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Research Strategies

OUTLINE OF RESOURCES
Getting Started
Activities and Demonstrations

Critical Thinking Activity: Fact or Falsehood? 36 Building Vocabulary: Exploring Root Words 36 Building Vocabulary: Matching 36 Graphic Organizer: Making Sense of Research Methods 36

Why Is Research Important?
Digital Connection

DVD/Online: Discovering Psychology, Module 2: “Understanding Research” 37 DVD: Scientific American Frontiers, Second Edition, Segment 3: “Aliens Have Landed?” 37 DVD: Research Methods in Psychology 37 DVD: Research Methods for the Social Sciences 37
Activities and Demonstrations

Critical Thinking Activity: The Limits of Human Intuition 38 Critical Thinking Activity: Value of Empirical Investigation 38 Critical Thinking Activity: Astrology and the Scientific Method 39 Evaluation Activity: The Scientific Approach 41

Observation and Bias
Activities and Demonstrations

Critical Thinking Activity: The Overconfidence Phenomenon 41 Critical Thinking Activity: The Confirmation Bias 42 Application Activity: A Field Experiment in Helping 42 Cooperative Learning Activity: Naturalistic Observation 43

Case Studies
Enrichment

Enrichment Lesson: Genie and the Wild Child: Case Studies in Focus 44

Correlation
Digital Connection

Technology Application Activity: PsychSim: “Correlations” 44
Activities and Demonstrations

Critical Thinking Activity: Correlating Test-Taking Time and Performance 44

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Critical Thinking Activity: Evaluating Media Reports of Research 45 Application Activity: Correlation and the Challenger Disaster 46
Enrichment

Enrichment Lesson: Understanding Correlations 46

Surveys
Activities and Demonstrations

Critical Thinking Activity: The Wording of Survey Questions 48 Cooperative Learning Activity: Designing and Distributing Surveys 48

Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Studies
Digital Connection

DVD/Online: Scientific American Frontiers, Second Edition, Segment 4: “Return to the Wild” 49 Videocassette/DVD: The Up Series 49

Experiments
Digital Connection

DVD: The Power of Belief 49 Online Video: Facilitated Communication: Prisoners of Silence 49 DVD: Scientific American Frontiers, Second Edition, Segment 1: “Tackling a Killer Disease” 50 Technology Application Activity: Psychological Research on the Internet 51
Activities and Demonstrations

Critical Thinking Activity: Demonstrating Experimental Design Logic 51 Critical Thinking Activity: Finding Meaning in the Method 52 Application Activity: Writing Experimental Hypotheses 53 Application Activity: Writing Operational Definitions 53 Application Activity: Identifying Independent and Dependent Variables 54 Cooperative Learning Activity: A Tasty Sample(r): Teaching About Sampling Using M&Ms® 55 Application Activity: Selecting Appropriate Research Methods 55 Evaluation Activity: More Cases Are Better Than Fewer 56 Critical Thinking Activity: Sample Size 57

Research Ethics
Digital Connection

Videocassette: Perception and Action: The Contribution and Importance of Nonhuman Animal Research in Psychology 57 Videocassette: The Importance of Lab Animal Researach in Psychology: Psychopharmacology 58
Activities and Demonstrations

Application Activity: Ethics in Research 58 Role-Playing Activity: Animal Care and Use Committee 59

Alternative Assessment/Portfolio Project: Applying Research Skills 59 Handouts
2–1 Fact or Falsehood? 2–2 Exploring Root Words 2–3 Matching

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2–4 2–5 2–6a 2–6b 2–7 2–8 2–9 2–10 2–11 2–12 2–13 2–14 2–15 2–16 2–17

Making Sense of Research Methods Value of Empirical Investigation—Record Sheet Birthdays: March 22–September 22 Birthdays: After September 22 and Before March 22 Gay Men Show Cell Distinction Survey Questions Reaction Time Template Writing Experimental Hypotheses Writing Operational Definitions Identifying Independent and Dependent Variables M&M Data Sheet Random Samples Sample Size Ethics in Research Animal Care and Use Committee

Blackline Masters
2–1 2–2a 2–2b 2–3 2–4 The Limits of Human Intuition Challenger Correlations Challenger Correlations Figure 2.3 Table 2.2

MODULE ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS AND OBJECTIVES
After completing their study of this chapter, students should be able to: • discuss the advantage of the scientific research method over other ways of knowing. • identify ways bias influences research outcomes. • discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the case study method. • understand the difference between causation and correlation. • identify the advantages and disadvantages of the survey method. • create sound operational definitions for experimental hypotheses. • understand the difference between independent and dependent variables. • identify possible confounds in research and ways to control for such confounds. • evaluate the importance of double-blind procedures and placebo controls. • evaluate the importance of statistics in the research process. • evaluate the importance of replication to the research process. • summarize the ethical principles for working with humans in research. • determine why animals are important to psychological research and the ethical considerations for working with them.

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MODULE OUTLINE Getting Started
Critical Thinking Activity: Fact or Falsehood?

Concept: Students’ preconceptions about psychology can color their understanding of the material. This quick exercise can expose inaccurate preconceptions and reinforce preconceptions that are correct. Materials: Handout 2–1 Description: Before reading the module, distribute the handout to students. They should circle the T if they believe the statement is true and F if they believe the statement is false. The correct answers to Handout 2–1 are shown below and can be confirmed in the text. 1. F 4. T 7. F 2. F 5. F 8. F 3. F 6. T 9. F Discussion: This activity can be an effective pre-reading strategy. Students will be primed to look for information that confirms or negates their own preconceptions, making them more likely to be attentive to difficult concepts.
Building Vocabulary: Exploring Root Words

Concept: Many terms in this module are technical, but their root words are commonly known. This handout will enable students to explore the root words of the terms to understand them better. Materials: Handout 2–2 Description: Distribute the handout to the students. They are to look up each root word and write one or two sentences discussing how the root word’s meaning relates to the meaning of the term found in the text. Discussion: Because technical jargon often feels overwhelming to students, breaking down the words into their roots makes them more accessible. It also provides a lesson in how to figure out the definitions of words without using a dictionary: If you know the root words, you can figure out what the new word means. ❖ Making Multicultural Connections: Nonnative English-speaking students can benefit from this activity in that they are exposed to both the root word and the technical term. Also, the skill of breaking down a word into its roots is fundamental to understanding English in general.
Building Vocabulary: Matching

Concept: This handout will challenge students to study the definitions in the text. Materials: Handout 2–3 Description: Assign the handout for classwork or homework, reviewing with students the answers when they have completed the assignment. Discussion: This assignment will help students review the definitions in the module.
Graphic Organizer: Making Sense of Research Methods

Concept: Graphic organizers provide a visual format to help students organize their notes from the text. Materials: Handout 2–4 Description: Assign the graphic organizer as a classwork or homework assignment to help students understand how the concepts in the module relate to each other.

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Independent Learning Option: Students can fill out the organizer independently using the text either as classwork or homework. If you decide to lecture from the text, students can fill out the information as you discuss it. The handout can easily be used as a transparency master. You can either fill it in as you lecture or reveal answers for students to check after they have filled it out for themselves. ❖ Cooperative Learning Option: Students can fill in the organizer in groups of two or more as a classwork assignment. You can use the master copy to make a transparency that reveals answers to the groups after they have finished. ❖ Option for Students with Special Needs: Often, individualized education plans call for teachers to provide notes for students with special needs, so the graphic organizer can come in handy to help these students with notes. You can either provide them a completed organizer to use as a guide during class lectures and discussions, or you can provide a blank organizer for them to complete while other students take traditional notes. The organizer may be taken home to complete as a reading comprehension guide for the textbook.

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Why Is Research Important?
Digital Connection
DVD/Online: Discovering Psychology: Module 2: “Understanding Research”

This Discovering Psychology program describes how psychologists use the scientific method to study human behavior. Researchers use interviews, surveys, psychological tests, and experiments to separate fact from fiction. The program reviews several concepts and principles from Module 4 of the text, including hypothesis testing, correlation, replication, experimental and control conditions, random sampling, and random assignment. Narrator Philip Zimbardo argues that those who understand the scientific process are better equipped to think critically and to evaluate everyday claims about human nature. Highlights include Jerome Frank’s discussion of psychic healers, Daryl Bem’s “mind-reading” demonstration, and Leonard Saxe’s evaluation of the polygraph. (Annenberg/CPB Project, 30 minutes) For viewing and ordering information, please visit www.learner.org/resources/series138.html.
DVD: Scientific American Frontiers, Second Edition, Segment 3: “Aliens Have Landed?”

See the Faculty Guide that accompanies the Scientific American Frontiers series for a description.
DVD: Research Methods in Psychology

This video offers an overview of descriptive, observational, and experimental methods in researching human behavior. A study examining the relationship of violent video games and aggression is profiled. (Insight Media, 2001, 30 minutes) For ordering information, please visit www.insight-media.com.
DVD: Research Methods and the Social Sciences

This video provides a general overview of research methods as they are used in psychology and other related social sciences. (Insight Media, 1995, 33 minutes) For ordering information, please visit www.insight-media.com.

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Activities and Demonstrations
Critical Thinking Activity: The Limits of Human Intuition

Concept: Intuition sometimes blunders. In Uncommon Sense: The Heretical Nature of Science, physicist Alan Cromer gives many examples of how our intuition is often wrong, even when it comes to physical reality. Materials: Blackline Master 2–1. This master can also be used as a handout master. Description: Present the transparency on an overhead for class discussion or give the handout to each student as an independent learning assignment. Explanations of each question are given below. • If you drop a bullet off a table 3 feet high, and fire another one straight across an empty football field, which hits the ground first? Although intuition tells us that the dropped bullet lands first because it has only 3 feet to travel, in reality both bullets hit at the same time because downward velocity is independent of horizontal velocity. • A ball rolls down a spiral track. The end of the track curves left. What path does the ball take when it leaves the track? Although intuition suggests that it curves, because an object continues to move in the same direction, the correct answer is that it follows a straight line to the left. Only objects acted on by a constant lateral force curve. • A wooden cube is 1 inch long on each side. How many cubes form a cube 2 inches along each side? Intuition says two, because a 2-inch cube is twice as big as a 1-inch cube. The solution is actually eight. Two cubes make a tower. For a cube, you need two layers of four cubes. Discussion: Cromer argues that the formal thinking needed for math and science does not follow a natural development, as psychologists such as Jean Piaget have claimed. “Science and objective thinking are unnatural activities,” argues Cromer. “The mind wasn’t designed to study physics.” Clearly, Cromer’s ideas have important implications for teaching science. If few people are able to master formal, logical thinking naturally in the course of development, we cannot assume it, and we must build the mental structures needed to understand science.
Source: Cromer, A. (1993). Uncommon sense: The heretical nature of science. New York: Oxford University Press.

