Conducting Research in Psychology Measuring the Weight of Smoke

by Pelham, Brett W.; Blanton, Hart

• ISBN13: 9780534532949
• ISBN10: 0534532942
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-02-27
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

Summary

Using humor and interesting examples that students can understand and relate to, authors Brett W. Pelham and Hart Blanton have written an informative and comprehensive research methods text that your students will really enjoy. This brief book includes hands-on activities that involve learning by doing, methodology exercises that encourage students to use their intuitions to understand research methods, and methodology problems that teach students to apply basic research principles to novel problems.

Table of Contents

How Do We Know?	p. 1
Introduction: What This Text Is About	p. 1
A Few Quick Tips for Using This Text	p. 2
Preamble for Chapter 1	p. 2
A Brief History of Human Knowledge	p. 4
Metaphysical Systems	p. 4
Philosophy	p. 6
Physiology and the Physical Sciences	p. 7
Experimental Psychology	p. 7
The Four Canons of Science	p. 8
Determinism	p. 8
Empiricism	p. 12
Parsimony	p. 14
Testability	p. 17
Four Ways of Knowing About the World	p. 21
Summary	p. 24
Study Questions	p. 24
Notes	p. 25
How Do We Find Out? The Logic, Art, and Ethics of Scientific Discovery	p. 26
The Logic of Scientific Discovery	p. 27
Laws, Theories, and Hypotheses	p. 27
The Science of Observation	p. 31
Three Approaches to Hypothesis Testing	p. 34
The Art of Scientific Discovery	p. 44
Inductive Techniques for Developing Ideas	p. 45
Deductive Techniques for Developing Ideas	p. 47
The Ethics of Scientific Discovery	p. 50
The Evolution of Ethical Guidelines	p. 50
Modern Internal Review Boards and Risk-Benefit Analyses	p. 52
A Primer in Ethical Guidelines	p. 54
Summary	p. 57
Study Questions	p. 57
Notes	p. 58
Moving From Fact to Truth: Validity, Reliability, and Measurement	p. 59
Three Strange Stories	p. 60
Validity	p. 61
Internal Validity	p. 61
External Validity	p. 63
Construct Validity	p. 64
Conceptual Validity	p. 65
Reliability	p. 68
Reliability, Validity, and the "More Is Better" Rule	p. 72
Measurement Scales	p. 73
Nominal Scales	p. 74
Ordinal Scales	p. 74
Interval Scales	p. 74
Ratio Scales	p. 75
The Validity of Measurement Assumptions	p. 75
Summary	p. 76
Study Questions	p. 77
Moving From Notions to Numbers: Psychological Measurement	p. 78
Converting Notions to Numbers: The Two Major Challenges	p. 80
The Judgment Phase	p. 81
Walking a Mile in Someone Else's Moccasins: Perspective Taking	p. 81
Wording Questions Well for Everyone: Being Clear and Simple	p. 86
The Response Translation Phase	p. 97
The Number of Scale Points	p. 97
The Importance of Anchors	p. 98
Putting It All Together: The EGWA Scale	p. 103
Special Cases Require Special Scales	p. 103
From Writing Questions to Creating Scales	p. 105
Three Steps to Designing Questionnaires	p. 106
Alternate Measures	p. 107
Summary	p. 112
Study Questions	p. 113
How Do We Misinterpret? Common Threats to Validity	p. 115
One Strange and Lucrative Story	p. 116
People Are Different	p. 117
Individual Differences and "Third Variables"	p. 117
Selection Bias and Nonresponse Bias	p. 118
People Change	p. 120
History and Maturation	p. 121
Regression Toward the Mean	p. 122
The Process of Studying People Changes People	p. 125
Testing Effects	p. 126
Experimental Mortality (Attrition)	p. 128
Participant Reaction Bias	p. 130
Experimenter Bias	p. 135
Moving From Three Threats to Two: Confounds and Artifacts	p. 137
Confounds	p. 137
Artifacts	p. 140
