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Research Methods in Psychology: Key Takeaways and Exercises

Research Methods in Psychology
Key Takeaways and Exercises

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Notes

table of contents
  1. Acknowledgements
  2. About this Book
  3. About the Authors of the Current Edition
  4. Preface
  5. The Science of Psychology
    1. Methods of Knowing
    2. Understanding Science
    3. Goals of Science
    4. Science and Common Sense
    5. Experimental and Clinical Psychologists
    6. Key Takeaways and Exercises
  6. Overview of the Scientific Method
    1. A Model of Scientific Research in Psychology
    2. Finding a Research Topic
    3. Generating Good Research Questions
    4. Developing a Hypothesis
    5. Designing a Research Study
    6. Analyzing the Data
    7. Drawing Conclusions and Reporting the Results
    8. Key Takeaways and Exercise
  7. Research Ethics
    1. Moral Foundations of Ethical Research
    2. From Moral Principles to Ethics Codes
    3. Putting Ethics Into Practice
    4. Key Takeaways and Exercises
  8. Psychological Measurement
    1. Understanding Psychological Measurement
    2. Reliability and Validity of Measurement
    3. Practical Strategies for Psychological Measurement
    4. Key Takeaways and Exercises
  9. Experimental Research
    1. Experiment Basics
    2. Experimental Design
    3. Experimentation and Validity
    4. Practical Considerations
    5. Key Takeaways and Exercises
  10. Non-Experimental Research
    1. Overview of Non-Experimental Research
    2. Correlational Research
    3. Complex Correlation
    4. Qualitative Research
    5. Observational Research
    6. Key Takeaways and Exercises
  11. Survey Research
    1. Overview of Survey Research
    2. Constructing Surveys
    3. Conducting Surveys
    4. Key Takeaways and Exercises
  12. Quasi-Experimental Research
    1. One-Group Designs
    2. Non-Equivalent Groups Designs
    3. Key Takeaways and Exercises
  13. Factorial Designs
    1. Setting Up a Factorial Experiment
    2. Interpreting the Results of a Factorial Experiment
    3. Key Takeaways and Exercises
  14. Single-Subject Research
    1. Overview of Single-Subject Research
    2. Single-Subject Research Designs
    3. The Single-Subject Versus Group “Debate”
    4. Key Takeaways and Exercises
  15. Presenting Your Research
    1. American Psychological Association (APA) Style
    2. Writing a Research Report in American Psychological Association (APA) Style
    3. Other Presentation Formats
    4. Key Takeaways and Exercises
  16. Descriptive Statistics
    1. Describing Single Variables
    2. Describing Statistical Relationships
    3. Expressing Your Results
    4. Conducting Your Analyses
    5. Key Takeaways and Exercises
  17. Inferential Statistics
    1. Understanding Null Hypothesis Testing
    2. Some Basic Null Hypothesis Tests
    3. Additional Considerations
    4. From the “Replicability Crisis” to Open Science Practices
    5. Key Takeaways and Exercises
  18. Glossary
  19. References

43

Key Takeaways and Exercises

Key Takeaways

  • Researchers often include multiple independent variables in their experiments. The most common approach is the factorial design, in which each level of one independent variable is combined with each level of the others to create all possible conditions.
  • Each independent variable can be manipulated between-subjects or within-subjects.
  • Non-manipulated independent variables (gender) can be included in factorial designs, however, they limit the causal conclusions that can be made about the effects of the non-manipulated variable on the dependent variable.
  • In a factorial design, the main effect of an independent variable is its overall effect averaged across all other independent variables. There is one main effect for each independent variable.
  • There is an interaction between two independent variables when the effect of one depends on the level of the other. Some of the most interesting research questions and results in psychology are specifically about interactions.
  • A simple effects analysis provides a means for researchers to break down interactions by examining the effect of each independent variable at each level of the other independent variable.

Exercises

  • Practice: Return to the five article titles presented at the beginning of this section. For each one, identify the independent variables and the dependent variable.
  • Practice: Create a factorial design table for an experiment on the effects of room temperature and noise level on performance on the MCAT. Be sure to indicate whether each independent variable will be manipulated between-subjects or within-subjects and explain why.
  • Practice: Sketch 8 different bar graphs to depict each of the following possible results in a 2 x 2 factorial experiment:
    • No main effect of A; no main effect of B; no interaction
    • Main effect of A; no main effect of B; no interaction
    • No main effect of A; main effect of B; no interaction
    • Main effect of A; main effect of B; no interaction
    • Main effect of A; main effect of B; interaction
    • Main effect of A; no main effect of B; interaction
    • No main effect of A; main effect of B; interaction
    • No main effect of A; no main effect of B; interaction

Annotate

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Copyright © 2019

                                by Rajiv S. Jhangiani, I-Chant A. Chiang, Carrie Cuttler, & Dana C. Leighton

            Research Methods in Psychology by Rajiv S. Jhangiani, I-Chant A. Chiang, Carrie Cuttler, & Dana C. Leighton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
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