Critical Thinking Activity: Value of Empirical Investigation

Concept: This activity not only demonstrates the limits of intuition but also the value of empirical investigation. Materials: Security envelopes; $1 bills; Handout 2–5. There should be enough items for each group of students to have a set. Description: Present three empty envelopes to your class and then indicate that you are placing a $1 bill in one of them. Seal all three and then shuffle them so that no one—not even you—knows the location of the dollar. (Using security envelopes will ensure the students don’t see through them.) Announce that a volunteer who picks the right envelope can keep the money. After the volunteer has made the selection, examine the contents of the two unchosen envelopes, and reveal that one of them does not contain the $1 bill. Then, holding up the remaining unchosen envelope, ask the crucial question: “In your opinion, should the volunteer keep the one chosen or switch to my envelope?” Kohn reports that typically at least half his students favor staying, 20 to 30 percent favor switching, and 10 to 20 percent argue that it makes no difference. Invite your students to test their intuitions with an experiment. Have them work in pairs, with one member being the experimenter and the other the subject. Use

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Handout 2–5 to record the results for this activity. Finally, the experimenters should complete the “Correct Answer” column with a random assortment of the letters A, B, and C. Experimenters now follow the procedure you just demonstrated. On each trial they should first ask their subjects to guess either A, B, or C, then reveal that one of the unchosen options is wrong, and finally offer subjects the option of staying or switching. For example, if on a given trial the correct answer is A and the subject picks C, then the experimenter would inform the subject that B is an incorrect choice, and offer the subject the choice of switching to A. When the correct answer is A and the subject chooses A, then the experimenter should reveal that B (or C) is a wrong choice and offer the chance to switch. For each of the 20 trials, the experimenter records the subject’s first choice, whether the subject switched, and whether the subject ultimately made the right choice. After all pairs have finished, the experimenters should calculate the number of times that switching led to a win and the number of times that staying led to a win. Finally, you should combine all the results and compare the percentage of wins that resulted from switching with the number from staying. Discussion: Switching will clearly emerge as the better strategy by a ratio of 2 to 1. Clearly, this outcome is counterintuitive. In fact, Art Kohn notes that when newspaper columnist Marilyn vos Savant in 1990 answered a similar question correctly, protests were voiced by many mathematicians across the country. It may help to explain to your students that the initial probability that the subject has the $1 is one in three; the probability that the experimenter has it is 2 in 3. Note that once the subject selects the envelope, the envelope becomes a set that is independent of the experimenter’s set. When the experimenter eliminates a certain loser from his or her set, that act in no way changes the probability that the subject holds the winner. As a result, the subject is better off switching.
Source: Kohn, A. (1992). Defying intuition: Demonstrating the importance of the empirical technique. Teaching of Psychology, 19, 217–219.

Critical Thinking Activity: Astrology and the Scientific Method

Concept: This activity will help students think critically about astrology. Students will see the value of scientific thinking as a more powerful predictor of human behavior than astrology. Materials: One copy each of Handout 2–6a and 2–6b for each student. Description: Begin by asking students what they know about astrology and whether they know much about their zodiac sign (the list below will help those who do not even know their sign). Briefly review the text’s treatment of the scientific method, particularly the role of hypothesis testing. Next, ask your students to generate hypotheses based on assumptions they believe astrologers make about human behavior. Write each one on the board and note that hypotheses should be testable. If students have not mentioned the hypothesis that personality types are associated with particular zodiac signs, suggest it to them. Challenge the class to test whether this is accurate. Distribute Handouts 2–6a and 2–6b based on the students’ zodiac signs. Handout 2–6a contains the personality profiles associated with the signs of persons born between March 22 and September 22; Handout 2–6b applies to those born after September 22 and before March 22 (six instead of twelve profiles are provided in order to save time and to illustrate a potential flaw in the design when the data are analyzed). Then ask students to select the personality profile that best describes them and to write the letter of

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that profile on a separate sheet of paper. Tell them to read each profile carefully and to make a judgment on the basis of the entire description. After all students have made a selection, write the correct zodiac signs for each letter code on the board (these descriptions come from popular astrology books). • E Aries (March 22–April 19) • B • C • F Taurus (April 20–May 20) Gemini (May 21–June 21) Leo (July 23–August 22)

• A Cancer (June 22–July 22) • D Virgo (August 23–September 22) • K Libra (September 23–October 22) • H Scorpio (October 23–November 21) • I • L • J Sagittarius (November 22–December 21) Capricorn (December 22–January 19) Aquarius (January 20 –February 18)

• G Pisces (February 19–March 21) You may go on to introduce the concepts of chance responding, probability, and statistical significance. For example, on the basis of chance alone, 16.6 percent of the responses should be correct (given that everyone had a one in six chance of selecting a correct profile). Note that having all twelve profiles (instead of six) would make it harder to select the correct description by mere chance, and that statistical procedures enable researchers to determine whether differences are due to chance. Discussion: Have students indicate by a show of hands whether they chose the correct profile. Note that birthdate or zodiac sign is the independent variable and choice of personality profile is the dependent variable. If the hypothesis is correct, the number of correct matches should exceed the number of incorrect matches. Ideally, there would be no incorrect responses. You might want to discuss additional complications in interpreting the research data. For example, can people accurately select personality profiles for themselves? Psychologists design objective personality inventories to assess differences among people. Do some individuals select a given personality profile because it is more socially desirable or because they are familiar with astrology and know what profile they should pick? You also may want to indicate that if certain descriptions are more popular and if more participants happen to be born under those zodiac signs, an incorrect conclusion about the validity of astrology could be drawn. This problem can be handled by total random selection of participants or by randomly selecting an equal number of people with each zodiac sign. For students interested in astrology, you might suggest that they follow their horoscope in the daily newspaper for a month. Each day they should cut it out and paste it in a notebook; on the following day they should rate the prediction on a scale from 1 (did not come true at all) to 5 (very accurate). They should also explain their rating. At the end of the month, they should review the accuracy of their ratings. This strategy will help to defeat the confirmation bias that often contributes to people’s belief in astrology.
Source: Ward, R. A., & Grasha, A. F. (1986). Using astrology to teach research methods to introductory psychology students. Teaching of Psychology, 13, 143–145.

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Evaluation Activity: The Scientific Approach

Concept: Each academic discipline provides a particular perspective on nature and our place in it. Each has its unique questions and its limits. Psychology, like the other disciplines, uses scientific methods to explore human thoughts and actions. It helps us to understand why people think, feel, and act as they do. As such, it is both fascinating and useful. However, it is not equipped to answer questions of ultimate meaning. David Anderson describes a classroom exercise that will effectively demonstrate that science is equipped to answer some questions but not others. Materials: none Description: Place the following series of statements on the chalkboard before class begins. • Abraham Lincoln is the best president the United States has ever had. • Laughter is the best medicine. • The best things in life are free. • Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a better play than Romeo and Juliet. • There is a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia. • The mind is just like a computer. • Attitudes affect cancer. • 2+2=4 Ask students how they would establish the validity of each statement. To get them thinking, ask them about the classes they have had that might have addressed these issues. Who on the school’s faculty might be interested in these issues, or which department might discuss them? Discussion: Clearly, there is more than one approach to “truth.” Note that each perspective has its questions and limits. Conclude that the various disciplines and perspectives need not be viewed as competing but as complementary.
Source: Anderson, D. (1997, January). First day: Experimental psychology. Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS—Online Discussion Group).

Observation and Bias
Activities and Demonstrations
Critical Thinking Activity: The Overconfidence Phenomenon

Concept: The tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our current knowledge is a powerful phenomenon and readily demonstrated in class. Materials: Handout 2–1 Description: Have students predict their score on the Fact or Falsehood? exercise that accompanies each group of modules—or on any multiple-choice or other type of shortanswer test—immediately after they have completed it. Have them note their estimate at the top of the test. Discussion: The majority will overestimate the number of questions they got right. While the strength of this tendency will depend to some degree on the amount of feedback they have received on previous tests, I have found that students continue to overestimate throughout the semester. Cerf and Navasky provide the following delightful examples of overconfidence among experts that you might read to your class.

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• “There is no reason for anyone to have a computer in their home.” (Ken Olson, president of Digital Equipment Company, 1977) • “Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.” (Lord Kelvin, British mathematician, physicist, and president of the British Royal Society, 1895) • “Reagan doesn’t have the presidential look.” (United Artists executive when asked whether Ronald Reagan should be offered the starring role in the movie The Best Man, 1964) • “A severe depression like that of 1920–21 is outside the range of probability.” (Harvard Economic Society, Weekly Letter, November 16, 1929) • “Impossible!” (Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder, when asked whether Cassius Clay could last six rounds in his upcoming bout with heavyweight champion Sonny Liston, 1964) • “Man will never reach the moon, regardless of all future scientific advances.” (Lee DeForest, inventor of the vacuum tube, 1957) • “Nuclear powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality within 10 years.” (Alex Lewyt, manufacturer of vacuum cleaners, 1955)
Source: Cerf, J., & Navasky, V. (1998). The experts speak. New York: Villard.

Critical Thinking Activity: The Confirmation Bias

Concept: Overconfidence stems partly from our tendency to search for information that confirms our preconceptions. Materials: Four cards, containing (1) a black circle (with a black triangle on the other side), (2) a red circle (with a black triangle on the other side), (3) a red triangle (with a black circle on the other side), and (4) a black triangle (with a red circle on the other side) and Internet access. Description: Prepare a set of four cards, which includes the following instructions: “Assuming that each card has a triangle on one side and a circle on the other, which card or cards need to be turned over to test this statement: ‘Every card that has a black triangle on one side has a red circle on the other?’” Most people answer “black triangle” or “black triangle and red circle” attempting to confirm the rule. The correct answer is black triangle (which would confirm the rule) and black circle (which would disprove the rule). Next, have students visit the Magic Cave website at www.simeonmagic.com to try Simeon’s card trick. Players are asked to pick one card from six. Simeon then proceeds to identify the selected card by eliminating it from the next series. The next screen shows five cards and indeed the chosen card has disappeared. Simeon appears psychic! The trick works because of our propensity to the confirmation bias. We look only for our chosen card in confirming Simeon’s capacity for mental telepathy and ignore all the others that appear on the two screens. Attending to all the cards is critical in assessing whether Simeon has performed magic. (In reality, the second set of cards to appear is an entirely new set. None of the cards are the old ones and thus the one you picked is not in the series either.) Discussion: People are highly susceptible to looking for information to confirm their biases. The scientific process is designed to reduce the tendency for researchers to have confirmation bias or overconfidence.
Application Activity: A Field Experiment in Helping

Concept: This activity, adapted from one proposed by David L. Watson, will help students understand the benefits and difficulties of field research.

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Materials: none Description: As a class, generate several hypotheses about the situations in which people offer help. Do men help more often than women? Are individuals more likely to help than people in groups? Will women be more likely to help other women or men in need? These questions can form the basis for possible hypotheses. Divide the students into groups of three or four and assign each group a hypothesis. Over the next week or so, have them conduct a field experiment testing their hypothesis. The helping situation should have students dropping books in front of someone, either as an individual or group, as a male or female (depending on the hypothesis). This common situation will enhance the discussion after the experiments are completed because students will have a mutual experience to relate. Students should try to complete as many trials of their field experiment as possible. Encourage them to find ways to complete the experiment on school grounds. To avoid observer bias, they should agree on an operational definition of what helping behavior actually is. Each student should have a distinct role to play in the experiment. One or two students should act as the “droppers,” one male and one female if doing the gender-based hypothesis. One student should act as a lookout, picking out subjects who fit the desired trial. This student can also be an observer who records the response of the subject(s). Another student can act solely as an observer/recorder. Students who are not acting as “droppers” should keep their distance from the situation so as not to confound the experiment. Discussion: Students’ experiences with this assignment will vary, as is expected from field experiments. They may feel awkward “faking” a helping experience. The students may find that their operational definitions were not sufficient to include behaviors their subjects displayed. They may also find that their subjects somehow sensed the situation was contrived and helped (or not) because they knew they were being watched. All of these difficulties should lead to lively discussions of the benefits and pitfalls of field experimentation.
Source: Watson, D. L. (1990). A field experiment in helping. In V. P. Malosky, C. C. Sileo, L. G. Whittemore, C. P. Landry, & M. L. Skutley (Eds.), Activities handbook for the teaching of psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 9–11). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Cooperative Learning Activity: Naturalistic Observation

Concept: Students can see the importance and limitations of naturalistic observation with this activity. Materials: none Description: Divide students into pairs or small groups (no more than four suggested). Instruct them to meet outside of class to observe a group of people interacting together. Some suggested places to observe include the school’s cafeteria, a local mall, or a local park. The students are to agree on which group of people they are to observe. They should separate and observe the group from different angles, taking notes during the entire observation (which should last no less than 20 minutes). The students should then regroup and compare notes and turn in an evaluation paper that discusses the similarities and differences among the observations. Discussion: Students often find that each member of their group focused on different behaviors and different people. They also notice that they interpret the behavior of their subjects differently. This result is typical and shows the limitations of naturalistic observation. Naturalistic observation works well when subjects would behave differently if they knew they were being observed.

