Unit 2: Scientific Method

Week Week 1

Date @June 15, 2023

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Unit/mod M1 U2

Laboratory Research
use of complex experimental designs with multiple independent
and/or dependent variables

increasingly popular because they permit researchers to study

both the main and combined effects of several factors on a
range of related situations

researchers now integrate biological markers (e.g., hormones)

or use neuroimaging techniques (e.g., fMRI) in their research
designs to better understand the biological mechanisms that
underlie social processes

Example: Insult, Aggression, and the Southern

Culture of Honor: An "Experimental Ethnography
(Cohen, D., 1996)
➣ Three experiments examined how norms
characteristic of a "culture of honor" manifest
themselves in the cognitions, emotions, behaviors,
and physiological reactions of southern White

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 males. Participants were University of Michigan
students who grew up in the North or South. In 3
experiments, they were insulted by a Confederate
who bumped into the participant and called him an
"asshole." Compared with northerners (who were
relatively unaffected by the insult), southerners
were more likely to think their masculine
reputation was threatened, more upset (as shown by
a rise in cortisol levels), more physiologically
primed for aggression (as shown by a rise in
testosterone levels), more cognitively primed for
aggression, and more likely to engage in
aggressive and dominant behavior. Findings
highlight the insult–aggression cycle in cultures
of honor, in which insults diminish a man's
reputation, and he tries to restore his status
through aggressive or violent behavior.

➝ Social psychologists often venture into that ethical gray area

when they design experiments that engage intense thoughts and
emotions.

Mundane Realism

degree to which an experiment is superficially similar to

everyday situations.

Experimental Realism

degree to which an experiment absorbs and involves its

participants.

Field Research

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 occurs outside of the lab and in a real-world situation

uses real-world situations, such as people shopping at a

grocery store

people in field experiments do not know they are

participating in research, so—in theory—they will act more
naturally

Example: Isen, A. M., & Levin, P. F. (1972).

Effect of feeling good on helping: Cookies and
kindness
➣ This research investigated the effects of a
person's positive affective state on his or her
subsequent helpfulness to others. "Feeling good"
was induced (a) in 52 male undergraduates by
having received cookies while studying in a
library (Study I), and (b) in 24 female and 17
male adults by having found a dime in the coin
return of a public telephone (Study II). In Study
I, where the dependent measure involved
volunteering in reply to a student's request, a
distinction was made between specific willingness
to help and general willingness to engage in any
subsequent activity. In Study II, the dependent
measure was whether Ss spontaneously helped to
pick up papers that were dropped in front of them.
On the basis of previous research, it was
predicted that Ss who were thus made to "feel
good" would be more helpful than control Ss.
Results support the predictions.

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 Demand Characteristics

clues that seem to “demand” certain behavior from

participants.

experimenters typically standardize their instructions or

even use a computer to present them to avoid demand
characteristics.

Ethics in Experimentation
➥ developed by the American Psychological Association (2010),
the Canadian Psychological Association (2000), and the British
Psychological Society (2009) mandate research experimenters to:

tell potential participants enough about the experiment to

enable their informed consent.

be truthful. Use deception only if essential and justified by

a significant purpose and not “about aspects that would
affect their willingness to participate.”

protect participants (and bystanders, if any) from harm and

significant discomfort.

treat information about the individual participants

confidentially.

Debrief participants. Fully explain the experiment afterward,

including any deception. The only exception to this rule is
when the feedback would be distressing, such as by making
participants realize they have been stupid or cruel.

The Different Methods

★ The Experimental Method
Cause and effect relationship between an independent variable
(manipulated) and dependent variable (measured)

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 Independent variable (IV) is the hypothesized cause, while
the dependent variable (DV) is the predicted effect of the IV

Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to authority: an experimental

view

Extraneous variables (EV) - variables that may influence

the DV but which are not part of the study - must be
controlled

Its advantage is its ability to establish cause-and-effect

relationships as a result of isolating an IV and
controlling EVs

A disadvantage is its lack of external validity

(generalizability of the findings) due to the
artificiality of the laboratory setting

➣ Between 1961 and 1965, Milgram carried out a

series of experiments at Yale University in
which human subjects were instructed to
administer what they thought were progressively
more painful electric shocks to another human
being to determine to what extent people would
obey orders even when they knew them to be
painful and immoral. The experiments came under
heavy criticism at the time but were ultimately
vindicated by the scientific community.

Milgram's experiments on obedience to authority

are considered among the most important
psychological studies of this century. Perhaps
because of the enduring significance of the
findings—the surprising ease with which

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 ordinary persons can be commanded to act
destructively against an innocent individual by
a legitimate authority— it continues to claim
the attention of psychologists and other social
scientists, as well as the general public.

In 1963, Milgram published The Behavioral Study

of Obedience in the Journal of Abnormal and
Social Psychology, which included a detailed
experiment record and experiment of the
controversial electric shock experiment. There
were two stunning findings. The first was the
extraordinary strength of the obedience, and
the second was the tension such an experiment
brought to participants. Nevertheless, all
participants reached an electric shock of 300
or more.

