Intro to Research Methods

Research Methods and Data Analysis

ways of obtaining knowledge- what is epistemology?

philosophy

what is knowledge?

ways of obtaining knowledge- what is ontology?

metaphysics

what is being/ reality?

ways of obtaining knowledge- what is the philosophy of science?

what is science?

why do we conduct research?

to protect against our biases as we assess the world through our senses

why we conduct research- challenges?

unobservable measures: clinical (anxiety, stress), cognitive (attention), developmental (babies experiences)

subjective measures: how we record anxiety

social constructs: money, language, facial expressions (meaningless outside human contexts)

ethics- contained by them

why do we use stats?

collection, organisation, interpretation, presentation and analysis of data

allow us to identify patterns that we would otherwise not be able to find

allow us to mathematically model. processes/ phenomena

confirm that the knowledge obtained is accurate

what are the types of research?

basic: something that produces new knowledge

applied: understanding and applying knowledge to solve problems

what is the scientific method?

involves turning a hypothesis into a conclusion by providing evidence that the hypothesis is correct

typical approach of the scientific method?

theory

hypothesis

carefully conducted experiment

draw conclusions

confirm/ adapt theory

obtaining proof?

we obtain logical proof through logical reasoning

logical proof then leads to theories

how do we check for proof?

empirical proof: observing examples of phenomena and checking whether individuals behave as expected

conclusions: if observed data supports our hypothesis, then we have scientific proof

what can we only do with a hypothesis?

refute it

as we can never prove it

what are propositions?

statements that are either true or false

major criteria for evaluating scientific propositions?

logical consistency

testability

scope

fruitifulness

novelty

simplicity

conservatism

what is logical consistency?

beliefs that can all be true at the same time without creating a contradiction

logical inference:

deduction- specific conclusions reached from general principles.

induction- specific conclusions reached from a few cases.

abduction- plausible conclusions reached from few cases.

causality:

necessary cause- condition must be present for an event to occur but does not guarantee the presence of the effect on its own.

sufficient cause- condition whose presence guarantees an effect but may not be the only way to cause it.

contributory cause- adds to the likelihood of an event but is not sufficient or necessarily present in its own

social loafing- Ringelmann (1913)- example

theory- people working in groups tend to make less effort and are more willing to let others do the work

hypothesis- people working in groups will put in less effort than people working by themselves

experiment to check for proof- rope pulling experiment