Research methods Lecture 2 and 3

Why do people believe in conspiracy theories?

1. Epistemic motives

   1. They appeal to people who feel threatened by uncertainty

2. Existentia motives

   1. They appeal to people who feel like they lack control

3. Social motives

   1. They appeal to people who want to belong to a group

Types of psychological research questions

Step 1: Describe the problem

• How are people thinking, feeling, or acting in response to a given situation?

Step 2: Explain the problem

• Understand what caused an event to occur. “How” or “why” questions

Step 3: Predict future outcomes

• Predict future events based on previous observations

Step 4: Apply the knowledge to improve lives

• How can we help to change people’s behaviour and improve their lives

What is science?

• Must be based on observation

  • Systematic empiricism

• Must examine testable questions

  • Empirical research questions

• Results must be shared

  • Public knowledge

What makes an idea testable?

• Can be supported or opposed with data

  • Value judgments can’t be tested with data

• Can be falsified

  • To be able to test a hypothesis, there has to be a way to disconfirm it

Pseudoscience: ESP

Activities and beliefs that purport to be science, but don’t actually follow scientific principles

• Ex. “Extrasensory perception exists.”

  • Could be a testable, falsifiable hypothesis

• Problem: Blaming null findings on the skepticism of the experimenter

Science vs Pseudoscience

Provides falsifiable hypotheses - there are ways to prove the theory wrong	Uses ad hoc hypotheses to make the data fit the theory
Uses objective data	Uses subjective anecdotes
Results are peer-reviewed	Avoids peer review
Uses precisely described, reproducible studies	Studies are vaguely described; they can’t be reproduced

Why is psychology considered a science?

• Because it adheres to the scientific method
  

• a process of systematically collecting and evaluating evidence to test ideas and answer question

  • Uses empirical observation

  • Examines testable, falsifiable research questions

  • Shares results

STEP 1: DESCRIBE THE PHENOMENON

Qualitative methods

Methods that produce qualitative data

• Ex. Written text, photos, interviews, videos 

  • Rather than quantitative data (numbers)

Examples of qualitative methods

• Open-ended surveys

• Structured interviews

  • Ask the participant a list of questions, record responses (ex., Videotape or audiotape)

• Unstructured interviews

  • Let the participant lead the conversation

• Focus groups

  • Group discussions

STEP 2: EXPLAIN THE PHENOMENON

Explanatory hypothesis

The experience of awe increases prosocial behaviour (voluntary actions that benefit others)

STEP 2: EXPLAIN THE PHENOMENON

Cross-sectional surveys

Measure some constructs; see how they are associated

• Ex. Measure how frequently people experience awe, and measure how frequently they help others

STEP 2: EXPLAIN THE PHENOMENON

Experiments

Manipulate one construct, then measure another

• Randomly assign some people to experience awe (experimental condition) while others do not (control condition), and then measure prosocial behaviour

STEP 3: PREDICT FUTURE OUTCOMES

Longitudinal studies

Measure constructs repeatedly to see how they change over time

• Ex. If people take up an outdoor activity, do they tend to experience more awe over time? Or do they habituate?

• Recruit the right sample 

  • Recruit people who are likely to experience the phenomenon you’re interested in

STEP 4: APPLY THE KNOWLEDGE TO IMPROVE LIVES

Multimethod designs

Applied question: if we get people to spend more time in nature, will that increase prosocial behaviour over time?

• Test with a combination of research design elements

  • Ex. an experimental manipulation + longitudinal follow-ups

• research strategy that uses more than one research method to study a topic, but stays within a single research paradigm

Degrees of scientific progress

What does it mean for research to have an impact?

• Large, groundbreaking progress tends to:

  • Tackle questions of broader significance

  • Be relevant to a number of different research areas

  • Shift how researchers conceptualize a topic

• Small, incremental progress tends to:

  • Advance a specific question, limited in scope

  • Be relevant to a specialized area

Starting your own research

1. Generating research ideas

   1. Think groundbreaking (at first)

   2. Basic or applied

Basic research:

1. Solve theoretical issues

2. Better understand psychological processes and behaviour

Starting your own research

1. Generating research ideas

   1. Think groundbreaking (at first)

   2. Basic or applied

Applied research:

1. Apply theory to solve practical problems

Groundbreaking research: The basic route

• What’s an important phenomenon that we don’t understand?