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Case Studies
Enrichment
Enrichment Lesson: Genie and the Wild Child: Case Studies in Focus

The text highlights the story of Genie, a 13-year-old girl whose father raised her in isolation, in a room with little interaction with the outside world. Case studies of children who were raised in isolated conditions demonstrate how vital early socialization and stimulation are for proper growth and development (see Module 14 for discussion of proper development). The facts of Genie’s case range from the tragic to the strange: In her 1977 book, Genie, Susan Curtiss details some of the horrifying conditions Genie’s father subjected her to during her childhood. She was naked and confined to a small bed and strapped to an infant’s potty seat for most of each day. At night she was put in a sleeping bag fashioned into a makeshift straightjacket. Her father was intolerant of noise, so any noise she might have heard was kept at a low volume. Because her room was beside a bathroom in the rear of the house, she was exposed to a wide range of bathroom noises, but not much else. Her father would beat her with a wooden stick whenever she made noise, either vocally or by flailing her body against something, and he would bark and growl like a dog instead of speaking to her. She was occasionally allowed to “play” with an old plastic raincoat, an empty cottage cheese canister, and empty spools of thread. Her condition when she was found was pitiful. Her body did not respond to heat or cold because she rarely, if ever, wore clothes. She could not chew and had trouble swallowing because she never ate solid food. She could barely walk and weighed a mere 59 pounds and stood only 54 inches in height at 13 years of age. She was nearsighted to exactly 10 feet, because that was the size of the room she was confined to for so long. She suppressed all vocalizations and lacked control of her bodily functions. But Genie was eager for human contact and the doctors and social workers who were charged with her care after she was found worked with her on her social skills, verbal abilities, and cognition. Because Genie failed to develop a language consistent with her age, developmental psychologists have theorized that a critical period exists for certain developmental milestones, including language. Because it would be unethical for researchers to expose a child to such brutal conditions to study whether or not they develop appropriately, case studies like Genie’s that emerge provide valuable insight into the human condition. Case study work can be tragic, frightening, and moving, but the lessons learned from cases like Genie’s can help others who are struggling to understand human behavior.
Source: Curtiss, S. (1977). Genie. New York: Academic Press.

Correlation
Digital Connection
Technology Application Activity: PsychSim: “Correlations”

This program demonstrates the meaning and use of scatterplots and the way correlations are calculated. Activities and Demonstrations
Critical Thinking Activity: Correlating Test-Taking Time and Performance

Concept: Do those who take more time to complete a test perform better or worse than those taking less time? Steven Davis and Cathy Grover suggest this activity to illustrate correlation and address this question.

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Materials: none Description: Before raising the question in class, collect some relevant data. By distributing your next test face-down and asking students to wait for your signal to begin, you can note the common starting time. Then, as each test is turned in, record the time of completion at the top. Subtracting the starting time from the completion time will give a measure of elapsed time, which can then be correlated with test grade. Create a scatterplot and calculate the correlation coefficient. Discussion: When you raise the critical question in class, students may express strong opinions on both sides of the issue. After allowing ample time for discussion, present your data. Failure to find a significant correlation between test-taking time and performance should not surprise you, because most of the research has not been able to find one either. If time allows, calculate the correlation for men and women separately; Davis and Grover indicate that they have frequently found that women’s, but not men’s, scores show a negative relationship with test-taking time.
Source: Davis, S., & Grover, C. (1987). Is quicker always better? Test-taking time and performance. In V. P. Makosky, L. G. Whittemore, & A. M. Rogers (Eds.), Activities handbook for the teaching of psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 208–209). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Critical Thinking Activity: Evaluating Media Reports of Research

Concept: Having students evaluate popular reports of research findings gives them the opportunity to apply their understanding of scientific methodology and to improve their critical thinking. The following exercise provides practice in understanding the distinction between correlation and causation. Materials: Handout 2–7 Description: Have students work individually, in small groups, or as an entire class. Patricia Connor-Greene suggests using small groups of four or five to discuss Handout 2–7. It includes a brief report from USA Today and a short list of questions. Have the groups consider the report and address the questions (allow about 40 minutes), then reconvene the entire class to discuss the group responses. (It’s best to have each group select a recorder/reporter.) Discussion: Connor-Greene notes that students typically interpret the article as implying that male homosexuality is caused by smaller brain cell nuclei, pointing to the statements, “The debate over the roots of homosexuality has been going on a long time, but this finding ‘suggests a biological phenomenon’” and “It might explain ‘why male homosexuality is present in most human populations.’” Typically, however, students do recognize that this research is correlational. Discussing alternative interpretations (for example, sexual orientation could affect size of brain cell nuclei or the relationship could be caused by a third variable) helps students to appreciate the danger of confusing correlation and causation. Groups are likely to note two difficulties with the title of the article. First, it suggests that all cells are different in gay men, but the study refers only to brain cell nuclei. Second, the title also suggests that the gay men are the “different” ones, but the article reports gay men’s brain cell nuclei to be similar in size to those of women. Thus, the “different” ones are actually the heterosexual men. The quote from the news report that the study can “prove … being gay or lesbian is not a matter of choice” provides the opportunity to discuss the nature of scientific experimentation and the inappropriateness of the term prove in science. Finally, you might conclude that the investigator himself was more cautious. In the original report, he noted that his research contained no direct evidence that the difference he observed actually causes homosexuality. He also recognized that the finding needed to be replicated.
Source: Connor-Greene, P. A. (1993). From the laboratory to the headlines: Teaching critical evaluation of press reports of research. Teaching of Psychology, 20(3), 167–169.

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Application Activity: Correlation and the Challenger Disaster

Concept: Illusory correlations—for example, the false belief that infertile couples are more likely to conceive a child after adopting a baby—may result from a failure to look at all the relevant data. Rob McEntarffer provides a classroom exercise that demonstrates how we may also fail to recognize a true correlation because we ignore relevant data. More generally, his exercise introduces students to scatterplots and the meaning of positive and negative correlations. It also illustrates how correlational research can be important to everyday decision making. Materials: Blackline Masters 2–2a and 2–2b Description: Begin by asking students if they remember from their study of history what caused the Challenger space shuttle disaster. The explosion was attributed to O-ring failure in low temperatures at the time of launch. Place Blackline Master 2–2a on the overhead projector and have students create their own scatterplot. Have them draw a line of best fit and ask if they see a positive, negative, or no correlation. They should see and report, “no correlation.” By looking at this data and considering other factors, NASA decided to launch. Explain that although NASA did test the O-rings to determine if there was a correlation between their failure and temperature, they did not take their tests far enough. The problem was that they did not look at all the relevant data. They did not consider the temperatures at which there was not a failure. Place Blackline Master 2–2b on the overhead projector. Again have students create a scatterplot and draw the line of best fit. Ask, “Is there a positive, negative, or no correlation?” They should clearly see that there is indeed a negative correlation. Failure of the O-rings tended to occur at lower temperatures. Discussion: This vivid example of the reliance on correlation to make important decisions helps show students the value of critical thinking about data. Guiding students through this activity allows them to see the thought processes people should employ when evaluating data for decision-making purposes.
Source: McEntarffer, R. (1999). Correlation and the Challenger disaster. In L. T. Benjamin, B. Nodine, C. T. Blair-Broeker, & R. M. Ernst (Eds.), Activities handbook for the teaching of psychology (Vol. 4). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Enrichment
Enrichment Lesson: Understanding Correlations

The tendency to interpret correlations in terms of cause and effect is a common error. Keith Stanovich has identified two major classes of ambiguity in correlational research: the “directionality problem” and the “third variable possibility.” Giving students some practice in interpreting specific examples may make them less prone to this bias. Directionality Issues: • Hippocrates’ delightful Good News Survey (GNS) was designed to illustrate errors that can be hidden in seemingly sound scientific studies. The survey found that people who often ate Frosted Flakes as children had half the cancer rate of those who never ate the cereal. Conversely, those who often ate oatmeal as children were four times more likely to develop cancer than those who did not. Does this mean that Frosted Flakes prevents cancer, while oatmeal causes it? Ask your students to suggest explanations for these correlations. The answer? Cancer tends to be a disease of later life. Those who ate Frosted Flakes are younger. In fact, the cereal was not around when older respondents were children, and so they are much more likely to have eaten oatmeal. The GNS finding that children who took vitamins were more than twice as likely to go on to use marijuana and cocaine was also likely due to these respondents being younger than average. Finally, the GNS revealed that

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people who had had routine physicals in the previous three years were twice as likely to report high blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Do physical exams cause health problems? No, the survey researchers suggest that the unmasking bias is probably operating, with those having had physicals simply more likely to know they have a problem. • Scientists have linked television watching with childhood obesity. In fact, the degree of obesity rises 2 percent for each hour of television viewed per week by those aged 12 to 17, according to a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. One explanation is that TV watching results in less exercise and more snacking (often on the high-calorie, low-nutrition foods pitched in commercials). Is that conclusion justified? What are some alternative explanations for the correlation? The causal relationship may be reversed. Obesity may lead children to prefer more sedentary activities, such as TV viewing. Or, some third factor may explain the relationship. For example, parents having little formal education may not emphasize good nutrition or good use of leisure time. Third-Variable Issues: • For instance, a positive correlation between milk consumption and incidence of cancer in various societies is probably explained by the relative wealth of these societies, bringing about both increased milk consumption and more cancer as a function of greater longevity. • In the New Hebrides Islands, body lice were at one time thought to produce good health. When people became ill, their temperatures rose and caused the body lice to seek more hospitable abodes. Both the lice and good health departed with the onset of the fever. Similarly, the unexpected positive correlation between the quality of a state’s day care programs and the reported rate of child abuse is not causal but merely indicates that better supervision results in more consistent reporting of incidents. • In the early twentieth century, thousands of Americans in the South died from pellagra, a disease marked by dizziness, lethargy, running sores, and vomiting. Finding that families struck with the disease often had poor plumbing and sewage, many physicians concluded that pellagra was transmitted by poor sanitary conditions. In contrast, Surgeon General Joseph Goldberger thought that the illness was caused by an inadequate diet. He felt that the correlation between sewage conditions and pellagra did not reflect a causal relationship, but that the correlation arose because the economically disadvantaged were likely to have poor diets as well as poor plumbing. How was the controversy resolved? The answer demonstrates the importance of the experimental method. To prove he was right, Goldberger not only had himself injected with the blood of a victim, he also actually ate the excrement of pellagra victims. Finally he selected two patients—one with scaling sores and the other with diarrhea. He scraped the scales from the sores, mixed the scales with four cubic centimeters of urine from the same patients, added an equal amount of liquid feces, and rolled the mixture into little dough balls by the addition of four pinches of flour. The pills were taken voluntarily by him, by his assistants and by his wife. None of them came down with pellagra. To further make his case, Goldberger asked two groups from a Mississippi state prison farm to volunteer for an experiment. One group was given the high-carbohydrate, low-protein diet that Goldberger suspected to be the culprit, while the other group received a balanced diet. Within months, the former group was ravaged by pellagra, while the latter showed no signs of the disease.
Sources: Paulos, J. A. (1989). Innumeracy: Mathematical illiteracy and its consequences. New York: Random House. Stanovich, K. (1998). How to think straight about psychology (5th ed.). New York: Longman. Tierney, J. (1987, September/October). Good news! Better health linked to sin, sloth. Hippocrates, pp. 30–35.

