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Psychology
Research Methods in Psychology
The Scientific Method
Psychologists use the scientific method to conduct their research. The scientific method is a standardized way of making observations, gathering data, forming theories, testing predictions, and interpreting results.
Researchers make observations in order to describe and measure behavior. After
observing certain events repeatedly, researchers come up with a theory that explains
these observations. A theory is an explanation that organizes separate
pieces of information in a coherent way. Researchers generally develop a theory only
after they have collected a lot of evidence and made sure their research results can
be reproduced by others.
Example:
A psychologist observes that some college sophomores date a
lot, while others do not. He observes that some sophomores have
blond hair, while others have brown hair. He also observes that in
most sophomore couples at least one person has brown hair. In
addition, he notices that most of his brown-haired friends date
regularly, but his blond friends don’t date much at all. He explains
these observations by theorizing that brown-haired sophomores are
more likely to date than those who have blond hair. Based on this
theory, he develops a hypothesis that more brown-haired sophomores
than blond sophomores will make dates with people they meet at a
party. He then conducts an experiment to test his hypothesis. In his
experiment, he has twenty people go to a party, ten with blond hair
and ten with brown hair. He makes observations and gathers data by
watching what happens at the party and counting how many people of
each hair color actually make dates. If, contrary to his hypothesis,
the blond-haired people make more dates, he’ll have to think about
why this occurred and revise his theory and hypothesis. If the data
he collects from further experiments still do not support the
hypothesis, he’ll have to reject his theory.
Making Research Scientific
Psychological research, like research in other fields, must meet
certain criteria in order to be considered scientific. Research must
be:
- Replicable
- Falsifiable
- Precise
- Parsimonious
Research Must Be Replicable
Research is replicable when others can repeat it and get
the same results. When psychologists report what they have found through
their research, they also describe in detail how they made their
discoveries. This way, other psychologists can repeat the research to see if
they can replicate the findings.
After psychologists do their research and make sure it’s
replicable, they develop a theory and translate the theory into
a precise hypothesis. A hypothesis is a testable prediction
of what will happen given a certain set of conditions. Psychologists
test a hypothesis by using a specific research method, such as naturalistic observation, a case study, a survey, or an experiment. If the test does not
confirm the hypothesis, the psychologist revises or rejects the original
theory.
A Good Theory
A good theory must do two things: organize many
observations in a logical way and allow researchers to come
up with clear predictions to check the theory.
Research
Must Be Falsifiable
A good theory or hypothesis also must be falsifiable,
which means that it must be stated in a way that makes it possible to reject
it. In other words, we have to be able to prove a theory or hypothesis
wrong. Theories and hypotheses need to be falsifiable because all
researchers can succumb to the confirmation bias. Researchers who display confirmation bias look for and accept evidence that
supports what they want to believe and ignore or reject evidence that
refutes their beliefs.
Example:
Some people theorize that the Loch Ness Monster not
only exists but has become intelligent enough to elude
detection by hiding in undiscovered, undetectable,
underwater caves. This theory is not falsifiable.
Researchers can never find these undiscovered caves or
the monster that supposedly hides in them, and they have
no way to prove this theory wrong.
Research Must
Be Precise
By stating hypotheses precisely, psychologists ensure that they can
replicate their own and others’ research. To make hypotheses more precise,
psychologists use operational definitions to define the variables they
study. Operational definitions state exactly how a variable
will be measured.
Example:
A psychologist conducts an experiment to find out
whether toddlers are happier in warm weather or cool
weather. She needs to have an operational definition of
happiness so that she can measure precisely how happy the
toddlers are. She might operationally define happiness as
“the number of smiles per hour.”
Research Must Be Parsimonious
The principle of parsimony, also called Occam’s
razor, maintains that researchers should apply the simplest
explanation possible to any set of observations. For instance, psychologists
try to explain results by using well-accepted theories instead of elaborate
new hypotheses. Parsimony prevents psychologists from inventing and pursuing
outlandish theories.
Parsimony
Parsimonious means “being thrifty
or stingy.” A person who values parsimony will apply the
thriftiest or most logically economical explanation for a
set of phenomena.
Example:
Suppose a student consistently falls asleep in her
statistics class. She theorizes that before each class, her
statistics professor secretly sprays her seat with a nerve
gas that makes her very drowsy. If she had applied the
principle of parsimony, she would not have come up with this
theory. She can account for her sleepiness with a much
simpler and more likely explanation: she finds statistics
boring.
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