Sooth is a social-psychologist founded company that develops community around the art of giving and receiving good advice. Their IOS platform app brings users together for anonymous advice-asking and advice-providing. Despite anonymity, and due in part to the educational materials provided to users, advice tends to be very high quality. I encourage you all to check it … Continue reading Applying Psychological Research at Sooth: Advice-Giving
Applying Psychological Research at Sooth, Advice-Asking
Sooth is a social-psychologist founded company that develops community around the art of giving and receiving good advice. Their IOS platform app brings users together for anonymous advice-asking and advice-providing. Despite anonymity, and due in part to the educational materials provided to users, advice tends to be very high quality. I encourage you all to check it … Continue reading Applying Psychological Research at Sooth, Advice-Asking
Key Concepts: Dual + Process Theories and the Tripartite Theory of Mind
There is an interesting chapter (which I link to here) by Stanovich on the "tripartite" mind that got me thinking about research, as well as being human. Stanovich distinguishes, first, the Autonomous Set of Systems (TASS) which includes all automated parallel/associative processing. This is the set of systems that creates a "primary" representation of reality. … Continue reading Key Concepts: Dual + Process Theories and the Tripartite Theory of Mind
Mini Lectures: Illusion of Explanatory Depth
In research, we must consider our own and others' biases. The illusion of explanatory depth, described in the video below, can negatively impact the precision and plausibility of our hypotheses. It can also help explain participant behaviors. In qualitative research, we can unintentionally disrupt this illusion in our informants - prompting them to give a less … Continue reading Mini Lectures: Illusion of Explanatory Depth
Research Methods Intro: Accuracy and Ethnography
In personality psychology researchers empirically investigate sources of accuracy by using information about both the perceiver - the person whose accuracy we are evaluating - and the target - the person the perceiver is accurate about. Using a round robin design - where every participant rates and is rated by every other participant, as well … Continue reading Research Methods Intro: Accuracy and Ethnography
Research Methods Intro: Attitude Strength and Attitude Change – Survey Items in Context
Value Social scientists use the word “attitude” to refer to a positive or negative impression of some specific thing. That thing could be internal – most people have a negative attitude towards physical pain, for example. It could also be external. A stereotype is either a positive or negative attitude towards members of a social … Continue reading Research Methods Intro: Attitude Strength and Attitude Change – Survey Items in Context
Research Methods Intro: Surveys – Standardizing How We Ask People About Prejudice
Value: Individual survey questions may introduce noise - there's rarely a perfect question that will be interpreted the same way by all people. Individuals may also tend to fill out any given question in certain ways, liking more moderate or more extreme responses, for example. Both of these factors introduce noise. However, with enough questions … Continue reading Research Methods Intro: Surveys – Standardizing How We Ask People About Prejudice
Research Methods Intro: Participant Observation – A Brief Primer
In interacting with Maori individuals, the indigenous people of New Zealand, I found a few techniques particularly helpful. First, being an anthropologist requires a degree of “suspension of disbelief.” You are there to learn other peoples’ stories, stories that will sometimes clash with what you yourself believe. People will be sensitive to your disbelief, so … Continue reading Research Methods Intro: Participant Observation – A Brief Primer
Research Methods Intro: Ethnography – How Do People Actually Talk, Think, and Behave With Regards To Race?
Value: If we have the resources, it is helpful to start with a qualitative, particularly an ethnographic, perspective. This perspective helps us to generate a “thick description” of the phenomenon in question. This process provides inspiration for quantitative work and helps us to interpret quantitative results. Relevant to our intervention-oriented research question - we can … Continue reading Research Methods Intro: Ethnography – How Do People Actually Talk, Think, and Behave With Regards To Race?
Daniel Sude Consulting 