★ Quasi-experimental
Method/Naturalistic/Observational
Conducted in a natural environment

The IV is not manipulated by researchers; it occurs naturally

Strengths

There is a very low chance of demand characteristics and

experimenter bias occurring

The natural environment and lack of manipulation means

that everything is natural and realistic; therefore, there
is high ecological validity

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 They are useful in situations where it would be unethical
for the experiment to manipulate a variable

Weaknesses

The experiment has no control over any variable

It is very difficult to replicate, so reliability is

difficult to check

They can be very time-consuming

Example: Cialdini, R. B., Borden, R. J., Thorne,

A., Walker, M. R., Freeman, S., & Sloan, L. R.
(1976). Basking in reflected glory: Three
(football) field studies
➣ The tendency to "bask in reflected glory"
(BIRG) by publicly announcing one's associations
with successful others was investigated in 3 field
experiments with more than 300 university
students. All 3 studies showed this effect to
occur even though the person striving to bask in
the glory of a successful source was not involved
in the cause of the source's success. Exp I
demonstrated the BIRG phenomenon by showing a
greater tendency for university students to wear
school-identifying apparel after their school's
football team had been victorious than
nonvictorious. Exps II and III replicated this
effect by showing that students used the pronoun
we more when describing victory than a nonvictory
of their school's football team. A model was
developed asserting that the BIRG response

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 represents an attempt to enhance one's public
image. Exps II and III indicated, in support of
this assertion, that the tendency to proclaim a
connection with a positive source was strongest
when one's public image was threatened.

★ Correlational Method
To establish whether two or more variables are associated or
related to each other.

Variables are measured, after which a correlational analysis

(ex. Pearson r) is conducted to determine the relationship.

The range of the correlation coefficient or r = zero to one

(0 to +1 or 0 to -1).

0 = no relationship

1 = perfect relationship

+1 = direct relationship ( as X increases = Y increases OR

as X decreases = Y decreases)

-1 = inverse relationship ( as X increases = Y decreases

OR as X decreases = Y increases)

We can also test for the significance of r by checking the

critical r value required that depends on the sample size.

One advantage is that it focuses on the investigation of

naturally occurring variables or those that tend to occur in
the real-world setting.

A disadvantage is that correlation does not necessarily imply

causation.

Example:
➣ In search of possible links (correlation)
between socioeconomic status and health, Douglas

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 Carroll and his colleagues (1994) ventured into
Glasgow, Scotland’s old graveyards, and noted the
life spans of 843 individuals. As an indication of
status, they measured the height of the grave
pillars, reasoning that height reflected cost and,
therefore, affluence. Their results show that
status (taller grave markers) predicted longer
lives. Carroll and colleagues report that other
researchers, using contemporary data, have
confirmed the status–longevity correlation.

➝ Correlation vs causation

Correlations indicate a relationship, but that relationship

is not necessarily one of cause and effect. Correlational
research allows us to predict but cannot tell us whether
one variable (such as social status) causes another (such
as longevity).

★ Survey Method
Survey research offers itself as an invaluable tool for
social psychologists to study individual and group
differences in people’s feelings, attitudes, or behaviors.

Written questionnaires, personal interviews, or focus groups.

Consider the instrument and sampling.

Sampling is an essential issue because erroneous conclusions

may be made if the sample is not representative of the
population being studied.

A major disadvantage is the issue of accuracy.

Examples:
➣ World Values Survey II was based on large

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 representative samples of 19 countries and allowed
researchers to determine that the relationship
between income and subjective well-being was
stronger in poorer countries (Diener & Oishi,
2000). In other words, an increase in income has a
much larger impact on your life satisfaction if
you live in Nigeria than if you live in Canada.

➣ A nationally-representative survey in Germany

with 16,000 respondents revealed that holding
cynical beliefs is related to lower income (e.g.,
between 2003 - 2012 the income of the least
cynical individuals increased by $300 per month,
whereas the income of the most cynical individuals
did not increase at all). Furthermore, survey data
collected from 41 countries revealed that this
negative correlation between cynicism and income
is especially strong in countries where people, in
general, engage in more altruistic behavior and
tend not to be very cynical (Stavrova &
Ehlebracht, 2016).

★ Archival Method
Written records (ex. public and private documents),
statistical archives, and physical traces of human beings are
systematically studied in lieu of actual behaviors.

Records are analyzed for a new purpose.

An advantage is that it allows hypothesis testing over a

wider range of time and societies.

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 Examples:
➣ Analyses of major league baseball games played
during the 1986, 1987, and 1988 seasons showed
that baseball pitchers were more likely to hit
batters with a pitch on hot days (Reifman et al.,
1991).

➣ In an example of research on attitudes about

vaccinations, Mitra and her colleagues (2016)
collected over 3 million tweets sent by more than
32 thousand users over four years. Interestingly,
they found that those who held (and tweeted) anti-
vaccination attitudes were also more likely to
tweet about their mistrust of the government and
beliefs in government conspiracies.

➣ Eichstaedt and his colleagues (2015) used the

language of 826 million tweets to predict
community-level mortality rates from heart
disease. The result: more anger-related words and
fewer positive-emotion words in tweets predicted
higher rates of heart disease.

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 💡 The study of social psychology examines much of the
business of our everyday lives, including our thoughts,
feelings, and behaviors we are unaware or ashamed of. The
desire to carefully and precisely study these topics,
together with advances in technology, has led to the
development of many creative techniques that allow
researchers to explore the mechanics of how we relate to
one another (Jhangiani, R. (2020).

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