Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

Concept Map41Research MethodsMust conform to American Psychological Association codes of ethicsHuman participants:• Informed consent• Voluntary participation• Deception allowable only when no otheralternatives and if justified by study'spotential merit• Confidentiality of personal information• Debriefed at conclusion of studyNonhuman subjects:• Acceptable scientific purpose• Must increase knowledge about species,behavior, or benefit the health or welfare ofhumans or nonhuman animals• Must meet local, state, and federal guidelinesregulating care of research animalsDescriptive research methods:Systematically observe and describe behaviorNaturalisticobservationCase studiesSurveys,questionnairesCorrelational studies:• Determine strength of relationshipbetween two factors; cannot provideevidence of causality• Relationship is expressed as a numericalcorrelation coefficient, which can bepositive or negativeExperimental method:Manipulates independent variableand measures the effects ondependent variable; used todemonstrate a cause-and-effectrelationshipNatural experiments:Investigate effects ofnaturally occurringeventsExperimental controls:• Random assignment of research participants to experimentalor control group• Double-blind experimental design to guard against experimenterbias and demand characteristics• Anticipate potential influence of extraneous variablesExperimental group:Exposed to independentvariableControl group:Not exposed toindependentvariablePlacebo control group:(in some experiments):Exposed tofake independentvariableMeasure effects, if any,on dependent variable