Semester II

PSYC 2019: EXPERIMENTAL

AND APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY
Mrs. Felicia Frederick-Davis

Contact Information

Purpose of the course:

pre- and post-requisites

PSYC 3025/
PSYC3028 PSYC 2019

SOCI 1005 OR PSYC

ECON 1005 1001/PSYC1004

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 Experimental and Applied?
EXPERIMENTAL APPLIED
• Understanding principles • Understand how methods
of experimental (and non- are applied to real-world
experimental) research problems.
designs • Reading empirical papers
• Learn how to formulate in applied areas, such as
research ideas and health psychology,
hypotheses, consider pros industrial/ organizational,
and cons of different forensic, sports,
designs, and know how to environmental, human
correctly present results factors, etc.
• No statistics

Course Outline

Course Evaluation

Workshop Presentation (5%)

• Workshop/Tutorial Presentations
– Tutorial presentations will contribute 5% towards coursework marks.
Students must complete presentations building on previous sessions,
culminating with a greater understanding of the course material.

– Students must attend 75% of their tutorial sessions or risk being debarred
from writing the final exam.

– Workshops begin the 3rd week of teaching.

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 Research Paper Critique (5%)
• Research Paper Critique
– Details and paper to critique is posted on
myeLearning
– Group writing assignment
– 3-pages double spaced paper submitted online via
myeLearning

• Due date: March 31st , 2023

Online Quiz (20%)

• 1 Online Quiz
– 60 questions each
– 60 minutes long
– 20 marks
– 75 minutes

Quiz Date:
Opens on Wednesday 1st March 2023 at 1:00am
Closes on Wednesday 1st March 2023 at 11:55pm

Final Exam (60%)

• Date: to be announced by Examination Section.

• It is cumulative and will include any material covered

during the course, and will consist of Brief Answer
questions and Essay questions.

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 Experimental & Applied
Psychology
“A person may be attracted to science for all sorts of
reasons. Among them are the desire to be useful, the
excitement of exploring new territory, the hope of finding
order, and the drive to test established knowledge”
– Thomas S. Khun

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Experimental versus Applied?

• Psychology: The scientific study of human
behaviour
• Experimental psychology: psychology that
utilizes scientific methods to study human
behaviour
• Applied psychology: Professional application
of psychological knowledge to the solution of
problems associated with human behaviour

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Areas of Applied Psychology

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Commonsense versus science

Experiments show that
Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) all objects of differing
weights fall to the ground
at the same speed.

Logic shows that heavier

objects fall to the ground
faster than lighter objects Galelio (1564-1642)

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The steps scientists take to verify

information, answer questions,
explain relationships, and
communicate this information to
others is known as the scientific
method.

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 Characteristics of Modern Science
▪ Determinism ▪ Simple explanations are
preferable
▪ Empiricism ▪ Data gathering
▪ Replication and peer
▪ Parsimony review
▪ General principle or set
of rules
▪ Theories
▪ All events have a cause

▪ Public verification

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Cause and effect:

Determinism or superstition?

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Falsification versus verification

▪ Psychological theories and hypotheses should
be stated in such a way that they CAN be
proven false.
▪ How to make statements falsifiable?
▪ Do not use statements that are too vague
▪ Do not make claims after-the-fact
▪ Why is it necessary?
▪ “No amount of experimentation can ever
prove me right; a single experiment can
prove me wrong.” - Albert Einstein

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 Stanovitch, K. E. (2001). Falsifiability: How to foil little green
men in the head. In K. E. Stanovich (Ed.), How to think
straight about psychology (6th edition). Needham Heights,
MA: Allyn & Bacon

What are some examples of falsifiability

that you remember from the Chapter?

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The Research Process

Discussion

Applied Notice how closely

Research
these match!
Tools: observation
& measurement

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Wilson, (2005). The message is in the method:

Celebrating and exporting the experimental approach.
Psychological Inquiry, 16, 185-193.

What were the key points you pulled out

of the paper?

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 In the Research process example
what type of study did we design?

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Experimentation and Explanation

▪ Process undertaken to test a hypothesis that a
particular behavioural event will occur reliably
in certain, specifiable situations

▪ Three minimum requirements:

▪ Manipulation (i.e., ‘treatment’ conditions)
▪ Observable outcome
▪ Control

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Can we take the self-esteem:

depression example and make it an
experiment?

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 Cause and Effect
▪ Temporal relationship: treatment proceeds
the outcome
▪ In contrast to spatial or logical relationships
▪ Covariation of the cause and effect
▪ If A, then B
▪ If not A, then not B
▪ No plausible alternative explanations
▪ Inferences about cause and effect are stated
in terms of probabilities – not certainties

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Can we take the laboratory-based

experiment and make it an applied
study?

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Thank you
End of Lecture 1

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