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Surveys
Activities and Demonstrations
Critical Thinking Activity: The Wording of Survey Questions

Concept: The wording of questions can influence responses to a survey. Materials: Handout 2–8; make half as many copies as you have students. Description: Cut the handouts in half, and distribute the top half to the left side of your class, the bottom half to the right side. Collect the responses and calculate the mean for each group, or, more simply, by a show of hands ask each group provided a different anchor whether their own estimate was greater than 1500 miles or 30 million people. Discussion: Compared to those who are provided “anchors” of 500 miles and two million people, those given 3000-mile and 100 million people anchors will give higher estimates. A majority of those given higher anchors will raise their hands, but a minority of those given smaller anchors will do so. The Mississippi River is actually 2348 miles long and the population of Argentina is 36 million.
Cooperative Learning Activity: Designing and Distributing Surveys

Concept: Surveys are often best understood when experienced firsthand. This activity allows students to design surveys and distribute them to a representative sample of a population. Materials: none Description: For the sake of efficiency, group students into three or four for this assignment. In class, brainstorm different possible topics about which students may write surveys. Instruct the students to write at least 20 questions for their survey once the topic is agreed upon. Remind students that the question format should be consistent throughout to avoid confusion or frustration with the respondents. A word of caution: Make sure you have final say over questions the students write. Students often write provocative questions that might not be appropriate for student populations to answer in a survey. Students should also decide the population that will be surveyed. Again, for the sake of efficiency, encourage students to choose a population of high school students. They can choose to survey students from a particular grade, gender, or ethnic group. Once the population is determined, they must decide how they are going to choose a representative sample of that population. You can help guide students to choosing a random sample by suggesting they choose classes or situations in which every student in their population has a chance of being a part. Some situations that might apply include core curriculum classes like English and social studies in which all students of a particular grade are placed randomly (honors classes may complicate this scenario). Also, if when students have lunch is chosen randomly, then setting up a table in the lunchroom to distribute surveys may work as well. Be sure to elicit the help of fellow teachers and the administration before pursuing the distribution of surveys. Once the surveys are approved and the samples are chosen, then surveys should be distributed. Be sure your students understand that confidentiality of each survey is of the utmost importance. They should not look at the surveys as soon as they are turned in or completed. If they do, they may hinder other respondents from answering truthfully. The completed surveys can then be analyzed. The quickest, easiest method of analysis is using measures of central tendency (mode, median, and mean). These computations are familiar to most high school students and yield interesting information that is easily understandable by most people.

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Discussion: The data should then be reported, either in class through presentations or by posters that students share in a psychology fair or poster session. This will promote understanding of psychology to the general population and teach your students to communicate technical information in friendly ways.

Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Studies
Digital Connection
DVD/Online: Scientific American Frontiers, Second Edition, Segment 4: “Return to the Wild”

See the Faculty Guide that accompanies the Scientific American Frontiers series for a description.
Videocassette/DVD: The Up Series

Launched in the mid-1960s, this series of documentary films explores the developmental changes found among a group of British schoolchildren as they aged from 7 years old to 49 years old. Director Michael Apted followed their growth every 7 years, resulting in seven films total. This series not only highlights developmental changes, but also the importance and difficulty of conducting longitudinal research. (Granada Television) For ordering information, please visit www.amazon.com.

Experiments
Digital Connection
DVD: The Power of Belief

John Stossel narrates this ABC News program first broadcast on October 6, 1998. In exploring people’s belief in paranormal phenomena and alternative healing techniques, the program highlights the limits of human intuition and the need for controlled experimentation. This news special is particularly effective in demonstrating human suggestibility and the placebo effect. For example, a New York psychiatrist is shown providing either a “stimulant” or a “sleeping pill”—actually sugar pills—with the overwhelming majority of recipients claiming it had an enormous effect on their sleep and energy levels. Some actually wonder where they can buy the drugs. A fake channeler, coached by magician James Randi, seduces the Australian media and thousands in the audience to believe in his revelations from a 2000-year-old spirit in Venezuela. Police psychics and astrologers are also followed and debunked. John Stossel is shown firewalking, which is something anyone can do. A highlight of the program is coverage of 11-year-old Emily Rosza’s experiment testing the benefits of therapeutic touch. Her negative findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (ABC, 60 minutes) For ordering information, please visit www.amazon.com.
Online Video: Facilitated Communication: Prisoners of Silence

This Frontline documentary provides an excellent demonstration of how valuable the experiment can be in helping us to think critically and to evaluate everyday claims. The video begins by showing some remarkable case studies that apparently demonstrate the success of “facilitated communication” (FC) with autistic children. In this technique, a “facilitator” steadies the arm of an autistic child who uses one finger to type words on a keyboard. These children, who have lived for years in virtual isolation, type intelligible words and sentences which presumably communicate their thoughts and feelings. The spectacular examples typically convince viewers that FC represents a dramatic breakthrough. The documentary then shows that in several cases where the facilitator was a person other than a parent, the children typed accusations of sexual abuse by their parents. This and other factors led some people to question whether the child or the facilitator was doing the communicating. A series of simple experiments helped answer the question.
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Researchers had autistic children view pictures of everyday objects and then type what they saw. When their facilitators saw the same picture, the children often typed the correct answer. When the facilitators saw a different picture or no picture, the children were never correct. In addition to showing the need for careful research in assessing therapeutic claims, the video is helpful in illustrating experimental design, including the doubleblind procedure. To elicit more active involvement, Stephen L. Chew and Jacqueline L. Goldstein suggest interrupting the program with small-group discussions as follows: Segment 1 (6 minutes) BEGIN (4:32 min.): Children singing, “If you’re happy and you know it . . .” END (10:30 min.): Prime Time with Diane Sawyer Discussion (5 minutes): What do you think about this treatment? How impressive and convincing are the results? If your child were autistic, would you be eager to try the treatment? Segment 2 (10 minutes) CONTINUE TO (20 min.): beginning of Gherardi family (son, Matt) Discussion (5 minutes): Why did some people become skeptical of FC? Are they being too cynical? If FC doesn’t work, is there any harm in believing in it? Why are the involved parents and professionals so convinced? Is their optimism and enthusiasm warranted? Segment 3 (6 minutes) CONTINUE TO (26 min.): Gerry Gherardi walks away from field; close-up of Gerry talking. Discussion (10 minutes): If you were on the jury, how would you vote? Since the child is communicating through the facilitator, what kind of experiment could be designed to test the accuracy of the facilitator’s “interpretation”? (You could make this an out-ofclass assignment and continue in the following class period.) Segment 4 (25 minutes) CONTINUE TO (51 min.): Syracuse commencement ceremony Discussion (8–10 minutes): How convincing are the experimental results? Was it ethical to destroy the hopes of the parents and teachers? Might FC still be effective in individual cases? Does the potential for any kind of placebo effect exist with FC and how might it be working? Were the FC supporters purposely deceiving the parents? (PBS, 60 minutes.) For viewing information, please visit http://video.google.com.
Sources: Chew, S. L., & Goldstein, J. L. (1996, January). An interactive, real world demonstration of the importance of understanding research methods. Poster session presented at the 18th Annual National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology, St. Petersburg Beach, FL. Jacobson, J. W., Mulick, J. A., & Schwartz, A. A. (1995). A history of facilitated communication: Science, pseudoscience, and antiscience. American Psychologist, 50, 750–765.

DVD: Scientific American Frontiers, Second Edition, Segment 1: “Tackling a Killer Disease”

See the Faculty Guide that accompanies the Scientific American Frontiers series for a description.

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Technology Application Activity: Psychological Research on the Internet

Concept: Much psychological research is conducted on the Internet. This activity will enable students to participate in some ongoing research. Materials: Internet access. This activity can be an independent learning assignment or a class assignment if a computer lab is available that accommodates an entire class. Most public libraries offer free access to the Internet for students who do not have Internet access at home. Description: Have students search the following websites to participate in psychological research projects: • The American Psychological Society’s “Psychological Research on the Net” at psych.hanover.edu/research/exponnet.html provides dozens of links to these studies. They are organized by general topic area, such as neuroscience, sensation and perception, developmental psychology, personality, and health psychology. Visiting this site will not only introduce students to the wide range of specific questions research psychologists are asking but also will give them some idea of what it is like to be a research participant. • The Online Psychology Laboratory (opl.apa.org), sponsored in part by the American Psychological Association, allows students to conduct research in a variety of different topic areas. The site also allows the instructor to record class data to conduct further statistical analysis on the data students provide. Encourage your students to participate in one study and report back their experience. What was the nature and purpose of the study? Can they tell whether it was descriptive, correlational, or experimental? What is it like to be an online participant? What might be the benefits and limits of conducting research on the Internet? Did the researchers employ the proper ethical considerations? Discussion: Participating in research can give students an awareness of the complexity of the process—and show them how fun working with studies in psychology can be. Internet research has become an increasingly popular way for psychologists to gather data. Discuss with your students what confounding variables might be present in research done on the Internet. Activities and Demonstrations
Critical Thinking Activity: Demonstrating Experimental Design Logic

Concept: The strategy of investigation that psychologists use is the experimental method. Certain variables are manipulated to discover what effect that manipulation has (if any) on other variables. This exercise is intended to stimulate thinking about the number and nature of variables that must be considered in doing behavioral research. It also focuses on the control of relevant variables as a necessary condition for interpreting such research. Materials: A printed list of 15 unrelated, single-syllable nouns, and a clock or watch. Description: Propose a hypothesis in which a food affects memory (e.g., “Chocolateglazed peanuts enhance memory.”) Construct a formal hypothesis using operational definitions for concepts that are unobservable, like memory (“Chocolate-glazed donuts improve recall scores from a list of unrelated nouns.”) Randomly divide the class into two groups: experimental and control. Have each group sit on opposite sides of the room or in two separate rooms, depending on the availability of space. Manipulate the independent variable in that the experimental group eats a chocolate-glazed donut and the control group does not. Expose each group to the list of unrelated nouns on an overhead projector or on a slide show presentation. Each word should be displayed for about 10 seconds.

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Immediately after showing the last word, have the students write down as many words as they remember. Compare the number of words the two groups remembered. Discussion: The logic of the experimental design should be apparent with this step-bystep procedure. While the hypothesis in this case will not be proven, the likelihood of finding a cause and effect relationship with this procedure should be evident. The discussion here should focus on the importance of each step and the confounding variables that might affect the results, especially if you have both the experimental and control groups in the same room observing each other during the experiment.
Source: Demonstrating experimental design logic. (1981). In L. T. Benjamin & K. D. Lowman (Eds.), Activities handbook for the teaching of psychology (Vol. 1). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Critical Thinking Activity: Finding Meaning in the Method

Concept: Philip G. Zimbardo proposes the following activity to show how experiments are the most powerful analytical tool used in science. Cause-and-effect relationships can be established only through the use of well-controlled experiments. While the specific details of each experiment may vary, the logic of experimentation is essentially the same. Materials: Reaction-time device constructed from light cardboard; the template for this device is found on Handout 2–9. Description: Propose a hypothesis relating reaction time and gender (e.g., “males react faster than females” or vice versa). Then propose a definition of reaction time. For the purposes of this activity, reaction time should be defined as the time between the presentation of a stimulus and the subject’s reaction. Select a student of the sex hypothesized as being slower. Ask the student to come to the front of the room and stand with his or her hand about even with the tip of the meter, with the thumb and forefinger about two inches apart. Then, without explanation or warning, drop the meter between the subject’s fingers. Be as obvious as possible in your attempts to bias this part of the “study.” Record the reading, measuring from the top of the thumb. Give only one trial. Then ask for a volunteer from the opposite sex. Have the student come to the front of the room, sit down, relax, and tell you his or her preferred hand. Then define the task: to stop the meter as soon as possible when it is dropped. Hold the meter so that the point is two inches above the student’s fingers (instead of even with them). Give the subject two practice trials and a verbal warning signal of “Ready.” Then give two test trials and record only the fastest one. Then announce the “obvious conclusion” that the hypothesis has been confirmed. Discussion: Since the “slower sex” will rightfully protest, the discussion should focus on the design flaws of the “experiment.” Some of the flaws include: • Selection: the first student was selected, while the second volunteered. • Dependent variable: the first student had to figure out what the task was while the other was told the process and was only measured on his/her simple reaction time. • Accuracy: the first student’s reaction meter started at his/her fingertips while the second had a 2-inch space to work with; the second student also had a signal of “ready” that the first student didn’t have; the first student was standing, the second sitting; the first student had no practice while the second had two practice trials. Ultimately, the discussion should focus on the use of controls to make the experimental procedure less biased.
Source: Zimbardo, P. G. (1981). Finding meaning in the method. In L. T. Benjamin & K. D. Lowman (Eds.), Activities handbook for the teaching of psychology (Vol. 1). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

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Application Activity: Writing Experimental Hypotheses

