Lecture 04/01/09 2 PSC 151 Chapter 2 Methodology: How social psychologists. Imagine that you had the misfortune to be attacked by a stranger on a city street under what conditions would you be most likely to have someone come to your aid? C. When only one other person was present to witness the attack. In the early 1960s, an infamous murder occurred in the Queens borough of New York City. A young woman named kitty Genovese was stabbed to death while in the courtyard of her apartment complex. The attack lasted 45 minutes, and at least 38 observers watched the murder from the windows of their apartment above. However, not a single one of them attempted to help Genovese, not even by telephoning the police.
Why don't people take an action and do something about it in these kinds of situations? People not do it because they feel like they are not responsible for it. (diffusion of responsibility). Some people do not want to be part of the police investigation. Some people think, it is probably not that serious that they need to be taking care of like false alarm. People agreed that living in a metropolis dehumanized us and leads inevitably to apathy, indifference to human suffering, and lack of caring (pg, 30) Bibb Latane and John Darley (the researchers had the hunch that, paradoxically, the more people who witness an emergency, the less likely it is that any given individual will intervene) (pg, 33). There were some researchers that showed that the people started to think that there is something wrong with New Yorkers. Women are not save there. * This whole story (Murder) is also in the book too so there is high chance of it being in the test. Book notes: There has been warning about how the results of some of the experiments you encounter will seem obvious because social psychology concerns topics with which we are all intimately familiar--social behavior and social influence. (pg, 30) The experiments that are done in other labs such as physics is different than the labs for social psychology because in other labs we cannot connect our life to it but in social psych class, we can connect to the experiment. People tend to make comments like "they already knew that this would have happened"
but the tricky part is to say the same thing or predict it before the experiment has been started. Inspiration from earlier theories and research. Many studies stem from a researcher's dissatisfaction with existing theories and explanation. o In the 1950s, for example, Leon Festinger was dissatisfied with--that made specific predictions about when and how people would change their attitudes. (Pg 32) A researcher might believe that he or she has a better way of explaining people's behavior. o Other researchers were dissatisfied with Festinger's explanation of the results he obtained, and so they conducted further research to test other possible explanations. (pg, 32) People have theories and they have hypothesis based on their theories. First you state the problem The you state the hypothesis Then you design study Then you collect the data Then you analyze it And then you conclude it. A summary of Research (Pg, 33) Method Focus Observational Description Correlation Experimental Prediction Causality Question Answered What is the mature of the phenomenon? From knowing X, can we predict Y? Is variable X a cause pf Variable Y?
There are three type of methods you study social psychology. Observational: the technique whereby a researcher observes people and systematically records measurements or impressions of their behavior. For example, if you want to see what an aggressive behavior is. Before you do anything you want to see what aggressive behavior it is like screaming and yelling. Then you go out on a play ground and observe it. Concretely define aggressive behavior systematically record how often aggressive behavior occur In the early 1950's a group predicted that the world would come to an end on a specific date The Observational Method Ethnography (pg 34) o The method by which researchers attempt to understand a group or culture by
observing it from the inside, without imposing any preconceived notions they might have. o The goal is to understand the richness and complexity of the group by observing it in action. o It is the chief method of cultural anthropology, the study of human cultures and societies. To have interjudge reliability o The level of agreement between two or more people who independently observes and code a set of data. By showing that two or more judges independently come up with the same observations, researchers ensure that the observations are not the subjective, distorted impressions of one individual.
Limit of the observational method Certain kinds of behavior occur only rarely or only in private o Masturbation, save sex practices. It only drives the behavior but we want more than that and see why it happens. Social psychologists want to predict and explain behavior. Latane and Darley chosen the observational method to study the effects of the number of bystanders on people's willingness to help a victim, we might still be waiting for an answer, given the infrequency of emergencies and the difficulty of predicting when they will occur. (Pg 36) The correlation method: Predicting social behavior Correlation Method: The technique whereby two or more variables are systematically measured and the relationship between them (i.e., how much one can be predicted from the other) is assessed. The Correlation Method Correlation coefficient: a statistical technique that assesses how well you can predict one variable from another--for example, how well you can predict people's weight from their height. (pg 3) Postitive Correlation o Increase in the value of one variable are associated with increase in the value of the other variable height and weight are positively correlated; the taller the people are the more they weight. Negative Correlation o Increase in the value of one variable is associated with decreases in the value of the other. When one goes up, the other one goes down. The Graph: How much TV one watches and how aggressive it. Positive the more one will watch the higher they are. Correlation evidence Ranges from -1 to +1 o A correlation of 1.00 means that two variables are perfectly correlated in a positive direction; thus by knowing people's standing on one variable; the
researcher can predict exactly where they stand on the other variable. (pg, 37) Absolute Value signifies: the greater the number is the more value it has. (like the line on the graph, if it has the perfect line then the absolute value is easier to find) Sign signifies nature of the relationship: if the number is less than 0 then it is correlation. The sign refers to the nature of the correlation. A correlation of -1.00 means that two variables are perfectly correlated in a negative direction, whereas a correlation of 0 means that two variables are not correlated.
