| This Week in Research Methods |
Week of 3/8/10
Week of 3/15/10
- Lecture
- Simple experiments
- Exam Friday
- Lab
- Work on independent project
- Question/Hypothesis
- Variables (IVs, DVs)
- Instruments you need/Operational definitions
- Other details
- Start/Turn in IRB
A note about dois: dois (digital object identifiers) link directly to
articles. You can click the doi links on this page to go to a
downloadable copy of the articles. However, you need to be on a
computer in MTSU's domain to take advantage of the library's
subscription to the journals. If you click dois at home, you will
probably be asked to pay for each article. If you click a doi and it
asks you to pay, look up the article in PsycInfo.
|
| Syllabi |
Purchase the book as an eBook or chapters (lots cheaper):
Chapter scoring (lower numbers mean higher priority, 1 = bare minimum):
1: score = 5
2: score = 1 (terms, propositional logic)
3: score = 5
4: score = 2 (ethics)
5: score = 3 (stats, if you remember it, no need to buy this)
6: score = 3 (stats, if you remember it, no need to buy this)
7: score = 2 (threats to internal validity)
8: score = 1 (experimental design)
9: score = 1 (factorial design, outcomes of a 2X2)
10: score = 3 (within subjects)
11: score = 4 (bias)
12: score = 3 (details of non-experimental designs)
13: score = 3 (single subject designs)
14: score = 2 (surveys)
15: score = 2 (writing)
16: score = 5
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| Course Notes |
- Notes 1 --
Introduction
- Notes 2 -- Science
- Further reading:
- Violation of the scientific attitude (and the harm it can
do): http://www.csicop.org/si/show/autism-vaccine_link_researcher_andrew_wakefield_accused_of_faking_his_data/
- Science versus pseudoscience and risky predictions:
Popper, K. R. (1962). Conjectures
and refutations: The growth of scientific knowledge. New York:
Basic Books. (Chapter 1)
- For more on Popper and problems with using risky
prediction as the basis of the difference between science and
pseudoscience (from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy): http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/
- Pathological science: Langmuir, I., & Hall, R. N.
(1989). Pathological Science. Physics
Today, 42, 36-48. doi:10.1063/1.881205
- The seven warning signs of bogus science: Park, R. L.
(2003). The seven warning signs of bogus science. The Chronicle of
Higher Education, 49, B20. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/The-Seven-Warning-Signs-of/13674
- Examples of people doing the work for you:
- Silver, L. B. (1987). The “magic cure”: A review of the
current controversial approaches for treating learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 20,
498-504, 512. doi:10.1177/002221948702000808
- Lilienfeld, S. O., & Landfield, K. (2008). Science
and pseudoscience in law enforcement: A user-friendly primer. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 35,
1215-1230. doi:10.1177/0093854808321526
- Notes 3 -- Hypotheses
- Notes 4 -- Ethics
- Notes 5 -- Measurement
- Notes 6 -- Kinds of Design
- Notes 7 -- Observation Research
- Notes 8 -- Survey Research
- Notes 9 -- Simple Experiments
- Further reading:
- Why single blind:
- Rosenthal, R., & Fode, K. L. (1963). The effect of
experimenter bias on the performance of the albino rat. Behavioral Science, 8, 183-189.
- Rosenthal, R., Friedman, N., & Kurland, D. (1966).
Instruction-reading behavior of the experimenter as an unintended
determinant of experimental results. Journal
of Experimental Research in Personality, 1, 221-226.
- Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1966). Teachers'
expectancies: Determinants of pupls' IQ gains. Psychological Reports, 19, 115-118.
- Rosenthal, R., Kohn, P., Greenfield, P. M., & Carota,
N. (1966). Data desirability, experimenter expectancy, and the results
of psychological research. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 20-27. doi:10.1037/h0022604
- Demand characteristics:
- King, R. N., & Koehler, D. J. (2000). Illusory
correlations in graphological inference. Journal of Experimental Psychology:
Applied, 6, 336-348. doi:10.1037/1076-898X.6.4.336
- Orne, M. T. (1962). On the social psychology of the
psychological experiment: With particular reference to demand
characteristics and their implications. American Psychologist, 17, 776-783.
doi:10.1037/h0043424
- Rozin, P., Millman, L., & Nemeroff, C. (1986).
