What is psychological testing?
- involved in psychological research and clinical practice
- measures psychological constructs
what is the observational method?
- human behaviour
- It systematically observes and records behaviour in its natural setting w/o manipulating variables
- researchers presence in unnoticeable
- gathers data on how individuals, behave, interact and respond to their environment
female chimpanzees and reproductive energetics
pregnant/lactating female’s have a higher calorie diet so that they are able to have more energy to meet the demands of reproduction
- includes higher calorie fruits because of the increased energy demand
Japanese macaques
- warm up in a pool of thermal water in the harsh winter in Japan
- use thermal baths to increase social interactions
reactivity
- the potential influence of the research process itself on the participants’ behaviour or responses
- refers to any idea that their behaviour will change due to them being observed
- involves social desirability and presentation in a more favourable light
external validity
- the extent to which the findings of a study can be generalized to other settings, populations, or specific conditions beyond the specific context in which the study was conducted
- generalizability across studies
social desirability bias (reactivity)
- when individuals present themselves in a more socially acceptable or favourable light
- can use anonymous studies to try to avoid this
hawthorne effect (reactivity)
- where individuals improve their performance or productivity when they know they are being observed
- originally observed in the Hawthorne Works factory study
Hawthorne works factory study
- studied conditions in which you can maximize the amount of work you can get out of people in work environment
demand characteristics (reactivity)
- when participants pick up cues from the researcher/study environment leading them to change their behaviour to align with perceived expectations
- unintentionally influences the outcomes of an experiment
three R’s of animal research
replacement, reduction, refinement
replacement (animal research)
encourages the use of computer modeling or other approaches in place of actual research animals in the lab
reduction (animal research)
promotes limiting the number of animals in participants to disturbance in research or teaching
- include exact # of animal participants and why
refinement (animal research)
involves improving procedures and techniques to minimize pain and discomfort for animals
anxiety-related behaviour in lab animals (diagram on slide 21)
- “knockout” gene = disabling gene
- peptide hormone involved in fluid and blood pressure balance
- involved in social recognition, pair bonding, parenting, and anxiety and stress
- vasopressin** in humans and animals (anxiety)
anxiety-related behaviour in lab animal — methods
- created a knockout gene that typically allows AVP (vasopressin) to have biological action
- conducted stress-tests on wild-type and knockout mice
- in knockout mice, AVP is suppressed (inactive)
anxiety-related behaviour in lab animal – results
- knockout mice spent more time in the open, light areas than did the wild-type mice
reliability in psychological testing
- consistency and stability of test scores over time and across different administrations
- not influenced by random measurement errors
validity in psychological testing
- extent to which a test measures what its supposed to measure
a test can be ____ but not ___
- a test can be reliable but not valid
- therefore validity is crucial
- if a test is designed to measure intelligence but instead measures memory, it lacks validity
content validity
- involves examining the extent to which the test items represent the content domain of interest
- example on slide 30
criterion-related validity
- involves comparing test scores with an external criterion, such as another established measure or real-world outcomes
- example on slide 31
