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Beliefs about old people/aging
Negative beliefs correlate with poorer memory, worse health
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Ohio Longitudinal Study of Aging and Retirement
Positive perceptions of aging: lived 7.5 years longer
People 50+ followed for 23 years...
Baseline measures: Perceptions of aging, actual age, SES, loneliness, functional health
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Aging study - Levy et al. (2009)
Negative age stereotypes early in life (18-49) = worse health and greater risk of heart attack or stroke
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Activating stereotypes in the lab (Levy, 1996)
Exposing elderly people to stereotype words subliminally (55 ms)–E.g., senile, forgets, confused, alzheimer’s–E.g., wise, enlightened, accomplished, alert
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Meta-analysis: Bond & DePaulo (2008) - Detecting deception
Assessed the variability in everyone’s lie-detection skills - 247 samples; 19,801 judges; 2,945 senders
Lie-detection vs. lie-telling abilities, Credibility as an important factor
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Male circumcision and HIV
HIV prevalence is lower where there’s a higher % of circumcised males
Circumcision predicts lower risk of HIV contraction
27 studies, risk for HIV infection was 44% lower in circumcised men
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Other findings: Circumcision
Infant urinary tract infections: 12 fold decreased risk in circumcised boys
Syphilis: 1.5-3.0 fold decrease in circumcised men
HPV: 63% reduction
Cervical cancer in female partners: 2.0 –5.8 times more frequent in women with uncircumcised partners
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Cell phones & brain tumors
Most studies find no relationship between the two variables
Lahkolaet al., 2006 (meta-analysis) - 12 published studies (N = 2780)
Overall, no association between cell phone use and brain tumor diagnosis–Not even for regular users of 5+ years
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Cell phones & tumors - Khuranaet al., 2009 (meta-analysis)
Users of 10+ years - 11 published studies
Found significant increases in tumor risk (for 2 of 3 types of tumors,) but only ipsilateralto cell phone use
Another meta-analysis (10+ yrs) found an overall association
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Decision Making
We need to determine what information is instrumental to our choice
Noninstrumental information –has no value in decision (but may seem relevant)
Pursuing missing information can lend greater weight to that information
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Problem 1 (Register for class) - Decision Making
Uncertain - 42% register, 2% don't, 56% wait
After waiting - 29% register, 27% don't
- (Simple) Certain total (less popular professor) - 82% register, 18% don't
- Uncertain total - 71% register, 29% don't
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Problem 2 (Accepting student) - Decision Making
(Simple) Certain: 57% accept, 43% reject
Uncertain: (immediately) 21% accept, 5% reject, 74% wait; (after waiting) 25% accept, 49% reject
Uncertain total: 46% accept, 54% reject
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Problem 2 (Mortgage application) - Decision Making
(Simple) Certain: 29% approve, 71% reject
Uncertain: (immediately) 2% approve, 23 reject, 75% wait; (after waiting) 54% approve, 21% reject
Uncertain total: 56% approve, 44% reject
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Problem 2 (CD player) - Decision Making
(Simple) Certain: 91% buy, 9% don't
Uncertain: (immediately) 26% buy, 5% don't, 69% wait; (after waiting) 29% buy, 40% don't
Uncertain total: 55% buy, 45% don't
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Decision Making - Kidney
Simple Certain: 44% would donate, 56% would not
Uncertain: Get tested? 69% yes, 31% no
You're a match, donate? 65% yes, 35% no
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Decision making in real life
Uncertainty often leads to seek more information. We need to determine whether the missing information is important.
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Ethics in research
Ethics intertwined with research methods
Modern ethical guidelines shaped by early psychological research
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Ethical Considerations
Researchers bound by APA Guidebook of Ethical Principles, Federal guidelines, State and local laws
University research is supervised by IRB = Institutional Review Board, Several ethical issues that are of concern to IRBs
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1. Involving participants without their knowledge/consent
Issue: No informed consent
No informed consent is OK if: Behavior is public, No invasion of privacy, Participants are not inconvenienced, Participants are anonymous
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2. Coercing people to participate
Example: Research in organizational setting -- Could be implied pressure to cooperate
Research with intro psych students?
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3. Withholding true nature of research
Example: Elaborate cover stories
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4. Deception
Confederates: Getting rejected, Attractive confederate flirting with you
False feedback: Success vs. failure, Feedback about your personality -- Example: Twengeet al. (2001)
Deceiving about drugs taken -- Debriefing is critical
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5. Exposure to physical or mental stress
- The “classic” social psych studies
- Exposure to disturbing stimuli
- Studying negative emotions
- Mortality salience
- Do potential benefits outweigh the risks? -- Male circumcision experiment
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Putting the researcher assistants at risk
Staged assault (Harariet al.); Staring at people (Ellsworth et al., 1972); Urinal study (Middlemistet al., 1976)
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6. Privacy and Confidentiality of data
- Are responses anonymous?
- How are data handled after collected? -- Make data anonymous, Maintain the security of the data
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Which of the following is the same as a panel survey design?
- a) successive independent samples design
- b) longitudinal design
- c) cross-sectional design
- d) epsem design
- e) quota design
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Variance in a behavior that is related to the variables that an investigator is investigating is:
- A) systematic variance.
- B) standard variance.
- C) error variance.
- D) total variance.
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Which of the following is used to eliminate demand characteristics?
- a) random assignment
- b) a double-blind procedure
- c) matching
- d) counterbalancing
- e) confounding
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What is an operational definition?
Defining a construct by how it is measured or manipulated in a particular study
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Name 3 characteristics of pseudoscience (how it differs from science).
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