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PSYC 235: Research Methods. ALT DESIGN. Quasi Experiments. Differences between lab and natural experiments. Control Internal validity External validity Basic and applied goals Consequences Practical limitations GOALS – to ENHANCE internal and external validity.
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PSYC 235: Research Methods ALT DESIGN
Differences between lab and natural experiments • Control • Internal validity • External validity • Basic and applied goals • Consequences • Practical limitations • GOALS – to ENHANCE internal and external validity
Control – threats to internal validity • History (events other than tx) • Maturation • Repeated testing • Instrumentation changes • Regression to the mean • Selection and interaction with selection • Subject mortality and attrition
External Validity - generalizability • Subjects • Situations • Task • Time
Subject variables: e.g. developmental research • Correlation does not equal causation!!!! • Cross sectional • Longitudinal • Time lag • Cross sequential • Major confounds of each
Combining Quasi and True IV • E.g. age + ritalin, diagnosis + task difficulty, gender + video content • Importance of the interaction
Natural Treatments – ex post facto • Smoking in the psychiatric ward • Improving the basic design • Non-equivalent conrtol group
Interrupted time series • Will lowering the BAC from .1 to .08 reduce drunk-driving fatalities? • Do people drink more in college than at other times )or other places)? • Do women who wear more makeup make more money than women who don’t? • Would eliminating PSYC 235 from the curriculum increase the number of psychology majors?
Small n research • Nomothetic versus Idiographic • Advantages of each • Disadvantages of each
Small n: Applied Behavior Analysis • Skinnerian versus statistical traditions • Designs • AB • ABA • ABAB • Alternating treatments (e.g. ABCA) • Example: Behavioral Contrast • Multiple baseline designs
Psychophysical designs • Signal detection theory • Discriminability (d’) • Bias (B)