Starter

Objectivity task one- booklet

Task• Write instructions for someone to recreate your given

picture

How does this link to research methods?

• Replicability for reliability

• Standardised instructions

Replicability & Reliability

Sir Cyril Burt was accused of making up the data for his study that supported a genetic link in intelligence

This relates to the reliability of the findings: so, if it is possible to carry out the research again and find the same or similar results, the research is replicable. If it is replicable we can have confidence in the findings

If research is replicable it guards against scientific fraud (for instance, researchers may have simply made their findings up) and allows us to rule out that the finding was a one off caused by something about the original study, such as an atypical sample being tested

Replicability & Reliability

To enable others to replicate a study, psychologists should publish full and precise details of their research

Replication is an important tool in the scientific method. It allows scientists to check findings and ensure that they are robust.

Which section of psychology research reports need to be very detailed to achieve this: the abstract, the method or the discussion?

Why do we dream?

• Which is the best theory?

• Why?

Freud’s Theory of Dreams

• 1900 Freud wrote the interpretation of dreams, suggesting that dreams were a “psychic safety valve” allowing us to discharge unacceptable, unconscious wishes and urges.

• Dreams protected sleep by providing imagery that kept disturbing and repressed thoughts out of our consciousness. The psychoanalyst uses free association, knowledge of dream mechanisms, (displacement/symbolism) and knowledge of recent events to uncover the latent content of the dream from the manifest content (dream as reported by dreamer)

• For Freud, dreams were the “Royal road to the unconscious”. However absurd a dream may initially seem, Freud believed it always possessed meaning and logic. He considered that many aspects of a dream were symbolic, and in some cases would interpret the symbols as sexual, which was often seen as controversial.

Cartwright’s Problem Solving Theory

• Cartwright (1988) sees dreams as a way of dealing with problems relating to work, sex, health etc. Like freud, she makes use of metaphor in dreams – e.g. dreaming of a colleague trying to stab you in the back could suggest that the person is undermining you at work.

Hobson & McCarley’s Activation-Synthesis Theory

• This theory suggests that dreaming results from waves of activity which sweep up from the brainstem, through to several parts of the brain, including those involved in perception, action and emotional reactions.

• This activation is essentially random: whilst body movements are inhibited, the brain still receives signals and attempts to make sense (or synthesise) these random bursts of neural energy.

• Hobson (1988) argued “The brain is so bent upon the quest for meaning, that it creates meaning when there is little or none in the data it is asked to process”. Therefore, this theory sees dreams as the result of brain stem activity rather than unconscious wishes.

Empiricism• Read and answer the questions

Hypothetico- deductive

• The hypothetico-deductive method is one of the mainstays of scientific research, often regarded as the only 'true' scientific research method.

• The method involves the traditional steps of observing the subject, in order to elaborate upon an area of study.

• This allows the researcher to generate a testable and realistic hypothesis which the researcher can then use to support said theory.

The Scientific process

Look at the study and highlight the process• Booklets

Peer review task- AbstractThe team led by Professor Pedley sat two groups of 20 male students in a mini-cinema and played two films to them – one featuring alcohol drinking and one without.

A fridge containing alcoholic and soft beverages was placed next to them and they were told they could pick any drink.

The group that watched the comedy American Pie, which featured 23 alcoholic scenes, along with drink ads in between, consumed three bottles of beer on average compared with 1.5 bottles drank by another group that watched the relatively dry film 40 Days and 40 Nights with some alcohol ad breaks.

Peer review• In the peer review process, a paper is submitted to a journal

and evaluated by several reviewers.  (Reviewers are often individuals with an impressive history of work in the area of interest, that is, the specific area that the article addresses). 

• After critiquing the paper the reviewers submit their thoughts to the editor.  Then, based on the commentaries from the reviewers, the editor decides whether to publish the paper, make suggestions for additional changes that could lead to publication, or reject the paper.

• The primary purpose of peer review is to ensure that the papers published are valid and unbiased.

Why bother?• “Peer review is one way (replication is another) science

institutionalizes the attitudes of objectivity and public criticism.  Ideas and experimentation undergo a honing process in which they are submitted to other critical minds for evaluation.  Ideas that survive this critical process have begun to meet the criterion of public verifiability” (Stanovich, 2007, p. 12).

• But really….why?

Why bother?• Research proposals will be scrutinized to check it is robust

• To ensure it can contribute to already existing knowledge

• Ethics approval

• Encourages academic debate, openness and communication

• Ensure there is no bias

• Appropriateness of conclusions drawn

• Ensure it is worth dissemination- journals

• Consider wider implications

• Find any errors

• Ensure it can be repeated

Peer reviewing your essays

I am going to ask an A2 student in the other group to mark your essays.

What might be the problems with this?

Bias• Reviewer

• Publication

• Reputation

Gender research topic ideas• Gender differences in memory• Gender differences in handwriting• Gender differences in answering questions in class• Gender differences in likeliness to be asked questions in

class• Gender traits• Gender preferences in films/music• Gender differences in jealousy• Gender differences in mental health• Gender preferences in choice of A level subjects• Gender differences in university decisions• Gender differences in IQ• Gender differences in spatial awareness

Who is more likely to get published?

“Men are better at multi tasking than women”

(Foster 2015)

“Women are better at multitasking than men”

(Fearon 2015)

“No difference found in ability to multi task”

(Pedley 2015)

Define the following • Objectivity

• Empiricism

• Hypothetico- deductive approach

• Peer review