AP Psycholog

y

Science of Psychology

Objective: Describe descriptive research studies taking

into account random sampling and applicable biases.

Hello! Happy Thursday!!!

• Spend 3-5 minutes sharing what’s going on with your experiment with 2-3 people sitting around you.

• Come up with 1 question that you have about the experiment to share with the class.

Experiment Check In

• Academic Article—how to find one and what to do with it once you’ve found it.

• See white board for example and more info.

We are here

The Science of Psychology

Approaches to Psych

Growth of Psych

Research Methods Statistics

Descriptive Experiment

Case Study

Survey

Naturalistic Observation

Descriptive Inferential

Ethics

Sampling

Central Tendency

Variance

Correlation

Careers

• Describe descriptive research studies– Naturalistic Observation

• Observer Bias• Can not replicate or generalize

– Case Studies• Can not replicate or generalize

Outline

3 Types of Descriptive Research

1. Naturalistic Observation2. Survey3. Case Studies

Naturalistic Observation

• What is it? A descriptive research method involving the systematic study of animal or human behavior in natural settings rather than the laboratory

• Huh? Researcher describes the behavior of the human or animal in their natural settings

Naturalistic Observation• Strengths

– The behavior is more natural than if they were in the lab• Weaknesses

– Can not replicate. Replication involves the process of repeating a study using the same methods, different subjects, and different experimenters. If you can’t replicate you can’t retest the results or apply them to new situations to see just how generalizable it is.

– Can not generalize (apply them to new situations) your findings.

– Observer bias - occurs when the observers (or researcher team) know the goals of the study or the hypotheses and allow this knowledge to influence their observations during the study

Naturalistic Observations

Case Studies

• What is it? Study of a single individual or just a few individuals in order to describe their situation.

• Purpose? Take advantage of situation that you can not replicate (make happen again)

• How? Gather as much evidence as you can: Observation, scores on psychological tests, interviews, medical records etc.

Outline

Case Studies

• Strengths:– Takes advantage of nonreplicable situations– You get a lot of in-depth understanding

• Weaknesses:– Observer bias is a problem– Can not generalize (apply your findings to other

individuals or groups)– Can not replicate

Two most famous case studies in psychology

Phineas Gage

Genie

The Lost Children of Rockdale County

Case Study of a syphilis epidemic at a high school in an affluent suburb of Atlanta

Henrietta Lacks

• Short Video on the HeLa cells• This is an amazing case study!

ComparisonResearch Method

Advantages Limitations

NaturalisticObservation

•More accurate than reports after the fact•Behavior is more natural

•Observer can alter behavior•Observer Bias•Not generalizable

Case Studies •Depth•Takes advantage of circumstances that can not be replicated

•Not generalizable•Time consuming and expensive•Observational Bias

Surveys • Immense amount of data•Quick and inexpensive•Generalizable•Replicable

• Poor sampling can skew results•Wording Effect•Social Desirability Bias