Scientific Methods in

Psychology
Mao Jia

Issues in Psychology

Scientific study of mental functions and behavior Behaviour, cognition, emotion, personality, perception, subconcious mind Different subfields require different ways of scientific enquiry

Biological psychology Developmental psychology Comparative psychology Social psychology

Psychology as a science

Ecletic; requires basic assumptions and knowledge from other fields Took a long time to emergerelatively new science Adopts the 'scientific method'

Observation Description/hypothesis setting Control Replication Falsifiable Parsimonious Precise

Possess qualities of scientific research

Correlational studies

Correlational studies: find a relationship between 2 variables that might explain phenomenon 3 types: Naturalistic observations

Explore a population under natural conditions Jane Goodall studies on chimpanzees Environment is in no way manipulated by the observer Makes response recorded more credible Used heavily in behavioural psychology

Correlational studies

Case history studies

In-depth investigations of a single person or community or event Data gathered by various modes Qualitative ways Research method originates from clinical medicine Data collected is analyzed with different theories Analyzer tries to resolve and find a coherence between the different pieces of information to find an explanation

Correlational studies

Case studies

Makes clear of factual description and inference Pros: rich in detail; allows holistic point of view; allows investigation of cases that cannot be replicated in the lab Cons: researcher bias; cannot generalize results to larger populations

Correlational studies

Surveys

Widely used in social psychology Determines attitude, belief or behaviour of a population according to recorded responses Survey must be carefully designed

Problem with correlational studies

Form of statistical manipulationfishing of data Correlation does not prove causation Heavy bias in certain methods

Research designs in psychology

Neuropsychology

Studies functions and structure of the brain in an attempt to explain specific psychological processes Neuropsychological tests Performance can be linked to specific neurocognitive processes Allows for relation of brain areas to different process Designed experimental tasks Human attached to probes and response recorded and translated onto computers

Neuropsychology

Cognitive neuropsychology

Clinical setting where diseased individuals are tested for their cognitive abilities Lesion method: Correlates the part of the damaged brain of the patient and his resulting physical impairments Capable of inferring previously undiscovered functional relationships Case of Phineas Cage Mental localization Brain damage can affect personality

Research design in psychology

Computational modelling Aims to model human neural network Integrates information based on areas of synapse, divergence, convergence Allows visualization of organization of functional events Never a sensitive enough nor complete accurate depiction of human mind

Research design in psychology

Animal studies

Experiments done on animals that can demonstrate similar properties in humans Controlled experiments and lab-based Eg: Classical conditioning of dogs Harlow's Monkeys

Psychoanalysis

Analysis of the mind

Done by:

Anamnesis: intepretaion of biography of patients Free associations method: induces truthful, freespeaking of patients Intepretation of dreams Intepretation of Freudian slips and mistakes Intepretaion of symbols Combination of above

Psychoanalysis

Critics claim that Psychoanalysis can only intepret the mind after events have occurred Cannot determine what might have happened in advance Unfalsifiable But Kline argues that the psychoanalysis can be broken down into testable hypothesis by scientific methods

Behaviourism

Has parsimonious theories that can explain a vast variety of behaviour Precise and refutable hypothesis Well set-up and controlled experiments

Cognitive psychology

Scientific approach to unobservable mental processes

Aims to create precise models and conduct experiments on behaviour

Full understanding is unobtainable

Due to the various complex factors interacting Environmental Mental Biological

Pitfalls of the scientific method in psychology

Psychological explanations are limited to specific times and places Environments mould behaviour constantly Impossible to control factors that affect the human mind Wrong to take a deterministic view like in science Hard to be objective when under human-human inspection Verification may be impossible

Pitfalls of the scientific method in psychology

Many paradigms; lack of unifying theory Explanation of phobia: Behaviourist would believe it is due to operant conditioning Freud would believe that it might be an unconscious conflict Unlike the natural sciences Requires an unifying theory before it can be likely to be strictly considered as a science