PSYCO 105: Individual and Social Behaviour

1. PSYCO 105: Individual and Social Behaviour Lecture 1: The Ways and Means of Psychology

2. What is psychology? • Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behaviour • The scientific study of the causes of behaviour; also the application of the findings of psychological research to the solution of problems (Carlson et al., 2000)

3. Fields of Psychology • Biological Foundations • Individual and Social Behaviour • Applied Psychology

4. Biological Foundations • Physiological Psychology • Psychophysiology • Comparative Psychology • Behaviour Analysis • Behaviour Genetics • Cognitive Psychology • Experimental Neuropsychology

5. Individual and Social Behaviour • Developmental Psychology • Social Psychology • Personality Psychology • Cross-Cultural Psychology • Clinical Psychology

6. Applied Psychology • Organizational Psychology • Educational Psychology • Health Psychology • Community Psychology • Engineering Psychology (Human Factors)

7. Ways of Knowing • Tenacity (Faith) • Authority • Consensus • Reason • Observation

8. Goals of Psychology To “understand” human behaviour • Describe • Explain • Predict • Control

9. Research Strategies • Experimentation • Correlational Studies • Descriptive Studies

10. Independent Variable The factor that is systematically manipulated so that the researcher can examine its effect on a dependent variable. Dependent Variable The variable (usually a behaviour) that is affected by the independent variable. Experimentation

11. Research Settings • Laboratory Studies • Field Studies

12. Data Collection Methods • Self-Report • Questionnaires • Interviews • Observational Methods • Naturalistic Observation • Participant Observation • Tests

13. Ethics • Informed Consent • Risks and Benefits • Deception • Privacy, Confidentiality, and Anonymity • Special Groups

14. Informed Consent • A description of the study should be provided in advance, including mention of: the purpose of the research; expected benefits of the research; methods (tasks to be performed); any effects, risks or inconveniences of the procedure; rights of the participant; and any possible alternative procedures.

15. Risks and Benefits • The onus is on the researcher to avid or minimize risks to the subjects, both in carrying out the research and in publication of the results.

16. Deception • Deception is a situation in which subjects have essential information withheld and/or are intentionally misled about procedures and purposes. A thorough debriefing is particularly important in studies involving deception.

17. Privacy, Confidentiality and Anonymity • Personal information given by the subject will be confidential. Wherever possible, the researcher will take steps to ensure the anonymity of the subjects.

18. Vulnerable Groups • Special care must be taken with vulnerable groups to ensure ethical treatment (e.g., prisoners, people with mental disabilities, other cultures, etc.)

19. Bias in Psychological Research • Random Error • Causes random variability in DV • Systematic Error or Bias • Causes nonrandom variability in DV other than that caused by the IV.

20. Types of Bias • Sample Bias • Measurement Bias • Observer’s (Researcher’s) Bias • Subject’s Bias

21. Sample Biases Random assignment Measurement Biases Validity Reliability Sample and Measurement Biases

22. Observer-Expectancy Effects Single-blind studies Subject-Expectancy Effects Double-blind studies Placebo Observer’s and Subject’s Biases

23. Descriptive Statistics • Central Tendency • Mean • Median • Variability • Standard deviation

24. Assessing Relations • Correlation Coefficient • A measurement of the degree to which two variables are related. • Scatterplot • A graphic representation of a correlation; one value is plotted against the horizontal axis and the other against the vertical axis.

25. Inferential Statistics • Statistical Significance • The likelihood that an observed relation or difference between two variables is not due to chance factors