Introduction, Acquiring Knowledge and the Scientific Method

Chapter 1

6 Methods of Knowing/Ways of Acquiring Knowledge

1. Method of Tenacity

2. Method of Authority

3. Method of Faith

4. Method of Intuition

5. Rational Method

6. Empirical Method

Method of Tenacity

• from habit or superstition

  • advertisers take advantage of this by repeating the same ads over and over (Kellogg’s commercial)

Method of Tenacity - Disadvantages

• we don’t bother to check the accuracy of the belief

• we don’t give serious consideration to alternative beliefs

Method of Authority

• rely on someone else who is of authority or is an expert in the field

  • taking your car to a mechanic when it’s making a funny noise

Method of Authority - Advantages and Disadvantages

• advantages

  • quick and easy way to get some answers

• disadvantages

  • person may not actually be an expert on the topic

  • authorities may be biased in favour of a particular point of view

  • we don’t always look for a second opinion

Method of Faith

• unquestioning trust in an authority figure (accepting the word of someone just because you trust them to tell the truth)

  • young children with their parents

  • religious people trusting the word of God/the Church

Method of Faith - Disadvantages

• you are accepting someone else’s view of the truth without questioning or challenging it in any way

Method of Intuition

• trusting gut feelings, relying on instincts to guide you

Method of Intuition - Disadvantages

• you are not examining your reaction rationally

• it is not supported by any evidence

Rational Method

• thinking things through rationally, logically, anticipating what might happen

Rational Method - Disadvantage

• depends largely on people’s memory and logical skills, either or both of which may be faulty

Empirical Method

• from direct observation or personal experience

  • seeing is believing

Empirical Method - Disadvantages

• we can be misled by illusions

• we often misperceive things based on our expectations (see what we expect to see)

Scientific Method - Steps

1. Observe a behaviour of interest

2. Form a tentative answer or explanation for the observation (a hypothesis)

3. Use the hypothesis to generate a testable prediction

4. Evaluate the prediction by making systematic, planned observations

5. Use the observations to support, refute, or modify the original hypothesis

…Restart the cycle if the hypothesis is not supported…

3 Other Key Elements (or principles) of the Scientific Method

1. Science is objective

2. Science is empirical

3. Science is public

Science is Objective

• experimenter bias (experimenter expectancy effect)

  • experimenter’s expectations about a study influence the outcome of the study

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1963) - IQ Study

• researchers gave children at elementary school a test to show which children would likely have increases in their IQ

• experimenter looks at results and tells their teachers who’s IQ would improve over the year

  • (the test was actually just a normal IQ test and the children who were said to improve were chosen at random by experimenters)

• when children’s IQs were retested at the end of the year the children who were said to improve by the end of the year really did improve a lot

  • teachers treated these children differently, they expected them to improve so they gave them special attention, challenged them more, and praised them more

  • (teachers expectations caused them to behave differently and their expectations came true - experimenter bias)

Science is Empirical

• involves structured, planned, and systematic observations to obtain answers

Science is Public

• confirmation of findings

  • others can redo the study and find the same or similar results

• replication

  • conducting a study in the same manner as a previous one

• self-correcting

  • open to public scrutiny and replication

Pseudoscience

• set of beliefs or practices that claim to be scientific, but are not based on the scientific method

  • ex; astrology

Quantitative Research

• uses the scientific method to record observations as numerical data

• most research in psychology

Qualitative Research

• uses the scientific method to make non-numerical observations

• goal is to describe, interpret, and explain the behaviours or events being studied without the use of statistical analysis

Research Process - Steps

1. Find a research idea

2. Form a hypothesis

3. Determine how you will define and measure your variables

4. Identify and select the participants or subjects for the study

5. Select a research strategy

6. Select a research design

7. Conduct the study

8. Evaluate (or analyze) the data

9. Report the results

10. Refine or reformulate your research idea

Find a research idea

• select a general topic area and find an unanswered question

Where do research ideas come from?

• observe everyday behaviour

• professors

• textbooks

• scientific journals

• conferences

Form a hypothesis

• statement that provides a tentative description or possible explanation for the relationship between variables

Two types of reasoning

1. Inductive Reasoning

2. Deductive Reasoning

Inductive Reasoning

• using a relatively small set of specific observations as the basis for forming a general statement about a larger set of possible observations

  • going from the specific to the general

Deductive Reasoning

• involves using a general statement as the basis for reaching a conclusion about specific examples

  • going from the general to the specific

Select a research strategy

• experiment

• survey

• correlational study

• …etc.

Select a research design

• independent research subjects design

  • use different participants in each condition

• repeated measures design

  • use the same participants in all conditions

• longitudinal design

  • study the same participants over time

• cross-sectional design

  • study different age groups at the same time

• case study

  • in depth study of a specific individual