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LAP FOUR
LAP OBJECTIVES
MS. ROTHWEILER
Research Strategies
and Statistics
Scientific Method Applied To Behavior
About.com says that psychologists and other social scientists regularly
propose explanations for human behavior. On a more informal level, people
make judgments about the intentions, motivations, and actions of others on
a daily basis. While the everyday judgments we make about human behavior
are subjective and anecdotal, researchers use the scientific method to study
psychology in an objective and systematic way. The results of these studies
are often reported in popular media, which leads many to wonder just how
or why researchers arrived at the conclusions they did.
In order to truly understand how psychologists and other researchers reach
these conclusions, you need to know more about the research process that
is used to study psychology and the basic steps that are utilized when
conducting any type of psychological research.
Psychologists and other social scientists regularly propose explanations for
human behavior. On a more informal level, people make judgments about
the intentions, motivations, and actions of others on a daily basis. While the
everyday judgments we make about human behavior are subjective and
anecdotal, researchers use the scientific method to study psychology in an
objective and systematic way. The results of these studies are often reported
in popular media, which leads many to wonder just how or why researchers
arrived at the conclusions they did.
Descriptive research such as case studies, naturalistic observations, and
surveys are often used when it would be impossible or difficult to conduct an
experiment. These methods are best used to describe different aspects of a
behavior or psychological phenomenon. Once a researcher has collected
data using descriptive methods, a correlational study can then be used to
look at how the variables are related.
Rationale
In order to truly understand how psychologists and other researchers reach
these conclusions, you need to know more about the research process that
is used to study psychology and the basic steps that are utilized when
conducting any type of psychological research.
LAP FOUR
Essential Question:
MS. ROTHWEILER
What advantage does research have over other ways of knowing things?
How effectively do psychologists study behavior?
Do personality test really describe accurately ones behavior?
Activity Calendar
Class Meeting
First
Class Focus
Introduction To Scientific
method
Assignment Due
None
Methods of studying
behavior
Complete Methods and
Ethics
None
Third
Fourth
Statistics
4-2
Fifth
Personality Tests
4-3
Sixth
Pull It Together
4-4
Second
4-1
Due Date
Third
Fourth
Fifth
Sixth
http://psychology.about.com/od/education/f/why-are-statistics-necessary-in-psychology.htm
LAP FOUR
MS. ROTHWEILER
HANDOUT 1
Psychological Methods
Method
Observation
Survey
Interview
Advantages
Disadvantages
LAP FOUR
Case Study
Experiment
MS. ROTHWEILER
LAP FOUR
MS. ROTHWEILER
Handout Two
1. Identify the 3 scales of measurement and explain how and when each are used.
2. Explain what is meant by central tendency and how it is measured
3. What is meant by the normal curve?
4. What is meant by skewed distribution?
5. What happens to the central tendency in a skewed distribution?
6. How do we measure variation?
7. Explain how one finds standard deviation
8. How are statistics used in psychology?
9. Define in your own words the following terms:
Ordinal scale
normal scale
interval scale
Bell curve
ratio scale
central tendency
Variation
mean
range
Median
mode
standard deviation
Histogram
probability
correlation