Course program
Explanatory note
Experimental psychology is one of the core disciplines in the training of future psychologists and involves the study of the methodological foundations of organizing and conducting psychological research. The course of lectures outlines theoretical and applied aspects of psychological research and describes experimental methods.
By mastering the theory and practice of conducting psychological empirical research, students deepen and expand the knowledge acquired in the process of studying other psychological disciplines, primarily general psychology, and improve their research skills.
The purpose of the course
is to teach students the theoretical and applied aspects of psychological experiment as the main research method in modern psychology.
Objectives of studying the discipline:
– provide information about the categorical apparatus, the main problems of experimental psychology;
– to form the foundations of scientific thinking and scientific understanding of the studied psychic reality;
– to form ideas about the procedure and methods of organizing psychological research;
– familiarize students with the basic requirements for planning and conducting experimental research, processing and interpreting the results;
– develop the skills of independently organizing and conducting experimental activities, competent analysis of its results, and the ability to interact in the “experimenter-subject” dyad.
As a result of studying the discipline, students should know
:
– basic concepts, theoretical principles and current problems of experimental psychology as a science;
– methodology of scientific research, its principles and structure, features and procedure for organizing a psychological experiment;
As a result of studying the course, students should be able to
:
– determine the object, subject, goals, objectives of experimental research, formulate its hypothesis;
– plan and organize the experimental procedure, record, analyze and interpret the research results.
– take into account the psychological characteristics of the subject and comply with the ethical principles of conducting experimental research.
The program contains a list of literature recommended for teachers and students in preparation for classes.
Experimental psychology as a science.
Experimental psychology as an independent science. Subject and tasks of experimental psychology.
History of the formation of experimental psychology. The role of the experimental method in psychological research.
Historical contexts of the development of psychological knowledge.
G. Helmholtz: on the way to the psychology of perception. E. Weber: from empirical diversity to mathematical regularity. Psychophysical drama by G. Fechner. Axioms and derivation of the basic psychophysical law. The principle “from simple to complex” in the concept of W. Wundt. W. Wundt's justification for the possibility of the experimental method in psychology. E. Titchener on the goals and method of psychological experiment. G. Ebbinghaus: methods of experimental study of memory. Features of a long-term experiment. F. Galton's contribution to the creation of hardware, methodological and mathematical support for psychological experiments. Applied aspects of psychology: S. Hall, J. Cattell, A. Binet, W. Scott et al.
Experimental psychological research in Russian, Soviet and Belarusian psychology.
Fundamentals of scientific research.
Science as a sphere of human activity. Ways of knowing the world. Scientific method and standards in scientific activity. Methodology of science, scientific approach, scientific paradigm. Scientific problem, hypothesis. Theory as a form of scientific knowledge, its types.
Scientific research: concept, types, general scheme of scientific research.
Methods of psychological research
. The concept of method in experimental psychology. General scientific research methods (general characteristics). Various approaches to classifying methods. Criteria for identifying groups of methods.
Classifications of methods of psychological research.
Non-experimental psychological methods: observation, conversation, survey (interview, questionnaire), archival method. Diagnostic methods (tests).
Experimental methods. Experiment as the main research method, its types. Formative experiment.
Psychological research. General design of psychological research (non-experimental) research
Psychological research. Concept, types, content of psychological research.
Preparation and planning of psychological research. Statement of a scientific problem and study of the state of the problem. Object and subject of research. Determining the relevance of the study. Proposing a hypothesis. Determining the purpose and objectives of the study.
Planning a psychological study.
Data collection and processing. The concept of data in psychological research. Quantitative and qualitative processing. Quantitative processing methods.
Interpretation and presentation of psychological research results. Conclusions and inclusion of results in the knowledge system.
Experiment in psychological research.
The concept of experiment. The structure of a psychological experiment.
Experimental variables and ways to control them
. Types of variables in psychological research. Independent variables. Schemes for setting levels of independent variables. Types and types of independent variables. Additional variables. Complex variables. Dependent Variables. Types and types of dependent variables.
Relationships between variables. Control of variables. Definition of an external variable.
Validity of psychological experiment.
Planning as a means of increasing the validity of an experiment. Validity of experiment and validity of statistical inferences.
External validity. Factors that reduce external validity.
Internal validity. Types of internal validity: conceptual, content, constructive, operational, empirical validity. Factors that reduce internal validity.
Experimental sample and features of its formation.