Operation of the laws of sympathetic magic in disgust and other
domains. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 50, 703-712. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.50.4.703
- Notes 10 -- Within Participants
Designs
- Notes 11 -- Designs with More
Than Two Groups, One IV
- Notes 12 -- Factorial Designs
- Notes 14 -- Non-experimental
Designs
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| Homework |
Homeworks/Quizzes:
- Homework 1: Complete personality measures.
- Homeworks 2 and 3: Find an article based on assignments in
lab and present that article to lab the week of 2/8. (Completed 3/3/10.)
- Homeworks 4 and 5: Complete IRB training (due by the time
you are ready to submit your project).
- Homework 6: Complete draft of title page, method, and
results (due 3/3; email them, use this format for the file name:
LASTNAMEMR.docx, e.g. LANGSTONMR.docx).
Recent quizzes are posted.
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| Lab Notes/Exercises |
Writing papers
- A paper
format template (downloads a pdf sample one experiment paper for
you to use for formatting, references, etc.)
- The link to the APA
style page (look at the tutorial for style and formatting tips)
Writing tips
Exercises
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| Resources |
Project data and information
The sources below are
numbered based on the annotated bibliography in
the introduction and discusion
sections notes above.
Remember: You need a citation for every
statement of fact. If you took it from somewhere and you fail to cite
it, that's plagiarism. Everything you cite needs to go into the
reference list so that someone could find it.
Articles (placed on the shelf outside my office, JH 348,
borrow only from the shelf, don't keep them)
Web pages and articles
I
could
direct link
Articles you can get
electronically
(APA articles will require registration to view.)
- Number 1: Claridge, Clark, Powney, & Hassan (2008).
doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2007.09.006
- Number 2: Davies (1997). doi: 10.1006/jrpe.1997.2173
- Number 3: Baillargeon & Danis (1984). doi: 10.1207/s15327752jpa4804
(PsycInfo thinks this is the doi, but it won't resolve. You can find
the article in PsycInfo using the names and the year. I'm leaving it in
case it's a temporary glitch.)
- Number 4: MacDonald & Standing (2002). doi: 10.2224/sbp.2002.30.6.625
- Number 6: Greasley (2000). doi: 10.1027//1016-9040.5.1.44
- Number 7: Thiry (2009). doi: 10.1027/1192-5604.30.1.26
- Number 12: Schultheiss, O. C. (2007). A memory-systems
approach to the classification of personality tests: Comment on Meyer
and Kurtz (2006). Journal of
Personality Assessment, 89, 197-201. (Get it from PsycInfo.)
- Number 13: Goffin & Boyd (2009). doi: 10.1037/a0015946
- Number 14: Furnham, A., Chamorro-Premuzic, T., &
Callahan, I. (2003). Does graphology predict personality and
intelligence? Individual Differences
Research, 1, 78-94. (Get it from PsycInfo.)
- Number 15: Vernon (1934). doi: 10.1037/h0074033
- Number 16: Butcher, Keller, & Bacon (1985). doi: 10.1037/0022-006X.53.6.803
- Number 17: Meehl (1956). doi: 10.1037/h0044164
- Number 18: Towbin (1960). doi: 10.1037/h0043277
- Number 19: Forbey & Ben-Porath (2007). doi: 10.1037/1040-3590.19.1.14
- Number 20: Shultz, Gibeau, & Barry (1968). doi: 10.1002/1097-4679(196810)24:4<430::AID-JCLP2270240411>3.0.CO;2-O
- Number 24: Birge (1954). doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1954.tb01150.x
- Number 26: Klimoski, R. J., & Rafaeli, A. (1983).
Inferring personal qualities through handwriting analysis. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 56,
191-202. (Get it from PsycInfo.)
- Number 27: Taft (1967). doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1967.tb01449.x
- Number 28: Boyce, T. E., & Geller, E. S. (2002). Using
the Barnum effect to teach psychological research methods. Teaching of Psychology, 29,
316-318. (Get it from PsycInfo.)