Concept: This activity will provide students with practice recognizing and writing experimental hypotheses. Students will be encouraged to write both one- and two-tailed hypotheses for descriptions of experimental conditions. Materials: Handout 2–10 Description: The handout provides students with the opportunity to write their own hypotheses for given experimental situations. This handout can be offered as an independent learning or a guided practice assignment. Students should try to write hypotheses using operational definitions. Possible answers for each of situations are as follows: 1. Patients who receive a painkiller for migraines will have fewer headache symptoms after two hours. (one-tailed hypothesis) 2. The presence of a full moon does not have an effect on hospital admission rates. (null hypothesis) 3. Subjects who travel across time zones will experience more jet lag than those who fly across one time zone. 4. Older subjects will have more conservative political and moral attitudes than younger subjects. 5. Certain childhood behaviors predict the likelihood of becoming a serial killer. Discussion: Students may find that they have several different possibilities for their hypotheses. As long as students construct statements that show a cause-and-effect relationship, it should be acceptable. Have students write their hypotheses on the chalkboard or on butcher paper for the class to analyze. This can become a critical thinking activity where students edit each other’s work to make clear hypotheses defined in operational terms.
Application Activity: Writing Operational Definitions

Concept: Operational definitions require students to think about behavior in terms of observable phenomenon rather than abstract ideas. Students will be exposed to several behavioral terms that require more concrete definitions so they can be studied scientifically. Materials: Handout 2–11 Description: Handout 2–11 can be given as an independent learning or guided practice assignment. With this handout, students will write down a list of behaviors they think best defines the particular quality highlighted in the hypothesis given. You should caution the students beforehand that the goal of an operational definition is not to come up with the absolute definition of a concept—they should merely try to capture the essence of the concept so that others can observe it for experimental purposes. Possible answers for the handout are as follows: 1. Sense of humor: presence of more laughter, more smiling, laughter at a wider variety of jokes 2. Act more friendly: presence of more smiling at others, presence of more helping behavior toward others, saying more compliments to others 3. Less depressed: fewer instances of crying and self-defeating statements about oneself, greater social interaction with others, higher score on a test of depression 4. Dream: self-report of dreams, measurement of REM sleep patterns 5. Smart: high scores on intelligence tests, high grades in school, high scores on college entrance exams

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6. Prettier: higher ratings by subjects who see pictures of the senior girls, more symmetry in the facial features of senior girls, more winners of beauty contests 7. Snobs: less interaction with those of a lower income level, more membership in exclusive organizations, turning noses up toward others 8. School spirit: more dressing in school colors, more attendance at school events, loud cheers at pep rallies 9. Best rock group ever: higher concert ticket sales than other bands, more record sales than other bands, higher rankings by major publications on lists of the best rock bands Discussion: Students often become frustrated when working with operational definitions because this type of definition is very constricting. Students feel as though there might be behaviors they are missing when they define the terms. This should lead into a discussion of the importance of knowing how an experimenter defines the concepts he or she is studying. Whether or not one can generalize the findings of a study depends on how the experimenter operationally defined the terms. You can also discuss how operational definitions help others replicate studies. Good operational definitions aid other researchers by explicitly defining how a particular concept was studied to begin with.
Application Activity: Identifying Independent and Dependent Variables

Concept: Independent and dependent variables are seemingly difficult concepts to master. This activity will give students the opportunity to identify these variables from a list of experimental hypotheses. Materials: Handout 2–12 Description: The handout provides a list of experimental hypotheses where students will identify the independent and dependent variables. Answers to the items are as follows: 1. IV: exposure to public television; DV: reading skills 2. IV: reinforcing comments; DV: harder work on an assembly line 3. IV: type of monkey (cloth or wire) and presence of milk; DV: preference of young monkeys 4. IV: psychotherapy; DV: future problems 5. IV: attitude toward people (politeness or rudeness); DV: cooperative attitude of people 6. IV: type of person (extroverted or introverted); DV: degree of fun at parties Discussion: Students often have trouble with independent and dependent variables. They often mix them up (identifying independent as dependent and vice versa), or they misidentify them completely. Remind students that hypotheses state cause-andeffect relationships—the IV is the cause and the DV is the effect. It might prove helpful for your students to identify the dependent variable first and then the independent variable. The DV is generally easier to identify because it answers the question, ”What behavior was the experimenter looking for?” The IV is then that item that caused the behavior.

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Cooperative Learning Activity: A Tasty Sample(r): Teaching About Sampling Using M&Ms

Concept: Randolph Smith proposes this activity that helps students see how representative samples are chosen and aid in generalization. Knowledge of how to take a representative sample is important to understanding the research process. Materials: A fun-size pack of M&Ms for each student (NOTE: Students with food allergies should abstain from this activity); a calculator (handy, but not required); Handout 2–13 Description: Allow each student to choose an “intact random sample” (one pack of M&Ms) from the population of samples. Students should examine their data, and enter it on the handout data sheet. Have them convert their raw data into percentages. Students should then generate a hypothesis about the distribution of M&M colors in the population based on the student’s sample. Students should then form pairs to pool their data to generate a joint hypothesis. Finally, pool the data from the entire class to generate an overall hypothesis. Discussion: Many interesting research questions can be addressed with this activity. First, since sample sizes are so small with fun-size packs, the accuracy of percentages will be low. They will see that as they combined their data, the accuracy of the percentages increased. Discuss how larger sample sizes yield greater accuracy. You may even want to have larger bags of M&Ms handy to test this assertion. Another issue concerns quality control. Large manufacturers such as M&M/Mars strive for quality control, but may not be able to achieve it with each bag of candy. Smith has collected data with these M&M samples in his classes and on two out of three occasions, he found a significant departure from the expected data (p < .001 in each case). You could discuss how companies can test for quality control by using random sampling techniques. Interestingly enough, M&M/Mars, Inc., seems quite concerned that the percentages of colors in each bag of candy are consistent. On their website, us.mms.com/us/about/ products, the company lists a breakdown of the percentages of each color in each type of bag of candy they distribute. Students can check out the percentages of the particular type of M&Ms they are using in class to determine if their sample is representative.
Source: Smith, R. A. (1999). A tasty sample(r): Teaching about sampling using M&Ms. In L. T. Benjamin, B. F. Nodine, R. M. Ernst, & C. T. Blair-Broeker (Eds.), Activities handbook for the teaching of psychology (Vol. 4). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Application Activity: Selecting Appropriate Research Methods

Concept: Peter S. Fernald and L. Dodge Fernald proposed this activity to help students recognize which research approach would fit into certain situations. While experimentation is the most desired method for studying human behavior, other methods are more practical and will yield more relevant results. Materials: none Description: After teaching about the four major research methods—naturalistic observation, survey, applied research in a clinical setting, and experimentation—write the following statements on the chalkboard or on an overhead projector (do not write the answers): • Jogging increases lung capacity. (experimentation) • When administered the Rorschach Inkblot Test, young children and regressed psychotics perceive more animals than they do humans. (clinical applied research) • Individuals having one or more significant hobbies report more job satisfaction than individuals having no hobbies. (survey)

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• Unmarried cab drivers talk more with their customers than do married cab drivers. (naturalistic observation) • The purchase of tranquilizers increases during monetary crises. (naturalistic observation) • Alcoholics with a history of poor nutrition show more signs of brain damage than alcoholics with a history of good nutrition. (clinical applied research) • More men than women report fantasies of making large sums of money. (survey) • Work productivity increases when workers are allowed flexible hours. (experimentation) Divide the class into small groups of 3 or 4 and have them come up with a single, preferred method of study for each of the statements. After about 10 to 20 minutes, ask each group to defend their choice for a particular statement to the rest of the class. A lively discussion should ensue. Discussion: After the discussion, reveal the correct answers to the students. While both the first and last statements can be studied through naturalistic observation, students should keep in mind that the most rigorous, yet practical test of a hypothesis should be applied to a situation. Naturalistic observation would not provide such a test for those statements, but would for the cab drivers because an experiment might hinder whether or not the cab drivers behave naturally.
Source: Fernald, P. S. & Fernald, L. D. (1990). Selecting appropriate research methods. In V. P Makosky, C. C. Sileo, L. G. Whittemore, C. P. Landry, & M. L. Skutley (Eds.). Activities handbook for the teaching of psychology (Vol. 3). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Evaluation Activity: More Cases Are Better Than Fewer

Concept: This activity, proposed by Christopher Jepson, David Krantz, and Richard Nisbett, provides a number of problems to teach the principle that a large random sample is more representative of the population from which it is drawn than is a small one. Materials: Handout 2–14 Description: Give students 7 or 8 minutes to read the specific examples and write a one- or two-sentence response in the blanks provided. Then have students compare their answers with the following ones elicited by the researchers. 1. A.“It’s kind of funny that I think about the same question myself. I have had to explain it to myself in this way: As the season commences a player will, I think, become less motivated to impress people with a powerful bat—he is taking a sort of ho-hum attitude about it.” B.“One time at bat has a much greater effect on one’s average early in the season than at the end. For example, if someone bats twice after two weeks and gets one hit, his average is .500, but it may not be a true indication of how well he bats. The more frequently he bats, the clearer the true information as to how well a batter hits.” 2. A.“He should go to the Ivy League school because he is not his friends. Their feelings aren’t necessarily his. After high school, people tend to go on their own way. David liked the Ivy (League) school, then that’s where he belongs.” B.“David just saw the Ivy League university for one day. His friends’ reports are based on an entire year. So he should take his friends’ word for it. Chances are that the liberal arts college is better.”

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3. A.“Mr. Simpson should be picked. People were impressed with him. Perhaps he was unhappy where he was and/or had personal problems which caused the personality reservations and dislikes. But people should be chosen on the basis of how they personally present themselves and not on the basis of what others have to say about them.” B.“Mr. Barker, because the people at the place he worked at knew him longer so they would know whether he was amiable. First impressions aren’t too reliable.” Discussion: The smaller the sample, the less reliable is the generalization based on it. In each case, the second answer represents an understanding that averages based on more cases are more reliable (that is, less variable) than averages based on but a few cases. For example, if we flip a coin four times, it would not be uncommon that by mere chance we would get three heads; with 100 flips, the chance of obtaining a proportion so out of line with the real odds of 50–50 is extremely small.
Critical Thinking Activity: Sample Size

Concept: This activity reinforces the concept of large versus small sample size. Materials: Handout 2–15 Description: In situation 1, the shorter game gives the weaker player a much better chance of winning. To beat Tiger Woods, you would need fewer lucky shots in playing 1 hole than in playing 18. In the second situation, the smaller hospital will have many more days of 60 percent boys. In fact, the smaller hospital will have 55 such days a year, on the average, while the large one will have only 27. (Kahneman and Tversky found that only about one person in five makes the correct choice.) Finally, in the last situation, most people will find the smaller sample more compelling, since the black balls are in the majority by a three-to-one margin, whereas the larger sample has only a little more than half black balls. Nevertheless, in terms of probability theory, the latter provides the more convincing evidence. The odds that it accurately indicates the majority color in the urn are 16 to 1. The odds that the smaller sample does are only 4 to 1. Discussion: Emphasize that the failure to consider sample size leads people to be too confident of exact percentage results from small numbers and not trusting enough of percentage results from large, representative samples.

Research Ethics
Digital Connection
Videocassette: Perception and Action: The Contributions and Importance of Nonhuman Animal Research in Psychology

The Care of Animals in Research and Experiments (CARE) committee of the American Psychological Association produced this video to communicate the importance of nonhuman animal research in psychology. Comparative, developmental, and human factors psychologists discuss the contributions of animal research to our understanding of behavior. Examples are shown regarding how real-life applications have been found through animal research. The video comes with a short booklet detailing the contents of the video and lists numerous online resources regarding animal research and ethics. (APA, 14 minutes) For ordering information, please visit www.apa.org/pubs/videos/4050330.aspx.