Construction of experimental groups. Experiment with one subject. Experiment with experimental group. Basic types of designing experimental groups. Requirements for forming a sample of subjects.
Size and composition of the sample by age, gender.
Experimental and non-experimental plans, their types and characteristics.
Criteria for classification of experimental designs. Notation system in experimental designs.
Types of experimental designs. Types of experimental plans according to the criterion of truth: pre-experimental, quasi-experimental, plans of true experiments.
Pre-experimental plans, their types: single case analysis, preliminary and final testing on one group.
True experimental designs, their types: designs for two randomized groups with testing after exposure; two randomized group designs with pretest and posttest; Solomon's plan for four groups.
Quasi-experimental designs, their types: plans with non-equivalent control groups, plans with an interrupted time sequence.
Intra-individual and inter-group experimental designs
Types of experimental designs according to the criterion of the number of experimental influences: plans with one independent variable, factorial, plans with a series of experiments.
Factorial designs.
General characteristics. Notation system in factorial designs. Concepts of main effect and interaction effect. Combination of main effect and interaction.
Correlational research and its design.
The concept of correlation and correlation method. History of the emergence of the correlation method. The difference between the correlation method and the experimental one.
Types of correlation. Correlation coefficient. The concept of regression analysis.
Types of correlations: direct correlation; correlation due to a third variable; random correlation not due to any variable, correlation due to heterogeneity of the sample.
Designing a correlational study. Types of correlational research designs.
Elements of psychological measurement theory
. The concept of psychological measurements. The concept of a measurement scale. Types of scales and types of permissible transformations. Groupings. Nominative scale (nominal, naming scale). Ordinal (ordinal) scale. Interval (scale of equal intervals). Equal Relationships Scale.
Main types of psychological measurements, their classification.
Psychological testing.
General characteristics of psychological testing. Testing and measurement theory. Standardization, reliability and validity of the test. Requirements for the development and verification of test methods
Testing in psychodiagnostics. Ways to create psychodiagnostic methods: adaptation of known methods (foreign, outdated, for other purposes) and development of new, original methods. The stages of developing a test methodology usually have the following. Development of a psychological questionnaire.
Experimenter: his personality and activities
. The activity of the experimenter in the experiment. Pygmalion effect. The main mistakes of the experimenter, the “distorting influence” of the experimenter on the result. Basic methods of controlling the influence of the experimenter.
Subject: his activity in the experiment
. Basic plans for describing the subject's activities. The personality of the subject and the situation of the psychological experiment.
Joint activity of the subject and the experimenter. The main factors of communication that can distort the results of the experiment. Features of communication with adult subjects and child subjects. Behavioral manifestations of subjects that are artifacts: “Placebo effect”, “Hawthorne effect”, “Zajonc effect”. The influence of experimental situations on its result.
Ethics of psychological research.
Ethical principles for conducting human research. The concept of voluntary informed consent.
Method of studying psychology
In his research, Wundt used the method of introspection (self-observation), which is rejected by modern psychology due to excessive subjectivity. What was the essence of the method? Wundt and his colleagues (specially trained in introspection) observed themselves in various situations and compiled a report in which they described how they felt and how they behaved when stimuli appeared. Here is a clear example of how the method was applied. The subject was given a large red apple. But he could not write in the report: “They gave me an apple. It was big and red." He needed to dig deeper: “First I felt the red color of the apple. Then I felt its roundness and size. Then a slight tickling sensation appeared in the tongue - apparently a trace of a taste sensation,” etc.
Since psychology was just in its infancy in those days, Wilhelm Maximilian decided to take chemistry, which had already been sufficiently studied and developed, as the basis of science. That is why his system is characterized by elementalism.
Methodological foundations of psychological research Experimental psychology as a science
Lecture outline
1. Experimental psychology as an independent science.
2. Subject and tasks of experimental psychology.
1. Experimental psychology as an independent science.
In the 21st century, there is no need to convince specialists in various fields of knowledge that there are such sciences as psychology and experimental psychology as a branch of psychology. Application of the experimental method to the study of mental phenomena at the end of the 19th century. played a decisive role in the establishment of psychology as an independent science and its separation from philosophy [17].
Psychology as a science that adopted the methodology of natural science, repeated the path of development of all natural sciences: from pre-scientific “everyday” psychology through the formation and testing of basic psychological ideas in systems of philosophy to the scientific substantiation of psychology as an independent discipline [17].