Advantages of correlation method Convenient (Survey: research I which a representative sample of people are asked [often anonymously] questions about their attitudes or behavior) (pg 38) o Examine variables that are difficult to observe or manipulate o Ability to target and sample representative segments of the populating, With random selection, we can generalize results o Random selection is giving everything in the population an equal chance of being selected for the sample. o A way of ensuring that a sample of people is of representative a population by giving everyone in the population an equal chance of being selected for the sample. (Pg, 38). o As long as the sample is selected randomly, we can assume that the responses are a reasonable match to those of the population as a whole. (Pg, 38) For example, polling on presidential. o there was a poll that showed that a president was going to win. They called the people and asking who was going to win and back then only republicans had the phone so they were able to participate. o The Great depression was going on so the people could not afford car and phone so people who did have it were wealthy people so of course they were going to support the republicans. But people who were poor voted for the demarcated leader and he won. o The company (The literary digest) went bankrupt. Potential problem of Surveys Unwillingly to tell you what they think/do Unable to accurately tell you what they think/do o E.g., Racist? Maybe they are racist but they can't accurately tell if they are. "Telling more than you know" Phenomenon People's reports about the causes of their responses pertained more to their theories and beliefs about what should have influenced them. (Pg 39) Limits of the correlation Method: correlation does not equal causation. The Major shortcoming of the correlation method is that it tells us only that two variables are related, whereas the goal of the social psychologist is to identify the cause of social behavior. (Pg 39, also mentioned in the lecture notes). o We want to able to say that A causes B, not just that A is correlated with B.
Correlation between TV violence and aggression 3 possible casual relationships: 1. TV violence makes the viewer become violent 2. Kids who are already violent are ore likely to watch violent TV, 3. Both are caused by something else. People who live together are more likely to get divorce. Facial attraction what got them together might be the same reason that they want the divorced. If they live together before marriage then they might have more chances of getting divorced. A researcher has found a positive correlation between fats food consumption and weight. The appropriate conclusion from this study is: A. The more people east fast food restaurants, the heavier they tend to be. The Experimental Method: Answering casual questions Hypothesize cause and effect relationship Does X cause Y? Experimental method: (in the book) method in which the researcher randomly assigns Dependent variable it's the one that is being measure and see if that one is being dependent on the interdependent. Interdependent: the one manipulated to see if it has a casual effect. All factors constant except manipulate variable IV and DV- Latane and darley (1970) Study about college student' personal problem Cubicles with microphones for anonymity 1, 3, or 5 other students (tape recording) The subject comes in and told them that the study is on college student and make them sit in an anonymous. You can have the microphone and can hear what every one is saying. Then they have to talk about personal problem. The experimental is not going to be listening. Student 1: sometimes gets Seizures under stress I-er-um-Think I-I need-er _if if chocking sounds and etc. Hypothesis: the more people the less people will help. IV: group 2 or group 3 or 5 DV: who would come to get the experiment Independent variable: the variable that is hypothesized to influence the dependent variable. Participants are treated identically except for this variable. Experiment design Within-subjects vs. between-subjects For example the seizure was between-subject. They could not experiment with all of
the group. It was only 3 or 4 people. One way designs--a single independent variable. Two groups; three groups, etc. Factorial designs--multiple independent variables Interactions Multiple effects at the same time How different factors affect one another Every combination of variable
A researcher conducts an experiment to test whether playing violent video games leads to increased aggression in children? B the aggression Instructions Group 1: think about the dancing in terms of the facts, actions, and circumstances. It was weird to dance in the lecture hall but it seemed like a fun activity. It was fun to watch other dancing. People can be shy while they are dancing in public. Group 2: try to recall, relive, and vividly remember the dancing. Keys to good experiments Experiment high in internal validity it is making sure that nothing besides the IV can affect the DV. Random assignment to condition All participants have an equal chance of taking part in any condition Then, differences in the participants' personalities or backgrounds are distributed evenly across conditions. This powerful technique is the most important part of the experimental method. Probability level (P-Value) Statistics that says how likely it is that the results occurred by chance instead of the independent variable (S). Something might happen 1/20. Repeat the study. The chances of repeating the same mistake are low. The convention in science is to consider results significant (trustworthy) if p <. 05 Less than 5 in 100 that the results due to chance, luck, or sampling error. Dancing experience 7 minutes have passed by since we have stopped dancing. It seems like 6 minutes have passed by. The more emotional you think it is, the more time you think it has been passed by. As an experiment, it is missing random assignment who would be in what condition. Other group's instruction might have affected the respond.
Disadvantages of experimental research Cant always randomly assign important events (death, disaster, divorce) Cant randomly assign variables like gender, income Issues with external validity. Quasi-Experiment: cant assign things on your own. External Validity in Experiments External Validity The extent to which the results of a study can be generalized to other situations and to other people. Generalizability across situations Artificiality of laboratory Manipulations and measures may lack realism Participants pay more attention Participants may act differently when they know they are being studied. Issue of realism? Mundane realism: trying to make the environment as similar in the detail as possible (how the event actually occurred) Is the experiment similar to real-life situations? Psychological realism Are the psychological processes triggered in an experiment similar to those that occur in everyday life Generalizability across situations Psychological realism is heightened if people feel involved in a real event. Cover story: A description of the purpose of a study that is different fro its true purpose. a person figured out what actually is going on in the experiment if the experimenter tells them something else. The best way is to randomly select participants from the population. But, impractical and expensive But, researchers try to study basic psychological processes so fundamental that they are presumably universal. Replication Repeating the study The basic Dilemma of the social psychologist the trade off between internal validity and external validity Researchers often begin by maximizing... Ethical issues in social psychology Deception: misleading participants about the true purpose of a study or the events that will actually transpire,
Guidelines for ethical research Guidelines to ensure the welfare of their research participants include.