BigPicture Psych

The Big Picure : Basic concepts and definition of the classical psychological approach

Psychology + Big Data

Today == "small data" research using hypothesis testing to build theories about human thughts, feelings, and behavior

-   goal of the classical psychological approach

develop and refine theories _ broad explanations of how people think, feel, and act and why we think feel and act certain ways

-   steps in the classical psychological approach

usually conducted in person

1. theory

2. hypothesis

3. conduct a specific study to test hypothesis

4. results

-   theories

1. psychoanalytic theory

: our thoughts, feelings and actions are a result of trying to balance our impulses and the need to be acceptable to other and are influenced by early childhood experiences

: many of the influences on our thoughts, feelings, and actions are unconscious

2. evolutionary psychological theory

: our current thoughts, feelings, and actions exist because they were adaptive to our early human ancestors

: helped them survive, reproduce, cooperate

Q why are people more afraid of snakes than cars ?

A evolutionary psychology _ snakes were present in humans' early ancestral environments and so it would have been adaptive to fear them

-   hypothesis

: specific prediction about the results of a study _ supposed or not supposed / not proven, true, false

-   types of studies

: experiments 

   investigate cause and effect by manipulating an independent variable and measuring the effect on a dependent variable

   type of study which can know cause and effect

: correlational _ often conducted via surveys

   measure two variables and measure the strength and direction of the relationship between them

   negative correlation, uncorrelated, positive correlation

: observational

   observe what people are doing without manipulating my variables or asking them any direct questions

-   sampling

: psychological researchers typically rely on samples, small subsets of the people they are interested in studying

random sample = each member of population has an equal likelihood of being chosen

   -> sample is a mini version of/accurate reflection of the population

convenience sample = researchers study the people who are around and willing to complete studies

Sampling Issues : obtainint a truly random sample is very difficult so a lot of psychological research is based on convenience samples

-   types of data

Q why collect data ?

A to understand something about the world better or to answer an important question

1. self-report

: ask participants direct questions

: useful for getting information that is subjective and / or not easily observable

Issues

: Ps may not know the answer

: they may give an answer that they thinks sounds better than the truth _ social desirability bias

2. behavioral

: directly observe what people are doing

: quantify it

Issues

: people may behave differently if they know they are being observed

: how do you turn complicated behavior into simple data _ coding schemes, inter-rater reliability

3. behavioral residue / data exhaust

: our actions leave behind evidence _ look for evidence of past actions rather than directly observing behavior as it occurs

Issues

: researchers have to interpret it

 

The classical Psychological Approach Key concepts

- goal

- steps

- theory

- hypothesis

- types of studies : experiment, correlation, observational

- sampling : random sample, convenience sample, why is it necessary ?, why is it so difficult to do well ?

- types of data : self-report, behavioral, behavioral residue / behavioral exhause