Subsequently, in connection with the accumulation of psychological knowledge, the scientific fields of psychology were differentiated in accordance with the subject of their study, and experimental psychology began to be understood as a general designation for various types of studies of mental phenomena through experimental methods.
In the process of development of natural sciences, experiment played a dominant role. It provided the opportunity for direct interaction with the subject of research, and therefore ensured the objectivity of testing ideas about nature. Since the early days of psychology as a scientific discipline, scientists have used laboratories, special equipment, experimental techniques, statistical data analysis and other tools on the basis of which psychological research is conducted and through which credible theories are built. The active use of experimental and mathematical methods in psychology allowed it, despite its young age, to take its rightful place among other sciences.
In modern psychological dictionaries and reference books that define the concept of “experimental psychology,” as a rule, the relative lack of independence of this scientific discipline is emphasized and there is no indication of its subject. For example, the most authoritative “Psychological Dictionary” gives the following definition: “Experimental psychology is the general name for the areas and sections of psychology in which the method of laboratory experiment is effectively used” [16].
2. Subject and tasks of experimental psychology.
V. N. Druzhin points out that the term “experimental psychology” has at least four meanings [14]:
1. Experimental psychology is understood (following W. Wundt, S. Stevens, etc.) as the whole of scientific psychology as a system of knowledge obtained on the basis of the experimental study of human and animal behavior. Scientific psychology is equated with experimental psychology and is contrasted with philosophical, introspective, speculative and humanitarian psychology (“Experimental Psychology,” edited by P. Fresse and J. Piaget (1966).
2. Experimental psychology is sometimes interpreted as a system of experimental methods and techniques implemented in specific studies (“Experimental Human Psychology” by M.V. Matlin (Matlin MW, 1979).
3. The term “experimental psychology” is often used in an expanded sense to characterize a scientific discipline that deals with the problem of methods of psychological research in general.
4. Experimental psychology is understood only as the theory of psychological experiment, based on the general scientific theory of experiment and primarily including its planning and data processing.
The original purpose of experimental psychology was to introduce the scientific method into psychology. As it developed, the scope of its research expanded: from describing the principles of a psychophysiological experiment, developing instructions to correctly setting up a psychological experiment, it turned into a scientific discipline
The main tasks of experimental psychology as a science at the present stage are:
– formulation of the methodological and theoretical foundations of research in psychology;
– development of experimental plans and empirical procedures;
– search for methods of analysis, interpretation and verification of the statistical significance of the results of psychological research;
– assessment of the effectiveness of experimental procedures;
– assessment of the relationship between theoretical principles and experimental data;
– development of ethical principles for psychological research;
– development of rules for presenting the results of psychological research.
Currently, there is a point of view that the achievements of experimental psychology in promoting fundamental psychology are currently less significant and are in question. The limits of applicability of experimental methods in psychology are a subject of discussion among psychologists to this day.
Career
In 1858, Wundt became an assistant to Professor Helmholtz and took part in the study of various problems of the natural sciences.
After 6 years, he was given the position of associate professor; Wundt worked at his native university for another 10 years. Since 1867, he began to give lectures, which were very popular among students.
In 1874, Wilhelm Wundt was invited to Switzerland, to the University of Zurich, and was offered to teach logic there. The professor accepted the invitation, but a year later he returned to Germany and connected his life with the University of Leipzig, to which he devoted almost 40 years and at one time even served as rector.
Examples of experiments
Let's consider the description of several psychological examples, because
The field of psychology and sociology often attracts public attention. Despite the fact that many of them look very dubious from an ethical point of view, they help people determine which methods of behavior towards others are evil and should be removed from our lives in the future, and which ones help the development and fuller self-realization of the individual in life. society
Hawthorne effect
This name was given to a series of socio-psychological experiments conducted by a group of scientists in the USA in the 20-30s of the 20th century at the Western Electrics factory. It was necessary to determine the reason for the decline in worker productivity. It turned out that the development depends on the fact that the subjects grew in their own eyes due to the increased attention to them from the researchers and felt themselves in a higher social status. It has been said that productivity is influenced by the perception of the prestige of one's work and social connections in the group. However, these results were later considered controversial and obtained by chance. The workers simply considered the psychologists to be spies of the company management and were afraid of getting laid off.
Milgram experiment
Described by a Yale University psychologist in 1963. It showed how great the degree of subordination and obedience to “authority” is among people, despite conflict with personal beliefs and moral suffering. The subject was ordered to inflict physical pain with an electric shock on another person who was innocent of anything (his role was played by an actor, but the second participant in the experiment did not know about this). It turned out that if her job duties include inflicting pain, then even the moral torment of such “work” is not a hindrance to her. The need to obey those who are higher in status is very deeply rooted in people's minds.
