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Research Methods in Social Psychology

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Quiz

1. People in a sad mood are less likely to help others than are people in a neutral mood.

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2. If 10 people are all telling you the same thing you are more likely to conform publicly to their opinion than if just 5 people are telling you the same thing.

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3. The greater the cohesiveness or solidarity of a group, the better its decisions will be.

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4. Physically attractive people are usually seen as less intelligent than physically unattractive people.

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5. Promising and delivering rewards to people for doing an enjoyable activity should, in the long run, make them enjoy the activity even more.

Is Common Sense Enough?

“Day after day, social scientists go out into the world. Day after day, they discover that people’s behavior is pretty much what you’d expect.” Cullen Murphy (editor, Atlantic

Monthly)

Why bother with “Science”?

Hindsight Bias “I knew it all along!”

It’s all just common sense…

Opposites attract

The pen is mightier than the swordYou can’t teach an old dog new tricksForewarned is forearmedAbsence makes the heart grow fonder

Birds of a feather flock togetherActions speak louder than wordsYou’re never too old to learnLook before you leapOut of sight, out of mind

Bias in Research

As scientists, we aim to be objective seekers of knowledge.Even scientists are human.Important to understand research methods to be able to evaluate research

So How do we Study Social Psychology?

1. Correlational Research

2. Experimental Research

Testing Theories and Hypotheses

Theory: Color of clothing can influence aggression levels

Correlational Research

Goal: Understand how variables are associated with one another

Hypothesis: There will be a positive correlation between the

number of times people wear black clothes and their

aggression level

Correlational Research

Ask participants how often they have worn black and ask how aggressive they feel

Positive Correlation

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Number of times wear black in 1 year

Aggre

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Correlational Research

Ask participants how often they wear black and ask how kind they feel

Negative Correlation

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Number of times worn black in 1 year

Kin

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Correlational Research

Ask participants how often they wear black and how much they like Pina Coladas

No Correlation

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Number of times worn black in 1 year

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Correlation: A Tasty Example

Ice cream sales are positively correlated with murder rates.

Correlational Research

IRON LAW of CORRELATION:

CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL CAUSATION!!!

A -> B B -> A C -> A and B

Activity

Heat

Experimental Research

2 key features: Control

Manipulation of independent variable

All other variables kept constant Random assignment of

representative sample of participants

Experimental Research

Hypothesis: People wearing black will be more aggressive than people wearing white

Experiment: Randomly assign

participants to wear Black or White Shirts

Measure aggression by measuring how hard they hit a punching bag

Experimental Research

Independent Variable: shirt condition

Experimental Research

Random Assignment: people have equal chance of being assigned to either shirt condition

Heads you wear Black; Tails you wear White

Experimental Research

Dependent Variable: how hard they hit punching bag

Experimental Research

Example: How might we make an experiment that assesses the effect of temperature on hunger? IV? DV?

Operational Definitions are Important!

Some constructs are easier to define than othersWhat does it mean “to wear black clothes”?What do we mean by “aggression”?

Validity

Construct

Number of hits

Aggression

Measure of construct

How much does our measure… measure our construct?

Validity

nu

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of h

its

Aggression

What we are measuringError What we aren’t measuring

Reliability

Consistency in resultsAcross items

“How aggressive are you?” “How violent are you?” “How much do you want to hurt me?”

Across time Answer today the same as answer tomorrow?

Evaluating Research

Validity – how close to the bullseye?

Evaluating Research

Validity – how close to the bullseye?

Evaluating Research

Reliability – hitting the same spot

Evaluating Research

Reliability – hitting the same spot

Experimental Research – Interpreting Results

Dating Study

Smoking Hot! Average

Kind

Rude

Date? Date?

Date? Date?

Experimental Research – Interpreting Results

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Hot Average

KindRude

Likelihood to Date(Higher Scores = Greater Likelihood)

Interaction: when the effect of one IV on the DV, dependson the value (or level) of the other IV

Experimental Research – Interpreting Results

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Likelihood to Date(Higher Scores = Greater Likelihood)

Main Effect: when an IV has an effect of similar magnitudeand direction across levels of the other IV

Experimental Research – Interpreting Results

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Hot Average

KindRude

Likelihood to Date(Higher Scores = Greater Likelihood)

Experimental Research – Interpreting Results

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Hot Average

KindRude

Likelihood to Date(Higher Scores = Greater Likelihood)