{"id":3944,"date":"2018-07-22T21:13:31","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T01:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/?p=3944"},"modified":"2019-05-25T21:26:24","modified_gmt":"2019-05-26T01:26:24","slug":"how-psychologists-use-the-scientific-method","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/research-methods-in-psychology\/how-psychologists-use-the-scientific-method\/","title":{"rendered":"How Psychologists Use the Scientific Method"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Internal and external validity have an inverse relationship<\/li>\n<li><u>External validity <\/u>: the degree to which the results of a study apply to individuals and realistic behaviors outside the study o Wants to know if it can apply to those individuals outside of the study and in everyday lives<\/li>\n<li><u>Internal validity <\/u>: the degree to which a study provides causal information about behavior o Controls for extraneous factors<\/li>\n<li><u>Reliability <\/u>: the degree to which the results of a study can be replicated under similar conditions<\/li>\n<li><u>Operational definition <\/u>: the definitions of an abstract concept used by a researcher to measure or manipulate the concept in a research study<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li><u>Naturalistic observation <\/u>: wants to learn about behavior that naturally occurs for an individual without influencing the behavior o Unobtrusive\n<ul>\n<li>Primary advantage: behavior is more likely to be more realistic o This can increase the external validity of a study<\/li>\n<li>This can also decrease the internal validity because the observers will have different operational definitions of the behaviors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><u>Survey\u2019s\/Questionnaires <\/u>: used to measure mood, attitudes about a topic, or frequency of certain behaviors through self\u00adreports from the participants o<u> Closed ended response scale <\/u>: only certain responses are valid responses to the items<\/li>\n<li>Allows the researcher to collect quantitative (numerical) responses so no coding scheme is needed<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>o<u> Open ended response scale <\/u>: they can respond in whatever way they wish<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Requires the development of a coding scheme because the responses are qualitative<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>(nonnumerical) rather and quantitative<\/p>\n<p>o<u> Social Desirability <\/u>: participants may also want to portray themselves more positively to the researcher and intentionally respond in a way that achieves that goal<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><u>Systematic Observations <\/u>: data collection technique where control is exerted over the conditions under which the behavior is observed o Has the highest amount of control over behavior (this typically adds to the internal validity)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>o External validity can be low for systematic observations because the behaviors being studied may be artificial<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><u> Archival Data: <\/u>data collection technique that involves analysis of preexisting data o An observation technique<\/li>\n<li>One can find data related to presidential approval ratings, consumer confidence, consumer spending, and opinion polls<\/li>\n<li>Means of collecting data quickly o Few resources are needed<\/li>\n<li>BUT the researcher has NO CONTROL over the circumstances under which the data are collected, the sampling technique used, or the measure used to observe behavior<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><u> Content analysis <\/u>: a specific type of archival data observation technique that involves analysis of what someone has said or written o No interaction takes place between the research participant and the researcher 5.<u> Case Studies <\/u>: to gain insight into and understanding of a SINGLE individual\u2019s behavior o<u> Example <\/u>: someone who suffered a brain injury (can study individuals while they are alive and even after they die)<\/li>\n<li><u>Correlational Studies <\/u>: research designed to examine the relationships between multiple dependent variables, without manipulating any of the variables o Allows for a researcher to examine relationships between variables and if a relationship is found, predict values for one variable from values on the other variables\n<ul>\n<li><u>Predictor variable <\/u>: variable that is used to make the prediction o<u> Outcome variable <\/u>: variable that is being predicted o<u> Positive relationship: <\/u>variables change in the same direction o<u> Negative relationship: <\/u>variables change in opposite directions<\/li>\n<li><u>Scatterplot: <\/u>graph showing the relationship between two DV for a group<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><u>Experiments: <\/u>involves manipulation of an IV, allowing control of extraneous variables that could affect the results o<u> Levels of the IV: <\/u>participants receives treatment (experimental group) while others don\u2019t receive treatment (control group)\n<ul>\n<li><u>Confounding variable: <\/u>an extraneous factor present in a study that may affect the results o<u> Random assignment: <\/u>\u00a0participants are randomly assigned to the levels of the IV in an experiment<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><u>Quasi\u00adExperiments <\/u>: where a comparison is made, as in an experiment, but NO random assignments of participants to groups occur<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Chapter Summary:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What are some common ways psychologists observe behavior?\n<ul>\n<li>Naturalistic observation<\/li>\n<li>Surveys\/Questionnaires<\/li>\n<li>Systematic observation<\/li>\n<li>Archival data<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>What questions about behavior do the different research methods allow psychologists to answer?\n<ul>\n<li>Case studies: allows descriptive questions to be answered for a single individual<\/li>\n<li>Correlational studies: allow descriptive and predictive questions to be answered about behavior<\/li>\n<li>Quasi\u00adexperiments and experiments: allow comparisons among groups, with experiments answering causal questions about behavior<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Which research method is best when asking about the cause of a behavior?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ans: Experiments<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>_________ validity indicates that a study\u2019s results can be generalized to other individuals and real\u00adlife situations. __________ validity indicated that a study\u2019s results provide causal information about the variables tested<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ans: External, Internal<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If a study finds that as self\u00adesteem INCREASE, symptoms of depression DESCREASE, this study has found a _____________ relationship<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ans: Negative<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>___________________ research designs are typically used when a researchers wants to explore the behavior of an individual or group of individuals to better understand unusual or atypical behaviors<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ans: Case study<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Internal and external validity have an inverse relationship External validity : the degree to which the results of a study apply to individuals and realistic behaviors outside the&hellip; <a class=\"continue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/research-methods-in-psychology\/how-psychologists-use-the-scientific-method\/\">Continue Reading<span> How Psychologists Use the Scientific Method<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[100],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3944"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3944"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4742,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3944\/revisions\/4742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.amyork.ca\/academic\/zz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}