Experimental Psychology

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University Research studies come into being when a researcher speculates about human thought, emotions, or behavior, and has a theory that offers a potential explanation. Often the researcher’s theory is firmly situated in everyday common experiences that may not naturally lend themselves to direct empirical study. For example, researchers speculated that perception of a person on Facebook is influenced by...

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University When a researcher finds an interesting topic to study such as aggression, the goal is often to study it in a way that is as true to life as possible. However, researchers must act in an ethical manner.  To do this, they must balance their research goals with the best interests of the participants. Ethics often enter into the planning process when researchers identify all of the ways they can...

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University In an ideal world researchers would conduct their studies in real world settings where behaviors naturally happen. For example, if you want to see what influences individuals’ voting behavior, it would be best to watch them vote. However, research in these settings is not always ethical or even practical. Further, a researcher may want more control over the setting to better pinpoint the exact...

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University As the Department Chair of Psychology at Monmouth University, I teach primarily upper level undergraduate students who are interested in Experimental Methods. These classes don’t have the same inherent appeal to students. This JoVE Psychology collection will help students vicariously watch the experiments being performed from start to finish, allowing them to gain exposure to over a dozen topics...

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University In any experiment researchers have the challenge of creating experiences for participants that are consistent (i.e., reliable) and authentic (i.e., valid). Yet there are many ways to manipulate any one variable. For example, if you want participants to feel sad, you can have them think of their own sad memory, watch a sad video, or read a sad story. Researchers must find the best way to...

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University If you want to know how someone thinks or feels, you can ask that person questions.  Another approach is to observe how the person is acting or look for indicators of how they acted in the past. While observations may seem revealing, it isn’t always easy to know if they are truly accurate. For instance, you may see a person smiling and assume they are happy, when in reality they are annoyed and...

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University A two-group design is the simplest way to establish a cause-effect relationship between two variables. This video demonstrates a simple experiment (two-group design).  In providing an overview of how a researcher conducts a simple experiment (two-group design), this video shows viewers the process of turning ideas into testable ideas and forming hypothesis, the identification and effect of...

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University A multi-group design is an experimental design that has 3 or more conditions/groups of the same independent variable. This video demonstrates a multi-group experiment that examines how different interethnic ideologies (multiculturalism and color-blind) influence feelings about diversity and actions toward and out-group member. In providing an overview of how a researcher conducts a multi-group...

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University A within-subjects, or repeated-measures, design is an experimental design where all the participants receive every level of the treatment, i.e., every independent variable. For example, in a candy taste test, the researcher would want every participant to taste and rate each type of candy. This video demonstrates a within-subjects experiment (i.e., one where there is an independent variable with...

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University A factorial design is a common type of experiment where there are two or more independent variables. This video demonstrates a 2 x 2 factorial design used to explore how self-awareness and self-esteem may influence the ability to decipher nonverbal signals. This video leads students through the basics of a factorial design including, the nature of a factorial design and what distinguishes it from...

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University One of the challenges in measuring an experimental variable is identifying the technique that will produce the more accurate measurement. The most common way to measure a dependent variable is self-report—asking the participant to describe his/her feelings, thoughts, or behaviors. Yet, people may not be honest. To truly know something about a participant, it may be necessary to see what they...

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University In order to study something scientifically, a researcher needs to determine a way to quantify it. However, psychological constructs can be challenging to measure and quantify. This video examines reliability in the context of content analysis.  A recent study in the journal Pediatrics reported that 4-year-olds who watched a fast-paced cartoon had worse performance on cognitive tasks, such as...

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University Clinical research focuses on the efficacy of treatments for addressing disorders and illnesses. A challenge with this type of research is that participants often have pre-existing beliefs about the treatment, particularly expectations that the treatment will work. Though it has been practiced around the world for centuries, yoga is a relatively recent fitness craze in the United States with a...

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University In any experiment, the researcher attempts to manipulate participants in one group to have different thoughts, experiences, or feelings than the other groups in the study.  Some manipulations are overt, while others can be quite subtle. Embodiment is a growing research area focused on the theory that subtle physical experiences can unconsciously influence a person’s thoughts. For example if a...

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University When orchestrating an experiment, it is important that the experience elicits the most natural reactions from the participants as possible. Researchers accomplish much of this through their creation of the experimental settings. Many research projects focus on interactions between two or more people.  In these situations the environment or setting must often be less natural; often only one person...