The Scientific Method

Week 2
9/16 & 9/18
Ch. 2

Much of the information © McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

 What is the Scientific Method?
• Way to gain knowledge about behavior and
mental processes
– Not a particular technique or tool
– General approach to gaining knowledge
• There are many ways/approaches to gaining
knowledge about ourselves and the world
– All share the same goal: Seeking the Truth!
 Scientific Method
• The scientific method is empirical and requires
systematic, controlled observation
• Scientists gain the greatest control when they
conduct an experiment; in an experiment,
researchers manipulate independent variables to
determine their effect on behavior
• Dependent variables are measures of behavior
used to assess the effects of independent variables
 Scientific Method continued...
• Scientific reporting is unbiased and objective;
clear communication of constructs occurs when
operational definitions are used
• Scientific instruments are accurate and precise;
physical and psychological measurement should
be valid and reliable
• A hypothesis is a tentative explanation for a
phenomenon; testable hypotheses have clearly
defined concepts (operational definitions), are not
circular, and refer to concepts that can be observed
 Scientific Method vs.
“Everyday” Approaches
Nonscientific Scientific
(Everyday)
General Approach: Intuitive Empirical
Attitude: Uncritical, accepting Critical, skeptical
Observation: Casual, uncontrolled Systematic, controlled
Reporting: Biased, subjective Unbiased, objective
Concepts: Ambiguous, surplus Clear definitions,
meanings operational specificity
Instruments: Inaccurate, imprecise Accurate, precise
Measurement: Not valid or reliable Valid and reliable
Hypotheses: Untestable Testable
 General Approach
• Nonscientific
– Intuitive
– Judgments based on “what feels right”
• Scientific
– Empirical
– Judgments based on direct observation and
experimentation
 Attitude
• Nonscientific
– Uncritical, accepting
– Accept claims without evidence, ignore
contradictory evidence
• Scientific
– Critical, skeptical
• Behavior and mental processes are complex
• Human mistakes are made (even in science)
 Observation
• The case of Clever Hans
• Nonscientific
– Casual, uncontrolled
– Personal and cognitive biases and other factors
influence observation
• Scientific
– Systematic, controlled
– Control = essential ingredient of science
• How we “control” the environment/observations to limit
confounding variables
– Greatest control in an experiment
 Observation continued
• Control
– Investigate factors one at a time in experiment
– An experiment has at least
• One Independent Variable (IV)
• One Dependent Variable (DV)
 Observation continued
• Independent Variable (IV)
Factor researchers control or manipulate in
order to determine the effect on behavior
– Minimum of two levels
• Treatment (experimental) condition
• Control condition
– Example IV: putting people in a treatment condition
(experimental condition) versus a placebo or wait-list
control/no treatment (control condition)
 Observation continued
• Dependent Variable (DV)
Measure of behavior used to assess the
effect of the independent variable
– Example DV: psychological well-being,
psychopathological symptoms, satisfaction
– Most studies involve several dependent
variables
 Reporting
• Nonscientific
– Biased, subjective
– Personal impressions
• Scientific
– Unbiased, objective
– Separate observations from inferences
– Interobserver agreement
• Think about Uncle Traveling Matt and the
Umbrellas
 Concepts
• What are “Concepts?”
– “Symbols by which we ordinarily
communicate...”
– Refer to things, events, relationships,
characteristics...
– Can be ambiguous or clear
 Concepts continued...
• Nonscientific
– Ambiguous
– Is the meaning clear?
• Scientific
– Clear, specific definitions
– Researchers use a specific term for concepts: Constructs
• Constructs: a concept or idea
• Examples: intelligence, aggression, memory, anxiety
– Operational Definition: explains a concept based in terms of
observable procedures used to produce and measure the
concept/construct
 Instruments
• Nonscientific
– Inaccurate, imprecise
• Scientific
– Accuracy: difference between what an instrument says
is true and what we know to be true
– Precision: varying levels of how specific/detailed an
instrument can measure something
• Example: a clock that counts in minutes versus a clock that can
measure milliseconds
 Measurements
• Nonscientific
– Not valid or reliable
– Measure of concepts is not accurate and is not
consistent
• Scientific
– Validity: measures what it claims to measure--
“truthfulness”
– Reliability: measures something consistently--
“consistency”
• Many different kinds of validity and reliability
– Measurements can be one or the other- do not have to
be both
 Hypotheses
• Nonscientific
– Untestable
– Hypotheses not testable if:
• Constructs are not adequately defined
• Circular: when an event itself is used as the explanation of the
event
• Relies on ideas that are not recognized by science
• Scientific
– Testable
– Concepts are clearly defined and measured (constructs,
operational definitions)
 Goals of the Scientific Method