• What’s been holding us back from understanding it?

• What are some new ways we might be able to bridge that knowledge gap?

An important basic research advancement occurs 

• When a new theoretical model is developed that parsimoniously explains a phenomenon (explains why something occurs in a simple way with evidence)

  • Ex. Need to belong theory

• When a key idea (an existing theory, assumption, piece of conventional wisdom, etc.) is challenged (an assumption could be wrong, could make people think of existing data in a new way)

  • Ex. Prosociality

• When a new method is uncovered that can tackle previously unexplored questions

  • Ex. Daily dairy studies

Some approaches to applied advancement

Interventions

• When a new exercise, treatment, way of thinking, etc., can be implemented to help with a problem

  • Ex. Loneliness interventions 

    • That helps people get better at making friends

Some approaches to applied advancement

Better decision making

• When making a particular kind of choice, it helps solve the problem

  • Ex. Choosing to spend money on others makes us happy

Some approaches to applied advancement

Persuasion

• When people can be convinced that something is a problem

  • Ex. Motivating conservatives to protect the environment by saying to donate to Canada’s natural environment by showing pictures of animals killed

Some approaches to applied advancement

Policy implementation

• When there’s something that the government or another organization can do to help solve the problem

  • Ex. Making organ donation opt-out instead of opt-in

Systematic empiricism

•  refers to learning based on observation, and scientists learn about the natural world systematically, by carefully planning, making, recording, and analyzing observations of it. 

Empirical research questions

• These are questions about the way the world actually is and, therefore, can be answered by systematically observing it

  • The question of whether women talk more than men is empirical in this way. Either women really do talk more than men or they do not, and this can be determined by systematically observing how much women and men actually talk

Public knowledge

• writing an article for publication in a professional journal, in which they put their research question in the context of previous research, describe in detail the methods they used to answer their question, and clearly present their results and conclusion

5 methods of acquiring knowledge

• Intuition

• Authority

• Rationalism

• Empiricism

• Scientific method

Intuition

1. relying on our guts, emotions, and our instincts to guide us, not relying on examining facts or using rational thought

   1. Problem: Intuitions can be wrong because theyre driven by cognitive and motivational biases rather than logical reasoning

Authority

1. involves accepting new ideas because some authority figure states that they are true (parents, media, doctors)

   1. Problem: Authority figures might be wrong, they may just be using their intuition to arrive at their conclusions, and they may have their own reasons to mislead you

Rationalism

1. Involves using logic and reasoning to acquire knowledge

   1. Problem:The premises are wrong or there is an error in logic then the conclusion will not be valid. For instance, the premise that all swans are white is incorrect; there are black swans in Australia

Empiricism

1. Acquiring knowledge through observation and experience

   1. Problem:  For centuries people believed the world is flat because it appears to be flat. These examples and the many visual illusions that trick our senses illustrate the problems with relying on empiricism alone to derive knowledge. We are limited in what we can experience and observe and our senses can deceive us. Moreover, our prior experiences can alter the way we perceive even

Scientific method

1. process of systematically collecting and evaluating evidence to test ideas and answer question

   1. Problem: it is not always feasible to use the scientific method; this method can require considerable time and resources. Another problem with the scientific method is that it cannot be used to answer all questions. As described in the following section, the scientific method can only be used to address empirical questions

Folk psychology

we all have intuitive beliefs about people’s behavior, thoughts, and feelings

Heuristic

 rule or piece of information used in or enabling problem-solving or decision-making (mental shortcut)

Skepticism

pausing to consider alternatives and to search for evidence—especially systematically collected empirical evidence—when there is enough at stake to justify doing so

Tolerance for uncertainty

Scientists accept that there are many things that they simply do not know