The steps of the natural scientific method:

1. Literature review –
2. form some theories – theory = an idea
3. make some hypothesis = little idea so that we can test them. A single idea
with the 5 w’s present
(who what when where why and how) ex : men and women communicate
differently(theory).

Hypothesis – college aged men and women communicate differently about ________
at home, in the classroom, online…

4. design a study to test the hypothesis. Try to prove yourself wrong. Design
the analysis that you will run.
5. run the study – collect data
6. analyze the data
7. Disseminate the results
8. replicate the study on different subjects – do the study over exactly the same
way
9. Related studies ….
10. Law formation- the goal of all research

Kinds of studies:

1. Naturalistic Observation-Observing in the natural environment

2. Case study - study a single case. Results only apply to the person in the
study. Tell a lot in depth about the case. Ex: Facilitated communication

3.Correlational study- studies the relationship between two or more variables. * does
not show causation * only shows that two variables are related.

Ex. Bran
correlated Oat bran to reduced cholesterol, longer life, lower body fat, lower body
mass = underweight
3 rd variable problem – a 3rd variable is actually causing the interaction to happen
 r ranges from -1 to +1
r = 0 means that there is no relationship between the 2 variables. 1+ or – means that
they are 100% related. When A happens B always happens.
–r A and B go in opposite directions ex. exercise and weight
+r A and B go in the same direction ex direct deposit

4. True experiment: Only way to determine causation!!!!

a. select a population-
b. get a representative sample – represents the population and has at least one
of every kind of person. Use randomization!!

c. Always randomize twice in a true experiment

d. Divide sample into groups randomly:
Experimental and control groups. Goal is to randomly divide the sample into
groups that are the same on all important variables.

Cholesterol and oat bran

Exp. O X O -25
(obs) intervention
oatmeal

Ct O Placebo O -5
Rat chow
Baseline post-test

-20
 Exp group BP goes down 20pts
Control group BP down 5 points
Over all decrease in BP of 15 points ONLY due to intervention!!!!

History effect- something happens while the experiment is being run

Maturation effect – people getting older

5. Longitudinal study – follow one group for a long time..

6. Cross-sectional study – studies a cross –section of the population – many people at
one point in time. problem with the Cohort effect
Cohort= a group of people with similar experiences.
Cohort effect = the effect that living at a certain time or belonging to a certain
group might have on your scores.

Ex 1970s IQ study
5 yr olds born 1965
50 born in 1920
65 born in 1905
85 born in 1885

Independent variable: the intervention

Dependent variable: the thing that you want to see change