Ch 1 Pause for Thought Questions p. 36 1- Why is it important to use placebos and a double-blind approach in some studies? The very process of taking a pill may create expectations in a patient which may affect reactions to the pill. To help eliminate the role of patient expectation during testing, a placebo (or fake medicine) is used on subjects in a control group. A researcher’s expectations may also affect results. Therefore, double-blind studies are often used. In such studies, neither the researcher nor the participants know which group is which. 2- Assume that researchers find that people’s memories are sharpest right after they’ve eaten lunch. What hidden variables may have affected these results? Other variables that may play a role (hidden variables): Time of Day Type of food eaten Meaning of “lunch” - May mean “time away from work” - Subjective State of feeling free (not food) helps memory. Socializing at lunch may make a person more alert and then able to take-in more info and retain it longer. 3- How might you use the scientific method to study factors that affect obedience? Devise a simple study, and identify the following: hypothesis, subjects, independent variable, dependent variable, experimental group, and control group. Hypothesis: If employee fears/believes they will be punished if they don’t follow directives, then they will be obedient to directives of bosses/people in “higher” positions than themselves in the workplace. Subjects: Employees Independent Variable: Directive given with harsh consequences for not following through. Dependent Variable: Obedience (Level of) Experimental Group: Group with “harsh” bosses (very by the book; give extreme consequences) present during their work day. Control Group: No “boss” present to check on employees’ progress (or) non-strict boss present, but doesn’t mete out punishment for not following through on directives. ..................................................... Hidden Variables: Expectations are clear with discipline steps; Background (family/parent discipline) of subjects; Severity of punishment and/or consistency of punishment given. p. 45 1- When using surveys, why do researchers use a sample of the population? What are 2 potential problems with surveys? Researchers use a sample so they don’t have to survey everyone the population represents. Potential Problems (Need 2 of the following): ! Surveys may not accurately represent the whole population. ! Phrasing of questions may be biased. ! Interpretation of results may be biased. ! Low response rate ! Can be expensive 2- What is naturalistic observation? Identify one advantage and one disadvantage of using this method. Naturalistic observation is when researchers secretly observe the daily activity of their subjects. Subjects go about their daily routine how they normally would and where they normally would. Advantage: Subjects will behave as they normally do. Disadvantage: Researchers may not be able to (can not) interact with subjects; May be logistically difficult. 3- What are two potential problems with both interviews and the case study method? With both the 2 main potential problems are: ! Subjects may not be completely honest. ! Researchers’ own biases may affect how they conduct themselves and how they interpret their data. 4- What is the purpose of debriefing after an experiment? Sometimes deception is necessary when conducting experiments; however, subjects have a right to know about the nature of the experiment, once the experiment is over. 5- You are awarded several thousand dollars to study intelligence. How might you use both psychological tests and longitudinal studies? You might administer thousands of psychological tests that measure intelligence. From your results you can get a small representative sample from different intelligence levels, and then retest this sample over a number of years. In other words, you conduct a longitudinal study on this sample..