Week1

What is experimental psychology?

Area of psyc that uses scientific methods to search mind and behavior.

These experiments come out from curiosity.

Sources of knowledge we have:

Authority- facts stated by a respected source, minimum effort, source can be wrong

Tenacity- person refuses to alter acquiered knowledge even if there is an evidence that info is wrong,
no mechanism to correct false beliefs

A priory- smth that is believed without pre study or examination, propositions that seem reasonable
are believed (zamanında dünyanın düz olduğuna inanılması), other views go unnoticed

Scientific Method:

Empirical observations, investigating the cause of events, avoiding biases, repeatable, self correcting,
consists of specific aim/method and theories

4 Fundamental Principles of Science

Determinism- all events have meaningful, systematic causes

Empiricism- being able to make observations

Parsimony- chosing the simpler over the complex one of competing theories (to simpilfy and
organize)

Testability

Scientific method helps you to operationalize your question. You have a question, you develop a
theory, as a testable prediction you have your hypothesis and you test it with replicable experiments.

Methodology:

-naturalistic observations

-case studies

-surveys, interviews

-controlled experiments

You need data to create a theory, and data are meaningless without a theory.

Deductive: theory predicting data Inductive: reasoning proceeds from particular data to a general
theory
Evaluating Theories

It needs to be decided which theory is best for now by:

Parsimony, precision (different researchers should agree on this prediction) , testability, ability to fit
data

Psychology and The Real World

There can be a simple interest or a specific goal

Cartesian model: science is a basic good whose aim is to understand nature

Baconian model: goal of science is improving human welfare, which places useful results ahead of
increasing knowledge

Week2

Observational Methods

Time sampling, event sampling, situation sampling

Two basic problems that threaten the validity of observational methods:

1-delimitation (you have to choose behavior wisely according to your study problem)

2-reactivity (how participants react to be observed)

Survey Design

1-cross sectional: daha hızlı ve ucuz, bircok veriyi toplayabiliyor

2-longitudional: katılımcıların 2. Asamada bulunması zor olabilir, pahalı oluyor

Problems with Surveying

Context of question may influence the answers

Sampling bias (there should be a random sample)

Nominal data: numbers that imply a label

Ordinal data: numbers that can be ordered with justification (best to worst, level of agreement)

Scale data: ratio data (with true zero like height money age..) interval data (no real zero like
temperature)
The Relational Approach

How variables are related to eachother. Usually no manipulation. Two types:

Contingency research: whether values of two nominal variables depend on each other. Eg: gender
distrubiton among college programs

Correlational research: ordinal or scale data (measured values) allows to understand the degree and
direction of a relationship with a single statistic. Eg: smoking and cancer . direct causal relationshipi
vermez cunku baska etkenler de olabilir ama possible relationship suggestlemek icin iyi bir yontemdir

The correlation coefficient: measures degree and direction (-1,0,1)

!! we need to manipulate the IV in order for it to be an experimental method. Aynı zamanda

What is an Experiment!!

It occurs when the environment is systematically manipulated so that the causal effect of this
manipulation on some behavior can be observed. Everything but the manipulation should be
constant so that the iv is the only cause of the change in dv

IV- manipulated DV- observed CT- constant

Week3

Between subjects design: no interaction of condition/treatment for subjects is a pro but variation of
subjects may decrease efficiency. Groups should be equilavent at first place. Use randomization

Within subjects design: cancels out bias effects. Each participants can be compared with themselves.
İlk deney ikinci deneyi etkileyebilr, hangisinin onde olduguna gore sonuc degisebilir. Araya zaman
koymak gerek

Small n designs: variant on within subjects design. Experimenter must be careful to counterbalance
treatments and anticipate any problems associating with administaring multiple treatments to
individual subjects

Mixed designs: both between and within eg: pre and post test in 3 diff groups

Quasi Experiments: when the iv is not direclty manipulated eg: gender ,age .. often many confound
variables

Factorial designs: you have more than one categoric iv.

A main effect is the effect of a single iv on dv. With experiments with multiple ivs, multiple main
effects occur. Ayrı ayrı yapmaktansa tekte yapmak kontrolü kolaylaştırıyor, daha kolay genelleme
yapılır ve iv ler arası interactionları goruruz (an interaction effect)
Grafikte cizgiler paralelse no interaction between the variables ama bir noktada çakısıyolarsa
interaction effect var!!!

Covariate: can explain some of the variance that is not explained by iv

Mere measurements effect: bazen pre testler main testi etkileyebiliyor. Mesela hopelessnes testi
verilyor pre olarak, iki grupta da yukselis cikiyor mainde. Cunku prede negatif düşüncelerinin farkına
vardılar

Solomon four group design- to overcome mere measurement effect. A ve B kontrol ve experiment
grupları oluyor ikisnde de pre test var. C D grupları ekleniyor yine kontrol ve exp ama pre test yok. A
ve C aynı yaparsa pre test etkilememis diyebilir. Dexavantajı kompleksleştirdi ve daha çok kişi lazım

Reliability and Validity

Validitiy- olcmesi gerekeni olcmus mu

Threats to validity: bias sampling, history effects (ozguven olculurken dersin hocası degismis mesela),
maturation effects, sample attrition (katılımcı kaybetmek), testing effects (fatigue, training, opinion)

Internal validity- can you demonstrate the causal relationship between variables? Can you exclude
confounding variabkes?

Externel validity- To what extend can you generalise the findings of your study?

Test validity:

Construct- when test measures what is intended to measure

Content- when test asseses every aspect of the psyc construct it claims to measure

Criterion- if you can relate it to criterion or standardised outcome as theoretically predicted

Face- not a true measure, but items on your test look like they measure what is intended to measure

Reliability- tekrarlanabilir mi

Threats: ambigious measuring or scoring for items, inconsistent procedures

Reliable olması valid oldugunu gostermez ama validse reliabledir!

Internal consistency: icerdeki soruların tamamı istenen seyi mi arastiriyor. Split halfla buna bakılyıor.
Cronbachs alpha is the number that reflects the mean correlation between all items in the test and
the numbers of items in the test. Split half reliability nin yerini alıyor cunku hem mean correlation
alıyo testi ikiye bolmektense hem de testin uzunlugunu da ele alıyor.

Week 4

Ethics- the study of morals or rules of behavior

Key ethical principles of apa

1-beneficence and non maleficence

2-fidelity and responsibility

3-integrity

4-justice

5-respect

Etik kuruldan onay alınmlaı ve kisiden de gönüllülük alınmalı. Neler olacagı tamamen acıklanmalı,
istediginde bırakabilecegi belirtilmeli. Confidentialityye cok ozen gösterilmeli. Sonrasında debriefing
yapılmalı katılımcıya ve well beingden emin olunmalı

Information sheet- intro, research hakkında bilgi, katılırsa ne olur, katılmak zorunda mı, katılırsa
yararı ne, katılmanın riskleri ne, dataya ne oluyor, kim onayladı calısmayı, calısma bitnce ne oluyor,
contact details

Debrief sheet- teşekkür edilir, çalışmanın amacı hatırlatılır, neyin neden test edildigi acıklanır, niye
secildikleri aciklanır, withdraw hakları oldugu ve o noktada sonuclarının kullanılamayacagı soylenir,
confidentiality sozu verilir, contact details