EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

RESEARCH

INQUIRY (Both involve investigation of something through questioning)

A process of executing various mental acts for discovering and examining facts and information to prove
the accuracy or truthfulness of your claims or conclusions about the topic of your research.

CHARACTERISTICS OF RESEARCH

1. ACCURACY must give correct or accurate data.

2. OBJECTIVENESS must deal with facts, not with mere opinions arising from assumptions,
generalizations, predictions, or conclusions.
3. TIMELINESS must work on a topic that is fresh, new, and interesting to the present society.
4. RELEVANCE must be instrumental in improving society or solving problems affecting lives of people in
the community.
5. CLARITY must succeed in expressing its central point or discoveries by using simple, direct, concise,
and correct language.
6. SYSTEMATIC must take place in an organized or orderly manner.

PURPOSE OF RESEARCH

 To work how to learn independently and as a group.

 To learn how to work scientifically and systematically.
 To have an in-depth knowledge of something.
 To elevate your mental abilities by letting you think in higher-order thinking strategies (HOTS) of
inferring, evaluating, synthesizing, appreciating, applying, and creating.
 To improve your reading and writing skills.
 To be familiar with the basic tools of research and the various techniques of gathering data and
presenting research findings.
 To free yourself, to a certain extent, from the domination or strong influence of a single textbook or the
professor’s lone viewpoint or spoon-feeding.

TYPES OF RESEARCH

BASED ON APPLICATION OF RESEARCH

1. PURE RESEARCH deals with concepts principles or abstract thing. Aims to increase your knowledge
about something.
2. APPLIED RESEARCH intends to be applied to societal problems or issues. Finding ways to make
positive changes in society.

BASED ON PURPOSE OF RESEARCH

1. DESCRIPTIVE aims at defining or giving a verbal portrayal or picture of a person, things, event, group,
situation, etc.
2. CORRELATIONAL shows the relationship or connectedness of two factors, circumstances, or agents
called variables that affect the research.
3. EXPLANATORY elaborates or explains not just the reasons behind the relationship of two factors, but
also the ways by which such relationship exists.
4. EXPLORATORY has a purpose to find out how reasonable or possible it is to conduct a research study
on a certain topic.
5. ACTION studies an ongoing practice of a school, organization, community, or institution for the
purpose of obtaining results that will being improvements in the system.

BASED ON TYPES OF DATA NEEDED

1. QUALITATIVE requires non-numerical data, which means that the research uses words rather than
numbers to express the results, inquiry, or investigation about people’s thought, beliefs, feelings,
views, and lifestyle regarding the object of the study.
2. QUANTITATIVE involves measurement of data.

SCIENTIFIC AND NON-SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY

 In our daily lives, we all collect and use psychological data to understand the behavior of others and
guide our own behavior. The kind of everyday, non-scientific data gathering that shapes our
expectations and beliefs and directs our behavior toward other is called COMMONSENSE
PSYCHOLOGY
 CONFIRMATION BIAS is the tendency of people to favor information that confirms their existing
beliefs or hypotheses. Confirmation bias happens when a person gives more weight to evidence that
confirms their beliefs and undervalues evidence that could disprove it.
 OVERCONFIDENCE BIAS is a tendency to hold a false and misleading assessment of our skills,
intellect, or talent. In short, it’s an egotistical belief that we’re better than we actually are. It can be a
dangerous bias and is very prolific in behavioral finance.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN SCIENCE

1. THE SCIETIFIC MENTALITY. Psychology is science because it follows the scientific method. Research
psychologists share the belief that there are specifiable causes for the way people behave that is
discovered through research.
2. GATHERING EMPIRICAL DATA. These data are observable and experienced or verified and
disapproved through investigation.
3. SEEKING GENERAL PRINCIPLES. When a principle have the generality to apply to all situations which
is called LAW. IN advance when we test an interim explanation it is called a THEORY. This lead to what
we call hypothesis.
4. GOOD THINKING. This is the central feature of scientific method. The scientist avoids letting private
beliefs or expectations influence observations or conclusions.
5. SELF-CORRECTION. Modern scientist accept the uncertainty of their own conclusions. The content of
science changes as we acquire new scientific information and old information is reevaluated in light of
new facts.
6. PUBLICIZING RESULTS
7. REPLICATION

OBJECTIVES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH

1. Description: Initial step toward understanding; a systematic and unbiased account of the observed
characteristics of behaviors; good descriptions allow greater knowledge of behaviors.
2. Prediction: The capability of knowing in advance when certain behaviors would be expected to occur
because we have identified other conditions with which the behaviors are linked.
3. Explanation: Understanding what causes something to occur.
4. Control: The application of what has been learned about behavior; once the knowledge about a
behavior is learned, it is possible to use that knowledge to effect change or improve behavior.
 2 TYPES OF RESEARCH DESIGN