Confounds Versus Artifacts	p. 143
Summary	p. 143
Study Questions	p. 143
Note	p. 144
Nonexperimental Research Designs	p. 145
Describing the World of a Single Participant: Case Studies	p. 145
Please Don't Try This at Home: The Case of Phineas Gage	p. 146
My Life as a Dog: The Case of Stephen D.	p. 147
Really, Really Late Night with Peter Tripp	p. 148
The Life and Very Hard Times of Sarah	p. 149
The Man Who Forgot His Wife and His Hat	p. 150
What Makes a Case Study Scientific?	p. 152
Describing the State of the World at Large: Single-Variable Research	p. 153
Population Surveys	p. 154
Epidemiological Research	p. 156
Research on Public Opinion	p. 157
Limitations and Drawbacks of Population Surveys	p. 159
Single-Variable Convenience Samples	p. 160
Describing Associations: Multiple-Variable Research	p. 161
Correlational Methods	p. 161
Person Confounds	p. 163
Environmental Confounds	p. 163
Operational Confounds	p. 163
A Reminder About Reverse Causality	p. 165
Archival Research	p. 166
Observational Research	p. 170
Confounds Can Be Measured Too!	p. 172
Summary	p. 174
Study Questions	p. 174
Notes	p. 175
Experience Carefully Planned: Experimental Research Designs	p. 176
A Wonderful Method	p. 176
A Brief History of True Experiments	p. 177
Strengths of True Experiments	p. 182
True Experiments Eliminate Individual Differences	p. 182
True Experiments Eliminate Other Kinds of Confounds	p. 184
True Experiments Pull Researchers Into the Laboratory	p. 186
True Experiments Allow Researchers to Observe the Invisible	p. 186
True Experiments Provide Information About Statistical Interactions	p. 188
True Experiments Minimize Noise	p. 189
A Summary of Experimentation	p. 190
Are True Experiments Realistic?	p. 190
The Problem: Artificiality	p. 191
The Solution: Two Forms of Realism	p. 192
Is There a Recipe for Experimental Realism?	p. 197
Trade-Offs Between Internal and External Validity	p. 198
The "How-To"s of Laboratory Studies	p. 202
Setting the Stage	p. 202
Rehearsing and Playing the Part	p. 204
When the Study Is Done: Replicate as Needed	p. 206
Summary	p. 208
Study Questions	p. 209
Notes	p. 209
Experience Carefully Exploited: Quasi-Experimental Research Designs	p. 211
One Very Old Story	p. 211
Why Quasi-Experiments?	p. 213
Kinds of Quasi-Experiments	p. 214
Person-by-Treatment Quasi-Experiments	p. 214
Natural Experiments	p. 219
Nature and Treatment Designs	p. 221
Comparability	p. 224
Patched-Up Designs	p. 225
Evaluating a Teaching Tool	p. 226
Would a Rose by Any Other Name Move to Rosemont?	p. 232
When True Experiments and Quasi-Experiments Collide	p. 235
Summary	p. 240
Study Questions	p. 240
Notes	p. 241
Choosing the Right Research Design	p. 242
One Obscure Movie	p. 242
One-Way Designs	p. 243
Factorial Designs	p. 245
Ins and Outs of Factorial Designs	p. 245
Main Effects	p. 247
Interactions	p. 249
Within-Subjects Designs	p. 258
Advantages of Within-Subjects Designs	p. 258
Disadvantages of Within-Subjects Designs	p. 260
Solutions	p. 262
Mixed-Model Designs	p. 266
Summary	p. 267
Study Questions	p. 267
Notes	p. 268
A Brief Course in Statistics	p. 270
Descriptive Statistics	p. 270
Central Tendency and Dispersion	p. 271
The Shape of Distributions	p. 273
Inferential Statistics	p. 276
Probability Theory	p. 278
A Study of Cheating	p. 281
Things That Go Bump in the Light: Factors That Influence the Results of Significance Tests	p. 284
Alpha Levels and Type I and II Errors	p. 284
Effect Size and Significance Testing	p. 285
Measurement Error and Significance Testing	p. 285
Sample Size and Significance Testing	p. 286
Restriction of Range and Significance Testing	p. 286