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Videocassette: The Importance of Lab Animal Research in Psychology: Psychopharmacology

This video focuses on the importance of research with laboratory animals in the field of psychopharmacology. Psychopharmacology (or behavioral pharmacology) is the study of the effects of psychoactive drugs on behavior. By combining methods of psychology and pharmacology, psychologists have productively examined behavioral effects of drugs in laboratory animals and people. The central theme running through psychopharmacological research is that principles of behavior can be used to understand and predict drug effects. The video highlights three leading areas of psychopharmacological research with laboratory animals: drug abuse liability testing, drug abuse treatment and prevention, and inhalant abuse and prevention. (APA, 15 minutes) For ordering information, please visit www.apa.org/pubs/videos/4050001.aspx. Activities and Demonstrations
Application Activity: Ethics in Research

Concept: The ethical guidelines governing human research is quite specific. This exercise will help students apply the guidelines to experimental situations where the ethical guidelines weren’t followed. Materials: Handout 2–16 Description: The four scenarios presented here challenge students to think critically about the implications of ethics on research. Suggested answers for each scenario are as follows: • (Scenario 1) This research is a field experiment (naturalistic observation) so informed consent is not necessary. No variables are being manipulated. Subjects would behave differently if they knew they were being watched, which would significantly alter the outcome of the study. • (Scenario 2) The lone graduate student who supplied the information about the course requirement is violating ethics. Students who participate in a research project cannot be required to volunteer. If they are offered extra credit, they must be given an equivalent alternative to participation. • (Scenario 3) This researcher is in obvious violation of the ethical principles governing deception. Deception should be avoided if at all possible, but if it is necessary, then the deception should not cause harm. Since the subjects were complaining about the conditions of the experiment, they were under undue stress and the study should have been terminated. “Do no harm” is the guiding principles of ethics in research, and this experiment violates that guideline. • (Scenario 4) No informed consent was obtained in this study. Subjects must know that they are participating in an experiment and be given the option of refusing to participate. This study provided neither option. Discussion: Since science knows that subjects often behave differently under experimental situations, using deception to conduct research is attractive to some people. The APA and other professional organizations have deemed deception to be unnecessary in most situations. For deceptive research practices to be approved, they must adhere to strict guidelines that evaluate the level of harm or stress subjects might endure and whether or not the potential outcome of the study outweighs the potential stress. The studies presented in this worksheet are in violation of the ethical codes. Students should use the ethical guidelines to propose new designs for these studies.
Source: Smith, J. (1997, July) Ethics in research. Handout presented at the Northern Kentucky University/National Science Foundation Summer Institute for Teaching the Science of Psychology.

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Role-Playing Activity: Animal Care and Use Committee

Concept: Advocates for and protesters against animal research both have convincing arguments in support of their respective causes. This activity will help students understand and think critically about the federal guidelines for animal research. Materials: One copy of Handout 2–17 for each student or group of students. Description: Explain to your students that institutions receiving federal funds for scientific research must have a standing Animal Care and Use Committee (ACUC) to review and approve all animal research conducted at the institution. In the exercise, students will be role-playing members of the committee. Divide the class into groups of between five and seven students and distribute Handout 2–17, which describes four research proposals. Instruct each group to approve or reject each proposal and to provide a rationale for its decision. (If time is limited, have each group discuss only one proposal.) Encourage the groups to reach consensus rather than simply taking a straw poll on each proposal. Have each group appoint a spokesperson to report the decision and rationale to the rest of the class. Also have students suggest alternatives to proposals they found objectionable. Discussion: In focusing the final discussion with the entire class, note the following: • Case 1 forces consideration of whether injury to another species closely related to humans is justified if the results will be applicable to human beings. • Case 2, which prompts students to think about the use of animals when there is no direct human application, can be used to discuss the importance of pure research in scientific progress. • Case 3 involves the question of whether pound animals should be used in research. Several states have banned the use of such animals for biomedical research or for student surgeries in veterinary schools. • Case 4, involving the use of animals in student laboratories, has been singled out by animal welfare groups as particularly unnecessary. Videotapes and computer simulations are, they argue, adequate substitutes.
Source: Herzog, H. A. (1990). Discussing animal rights and animal research in the classroom. Teaching of Psychology, 17, 90–94.

Alternative Assessment/Portfolio Project: Applying Research Skills
Two ancillary booklets published by Worth offer guidelines for leading students through experimental research projects and conducting psychology fairs. • Allyson Weseley, Ed.D., authored the booklet about student research. This booklet offers plenty of helpful hints to what students can do to conduct psychological research during the course of the school year. • Carol Dean, Ed.D., authored the booklet on psychology fairs. For several years, Dean’s students in Illinois have conducted a successful psychology fair that has served as a model for similar programs across the country. She offers her wealth of insight into the details of running a psychology fair and how to use this activity to encourage critical thinking and exploration. Both books offer sample rubrics to use in assessing projects and demonstrations. Active, hands-on learning of this nature will reinforce the principles learned in this module. You can find the PDFs for these books on Thinking About Psychology’s Book Companion Website, at www.worthpublishers.com/ThinkingAboutPsych3e.

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Name _______________________________________ Period _________________ Date ____________

HANDOUT 2–1
Fact or Falsehood?
Circle the letter T if you believe the statement is true and the letter F if you believe the statement is false. 1. Human intuition is remarkably accurate and free from error. 2. Most people seem to lack confidence in the accuracy of their beliefs. 3. Case studies are particularly useful because of the similarities we all share. 4. The opinions of 1500 randomly selected people can provide a very accurate picture of the opinions of an entire nation. 5. The scientific finding that children who watch violence on television tend to be violent proves that viewing violence causes it. 6. Just thinking that you are getting a treatment can boost your spirits, relax your body, and lead to symptom relief. 7. The purpose of the experiment is to recreate behaviors exactly as they occur in everyday life. 8. An analysis of the research indicates that psychologists sometimes have unnecessarily caused extreme pain to animals. 9. As a science, psychology is objective and value-free. T T T F F F

T

F

T

F

T

F

T

F

T T

F F

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Name _______________________________________ Period _________________ Date ____________

HANDOUT 2–2
Exploring Root Words
Directions: Many of the terms in this module are technical, but they come from more familiar words. Look up the root word in each of the following terms to understand the meaning of the terms. Critical thinking is thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions. How is this term related to the words critic or criticize?

Naturalistic observation is observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations, without trying to manipulate and control the situation. How is this term related to the words natural and observe?

Correlational study is a research project designed to discover the degree to which two variables are related to one another. How is this term related to the word correlate?

Longitudinal study is a research technique that involves studying the same group of individuals over a long period of time. How is this word related to the word longitude?

Cross-sectional study is a research technique that involves comparing individuals from different age groups at one time. How is this word related to the word cross-section?

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HANDOUT 2–2 (continued)
Operational definition is a specification of the exact procedures used to make a variable specific and measurable for research purposes. How is this term related to the words operational and define?

Confounding variable is a variable other than the independent variable that could influence the dependent variable. Confounding variables must be adequately controlled to draw cause-and-effect conclusions from an experiment. How is this term related to the words confound and vary?

Double-blind procedure is an experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff do not know the expected outcome of the research. This procedure is used to control for the effects of expectation as a confounding variable. How is this word related to the words double and blind?

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Name _______________________________________ Period _________________ Date ____________

HANDOUT 2–3
Matching
Directions: Match the term with the definition. Answer Choices Researcher bias Participant bias Case study Population Survey method Random sample __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ Experiment Hypothesis Operational definition Independent variable Experimental group Control group Random assignment Placebo Dependent variable Replication Longitudinal study

__________________________ __________________________

__________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________ __________________________

1. Studying the same group of individuals over a long period of time 2. A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of being included 3. When participants in research respond differently than they normally would because of what they believe the researcher wants 4. The entire group from which subjects may be selected for a study 5. When researchers selectively notice evidence that supports their hypotheses or expectations 6. The participants in an experiment who are not exposed to the independent variable 7. A research technique designed to discover the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of people through the use of questionnaires or interviews. 8. When one person is studied in depth 9. A research method in which the researcher manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe the effect on another variable (dependent variable) while confounding variables remain controlled 10. An investigator’s testable prediction about the outcome of research 11. A statement of the exact behaviors a researcher is looking for in a research study 12. The research variable that is hypothesized to cause a change in the dependent variable 13. The behavior or mental process where the impact of the independent variable is measured 14. The participants in an experiment who are exposed to the treatment; that is, the independent variable 15. Assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance 16. A nonactive substance that may be administered instead of a drug 17. Repeating the essence of a research study to see whether the results can be reliably reproduced

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Name _______________________________________ Period _________________ Date ____________

HANDOUT 2–4
Making Sense of Research Methods
On the lines provided, write definitions of the module terms related to research methods.
Research Methods Critical thinking: Researcher bias: Participant bias: Ethics Four basic principles:

Naturalistic Observation

Case Studies

Correlations

Surveys

Positive correlation:

Population:

Random sample: Experiments Negative correlation:

Hypothesis: Correlation does NOT mean causation!

Operational definition:

IV:

DV:

Random assignment and groups:

Confounding variables:

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HANDOUT 2–5
Value of Empirical Investigation—Record Sheet
Correct Answer 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Subject’s Choice Stay/Switch Win/Lose

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Name _______________________________________ Period _________________ Date ____________

HANDOUT 2–6a
Birthdays: March 22–September 22
Read each profile carefully, select the one that best fits you, and circle the letter of that profile. A sensitive nurturing compassionate cautious B loyal patient conservative stubborn C intellectual versatile clever curious D critical analytical precise intelligent E idealistic enthusiastic arrogant independent F extraverted generous authoritative affectionate extravagant warmhearted impulsive optimistic daring impatient witty quick-tempered practical thorough discontented industrious irritable talkative adventurous changeable stable truthful self-indulgent possessive tactful secretive imaginative shy

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Name _______________________________________ Period _________________ Date ____________

HANDOUT 2–6b
Birthdays: After September 22 and Before March 22
Read each profile carefully, select the one that best fits you, and circle the letter of that profile. G warm sensitive artistic undisciplined H secretive forceful romantic intolerant I honest impulsive optimistic nonchalant J creative broad-minded independent studious K cooperative impartial friendly popular L ambitious hardworking cautious practical calm aloof possessive tenacious intellectual tactful self-indulgent sensitive versatile idealistic unconventional sincere outspoken playful restless direct tactless intense insightful loyal emotional compassionate easygoing adaptable

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HANDOUT 2–7
Gay Men Show Cell Distinction
By Mike Snider USA Today Directions: Read the article. Then answer the questions that follow. A new study of the brain suggests a biological difference between homosexual and heterosexual men. The debate over the roots of homosexuality has been going on a long time, but this finding “suggests a biological phenomenon,” says neurologist Dennis Landis, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, in comments accompanying the study in today’s Science. It might explain “why male homosexuality is present in most human populations, despite cultural constraints.” In a study of the brain cells from 41 people, 25 of whom had died from AIDS, certain brain cells of heterosexual men had nuclei that were more than twice as large as those in homosexual men, says researcher Simon LeVay, Salk Institute for Biological Studies. The difference was apparently not caused by AIDS, because it was constant in a comparison of cells from heterosexual and homosexual male AIDS victims. LeVay also found homosexual men’s cells similar in size to women’s. Robert Bray, spokesman for National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, called the study “fascinating.” “If used ethically, (it) can shed light on human sexuality and prove what we’ve always believed—being a gay or lesbian is not a matter of choice. “Used unethically, the data could reinforce the political agenda of anti-gay groups that advocate ‘curing’ or ‘repairing’ homosexuals—the notion that gay people could be made straight by tweaking a chromosome here or readjusting a cell there.”
Source: Gay men show cell distinction. (1991, August 30). USA Today. Copyright 1991, USA Today. Reprinted with permission.

1. What conclusion does this article imply? What statements in the article suggest this conclusion? 2. Is this conclusion warranted by the study described? Why or why not? 3. Is the title an accurate summary of the study described? Why or why not? 4. Can this study “prove . . . being gay or lesbian is not a matter of choice,” as the task force spokesman suggests? Why or why not? 5. What questions do you have after reading this article? 6. If you had the power to create guidelines for the press’s reporting of a research study, what would you recommend?
Source: Connor-Greene, P. A. (1993). From the laboratory to the headlines: Teaching critical evaluation of press reports of research. Teaching of Psychology, 20(3), 167–169. Reprinted by permission of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., and the author.

