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Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Research Methods

Video Exercises

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Virtual Alcohol Control

Scientists are using virtual reality to help alcoholics cope with situations that might get them in trouble. This ScienCentral News video explains.

Interviewee: Patrick Bordnick, University of Houston

Copyright © ScienCentral, Inc., with additional footage courtesy Patrick Bordnick and Virtually Better.

Our behavior is influenced by what is going on around us, but we don’t necessarily need to respond to those influences. Some psychological problems, such as addictions, cannot be “cured” in the medical sense, but people can often learn to control their own behavior and not respond to the urge to use alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs.

How can a therapist help a person learn to resist cravings? This video shows work with virtual reality created by computer simulations to work with alcohol addiction. The therapist exposes his or her client to common “triggers” in the environment that stimulate the desire to drink and then works with the person to help him or her develop effective strategies to resist those cravings.

1.
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Looking at the virtual reality demonstration, what are some of the triggers that the therapist has built into the video?
2.
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Dr. Bordick explains that including not only visual experiences, but also smells associated with alcohol, increases realism, and, consequently, makes the situation feel more real. This improves the effectiveness of the therapy. Just as Dr. Bordick added the smell of alcohol to improve the virtual reality experience, suggest one visual addition, one sound addition, and one smell addition that might improve the effectiveness of the virtual reality experience.
3.
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Dr. Bordick suggests that virtual reality could be used to help people with addictions to alcohol, marijuana, or tobacco. Suggest another problem that is influenced by triggers that might be helped by virtual reality therapy.
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Snakes on the Brain

New research by psychologists suggests we're born ready to look for snakes. As this ScienCentral News video reports, a series of experiments showed that people–even toddlers–tend to recognize and locate a snake faster than other plants and animals.

Interviewee: Judy DeLoache, University of Virginia

Copyright © ScienCentral, Inc.

Dr. DeLoache knows that many people fear snakes, but she is asking a tough question that can only be satisfactorily addressed through scientific research: Is this fear innate?

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The video suggests that our genetically based tendencies are adaptations—characteristics, skills, and abilities that enhanced our ancestors’ chances of survival. Most of us only see snakes in zoos or in pictures. What is the adaptive value of quickly detecting snakes?
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Why was it necessary for Dr. DeLoache to test children? Wouldn’t it have been sufficient to show that adults detect snakes more quickly than other stimuli?
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In the modern world, snakes are not a major threat. Assuming that natural selection is continuing all the time, what modern “threat” might be undergoing natural selection right now, selecting tendencies for future generations to notice and fear?
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Red sways men.

The way to a man’s heart on Valentine’s Day? Wear red. This ScienCentral News video explains there is scientific evidence for the attractive power of red.

Interviewee: Daniela Niesta, University of Rochester

Copyright © ScienCentral, Inc.

7.
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Does this research meet the standard of being an experiment?
8.
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What is the independent variable in this study?
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What was the dependent variable in this study? Dr. Niesta mentions two ways they measured this variable. What are they?
10.
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The researchers asked college students to do the ratings, but not all college students were eligible to be in the study. What was the characteristic of the college student that determined eligibility to be in the sample?
11.
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Obviously, everybody doesn’t find the same people to be attractive. If some women were shown in red and other women were shown in blue, the women in red might simply have been more attractive, and that would be a confound. How did the researchers handle this problem?
12.
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The video says that different men viewed the pictures of women in red and the pictures of women in blue. Although we are not told how the participants were assigned to one or the other of these groups, what would be the best way to assign participants to groups and why?

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