statistical procedures analyze and interpret data allowing us to see
what the unaided eye cant
● Describing data: a meaningful description of data is important in research. Misrepresentation
may lead to incorrect conclusions
● descriptive statistics: statistics used to summarize the data collected
○ central tendency
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Document Summary
The perception of a relationship where no relationship actually exists. Not actually more likely to conceive after adoption. Given random data, we look for order and meaningful patterns. Chance of being dealt different hands of cards is exactly the same. Like other sciences, experimentation is the backbone of psychological research. Experiments manipulate factors that interest us while other factors are kept under control. Effect generated by manipulated factors isolate cause and effect relationships. Ind pendant variable: the variable manipulated by the experimenter; the cause. Dependant variable: the variable measured by the experimenter; the effect. Noticed a relationship between anonymity and antisocial behavior. Brought participants into lab, told them they were going to deliver electric shock to other participants. Half wore their own clothes and wore name tags. Half were dressed in white coats and hoods that covered their faces. Findings: those who were anonymous delivered twice as many shocks.