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HANDOUT 2–8
Survey Questions
Answer the questions below as best you can.
1. Is the Mississippi River longer or shorter than 500 miles? How long is it? miles

2. Is the population of Argentina greater or less than 2 million? What is the population?

Source: Scheaffer, R. L., Gnanadesikan, M., Watkins, A., & Witmer, J. A. (1996). Activity-based statistics: Student guide. © 1996. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. www.jbpub.com. Reprinted with permission.

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Name _______________________________________ Period _________________ Date ____________

HANDOUT 2–8
Survey Questions
Answer the questions below as best you can.
1. Is the Mississippi River longer or shorter than 3000 miles? How long is it? miles

2. Is the population of Argentina greater or less than 100 million? What is the population?

Source: Scheaffer, R. L., Gnanadesikan, M., Watkins, A., & Witmer, J. A. (1996). Activity-based statistics: Student guide. © 1996. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. www.jbpub.com. Reprinted with permission.

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HANDOUT 2–9
Reaction Time Template

75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5

Source: Zimbardo, P. G. (1981). Finding meaning in the method. In L. T. Benjamin & K. D. Lowman (Eds.), Activities handbook for the teaching of psychology (Vol. 1). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

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HANDOUT 2–10
Writing Experimental Hypotheses
Directions: For the following scenarios, write an experimental hypothesis. 1. A psychologist takes two groups: one that is given a painkiller for migraine headaches and one that is given a placebo. Neither group knows about the presence of the placebo. The psychologist tests the patients after two hours to see if the headache still remains.

2. Researchers compared mental hospital admission rates for 10 days before and after a full moon.

3. One group of subjects flies across five time zones. Another group flies a long distance, but through only one time zone. Researchers examine both groups for symptoms of jet lag.

4. Researchers use a cross-sectional design method using four groups of people, each differing in age by 10 years. Each group is given a test to measure political and social attitudes.

5. A psychologist takes a group of serial killers and gives them personality tests to see if a pattern of childhood behavior is evident.

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Name _______________________________________ Period _________________ Date ____________

HANDOUT 2–11
Writing Operational Definitions
Directions: Come up with appropriate operational definitions for the highlighted word or phrase in each of the following descriptions. Keep in mind that an operational definition is one that makes it clear how the researcher should go about measuring the process, activity, behavior, or emotion. 1. The experimenter wants to figure out how different jokes affect a person’s sense of humor.

2. The teacher wants to find a way to help make Billy act more friendly toward the other children.

3. A psychologist wants to know if his new form of psychotherapy will make people less depressed.

4. People dream more if they have eaten a big meal three hours before going to sleep.

5. College athletes are not as smart as regular students.

6. Overall, senior girls are prettier than junior girls.

7. People who make over $300,000 a year tend to be snobs.

8. The school spirit is at an all-time low.

9. The Rolling Stones are the best rock group ever.

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Name _______________________________________ Period _________________ Date ____________

HANDOUT 2–12
Identifying Independent and Dependent Variables
Directions: For each of the following experiments, identify the independent and dependent variables. 1. Developmental psychologists want to know if exposing children to public television improves their reading skills.

2. Behavioral psychologists want to know whether reinforcing comments will make people work harder on an assembly line.

3. Comparative psychologists study whether a young monkey will prefer to spend time with a pretend monkey made of wire that also provides milk or a pretend monkey that is covered with cloth but provides no milk.

4. A clinical psychologist wants to know whether people who have psychotherapy are more or less likely to have problems in the future.

5. A social psychologist wants to know whether being polite or rude to people tends to make them more cooperative.

6. A personality psychologist explores whether extroverted people have more fun at parties.

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Name _______________________________________ Period _________________ Date ____________

HANDOUT 2–13
M&M Data Sheet
Directions: Record the number and percentage of each color in your bag of M&M candy.

Color Brown

Number of M&Ms

Percentage of Color

Yellow

Red

Blue

Green

Orange

New Color

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Name _______________________________________ Period _________________ Date ____________

HANDOUT 2–14
Random Samples
Directions: Read each example. Then write a one-or-two-sentence response on your own paper. 1. At the end of the first two weeks of the baseball season, newspapers start publishing the top 10 batting averages. The leader after the first two weeks normally has a batting average of .450 or higher. Yet no major league baseball player has ever finished the season with a better than .450 average. What do you think is the most likely explanation for the fact that batting averages are higher early in the season?

2. David L., a senior in high school on the East Coast, was planning to go to college. He had compiled an excellent record in high school and had been admitted to his two top choices: a small liberal arts college and an Ivy League university. The two schools were about equal in prestige and were equally costly. Both were located in attractive East Coast cities and roughly equidistant from his hometown. David had several older friends who were attending the liberal arts college and several who were attending the Ivy League university. They were all excellent students like him and had interests similar to his. The friends at the liberal arts college all reported that they liked the place very much and that they found it very stimulating. The friends at the Ivy League university reported that they had many complaints on both personal and social grounds and on educational grounds. David initially thought he would go to the smaller college. However, he decided to visit both schools himself for a day. He did not like what he saw at the private liberal arts college. The people he met seemed cold and unpleasant; a professor seemed abrupt and uninterested in him; and he did not like the “feel” of the campus. He did like what he saw at the Ivy League university. The people he met seemed vital, enthusiastic, and pleasant; the two professors he met took a personal interest in him; and he came away with a very pleasant feeling about the campus. Please say which school you think David should go to and why.

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HANDOUT 2–14 (continued)
3. The personnel manager of a large firm had to select a new chief accountant. No one in the firm’s accounting office was qualified for the job, so an outside candidate had to be found. The job requirements were expertise and practical experience in accounting, organizational skills, and the abilities to get along with and lead other people. There were two candidates for the job: Mr. Simpson and Mr. Barker. Each had worked for a small firm previously, and they had about the same amount of experience in accounting. Both had letters of recommendation from two former employers. The personnel manager personally knew all the employers and trusted their judgment. Both letters on Mr. Simpson indicated that he was an excellent accountant and that his organizational skills (delegation of responsibility, regulation of paper flow, meeting deadlines) were fairly good. One letter said he was a fairly effective leader, but he did not get along with several members of his staff and, in fact, some actively disliked him. The other letter also expressed some fairly strong reservations about his ability to get along with the staff, but not about his leadership ability. Both letters on Mr. Barker indicated that he was an excellent accountant and that his organizational skills were quite good. Both letters stressed that he was an excellent leader and that he got along extremely well with almost all staff members. The personnel manager interviewed both men and introduced them to the 12-member accounting staff at a half-hour get-acquainted session. Mr. Simpson seemed quite impressive, obviously intelligent, energetic, and good-humored. He made a very solid impression on the personnel manager and on most of the staff members. Mr. Barker did not make such a good impression, either on the personnel manager or on the staff. He seemed intelligent enough, but somewhat ill at ease and awkward. Most of the staff wondered how easy he would be to get to know and to communicate with. Which candidate should the personnel manager pick and why? What are the most important things to take into consideration?

Source: Reprinted by permission of Professor Richard E. Nisbett.

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Name _______________________________________ Period _________________ Date ____________

HANDOUT 2–15
Sample Size
Directions: Read each item and choose the answer. 1. Imagine that you are a golfer of above-average ability and that you have the opportunity to play the greatest golfer in the world (say Tiger Woods or Nick Price). If you want to maximize your slim chance of winning, how much golf would you elect to play, given the choices of 1, 18, 36, or 72 holes? 2. A certain town is served by two hospitals. In the larger hospital about 45 babies are born each day, and in the smaller hospital about 15 babies are born each day. Although the overall proportion of boys is about 50 percent, the actual proportion at either hospital may be greater or less than 50 percent on any day. At the end of a year, which hospital will have the greater number of days on which more than 60 percent of the babies born were boys? (a) the larger hospital (b) the smaller hospital (c) neither—the number of days will be about the same (within 5 percent of each other) 3. Imagine an urn filled with white and black balls. You know that two-thirds of the balls are one color and one-third are the other, but you don’t know which color predominates. One blindfolded person plunges a hand into the urn and comes up with 3 black balls and 1 white ball. Another uses both hands and comes up with 14 black balls and ten white balls. Which sample provides the more convincing evidence that the urn contains more black balls than white balls? (a) the first, or 3:1 sample (b) the second, or 14:10 sample (c) they are equally convincing

Sources: (1) Reprinted by permission from Wood, G. Research methodology: A decision-making perspective. In A. Rogers & C. Scheirer (Eds.), The G. Stanley Hall lecture series (Vol. 4, p. 204). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. (2) and (3) McKean, K. (1985, June). Decisions, decisions. Discover (p. 25). Kevin McKean/© 1985. Reprinted with permission of Discover Magazine.

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Name _______________________________________ Period _________________ Date ____________

HANDOUT 2–16
Ethics in Research
Directions: For each of the following scenarios, determine if an ethical code has been violated and how the study could be redesigned to meet the standards. 1. Are individuals honest in personally important situations in which it would be easy to be dishonest? As one of a series of studies on this problem, an investigator observed individuals while they took an eye examination for a driver’s license. The experimenter recorded whether they stood in the back of, on, or in front of a line painted on the floor that was used to indicate the appropriate distance from the eye chart. The individuals were not informed that they were being observed. 2. A researcher asked three graduate student research assistants to call students in introductory psychology classes to determine their willingness to participate in research testing the effectiveness of different methods of tutoring. Without the researcher’s knowledge, one of the graduate students told the potential subjects that participation in the research is a course requirement. 3. A researcher tested drivers’ reactions to stress caused by an unavoidable accident. Subjects individually drove their cars on a specific route. As they neared a corner, a human-looking dummy was propelled in front of the car. It was impossible for the subjects to avoid hitting the dummy. The researcher recorded the subjects’ reactions. When the subjects learned of the deception, they complained to the researcher. Despite the complaints, the researcher continued to test subjects. 4. Letters were sent to financial aid students at a college announcing an important meeting for financial aid recipients. At the meeting, students were told that additional funds had been received by the financial aid office and were to be allocated in grants of $500 per student. The students were then divided into two groups. One group was told that the money would be allocated on the basis of financial need, and the other group was told that the money would be allocated on a random basis. The students were then told whether they had been awarded the $500 grant. Following this explanation, they were asked to complete a questionnaire concerning the method used to award the money. After students completed the questionnaire, they were told that the meeting was simply an experiment and that, in reality, there was no additional money to be awarded. Reportedly, student reaction to the experiment was quite negative. One student was quoted as saying, “I was shocked that we’d been used like guinea pigs,” while another student stated, “It’s like a bad joke. I feel used and manipulated. If they had told me the true purpose of the meeting, I would have refused to take part.” College officials, on the other hand, argued that “No harm was intended and none was done” and that “deception by itself is not unethical. It’s unfortunate, but if you’re going to gather data, you have to have people believe what you’re telling them—and that involves deception.”

Source: Smith, J., Northern Kentucky University. Handout presented as part of the NKU/NSF Summer Institute for the Teaching of Psychology, July, 1997.

