CAS PS 261 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Time, Narcissism, Ford Focus
12 Oct 2018
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CAS PS 261
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Research in Social Psychology:
❖Descriptive methods (the “what”)
➢Observational research/naturalistic observation
➢correlational /survey research (ex. questionnaires or interviews)
■ Detecting associations between variables
❖Experimental methods (the “why”)
➢Lab experiments
➢Field experiments
❖Correlational research cannot establish a causal relationship
➢Correlation is not causation!!
■ Two reasons for this:
● Directionality problem - measuring a bunch of
variables at one time so you can’t say for sure that
the cause is because of just one
● Third variable problem - even if you can figure out
the variable, there’s the possibility that the other
variables are accounting for the association
❖Headlines can be misleading:
➢Important questions: What methodology was used? How is the
sample selected, its size, random or not, etc.?
❖If you can get a big enough sample size, almost any two variables can
have a correlation
➢Spurious correlations: two almost completely unrelated things that
are found to have a “correlation”
❖Experimental research: researcher manipulates (changes the value of)
one variable, and measures related changes in a second variable
➢IV = what you manipulate
➢DV = what you measure
■ Experimental group receives the “treatment”
■ Control group treated identically but does not receive the
“treatment
❖Experimental Research - Two Key Components
➢Random assignment
■ Random assignment used to ensure the equivalence of
groups before the experiment
➢Experimental control
■ Careful of extraneous influences and possible confounders
● Trying to eliminate any potential bias
● Everything needs to be exactly the same
● The only thing that should change is the IV
❖Advantages and disadvantages of experiments
➢Major advantage
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■ Assess causality/draw causal conclusions
➢Disadvantages
■ Lack of “everyday”/ mundane realism
● Researchers argue that even when there is no
mundane realism, there is
psychological/experimental realism which means
that real cognitive processes can still be simulated
■ Generalizability
● How can you really generalize to the whole
population?
● You have to ask whether this even matters, some
researchers aren’t interested in whether it happens
in the real world but CAN it happen?
❖Correlational and Experimental Research Compared
❖Making Sense of Social Psychological Research
➢The Hindsight Bias - ability to have foreseen an outcome after its
occured: “I knew it all along / I saw that coming”
■ We overestimate our ability to predict an outcome
■ Individuals can predict outcomes of research no better
than chance
➢Exceptions to research findings do not invalidate the overall
results
The Self and Self Serving Bias:
❖The self concept
➢The answer to the question: Who am I?
■ I am _____.
➢The collection of an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about him/herself
❖The self
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Correlational /survey research (ex. questionnaires or interviews) Correlational research cannot establish a causal relationship. Directionality problem - measuring a bunch of variables at one time so you can"t say for sure that the cause is because of just one. Third variable problem - even if you can figure out the variable, there"s the possibility that the other variables are accounting for the association. How is the sample selected, its size, random or not, etc. If you can get a big enough sample size, almost any two variables can have a correlation. Spurious correlations: two almost completely unrelated things that are found to have a correlation . Experimental research: researcher manipulates (changes the value of) one variable, and measures related changes in a second variable. Control group treated identically but does not receive the. Random assignment used to ensure the equivalence of groups before the experiment. Careful of extraneous influences and possible confounders. Everything needs to be exactly the same.
