Conducting Research in Psychology

Brett Pelham grew up as the second of six children near the small town of Rossville, Georgia. Brett received his B.S. from Berry College in 1983 and received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989. He began thinking about this book while teaching statistics at UCLA but got serious about doing so while teaching statistics at UB (in Buffalo, NY). After leaving UB, Brett worked for a year as a visiting professor in marketing at Georgetown University. He was then lucky enough to work for about two years as a senior research analyst at Gallup. This was followed by two not-so-lucky years as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation. At the time of this writing (in January 2012) Brett was extremely excited to have just taken a position promoting graduate and postgraduate education in the Education Directorate at the American Psychological Association. With apologies to Lenny Bruce, you can see that Brett has had some difficulties holding down a regular job recently. The bulk of his research focuses on automatic social judgment and self-evaluation. Over the past two decades, he has taught courses in social psychology, research methods, statistics, social cognition, and the self-concept. In his spare time, he enjoys juggling, sculpting, listening to alternative rock music, cooking, and traveling. His two favorite activities while completing this textbook (in late 2011) were spending time with his 3-year-old daughter Brooklyn and his 8-year-old son Lincoln. Along with his wife LJ Pelham, Brett is co-inventor of the recently released card game PRIME. Along with his son Lincoln, he is co-inventor of the soon-to-be-released card game Cliff-Hanger. Along with his daughter Brooklyn, he is co-inventor of the never-to-be-released card game It’s a Hat. You Like It? His most recent writing project is a novel tentatively entitled Elvis 2.0, which focuses on scientific and religious problems associated with the apparent resurrection of Elvis Presley.

• PrefaceAbout the AuthorsCHAPTER 1. How Do We Know?Introduction: What This Text Is AboutA Few Quick Tips for Using This TextPreamble for Chapter 1A Brief History of Human KnowledgeThe Four Canons of ScienceFour Ways of Knowing About the WorldSummaryStudy QuestionsNotesCHAPTER 2. How Do We Find Out? The Logic, Art, and Ethics of Scientific DiscoveryThe Logic of Scientific DiscoveryThe Art of Scientific DiscoveryThe Ethics of Scientific DiscoverySummaryStudy QuestionsNotesCHAPTER 3. In a Nutshell: An Overview of Psychological Research MethodsA Tale of Two ValiditiesThree Requirements for Establishing CausalityExperiments: Fulfilling Mill’s RequirementsPassive Observational (Nonexperimental) Research MethodsTrade-Offs Between Internal and External ValidityGAGES: The “Big Five” of Worrisome ConfoundsExternal Validity and the OOPS! HeuristicOops! He Did It Again: Maximizing External Validity in the LabGauging GAGES in Archival Studies of Social CognitionSummaryStudy QuestionsCHAPTER 4. Making It Happen: A Hands-On Guide to a First Research ProjectEverybody Dance NowStep 1: Hypothesis GenerationStep 2: Operationalization (Design)Step 3: PermissionStep 4: Execution (Data Collection)Step 5: Calculation (Data Analysis)Step 6: CommunicationSummaryStudy QuestionsNotesCHAPTER 5. Moving From Fact to Truth: Validity, Reliability, and MeasurementThree Strange StoriesValidityReliabilityReliability, Validity, and the “More Is Better” RuleMeasurement ScalesSummaryStudy QuestionsCHAPTER 6. Moving From Notions to Numbers: Psychological MeasurementConverting Notions to Numbers: The Two Major ChallengesThe Response Translation PhasePutting It All Together: The EGWA ScaleFrom Writing Questions to Creating ScalesSummaryStudy QuestionsCHAPTER 7. How Do We Misinterpret? Common Threats to ValidityOne Strange and Lucrative StoryPeople Are DifferentPeople ChangeThe Process of Studying People Changes PeopleMoving From Three Threats to Two: Confounds and ArtifactsSummaryStudy QuestionsNoteCHAPTER 8. Nonexperimental Research DesignsDescribing the World of a Single Participant: Case StudiesDescribing the State of the World at Large: Single-Variable ResearchDescribing Associations: Multiple-Variable ResearchArchival ResearchObservational ResearchConfounds Can Be Measured, Too!SummaryStudy QuestionsNotesCHAPTER 9. Experience Carefully Planned: Experimental Research DesignsA Wonderful MethodA Brief History of True ExperimentsStrengths of True ExperimentsAre True Experiments Realistic?Is There a Recipe for Experimental Realism?Trade-Offs Between Internal and External ValidityThe “How-Tos” of Laboratory StudiesSummaryStudy QuestionsNotesCHAPTER 10. Experience Carefully Exploited: Quasi-Experimental Research DesignsOne Very Old StoryWhy Quasi-Experiments?Kinds of Quasi-ExperimentsComparabilityPatched-Up DesignsWhen True Experiments and Quasi-Experiments CollideSummaryStudy QuestionsNotesCHAPTER 11. Choosing the Right Research DesignOne Obscure MovieOne-Way DesignsFactorial DesignsWithin-Subjects DesignsMixed-Model DesignsSummaryStudy QuestionsNotesCHAPTER 12. A Brief Course in StatisticsHow Numbers and Language Revolutionized Human HistoryDescriptive StatisticsInferential StatisticsThings That Go Bump in the Light: Factors That Influence the Results of Significance TestsThe Changing State of the Art: Alternate Perspectives on Statistical Hypothesis TestingSummaryStudy QuestionsNotesCHAPTER 13. Telling the World About ItThe Hourglass Approach to Empirical Research PapersSome Rules to Writing Research PapersHow to Give a Good Talk in Psychology (by Daniel T. Gilbert)Have a PlanTell the PlanStart at the BeginningBe Painfully ClearTalk About One Interesting ThingTake Charge of the InteractionEnd at the EndSummaryStudy QuestionsAppendix 1: Hands-On ActivitiesHands-On Activity 1: Galileo’s DiceHands-On Activity 2: Regression Toward the MeanHands-On Activity 3: A Double-Blind Taste Test With Popular ColasHands-On Activity 4: The Stroop Interference EffectAppendix 2: Methodology ExercisesMethodology Exercise 1: Partial CorrelationMethodology Exercise 2: Random AssignmentMethodology Exercise 3: InteractionsMethodology Exercise 4: Repeated Measures DesignsQuestionsAppendix 3: Putting Your Knowledge to Work: 25 Methodology Problems1. In Search of a Delicious, Low-Fat TV Show2. Let’s Get Supernatural3. Fly Away Home4. Impressive Pickup Lines5. Clever Who?6. Life Sucks and So You Die7. On the Drawbacks of Liking Yourself8. The Early Bird Gets the Win?9. Testosterone Makes Better Dive-Bombers10. Working Your Fingers to the Dean’s List11. To Thine Own Selves Be True12. A Rosy Mood by Any Other Name?13. EPSCOR: Do Fractions Have Denominators?14. Sampling Student Opinion15. Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?16. He May Be Small but He’s Slow17. Everyone’s a Winner18. Can a Couple of Beers Really Go Straight to Your Belly?19. What’s in a Name?20. Are You Threatening Me?21.Genes, Schmenes22. Do Car Thieves Really Love Old Hondas?23. An Unbiased Assessment?24. Mary, Mary, Quite the Centenarian?25. Register on Time (The 11:59 Initiative)Appendix 4: An Example of an APA-Style Research Paper: Ethnicity and the Risk of Unwarranted Cesarean Birth in the United StatesGlossaryReferencesName IndexSubject Index