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Name _______________________________________ Period _________________ Date ____________

HANDOUT 2–17
Animal Care and Use Committee
Directions: Your group is the Animal Care Committee for a university. It is the committee’s responsibility to evaluate and either approve or reject research proposals submitted by faculty members who want to use animals for research or instructional purposes in psychology, biology, or medicine. The proposals describe the experiments, including the goals and potential benefits of the research as well as any discomfort or injury that they may cause the animal subjects. You must either approve the research or deny permission for the experiments. It is not your job to suggest improvements on technical aspects of the projects, such as the experimental design. You should make your decision based on the information given in the proposal. CASE 1 Professor King is a psychobiologist working on the frontiers of a new and exciting research area of neuroscience called brain grafting. Research has shown that neural tissue can be removed from the brains of monkey fetuses and implanted into the brains of monkeys that have suffered brain damage. The neurons seem to make the proper connections and are sometimes effective in improving performance in brain-damaged animals. These experiments offer important animal models for human degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Professor King wants to transplant tissue from fetal monkey brains into the entorhinal cortex of adult monkeys; this is the area of the human brain that is involved with Alzheimer’s disease. The experiment will use 20 adult rhesus monkeys. First, the monkeys will be subjected to ablation surgery in the entorhinal cortex. This procedure will involve anesthetizing the animals, opening their skulls, and making lesions using a surgical instrument. After they recover, the monkeys will be tested on a learning task to make sure their memory is impaired. Three months later, half of the animals will be given transplant surgery. Tissue taken from the cortex of monkey fetuses will be implanted into the area of the brain damage. Control animals will be subjected to sham surgery, and all animals will be allowed to recover for two months. They will then learn a task to test the hypothesis that the animals having brain grafts will show better memory than the control group. Professor King argues that this research is in the exploratory stages and can only be done using animals. She further states that by the year 2000 about 2 million Americans will have Alzheimer’s disease and that her research could lead to a treatment for the devastating memory loss that Alzheimer’s victims suffer. CASE 2 Dr. Fine is a developmental psychobiologist. His research concerns the genetic control of complex behaviors. One of the major debates in his field concerns how behavior develops when an animal has no opportunity to learn a response. He hypothesizes that the complex grooming sequence of mice might be a behavior pattern that is built into the brain at birth, even though it is not expressed until weeks later. To investigate whether the motor patterns involved in grooming are acquired or innate, he wants to

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HANDOUT 2–17 (continued)
raise animals with no opportunity to learn the response. Rearing animals in social isolation is insufficient because the mice could teach themselves the response. Certain random movements could accidentally result in the removal of debris. These would then be repeated and could be coordinated into the complex sequence that would appear to be instinctive but would actually be learned. To show that the behaviors are truly innate, he needs to demonstrate that animals raised with no opportunity to perform any grooming-like movements make the proper movements when they are old enough to exhibit the behavior. Dr. Fine proposes to conduct the experiment on 10 newborn mice. As soon as the animals are born, they will be anesthetized and their front limbs amputated. This procedure will ensure that they will not be reinforced for making random grooming movements that remove debris from their bodies. The mice will then be returned to their mothers. The animals will be observed on a regular schedule using standard observation techniques. Limb movements will be filmed and analyzed. If grooming is a learned behavior, then the mice should not make grooming movements with their stumps as the movements will not remove dirt. If, however, grooming movements are innately organized in the brain, then the animals should eventually show groominglike movement with the stumps. In his proposal, Dr. Fine notes that experimental results cannot be directly applied to human behavior. He argues, however, that the experiment will shed light on an important theoretical debate in the field of developmental psychobiology. He also stresses that the amputations are painless and the animals will be well treated after the operation. CASE 3 Your university includes a college of veterinary medicine. In the past, the veterinary students have practiced surgical techniques on dogs procured from a local animal shelter. However, there have been some objections to this practice, and the veterinary school wants the approval of your committee to continue this practice. They make the following points. 1. Almost all of these animals will eventually be killed at the animal shelter. It is wasteful of life to breed animals for the vet school when there is an ample supply of animals that are going to be killed anyway, either because their owners do not want them or because they are homeless. 2. It costs at least 10 times as much to raise purebred animals for research purposes; this money could be better used to fund research that would benefit many animals. 3. Research with dogs from animal shelters and the practice surgeries will, in the long run, aid the lives of animals by training veterinarians and producing treatments for diseases that afflict animals. A local group of animal welfare activists has urged your committee to deny the veterinary school’s request. They argue that the majority of these animals are lost or stolen pets, and it is tragic to think that the dog you have grown to love will wind up on a surgical table or in an experiment. Furthermore, they claim that as people become aware that animals taken to shelters may end up in research laboratories, they will stop using the shelters. Finally, the activists point out that in countries such as England, veterinary students do not perform practice surgery; they learn surgical techniques in an extensive apprenticeship.

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HANDOUT 2–17 (continued)
CASE 4 The Psychology Department is requesting permission from your committee to use 10 rats per semester for demonstration experiments in a physiological psychology course. The students will work in groups of three; each group will be given a rat. The students will first perform surgery on the rats. Each animal will be anesthetized. Following standard surgical procedures, an incision will be made in the scalp and two holes drilled in the animal’s skull. Electrodes will be lowered into the brain to create lesions on each side. The animals will then be allowed to recover. Several weeks later, the effects of destroying this part of the animal’s brain will be tested in a shuttle avoidance task in which the animals will learn when to cross over an electrified grid. The instructor acknowledges that the procedure is a common demonstration and that no new scientific information will be gained from the experiment. He argues, however, that students taking a course in physiological psychology must have the opportunity to engage in small animal surgery and to see firsthand the effects of brain lesions.

Source: Herzog, H. A. (1990). Discussing animal rights and animal research in the classroom. Teaching of psychology, 17, 90–94. Reprinted by permission of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., and the author.

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ANSWERS TO HANDOUT 2–2
Exploring Root Words
Critical thinking is thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions. How is this term related to the words critic or criticize? To criticize means to find fault or to judge the merits of something. Critical thinking does just that—finds fault or judges the merits of a theory or idea. Naturalistic observation is observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations, without trying to manipulate and control the situation. How is this term related to the words natural and observe? Naturalistic observation requires researchers to watch (observe) a subject as the subject participates in non-artificial (natural) settings. Usually, these types of studies contrast with laboratory studies, which are viewed to be artificial or unnatural. Correlational study is a research project designed to discover the degree to which two variables are related to one another. How is this term related to the word correlate? When something is correlated, two variables go together somehow. They are “co-related.” Correlational studies do not establish cause-and-effect relationships; they simply describe how two variables are related to one another. Longitudinal study is a research technique that involves studying the same group of individuals over a long period of time. How is this word related to the word longitude? A line of longitude represents the longest line of a particular object. Longitudinal studies explore the behavior of individuals over a long period of time— usually over years or even throughout a person’s lifetime. Cross-sectional study is a research technique that involves comparing individuals from different age groups at one time. How is this word related to the word cross-section? A cross-section represents a sample of a particular population. Cross-sectional studies, shorter than longitudinal ones, take a representative sample of people and study them at one point in time, hoping to generalize the results from this cross-section to the population at large. Operational definition is a specification of the exact procedures used to make a variable specific and measurable for research purposes. How is this term related to the words operational and define? When something is operational, it is working and functional. To define a word is to describe its precise meaning. An operational definition is a functional definition of a concept’s precise meaning so others can study that concept in the same way as in the original study without confusion. Confounding variable is a variable other than the independent variable that could influence the dependent variable. Confounding variables must be adequately controlled to draw cause-andeffect conclusions from an experiment. How is this term related to the words confound and vary? When something is confounding, it causes confusion. A variable is something that can undergo changes in its characteristics or attributes. In an experiment, a researcher actively manipulates an independent variable and, if her hypothesis is correct, the dependent variable is changed. In the presence of a confounding variable, the researcher is confused as to what actually caused the change. Double-blind procedure is an experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff do not know the expected outcome of the research. This procedure is used to control for the effects of expectation as a confounding variable. How is this word related to the words double and blind? Double means comprising two parts. A person who is blind is unable to see or perceive the visual world. In a double-blind procedure, the two parties involved— participants and staff—are intentionally left blind to the overarching hypothesis until after the data is collected. This procedure is used to keep the people collecting data from being influenced by their own expectations. 82
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ANSWERS TO HANDOUT 2–3
Matching
longitudinal study __________________________ random sampling __________________________ participant bias __________________________ population __________________________ research bias __________________________ control group __________________________ survey method __________________________ case study __________________________ experiment __________________________ 1. Studying the same group of individuals over a long period of time 2. A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of being included 3. When participants in research respond differently than they normally would because of what they believe the researcher wants 4. The entire group from which subjects may be selected for a study 5. When researchers selectively notice evidence that supports their hypotheses or expectations 6. The participants in an experiment who are not exposed to the independent variable 7. A research technique designed to discover the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of people through the use of questionnaires or interviews 8. When one person is studied in depth 9. A research method in which the researcher manipulates one or more factors (independent variables) to observe the effect on another variable (dependent variable) while confounding variables remain controlled 10. An investigator’s testable prediction about the outcome of research 11. A statement of the exact behaviors a researcher is looking for in a research study 12. The research variable that is hypothesized to cause a change in the dependent variable 13. The behavior or mental process where the impact of the independent variable is measured 14. The participants in an experiment who are exposed to the treatment; that is, the independent variable 15. Assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance 16. A nonactive substance that may be administered instead of a drug 17. Repeating the essence of a research study to see whether the results can be reliably reproduced

hypothesis __________________________ operational definitions __________________________ independent variable __________________________ dependent variable __________________________ experimental group __________________________ random assignment __________________________ placebo __________________________ replication __________________________

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ANSWERS TO HANDOUT 2–4
Matching

Research Methods Critical thinking: thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions; rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions Researcher bias: a tendency for researchers to engage in behaviors and selectively notice evidence that supports their hypotheses or expectations Participant bias: a tendency for research participants to respond in a certain way because they know they are being observed or they believe they know what the researcher wants

Ethics Four basic principles: 1) Informed consent—participants must be informed of the general nature of the study. 2) Right to be protected from harm and discomfort. 3) Right to confidentiality—data from individual participants cannot be released. 4) Right to debriefing— participants must receive a full explanation of the research they were involved in.

Naturalistic Observation observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation

Case Studies a research technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles

Correlations

Surveys

Experiments

Positive correlation: a correlation that shows a direct relationship between two variables; both variables increase or decrease in the same direction Negative correlation: a correlation that shows an inverse relationship between two variables; as one variable increases, the other decreases Correlation does NOT mean causation!

Population: all cases in a group from which samples may be drawn for a study random sample: a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion

Hypothesis: an investigator’s testable prediction about the outcome of research Operational definition: a specification of the exact procedures used to make a variable specific and measurable for research purposes IV: the research variable that a researcher actively manipulates, and if the hypothesis is correct, will cause a change in the dependent variable DV: the research variable that is influenced by the independent variable; in psychology, the behavior or mental process where the impact of the IV is measured Random assignment and groups: assigning participants to experimental and control groups by chance, thus minimizing preexisting differences among those assigned to different groups Confounding variables: in an experiment, a variable, other than the IV, that could influence the dependent variable. Researchers must control for confounding variables.

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■ BLACKLINE MASTER 2–1
The Limits of Human Intuition
Questions for Critical Thinking If you drop a bullet off a table 3 feet high, and fire another one straight across an empty football field, which hits the ground first?

A ball rolls down a spiral track. The end of the track curves left. What path does the ball take when it leaves the track?

A wooden cube is 1 inch long on each side. How many cubes form a cube 2 inches along each side?

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■ BLACKLINE MASTER 2–2a
Challenger Correlations
Make a scatterplot of the following data: Temperature 53 57 58 63 70 75 Number of O-Ring Failures 2 1 1 1 2 2

Would you have launched the space shuttle Challenger in cold weather based on this data?

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■ BLACKLINE MASTER 2–2b
Challenger Correlations
Make a scatterplot of these data: Temperature 53 57 58 63 66 67 68 69 70 70 72 73 75 75 76 79 81
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Number of O-Ring Failures 2 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 0

Now, would you have launched the space shuttle in cold weather using this data?

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■ BLACKLINE MASTER 2–3
Figure 2.3, Page 27

TV watching

TV watching

Lower GPA

Lower GPA

could cause

could cause

(3) Low intelligence

(1) TV watching

(2) Low GPA

could cause

OR

OR

AND

and

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■ BLACKLINE MASTER 2–4
Table 2.2 page 35

Table 2.2
The Experimental Method Step by Step
1. Develop the hypothesis. 2. Create operational definitions for the independent variable (IV) and dependent variable (DV). 3. Randomly select a sample of participants from the population. 4. Randomly assign the participants to the experimental and control groups. 5. Expose the experimental group, but not the control group, to the IV. If necessary, use a placebo with the control group to balance expectations. 6. Control for other confounding variables by using a doubleblind procedure and treating both groups the same except for exposure to the IV. 7. Learn the effect of the IV by measuring the DV for both groups. 8. Use statistical analysis to discover whether the difference in the DV between the two groups is likely to have been caused by the manipulation of the IV.

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