Getting Started with Research in Psychology
Psychology as a Science:
Aims to challenge common-sense beliefs
Allport's perspective of psychology being beyond common sense
Utilises quantitative research methods
Involves the hypothetico-deductive method through precise definition, measurement and testing falsifiable hypotheses (Bacon) to explore unknown
Involves rational explanations, not just laboratory equipment
Quantitative Research Methods:
Stages; Formulating a research question, deriving hypotheses, conducting research, analysis, interpretation
Emphasises generalisability and replication
Data collection methods; Experiments, quasi-experiments, clinical trials/ RCTs, correlational studies, questionnaires
Design; lab vs field settings, consider statistical analysis during deciding the study design and define variables clearly
Importance of Research:
Essential for the existence of psychology
Underpins studies, theories, and knowledge development
Crucial for generating and testing new ideas, avoiding myths
Mobile Phone Impact on Children's Grammar:
Wood, Kemp and Waldron (2014) study
Participants; Children aged 8-12 in the UK
Methodology; Assessing intelligence, grammar, processing ability, and spelling
Findings; Textism use not linked to grammatical skills
The Importance of Research:
Develops objective evidence Informs drug treatments, IAPT, and child protection policies
Quantitative Psychology and Scientific Method:
Scientific knowledge is empirical and obtained through systematic observations
Inductive reasoning underpins the scientific method
Karl Popper's philosophy emphasises falsifiability
Hypothetico-Deductive Method:
Traditional scientific method in psychology
Involves identifying, defining, generation hypotheses, designing research, collecting data, analysing data and interpreting results
Generalisability and Replication:
Generalisability; Extending findings to the wider population
Replication; Repeating studies for result verification
Importance of avoiding 'flukes' and increasing result confidence
Psychology under Scrutiny:
Positive impact on psychology through increased scrutiny
Retraction of work due to replication issues
Good Research Characteristics:
Replicability and clarity in theory explanations
Theories supported or challenged by research evidence
Elimination of alternative explanations and expansion of scope
Collaborative Nature of Research:
Involves ongoing collaboration and idea exchanging
Requires careful planning encompassing design, variables, samples, and data analysis
Importance of Evidence in Psychological Research:
Claims about the world must be backed by evidence
Neglecting key aspects can result in ambiguous or useless results
Unreliability of Intuition:
Intuition can lead to incorrect conclusions
Irritational fears can affect decision making
Prefer evidence-based reasoning to reduce conspiracies
Testing and Refining Theories:
Theories are not 'proved' but supported or challenged by evidence
Uses everyday scientific thinking for decision making
Aims of Psychological Science:
Prediction, understanding and control of human actions
Application of scientific knowledge for the betterment of psychology
Positive contribution to society through understanding human behaviour
Development of Empirical Method:
Two stages; Gathering data through direct experience and induction patterns
Importance of empirical observation against mysticism and ancient beliefs
Contradiction to church authority
Challenges to Pure Empiricism:
Criticism of Francis Bacon's ideal of observing events without assumptions
Introduction of schema theory in cognitive psychology
Background theories often guide empirical methods
Psychoanalytic theory criticised for being unfalsifiable
Complexity of human behaviour challenges purely objective observation
Formulating and Testing Hypotheses:
Formulating hypotheses related to heat-aggression theory
Emphasis on specific, measurable predictions and operational definitions
Importance of Replication:
Skepticism and replication as safeguards against fraudulent claims
Challenges of replication due to human variability
Ethical standards for transparent communication
Controversy over reluctance to publish replication reports in prestigious journals
Disconfirmation: Importance of seeking instances where theories don't hold eg social loafing and challenges to initial hypotheses
Psychoanalytical Theory: Critiqued to be unfalisifiable
Reality of Scientific Research:
Continuous Cycle of Research Mundane reality of scientific research
Initiating research projects for various reasons
Impact of politics, economics, and ethics on research progress
Importance of peer-reviewed publication for credibility
Impact of research findings on theory development
Recognition that success is not solely determined by meeting original aims
Variables and Sampling:
Variables as elements that can change and be measured
Importance of controlling variables to isolate effects
Challenges in measuring psychological compared to physical variables
Selection of representative samples for generalisability
Challenges in ensuring samples accurately reflect populations
Statistics:
Caution against drawing misleading conclusions Recognition that statistics support claims but don't prove them