This document provides an introduction to experimental psychology. It discusses the goals of scientific psychology, which are to understand human and animal behavior through objective and systematic procedures. It emphasizes the importance of science and evidence-based research in psychology. The document then outlines several key research methods used in experimental psychology, including quantitative methods like experiments, surveys, and archival research, as well as qualitative methods like ethnography and naturalistic observation. It provides definitions and explanations of important concepts for each method. The overall aim is to teach students how to apply these research techniques and insights from psychology to investigate behaviors in real-world settings.

1. INTRODUCTION
TO
EXPERIMENTAL
PSYCHOLOGY
Presented by:
Mary Anne A. Portuguez, MP, RPm

2. What is the goal of scientific
psychology?
– To understand why people think and act as they
do.
– Follows the five major goals in Psychology.
Describe, explain, predict, control, and influence.

3. How important is science in
Psychology?
– It offers systematic and objective procedure to
gather information.
– It provides framework.
– It offers evidence-based solutions to problems.
– It guides practitioners.

4. LET’S DIVE INTO THE REAL
WORLD!
– There are times in a company wherein newly
installed machines are not effective to use.
– More people in the streets take more time to help
another person.
– The negative effects of social media use.

5. OBJECTIVES:
– To be well-versed in experimental methods.
– To apply the insights in real world.
– To apply the learnings in making psychological
research.

6. Psychology as a Science
– Establish relationships between
circumstances and behaviors.
– Fit these relationships into an orderly body
of knowledge.

7. Major Concern of Psychologists
– Humans and animals are
variable.
– We cannot repeat what has
been done. (as in exact)

8. How can we manage variability?
– Statistical treatment
– Control

9. Research Techniques
– Quantitative design
– Qualitative design

10. Quantitative
Methods

11. Important terms to remember:
Inductive theories:
– Created from a solid database of empirical
observations.
Deductive theories:
– Can be precisely stated and tested.
– Hypotheses are created as tentative answers to
problems.

12. Postulates - fundamental or core assumptions of a
theory that are taken as self-evidently true.
Propositions - general relational statements that
may be true or false; not tested directly but used to
derive hypotheses.
Important terms to remember:

13. Important terms to remember:
Conceptual definitions - concepts in the hypotheses
are defined precisely so that accurate measures of the
concepts can be devised.
Operational definitions - procedures (or operations)
used to define particular constructs.
Replication - duplication or repetition of an
experiment or study to determine whether or not the
original findings are reliable.

14. Experimental Method
– the relationship of interest is between a set of
circumstances and a behavior.
• Independent variables
• Dependent variables
• Experimental group
• Control group

15. Experimental Method
• Informed consent - practice of telling study participants
about the nature of their participation in a proposed
experiment and then obtaining their written agreement
to participate
• Debriefing - informing study participants of the true
nature and purpose of a study after it is completed

17. Correlational Method
– It is a general procedure for establishing an
association or relationship between events.
– Correlational coefficient - numerical index of the size
and direction of an association between two
variables.
– Correlation coefficients do not provide us with any
information about which variable causes the other.

18. Surveys
Typically ask people about their behavior or their
opinions.

19. Archival Research
It involves using previously collected data or
records to answer a research question (Ex.
Determine good performers from poor performers).

20. Quasi-Experiment
It is a design involves selecting groups, upon which
a variable is tested, without any random pre-
selection processes (Ex. Noise in the workplace).

21.  True positives – Hits; see the presence
 False positives – ‘false alarms’ ; identify presence of actual absence
 False negatives – Misses; fails to see the target
 True negative – Correct rejection; correctly see the absence of target

22. Qualitative
Methods

23. Ethnography
A science that concerns itself with the division of mankind
into races and their origin, distribution, relations and
characteristics.

24. Naturalistic Observation
Sometimes called field studies because the
investigator goes into the field to collect data.

25. Case History
It is a detailed account of the events in a case; the
case is usually a person’s life.