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CH 1 - Intro To Research - Students

Chapter 1 introduces key concepts in psychology research, including the sources of knowledge, the scientific method, and the distinction between theories, concepts, and hypotheses. It emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and outlines various research approaches, such as qualitative vs. quantitative and descriptive vs. explanatory research. The chapter concludes by highlighting the goals of science, which include description, explanation, prediction, and control.

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23 views20 pages

CH 1 - Intro To Research - Students

Chapter 1 introduces key concepts in psychology research, including the sources of knowledge, the scientific method, and the distinction between theories, concepts, and hypotheses. It emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and outlines various research approaches, such as qualitative vs. quantitative and descriptive vs. explanatory research. The chapter concludes by highlighting the goals of science, which include description, explanation, prediction, and control.

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4sqj7ybxtr
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CH.

1:INTRODUCTION TO
RESEARCH IN PSYCHOLOGY
CH. 1 OBJECTIVES

• List and describe common sources of belief and identify the likely source of example beliefs.
• Explain why psychology is BOTH a science and an art.
• List the steps of the critical thinking process.
• Describe the objectives of science and create examples of each.
• Describe the tenets of science and identify examples of each.
CH. 1 OBJECTIVES (CONTINUED)

• Apply the steps of the scientific method to a problem.


• Describe the difference between a theory, a concept, and a hypothesis.
• Discuss the various reasons why scientists do research.
• Describe various approaches to research and classify research examples.
• List the steps in planning and conducting research and generate a research topic
from available sources.
HOW WE ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE
ABOUT THE WORLD
Tradition/Tenacity: “I believe it is true because it has always been
true”
Intuition: “I believe it is true because I feel it is true”
Authority: “I believe it is true because an ‘expert’ says it is true”
Personal Experience: “I believe it is true because I experienced it”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reasoning: “I believe it is true because it is logically derived”
Empiricism: “I believe it is true because I measured it”
Reasoning & Empiricism = Science!!
OBSERVATION of real events provides the basis for hypotheses that can be
TESTED in methodical and systematic ways.
PSYCHOLOGY: SCIENCE AND ART
The science of psychology provides the theory.
The art of psychology might involve applying that theory in skillful
ways to help others!
CRITICAL THINKING
The ability and willingness to assess claims and
make objective judgments on the basis of well-
supported evidence!!
CRITICAL THINKING:

Ask questions
Avoid oversimplifying
Objectively define problems
Consider alternative
Examine the available
explanations
evidence
Tolerate uncertainty
Assess assumptions and
biases Maintain an air of
skepticism but remain
Avoid emotional reasoning
open-minded
Separate facts from opinion
OBJECTIVES OF SCIENCE:
Example:
Describe, My pet is overweight,
according to scale/chart.
Explain, (Describe)
He’s lazy. He just has big
& Predict. bones. House hippos shared
potato chips with him!
Orrrrr…I overfeed him.
Then (Explain)
Control! “Fewer calories will
decrease his weight.”
(Predict)
Then control/apply with a
caloric-deficit diet.
THE TENETS OF SCIENCE
The scientific approach to discovering truth assumes several fundamental
principles about how the world works and demands that certain criteria be met:
Determinism
Events/behaviours have natural causes
Empiricism
Real evidence = empirical data
Replicability
A single finding may be due to chance…
Falsifiability
Hypotheses and theories must be testable in a way that can be shown to be
false!
Parsimony (i.e., “Occam’s Razor”)
Preference for the simplest explanation
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
The method of science involves logical steps toward
finding truth:
1. Assume a natural cause for the phenomenon (i.e., Determinism)
2. Make an ‘educated guess’ about the cause (i.e., generate a testable
hypothesis)
3. Test your hypothesis
4. Revise your hypothesis, if necessary
5. Retest your new hypothesis
6. Draw conclusion(s)
THEORIES, CONCEPTS, AND HYPOTHESES
A theory is a formal statement of how concepts are related.
Concepts are the general category of ideas that are represented by our variables (i.e., IV
& DV).
A hypothesis is an explanation/prediction of how concepts are related that is often
deduced from a theory.
WHY!?

The purpose of research is to:


Evaluate a theory
Satisfy our curiosity!
Demonstrate a new technique
Demonstrate a behavioural phenomenon
Investigate the conditions influencing behavioural
phenomena
REMINDER:

CH. 1 OBJECTIVES (CONTINUED)


• Apply the steps of the scientific method to a problem.
• Describe the difference between a theory, a concept, and a hypothesis.
• Discuss the various reasons why scientists do research.
• Describe various approaches to research and classify research examples.
• List the steps in planning and conducting research, and generate a research topic
from available sources.
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH

Descriptive Vs. Explanatory Research


Descriptive research involves describing a population of
measurements.
The focus of explanatory research is to answer “why”
questions.
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH

Qualitative Vs. Quantitative Research


Qualitative research describes differences in the kind or quality of behaviour.
Quantitative research measures differences in the amount of behaviour.
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH

Basic Vs. Applied


Research
Basic: Answering a question
to satisfy a question/curiosity
Applied: The researcher is
looking at applying the
knowledge to somehow benefit
humankind.
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
Cross-Sectional Vs. Longitudinal Research

Most research that looks at age differences


is cross-sectional research.
A potential problem is that there may be
other variables that are confounded with age
(i.e., Cohort Effect)!
With longitudinal research, participants
have a similar history, but the research is
going to take years…
This raises problems of cost and the tracking
of participants over time!
APPROACHES TO RESEARCH
Field Vs. Laboratory Research
Less artificiality in field research, but there is a lack of
control of variables.
The laboratory provides more control, but due to results
may not generalize as well to the real world.
PLANNING & CONDUCTING RESEARCH:
Selecting a research topic
Generating testable hypotheses
Classifying variables
Selecting an appropriate design
Planning the method and carrying it out
Analyzing results
Drawing conclusions
Sharing your findings
CHAPTER 1 SUMMARY
Tradition, authority, and intuition are flawed sources of knowledge.
Reasoning (i.e., beliefs based on logic) and empiricism (i.e., beliefs
based on measured observations) are better sources of knowledge!
The goals of science include description, explanation, prediction,
and control.

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