1. APPLIED RESEARCH is designed to solve real-world problems.

2. BASIC RESEARCH is designed to test theories or to explain psychological phenomena.
SCIENTIFIC METHODS

5. OBSERVATION
6. MEASUREMENT
7. EXPERIMENTATION

SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE

8. IDENTIFYING ANTECEDENT CONDITIONS. Antecedent conditions are the circumstances that come
before the event or behavior that we want to explain.
9. COMPARING TREATMENT CONDITIONS. Exposing to different conditions.
10.PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT. Controlled procedure in which at least two different conditions are
applied to subjects.
11.ESTABLISHING CAUSE AND EFFECT
12.NECESSARY VS. SUFFICIENT CONDITIONS

RESEARCH ETHICS

The purpose of these codes of conduct is to protect research participants, the reputation of psychology,
and psychologists themselves.

13.INFORMED CONSENT
14.DEBRIEF
15.PROTECTION OF PARTICIPANTS
16.DECEPTION
17.CONFIDENTIALITY
18.WITHDRAWAL

RESEARCH ETHICS OTHER CONCERNS

1. ANIMAL RIGHTS. The concept that all sensate species that feel pain are of equal value and have
rights.
2. ANIMAL WELFARE. The concept that all sensate species that feel pain are of equal value and have
rights.
3. AT RISK. The likelihood of a subject being harmed in some way because of the nature or research.
4. FRAUD. The unethical practice of falsifying or fabricating data, plagiarism is also a form of fraud.
5. INSTITUTIONAL ANIMAL CARE AND USE OF COMMITTEE. Institutional committee tyat reviews
proposed research to safeguard the welfare of animal subjects.
6. INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD. Institutional committee that reviews proposed research to
safeguard the safety and rights of human participants.
7. PLAGIARISM. The representation of someone else’s ideas, words of written work as one’s own; serious
breach of ethics that can result in legal action.
8. RISK/BENEFIT ANALYSIS. A determination made by IRB that any risks to the individual are
outweighed by potential benefits or the importance of the knowledge to he gained.

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGN

 The researcher selects participants and divides them into two or more groups having similar
characteristics and, then, applies the treatment(s) to the groups and measures the effects upon the
groups.

UNIQUENESS OF EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

Experimental Research is unique in two important respects:

 The only type of research that attempts to influence a particular variable.

 Best type of research for testing hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships.

Experimental Research looks at the following variables (a concept that can assume any one of a range of
values);

 INDEPENDENT VARIABLE (TREATMENT)

 DEPENDENT VARIABLE (OUTCOME)

MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS OF EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

1. The researcher manipulates the independent variable.

2. They decide the nature and the extent of the treatment.
3. After the treatment gas been administered, researchers observe or measure the groups receiving the
treatments to see if they differ.
4. Experimental research enables researchers to go beyond description and prediction, and attempt to
determine what caused effects.

COMPARISON OF GROUPS

 The experimental group receives a treatment of some sort while the control group receives no
treatment. Enables the researcher to determine whether the treatment has had an effect or whether
one treatment is more effective than the another.

MANIPULATION OF THE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE

 The researcher deliberately and directly determines what forms the independent variable will take and
which group will get which form.

RANDOMIZATION

 Random assignment is similar but not identical to random selection.

 RANDOM ASSIGNMENT means that every individual who is participating in the experiment has an
equal chance of being assigned to any of the experimental or control groups.
 RANDOM SELECTION means that every member of a population has an equal chance of being
selected to be a member of the sample.

1. PROBABILITY. Involves random selection allowing you to make strong statistical inferences about the
whole group.
2. NON-PROBABILITY. Non-random selection based on convenience or other criteria allowing you to
collect data easily.

PROBABILITY

 SIMPLE RANDOM SAMPLING. Every subject of a specified size (n) from the population has an equal
chance of being selected.
 STRATIFIED RANDOM SAMPLING. The population is divided into two or more groups called strata,
according to some criterion, such as geographic location, grade level, age, or income, and subsamples
are randomly selected from each strata.

POPULATION PER STRATA X SAMPLE / POPULATION

 CLUSTER SAMPLING. A probability sampling method in which you divide a population into clusters,
such as districts or schools, and then randomly select some of these clusters as your sample. The
clusters should ideally each be mini-representations of the population as a whole.
 SYSTEMATIC SAMPLING. Every kth member (for example: every 10th person) is selected from a list of
all population members. K = POPULATION / SAMPLE

NON-PROBABILITY

 QUOTA SAMPLING. No constraints on how the researcher select people to interview as long as the
quote is filled.
 CONVENIENCE SAMPLING. Obtained by using any groups who happen to be available. Weak form of
sampling because the researcher exercises no control over the representativeness of the sample. Also
called accidental sampling.
 PURPOSIVE SAMPLING. Individuals were selected for a specific purpose of the study. Choosing
purposively.
 SNOWBALL SAMPLING. A researcher locates one or a few people who fit the sample criterion and
asks these people to locate or lead them to additional individual with the same characteristics.