It is interesting that initially these experiments were carried out in order to understand what motivated the Germans who served in Nazi concentration camps. The author intended to go to Germany, since according to tradition it is believed that the Germans are more disciplined and prone to submission, but Stanley Milgram soon found out that the Americans in this regard are no different from the representatives of the German people. The fear of disobeying the boss turned out to be expressed equally in everyone.
Ringelmann effect
It was described by a French professor of agricultural engineering in 1913. Ringelman found that the larger the group, the lower the individual productivity of each of those participating in it. This is due to the fact that in a group personal responsibility is reduced, because failure can be transferred to the group as a whole, and not to an individual employee who performs poorly. When a person works alone, he gives his best, because only he will have to answer for what he has done.
Monstrous experiment
The name speaks for itself. His idea came to the mind of American scientists from the University of Iowa in 1939. They wanted to know whether it was possible to induce stuttering in absolutely healthy children. 22 children were selected from an orphanage and divided into two groups. In the first group, children were praised for good reading and correct speech, while in the second they were scolded and ridiculed in every possible way. As a result, participants in the second group developed pronunciation defects and shyness. For some, the problems persisted until the end of their lives. The results of the experiments were hidden from the public so as not to spoil the reputation of the experimenters and not to compare their activities with Nazi experiments on people during the war.
What did the psychologist study in the laboratory?
In the 20 years since the founding of the psychological laboratory, Wundt and his students conducted more than 100 experiments. Basically, they considered those problems that had already been posed by other scientists, but were not fully studied. The first series of experiments was devoted to studying the psychological aspects of hearing, vision, smell, sense of time and other senses. Close attention was also paid to experiments studying reaction times. Wundt found that the human reaction to a stimulus can be divided into 3 stages:
- Perception of the stimulus.
- Awareness of the stimulus.
- Manifestation of will.
After exposure to a stimulus, a person perceives it, analyzes it and finally reacts. The reaction represents the movement of the muscles, and Wundt wanted to find out its average value. However, he was unable to do this, because... it was difficult to distinguish between the stages of the reaction. Another object of study by the psychologist was what we now call the focus of attention. An example of focus is the perception of the page that you now see in front of you. While you are reading one paragraph, others are not so clearly visible. Wilhelm Maximilian, among other things, wanted to take up the study of child psychology, but did not conduct experiments, because children were unlikely to be able to accurately describe their internal state and sensations.
The basic psychophysical law and modification of its expression.
Psychophysics is the science of measuring sensations, studying the quantitative relationships between the intensity of a stimulus and the strength of sensation.
The subject of research in sensory psychophysics is the natural connections between a number of physical and mental processes.
THE BASIC PSYCHOPHYSICAL LAW is a function of the dependence of the magnitude of sensation on the magnitude of the stimulus. There is no single formula for the basic psychophysical law, but there are its variants: logarithmic (Fechner), power law (Stevens), generalized (Baird, Ekman, Zabrodin, etc.), tangential, arctangential, etc. Zabrodin's law has the greatest degree of generalization, including not only logarithmic and power functions, but also all intermediate ones.
These connections are presented most informatively in the case of metric psychophysical scales. Generalization of these scales leads to the formulation of the basic psychophysical law. This law is essentially a formal expression of empirical mental mapping, that is, it expresses the relationship between the magnitude of physical stimulation and the intensity of the sensation it causes, and more precisely, the functional dependence of the magnitude of sensation on the magnitude of the physical stimulus.
G. Fechner, J. Plato, f. made their contribution to the development of the law. Brentano, D. Guilford, P. Lazarev, G. Fullerton, D. Cattell, S. S. Stevens, Yu. M. Zabrodin, etc. However, Fechner’s logarithmic law and Stevens’ power law are the most famous.
Features of the laboratory
Initially, the laboratory conducted research in three areas:
- sensations and perceptions;
- psychophysical characteristics;
- reaction time.
Later, Wundt proposed studying more associations and feelings.
As students noted, Wilhelm Wundt himself did not conduct experiments in the laboratory. He didn't stay there longer than 5-10 minutes.
The teaching method was very original: Wundt gave students pieces of paper with experimental problems, checked reports on the work and decided whose work was worthy of publication in Philosophical Investigations. This magazine was created by the professor himself to post the works of his students.
