Psychology as a Science

1. Psychology as a Science • Develop theories and conduct research to understand behavior, emotion, motivation, cognition • Generate useful knowledge that can be applied to individual and societal problems • For example • research on the effects of media violence • use of science in clinical psychology (see box 1.2) • online dating • techniques to improve learning • studies on attention blindness

2. Research on the effects of media violence • Exposure to media violence causes (Do not need to know these details) • Increase in aggressive thoughts, emotions, and behaviors • Short- and long-term effects • Effects of media violence • Consistent across • Research studies and methods • People • Types of media • Long-term studies • Childhood exposure to media violence → adult aggression • Theories about exposure to violence • “Activates” aggressive cognitions and arousal • Models aggressive behaviors • Desensitizes people to violence • Factors affect likelihood of aggressive response following media violence • Characteristics of viewers • Social environment • Media content • No one is immune to the effects of media violence. • Why is there still a lot of media violence?

3. The Scientific Method • Scientific Method • an abstract concept • not a particular technique or method • ways in which scientists ask questions • the logic and methods they use to gain answers • Two important aspects of the scientific method • reliance on an empirical approach • skeptical attitude • For Example How Do You Know ?

4. The Scientific Method • Empirical approach • Collection and analysis of data • Direct observation of behaviors • Experimentation in which scientists employ systematic control in the situation to be observed • Based in the early history of psychology research which had a similar approach to other sciences such as physics chemistry and astronomy

5. Science in Context • Three influences of context • Historical • Social/Cultural • Moral • Science is embedded in cultural influences • Researchers are influences by culture • Types of questions they study • Willingness to accept findings • Methods used to collect information

6. Science in Context • Historical Context • scientific psychology has increased dramatically in 100 years • Psychology influenced from Philosophy, Physiology and Physics • Psychophysics was an early important area in Psychology • Early psychologists adopted the empirical approach to emulate other sciences such as Biology, Chemistry and Physics • Separated from Philosophy although progress in Psychology has been hampered by publics interest in supernatural and metaphsical events.

7. Science in Context • Social/Cultural Context • Researchquestions, resources, and acceptance of evidence are influenced by the current cultural • Research done primarily within Western cultural • Most subjects are American college students which is a biased sample referred to as WEIRD: White, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic (Henrich, 2010) • Susceptible to ethnocentric bias • A bias in which we try to understand the behavior of individuals in a different culture • For example examine questions of aggression and race rather than nurturance and race • For example: stereotype people based on their dress or hairstyle • More recently cross-cultural psychology examines similarities and differences across cultures

8. Science in Context • Social/Cultural Context • Ethnocentrism • Understand behavior of individuals in different culture through framework of own culture • Be aware of cultural influences. • Consider research questions that go against stereotypes. • Ethnocentric bias influences how we interpret behavior. • Example: Stereotypes based on clothing, hairstyle, body art

9. Science in Context • Moral Context • High standards for integrity and ethical conduct • Integrity is important • Research findings can impact individual and societal problems • Acceptance of controversial findings is difficult • Some obvious issues such as fabricated data, plagiarize, or selectively report research findings. • However other difficult issues related to risk/benefit, deception and use of non-human animals in research • Follow the ethical principles of the American Psychological Association for guidance • Evaluate research dilemmas involving • Risks and benefits • Deception • Animal research

10. Thinking Like a Researcher • Be skeptical • Regarding claims about the causes of behavior and mental processes • Even claims made on the basis of “published” scientific findings • Make decisions based on objective evidence not subjective judgement • Problems with being Skeptical • "Researchers strive to draw conclusions based on empirical evidence rather than their subjective judgment (see box 1.2)."p15 from SZ&Z • “Researchers and juries both seek the truth, but their conclusions are ultimately probabilistic. Certainty is often beyond the grasp of both jurors and scientists." p16 from SZ&Z

11. Thinking Like a Researcher • Use converging evidence across many studies • similar to detectives and others in the legal system. • seek to make decisions based on evidence • Strength of the Evidence • description of behavior • prediction about behavior • evidence for the cause of a behavior • replications (repetitions) of findings for the cause of behavior • The stronger the evidence, the more confident we can be about the claim about behavior.

12. Thinking Like a Researcher • Science and Legal System • Both make decisions based on evidence. • Legal system • Small amount of evidence leads to suspicion • Large amount of evidence is needed to convict

13. Postmodernism and Its Criticshttp://anthropology.ua.edu/cultures/cultures.php?culture=Postmodernism%20and%20Its%20Critics “As an intellectual movement postmodernism was born as a challenge to several modernist themes that were first articulated during the Enlightenment.” “These include scientific positivism, the inevitability of human progress, and the potential of human reason to address any essential truth of physical and social conditions and thereby make them amenable to rational control (Boyne and Rattansi 1990).” “The primary tenets of the postmodern movement include: (1) an elevation of text and language as the fundamental phenomena of existence, (2) the application of literary analysis to all phenomena, (3) a questioning of reality and representation, (4) a critique of metanarratives, (5) an argument against method and evaluation, (6) a focus upon power relations and hegemony, (7) and a general critique of Western institutions and knowledge (Kuznar 2008:78).”

14. Evaluating Reports of Psychological Research • Research findings are reported in journals and various forms of media • Most people are where research findings through media such as the Internet newspapers magazines and TV • Three types of problems with research reports in the media • Reports are not based on research for example self-help books • Some research reported in the media has methodological flaws • Media reports are usually summaries of research that do not include all of the important information

15. Evaluating Reports of Psychological Research • Don’t confuse pseudoscience or non-science with science • there are many misconceptions based on intuition and common sense • Be skeptical but trust good science • Be aware that scientists may disagree • Whenever possible, go to the original source • For example in the articleHow Kristine Barnett nurtured her autistic son’s spark of genius in The Globe and Mail.

16. Getting Started Doing Research • Choose a research topic • based on information from psychology journals, textbooks, and courses. • Working with a hypothesis • a tentative explanation for a phenomenon • stated in the form of a prediction • together with an explanation for the prediction • For Example • Research participants who play violent video games are predicted to behave more aggressively after exposure than participants who passively view television violence • Because video game participants’ aggression is reinforced (rewarded) while playing the game.

17. Getting Started Doing Research • How do I develop a hypothesis to test in my research? • Think about deviations (oddities, exceptions) from a general trend or principle. • Imagine how you would behave in a task or when faced with a specific problem. • Consider similar problems with known solutions. • Make sustained, deliberate observations of a person or phenomenon (e.g., perform a “case study”). • Generate counterexamples for an obvious conclusion about behavior. • Borrow ideas or theories from other disciplines. • Read reports of psychological research.

18. The MultimethodApproachto Psychological Research • There are many psychological research questions and research methods. • No single research method or technique can answer all of the different questions • Obtain a more complete understanding of complex behavior and mental processes. • There is no perfect method for answering questions • each method or measure of behavior has flaws • may be incomplete in its ability to answer research questions

19. References Joseph Henrich, Steven J. Heine and Ara Norenzayana. (2010) The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences / Volume 33 / Issue 2-3 / June 2010, pp 61-83.