Psychological Research and
the Research Methods Course
Chapter1
Learning Objectives
1.1 Recognize different types of research methods used by
psychologists
1.2 Describe the components of the research process
1.3 Enumerate the advantages of knowing how to apply
research methods in psychology
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All rights reserved.
• How Psychologists Acquire Knowledge
• The Research Process
• Finding a Problem
• Reviewing the Literature
• Theoretical Considerations
• Hypothesis
• Research Plan
• Conducting the Research Project
• Analysis of Research Findings
• Decisions in Terms of Past Research and Theory
• Preparing the Research Report
• Sharing Your Results: Presentation and Publication
• Finding a New Problem
• Why Is the Research Methods Course Important?
How Psychologists Acquire
Knowledge
Objective 1.1 Recognize different types of research
methods used by psychologists
© 2016 Pearson Education, Inc.
All rights reserved.
1.1 How Psychologists Acquire
Knowledge
- Studies of behaviors
- Research methods
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Education, Inc. All rights
reserved.
1.2 The Research Process
(1 of 11)
• Finding a Problem
- Beginning of a project
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Education, Inc. All rights
reserved.
[Link] a Problem
• Point 1 – Beginning of a project
• Example: Salary affecting dating (Driggers and Helms, 2000)
• Driggers and Helms (2000) wanted to know whether a person’s salary
affected the willingness of others to date that person.
[Link] the literature
• Point 1 – Explore research studies
• Published
• Meetings
• May lead to modifications
3. Theoretical Considerations
• Point 1 – Definition of theory
• Formal statement of variable relationships
• Not based on guesses
• Point 2 – Two common properties
• Attempt to organize data
• Leads to new research
• Leon Festinger’s (1957) cognitive dissonance theory
• [Link]
•
4. Hypothesis
• An attempt to organize certain data and specific relations
among variables within a specific portion of a larger, more
comprehensive theory.
• Point 1 – Definition
• Attempt to state specific relationships within a larger area or theory
• Multiple hypotheses for a research question
• Point 2 – Research or experimental hypothesis
• Predicted outcome
• Influenced by other hypotheses and theories
5. Research Process
• Point 1 – Research design
• Research design or experimental plan for study
6. Conducting the research project
• Point 1 – Location
• Laboratories
• Field
• Archives
• Etc.
7. Analysis of Research Findings
• Point 1 – Analysis of data
• Analysis dependent on methodology
• Statistics
• Point 2 – Statistically significant
• Not necessarily of practical importance
• Rarely by chance
8. Decisions in Terms of Past Research and
Theory
• Point 1 – Results interpretation
• In terms of past research and theory
• Was hypothesis supported?
• Relationship to current theory
• Changes to theory
• Point 2 – Generalizability
• Extend results as widely as possible
9. Preparing the Research Report
• Point 1 – APA formatting
• Standard format
• Publication Manual
10. Sharing Your Results: Presentation and
Publication
• Point 1 – Psychological conventions
• Poster
• Oral paper
• State and regional student conventions
• Psi Chi
• the International Honor Society in Psychology, was founded in 1929 with a
mission of recognizing and promoting excellence in the science and application of
psychology.
• Point 2 – Journal publication
• Journal of Psychological Inquiry
• Psi Chi Journal of Undergraduate Research
• Include faculty advisor as coauthor
Characteristics of Scientific Research
• Control
• holding constant or eliminating the influence of extraneous variables
• allows for unambiguous claims about cause and effect
• Placebo effect
• improvement due to participants’ expectations for improvement, rather than the actual
treatment
Characteristics of Scientific Research
• Operationism
• representing constructs by a specific set of operations
• operational definition
• defining a concept by the operations used to represent or measure it
Characteristics of Scientific Research
• Objections to operational definition
• demands too strict
• a single operational definition could not completely specify the meaning of a
term
• Example
• Aggression
• honking of horns, delivering electric shocks to another, and the force with which a pad is hit
• Multiple operationalism
Example of Operationalization
Characteristics of Scientific Research
• Replication
• reproduction of results in a new study
• reasons for failure to replicate
• effect doesn’t exist
• replication study is not an exact replication
• effect may depend on context
Why Is the Research Methods Course
Important?
• Point 1 – Assisting you in other psychology courses
• Foundation of research
• Point 2 – Conducting an original research project
• Present project
• Point 3 – Conducting a research project after graduation
• Many careers require research
• Point 4 – Getting into graduate school
• Admissions requirement
• Point 5 – Becoming a knowledgeable consumer of research
• IQ, cola, media, etc.