The Changing State of the Art: Alternate Perspectives on Statistical Hypothesis Testing	p. 287
Estimates of Effect Size	p. 288
Meta-Analysis	p. 290
Summary	p. 292
Study Questions	p. 292
Notes	p. 293
Telling the World About It	p. 294
The Hourglass Approach to Empirical Research Papers	p. 295
Some "Rules" to Writing Research Papers	p. 298
Be Correct	p. 298
Be Clear	p. 298
Be Comprehensive (but Discerning)	p. 301
Be Concise	p. 302
Be (Somewhat) Cautious	p. 304
Be Assertive	p. 305
Be Predictable	p. 306
Be Creative	p. 307
Be Original (and Cite Your Lack of Originality)	p. 308
Be Gender Neutral	p. 309
Be Easy on the Eyes	p. 309
No More Rules	p. 311
How to Give a Good Talk in Psychology (by Daniel T. Gilbert)	p. 311
Have a Plan	p. 311
Tell the Plan	p. 313
Start at the Beginning	p. 313
Be Painfully Clear	p. 314
Talk About One Interesting Thing	p. 315
Take Charge of the Interaction	p. 316
End at the End	p. 317
Summary	p. 317
Study Questions	p. 318
Putting Your Knowledge to Work: 20 Methodology Problems	p. 319
In Search of a Delicious, Low-Fat TV Show	p. 320
Let's Get Supernatural	p. 320
Fly Away Home	p. 320
Impressive Pickup Lines	p. 321
Clever Who?	p. 321
Life Sucks and So You Die	p. 322
On the Drawbacks of Liking Yourself	p. 322
The Early Bird Gets the Win?	p. 323
Testosterone Makes Better Dive Bombers	p. 323
Working Your Fingers to the Dean's List	p. 324
To Thine Own Selves Be True	p. 324
A Rosy Mood by Any Other Name?	p. 324
Old Geniuses Never Die Young?	p. 325
Sampling Student Opinion	p. 325
I'm Speechless	p. 326
He May Be Small but He's Slow	p. 327
Everyone's a Winner	p. 328
Can a Couple of Beers Really Go Straight to Your Belly?	p. 328
What's in a Name?	p. 328
Are You Threatening Me?	p. 329
Coda	p. 331
Hands-On Activities	p. 332
Hands-On Activity 1	p. 332
Galileo's Dice	p. 332
Group 1 (the Logical Counters of Ways)	p. 333
Group 2 (the Logical Expected Evaluators)	p. 333
Groups 3 and/or 4 (the Empiricists)	p. 333
What About Intuition and Authority?	p. 334
More Detailed Instructions for Groups 1 and 2	p. 334
Questions	p. 336
Hands-On Activity 2	p. 336
Regression Toward the Mean	p. 336
Questions for Group Discussion	p. 338
Special Notes to the Instructor	p. 338
Hands-On Activity 3	p. 339
A Double-Blind Taste Test with Popular Colas	p. 339
Information for the Experimenter	p. 339
Instructions for Participants in the Cola Taste Test	p. 340
Questions for Students	p. 340
Hands-On Activity 4	p. 344
The Stroop Interference Effect	p. 344
Advance Preparation	p. 345
Task Instructions	p. 345
Methodological Notes	p. 346
Methodology Exercises	p. 349
Methodology Exercise 1	p. 349
Partial Correlation	p. 349
Hypothetical Data From Observational Study of Cookie Thefts	p. 350
A Question	p. 350
More Data	p. 351
Complete Data for Observational Study of Cookie Thefts	p. 351
More Questions	p. 352
Methodology Exercise 2	p. 352
Random Assignment	p. 352
Questions	p. 354
Methodology Exercise 3	p. 354
Interactions	p. 354
Methodology Exercise 4	p. 357
Repeated Measures Designs	p. 357
Questions	p. 359
How to Describe the Results of Statistical Analyses	p. 361
The Mysterious Spheres	p. 362
The Murder Rate Study	p. 362
The Survey Study of Apathy and Energy	p. 364
The Newlywed Marriage Study	p. 366
The Stereotyping Study	p. 369
A Brief Return to Roberto and to the Newlywed Study	p. 372
The Duck in the Drugstore Study	p. 373
Notes	p. 376
The Role of Status in Producing Depressed Entitlement in Women's and Men's Pay Allocations	p. 377
Glossary	p. 397
References	p. 409
Name Index	p. 419
Subject Index	p. 423
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