- Number 29: Rosen (1975). doi: 10.1037/h0076289
- Number 30: Glick, Gottesman, & Jolton (1989). doi: 10.1177/0146167289154010
- Number 31: Dmitruk, Collins, & Clinger (1973). doi: 10.1037/h0035106
- Number 32: Layne (1979). doi: 10.1037/0022-006X.47.1.219
- Number 33: Christman, Henning, Geers, Propper, &
Niebauer (2008). doi: 10.1080/13576500802079646
Independent
project ideas
Instead of the current lab manual, you may choose
project ideas from this list:
- Superstition (Skinner's pigeon study)
- Skinner, B. F. (1948). ‘Superstition’ in the pigeon. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 38,
168-172. doi:10.1037/h0055873
- Detecting people staring at you
- Baker, R. A. (2000). Can we tell when someone is staring
at us? Skeptical Inquirer, 24,
34-40. (Academic OneFile)
- The Forer/Barnum effect
- Forer, B. R. (1949). The fallacy of personal validation:
A classroom demonstration of gullibility. The Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology, 44, 118-123. doi:10.1037/h0059240
- Heuristics and biases in support of paranormal belief
- Bressan, P. (2002). The connection between random
sequences, everyday coincidences, and belief in the paranormal. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 16,
17-34. doi:10.1002/acp.754
- Personality and paranormal belief
- Auton, H. R., Pope, J., & Seeger, G. (2003). It isn’t
that strange: Paranormal belief and personality traits. Social Behavior and Personality, 31,
711-720. doi:10.2224/sbp.2003.31.7.711
- Graphology and personality
- Furnham, A., Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Callahan, I.
(2003). Does graphology predict personality and intelligence? Individual Differences Research, 1,
78-94. (PsycInfo)
- Social influences on paranormal belief
- Markovsky, B., & Thye, S. R. (2001). Social influence
on paranormal beliefs. Sociological
Perspectives, 44, 21-44. doi:10.1525/sop.2001.44.1.21
- False memory and paranormal belief
- French, C. C. (2003). Fantastic memories: The relevance
of research into eyewitness testimony and false memories for reports of
anomalous experiences. Journal of
Consciousness Studies, 10, 153-174. (ILL or see me)
- Wiseman, R., Greening, E., & Smith, M. (2003). Belief
in the paranormal and suggestion in the séance room. British Journal of Psychology, 94,
285-297. doi:10.1348/000712603767876235
- ReverseSpeech
- Kreiner, D. S., Altis, N. A., & Voss, C. W. (2003). A
test of the effect of reverse speech on priming. The Journal of Psychology, 137,
224-232. (PsycInfo)
- Langston, W., & Anderson, J. C. (2000). Talking
Back(wards): A test of the Reverse Speech hypothesis: Are listeners
able to detect the emotional content of backward speech? Skeptic, 8, 30-35. (Academic
OneFile)
- The ideomotor effect and paranormal belief
- Hyman, R. (1999). The mischief-making of ideomotor
action. The Scientific Review of
Alternative Medicine, 3, 34-43. (ILL or see me)
- Magical thinking
- Pronin, E., Wegner, D. M., McCarthy, K., & Rodriguez,
S. (2006). Everyday magical powers: The role of apparent mental
causation in the overestimation of personal influence. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 91, 218-231. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.91.2.218
IRB resources
Sample exams
Finding scales and measures
- Check out the various volumes of the Directory of
Unpublished Experimental Mental Measures in the Reserve Room. These
books list over 6,000 test instruments with references. You
can read the blurb for the latest volume here.
Evaluating sources
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| Links |
Correlation research, the media, and
the importance of thinking
Here are some links to media reports on the link between psychosis and
marijuana use. Note the uneven treatment of caveats about correlation
research, and the presentation of alternative explanations:
And a critical analysis:
What this shows is not that there is or isn't a link (you would need to
look closely at the original research to determine that; there may be a
link). What this shows is that when you see a study reported, you need
to look for yourself and not take the report at face value.
Research methods and
experiments
Undergraduate research support
- MTSU Undergraduate Research Experience and Creative
Activity grants (URECA) (The
link is to the undergraduate research center website; you'll need to
click the URECA link.)
- MTSU McNair Scholars
Program
Science and skepticism
Note: These are presented for informational purposes. I don't endorse
everything here, and unbridled skepticism is as silly
as unbridled acceptance. That said, dig in.
? (Ideas?)
Fun with skepticism and science
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