• Four research goals

– Description
– Prediction
– Explanation
– Application
 Description
• Define, classify, catalogue, or
categorize events and their
relationships
– Example: psychologists describe
symptoms of Autistic Disorder
– One operational definition of depression:
the list of symptoms in the DSM
 Description continued...
• Most psychology research is Nomothetic, not
Idiographic.
– Nomothetic: large sample sizes, “average” performance
of a group
– Apply broad generalizations and general laws that
apply to a diverse population
• Nomothetic researchers emphasize similarities among
individuals
– Idiographic: individual case studies
– What are some examples of Nomothetic vs. Idiographic
research? Some problems?
 Description continued...
• Most psychology research is Quantitative,
not Qualitative
– Quantitative: statistical summaries of behavior
• Will be discussed in further detail throughout the
course
– Qualitative: verbal summaries of research
findings
• Interviews and observations-- participants describe
their experiences in ways that are meaningful to
them
 Prediction
• Relationships among different variables
allow us to predict processes and behavior
– If we know people’s score for one variable, we
can predict their score for a second variable
– Correlation: two different measures of the
same subject vary together-- can be in the same
direction (positive) or in opposite directions
(negative/inverse)
• Correlation does NOT imply causation
 Explanation
• We can understand and explain a
phenomenon when we can identify its
causes
• We conduct controlled experiments to
identify the causes of a phenomenon
(causal inference)
– Control= manipulate factors one at a time to
determine their effect
• What type of variable is this?
 Explanation continued...
• Scientists need 3 conditions for making causal
inferences:
– Covariation of events
• The 2 events must covary together-- be correlated
– Time-order relationship (contingency)
• Presumed cause must occur before the presumed effect
– Elimination of plausible alternative causes
• Confounding-- when IV’s covary simultaneously
– Cannot determine which IV caused the effects of the DV
– Scientists also aim to generalize findings to the real world
 Application
• Scientists apply knowledge and findings to
improve people’s lives (knowledge does not exist
in a vacuum)
• Basic versus Applied research
– Basic- understand behavior/mental processes
• “Seeking knowledge for its own sake”
• Laboratories, goal is to test theories
– Applied- change people’s lives for the better
• “Real-world” or natural settings
– Both are valuable and necessary
 Scientific Theory Construction
and Testing
• Theories- proposed explanations for the causes of
phenomena
– “Logically organized set of propositions... that serves
to define events (concepts), describe relationships
among these events, and explain the occurrence of
these events”
• Vary in scope, focus, what they seek to explain
• Theories developed from intuition, personal
experience and observation, and known facts
 Theories continued...
• Successful theories
– Organize empirical knowledge
– Suggest testable hypotheses
– Guide research
– Survive rigorous testing (e.g., falsification)
– Internally consistent
 Theories continued...
• Good theories are:
– Logical: They make sense and predictions can
be logically deduced
– Precise: Predictions about behavior are specific
rather than general
– Parsimonious: The simplest explanation for a
phenomenon is best
 Theories continued...
• Intervening variables
– “Hidden” processes represented by constructs
• Like computer software-- we push buttons and see what
happens on the monitor, but something is missing
– Provide a link between IV’s and DV’s, even ones that
seem dissimilar
– Influence and explain relationships
– Necessary to consider when developing theories
 Exercises
• Read the following descriptions of research and
identify the independent and dependent variables:
– 1. In the Pennebaker and Francis (1996) study on
adjustment to college, students wrote about their
emotions associated with beginning college or
they wrote about superficial events that took place
during their day. Pennebaker and Francis obtained
information about the participants’ GPA and their
frequency of visiting the student health center.
– What is the independent variable and what are the
dependent variables?
 Exercises
• IV: Type of writing: emotional
(treatment) and superficial (control)
• DVs: GPA and the number of health
center visits
• Results: Students who wrote about their
emotions had a higher GPA and fewer
health center visits than students who
wrote about superficial events
 Exercises
• 2. In a study on factors that influence people’s
willingness to help others, a researcher
mimicked (copied) the behavior of participants
(e.g., sitting position, posture) or did not mimic
the participants’ behavior. The researcher
then dropped pens and observed whether
participants helped to pick up the pens.
• What is the independent variable and what is
the dependent variable?
 Exercises
• IV: Mimicry: present (treatment) or absent
(control)
• DV: Whether participants helped by picking
up the pens (yes or no)
• Results: van Baaren (2004) and his
colleagues found that all of the participants
whose behavior was mimicked helped,
whereas only 33% of nonmimicked
participants helped (see Chapter 9)
 Group Exercise
• Please get in groups of 4
Geller, E.S., Russ, N.W., & Altomari, M.G. (1986).
Naturalistic observations of beer drinking
among college students. Journal of Applied
Behavior Analysis, 19, 391-396.
• What is the research question the authors are asking in
your journal article? What is it about this question that is
interesting to you?
• Why might this question be scientifically important?
• To what extent will the science of psychology be
advanced by knowing the answer to this research
question?
• Why would anyone be interested in the results obtained
by asking this question?
• What goal of psychological research (description,
prediction, explanation, application) did the researchers
try to meet?
• Sternberg, R. J. (1997). What do students still most need to learn about
research in psychology? APS Observer, 14, 19.