STEPS IN CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH

1. Decide if an experiment addresses the research problem.

2. Form hypotheses to test cause-effect relationships.
3. Select an experimental treatment and introduce it.
4. Identify study participants choose a type of experimental design.
5. Conduct an experiment.
6. Organize and analyze the data.
7. Develop an experimental research report.

 G *POWER ANALYSIS. A computer application that calculates the minimum number of respondents for every
statistical test. The sample is dependent on the test. The effect size or error probability should only range
from 0.1 to 0.5. The lower the number of error probability the higher the sample size. The power should
only range from 0.95 to 0.99. The higher the level of power, the higher the given sample size.
 RAOSOFT CALCULATOR. A free website used to calculate the sample size. The provided sample is
dependent the population, the margin of error and confidence level. The margin of error should
only range from 1 to 5, and the confidence level should be from 95 to 100. The higher the margin of
error, the lower the sample size, the higher the confidence level, the higher the sample size.
 SLOVIN'S FORMULA. A formula used to manually compute the sample size. The sample size is
dependent on the number of population and the margin of error.

N
n=
1+ N ¿ ¿
n = minimum number of samples

N = the total number of sample population

e = margin of error

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH DESIGN

BASIC RULES OF CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

 Use a double headed arrow to represent difference.

 Use a single headed arrow to represent relationship.
 Use a dotted line to connect your output from the framework.
 The number of arrows is the same with the number of inferential questions, not unless the framework was modified or
simplified.
 The number of boxes must be the same with the number of factual questions, not unless the framework was modified
or simplified.

DOUBLE HEADED ARROW SINGLE HEADED ARROR

DOTTED LINES
DIFFERENCE RELATIONSHIP
INDIRECT CONNECTOR

BASIC CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK DESIGN

COMPARATIVE (2 GROUPS) EXPERIMENTAL/COMAPARTIVE (3 GROUPS)

CORRELATIONAL QUALITATIVE (IPO)

 PARAMETRIC TEST

BASIC RULES

 Data should be at least interval or ratio scale

 Respondents were selected using probability sampling
 The data set must be normally distributed
 Equal variance or standard deviation
 The respondents must be 100 above, it differs according to references

NON-PARAMETRIC TEST

BASIC RULES
 When any of the requirements to parametric test were not met

LEVELS OF DATA

NOMINAL ORDINAL
 It shows ordered relationship
 Descriptions or characteristics
 There is magnitude
1. Gender
1. Year Level
2. Marital Status
2. Likert Scale
3. Favorite Color
3. Ranking
4. Jersey Number
4. Educational Attainment

INTERVAL RATIO

 It shows ordered relationship  It shows ordered relationship

 There is magnitude  There is magnitude
 There is a true value that can be measured  There is a true value that can be measured
 There is an equal interval  There is an equal interval
 True zero is arbitrary  There is true zero
1. IQ 1. Distance
2. Time of day in a 12-hours clock 2. Weight
3. Temperature in Fahrenheit or Celcius 3. Test Scores
4. Income

NORMAL DISTRUBUTION

 Normal distribution, also known as the Gaussian Distribution, is a probability distribution that is
symmteric about the mean, showing that data near the mean are more frequent in occurrence than
data from the mean.
 TYPE OF RESEARCH PARAMETRIC NON-PARAMETRIC
CORRELATION PEARSON'S R SPEARMAN'S RHO
Ratio-Ratio/Interval-Interval/ Ordinal
Ratio-Interval/Interval-Ratio
KENDALL TAU TEST
Ordinal-Ratio/Ratio-Ordinal/
Ordinal-Interval/Interval-Ordinal
CHI-SQUARE
Nominal

TYPE OF RESEARCH PARAMETRIC NON-PARAMETRIC

COMPARATIVE – 2 GROUPS INDEPENDENT T-TEST MANN WHITNEY U-TEST
Interval or Ratio – Different Ordinal – Different group of
groups of respondents/Uncorrelated
respondents/Uncorrelated
DEPENDENT T-TEST WILCOXON TEST
Interval or Ratio – Same group of Ordinal – Same groups of
respondents/Correlated respondents/Uncorrelated
CHI-SQUARE TEST
Nominal

TYPE OF RESEARCH PARAMETRIC NON-PARAMETRIC

COMPARATIVE – 3 OR MORE ONE-WAY ANOVA KRUSKAL-WALLIS TEST
GROUPS Interval or Ratio – One Ordinal – Different groups of
independent variable respondents/Uncorrelated/One
Independent Variable
TWO-WAY ANOVA FRIEDMAN TEST
Interval or Ratio – Two or more Ordinal – Same groups of
independent variable respondents/Correlated/Two or
more Independent Variable
CHI-SQUARE TEST
Nominal