Preface
About the Authors
CHAPTER 1. How Do We Know?
Introduction: What This Text Is About
A Few Quick Tips for Using This Text
A Brief History of Human Knowledge
The Four Canons of Science
Four Ways of Knowing About the World
CHAPTER 2. How Do We Find Out? The Logic, Art, and Ethics of Scientific Discovery
The Logic of Scientific Discovery
The Art of Scientific Discovery
The Ethics of Scientific Discovery
CHAPTER 3. In a Nutshell: An Overview of Psychological Research Methods
Three Requirements for Establishing Causality
Experiments: Fulfilling Mill’s Requirements
Passive Observational (Nonexperimental) Research Methods
Trade-Offs Between Internal and External Validity
GAGES: The “Big Five” of Worrisome Confounds
External Validity and the OOPS! Heuristic
Oops! He Did It Again: Maximizing External Validity in the Lab
Gauging GAGES in Archival Studies of Social Cognition
CHAPTER 4. Making It Happen: A Hands-On Guide to a First Research Project
Step 1: Hypothesis Generation
Step 2: Operationalization (Design)
Step 4: Execution (Data Collection)
Step 5: Calculation (Data Analysis)
CHAPTER 5. Moving From Fact to Truth: Validity, Reliability, and Measurement
Reliability, Validity, and the “More Is Better” Rule
CHAPTER 6. Moving From Notions to Numbers: Psychological Measurement
Converting Notions to Numbers: The Two Major Challenges
The Response Translation Phase
Putting It All Together: The EGWA Scale
From Writing Questions to Creating Scales
CHAPTER 7. How Do We Misinterpret? Common Threats to Validity
One Strange and Lucrative Story
The Process of Studying People Changes People
Moving From Three Threats to Two: Confounds and Artifacts
CHAPTER 8. Nonexperimental Research Designs
Describing the World of a Single Participant: Case Studies
Describing the State of the World at Large: Single-Variable Research
Describing Associations: Multiple-Variable Research
Confounds Can Be Measured, Too!
CHAPTER 9. Experience Carefully Planned: Experimental Research Designs
A Brief History of True Experiments
Strengths of True Experiments
Are True Experiments Realistic?
Is There a Recipe for Experimental Realism?
Trade-Offs Between Internal and External Validity
The “How-Tos” of Laboratory Studies
CHAPTER 10. Experience Carefully Exploited: Quasi-Experimental Research Designs
Kinds of Quasi-Experiments
When True Experiments and Quasi-Experiments Collide
CHAPTER 11. Choosing the Right Research Design
CHAPTER 12. A Brief Course in Statistics
How Numbers and Language Revolutionized Human History
Things That Go Bump in the Light: Factors That Influence the Results of Significance Tests
The Changing State of the Art: Alternate Perspectives on Statistical Hypothesis Testing
CHAPTER 13. Telling the World About It
The Hourglass Approach to Empirical Research Papers
Some Rules to Writing Research Papers
How to Give a Good Talk in Psychology (by Daniel T. Gilbert)
Talk About One Interesting Thing
Take Charge of the Interaction
Appendix 1: Hands-On Activities
Hands-On Activity 1: Galileo’s Dice
Hands-On Activity 2: Regression Toward the Mean
Hands-On Activity 3: A Double-Blind Taste Test With Popular Colas
Hands-On Activity 4: The Stroop Interference Effect
Appendix 2: Methodology Exercises
Methodology Exercise 1: Partial Correlation
Methodology Exercise 2: Random Assignment
Methodology Exercise 3: Interactions
Methodology Exercise 4: Repeated Measures Designs
Appendix 3: Putting Your Knowledge to Work: 25 Methodology Problems
1. In Search of a Delicious, Low-Fat TV Show
2. Let’s Get Supernatural
4. Impressive Pickup Lines
6. Life Sucks and So You Die
7. On the Drawbacks of Liking Yourself
8. The Early Bird Gets the Win?
9. Testosterone Makes Better Dive-Bombers
10. Working Your Fingers to the Dean’s List
11. To Thine Own Selves Be True
12. A Rosy Mood by Any Other Name?
13. EPSCOR: Do Fractions Have Denominators?
14. Sampling Student Opinion
15. Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?
16. He May Be Small but He’s Slow
18. Can a Couple of Beers Really Go Straight to Your Belly?
20. Are You Threatening Me?
22. Do Car Thieves Really Love Old Hondas?
23. An Unbiased Assessment?
24. Mary, Mary, Quite the Centenarian?
25. Register on Time (The 11:59 Initiative)
Appendix 4: An Example of an APA-Style Research Paper: Ethnicity and the Risk of Unwarranted Cesarean Birth in the United States
Glossary
References
Name Index
Subject Index