Psychology's Scientific Method Notes

Psychology's Scientific Method

• Science is defined by its investigative methods, not the subject matter.
• The scientific method is the process psychologists use to gain knowledge about the mind and behavior.
• The scientific method comprises five steps:
  1. Observing some phenomenon.
  2. Formulating hypotheses and predictions.
  3. Testing through empirical research.
  4. Drawing conclusions.
  5. Evaluating the theory.

Step 1: Observing Some Phenomenon

• The first step involves observing a specific phenomenon; psychologists want to know why or how it is the way it is.
• Examples of moments that might inspire a scientific inquiry include:
  • Current events (e.g., public protests).
  • Social issues (e.g., the divorce rate).
  • Personal experiences (e.g., an interaction with a child).
• As scientists consider such issues, they often develop theories.
• A theory is a broad idea or set of closely related ideas that attempts to explain observations.
• Theories explain the relationships between variables on a conceptual level.
• They explain why certain things have happened and can be used to make predictions about future observations.
• Theories provide a logical basis for aspects of research studies, from predictions to designs.
• A theory is a testable set of propositions that describe something important about the world and allow scientists to make predictions.
• Psychologists propose theories that describe human behavior and lead to specific predictions about that behavior.
• For instance, some psychologists theorize that the most important human need is to belong to a social group (Baumeister \& Leary, 2000).
• From this theory, various predictions can arise.
• For example, people will be highly motivated to fit in and feel especially distressed when they are not accepted by others (Verhagen \& others, 2018).
• Being rejected by others would be a very distressing experience (Antico \& others, 2018).
• Theories make sense of human behavior and allow extrapolation into different circumstances to think about what we should expect.
• Those expectations are hypotheses and predictions.

Step 2: Formulating Hypotheses and Predictions

• The second step is stating a hypothesis.
• A hypothesis is an educated guess that derives logically from a theory; it is an expectation that can be tested.
• A theory can generate many hypotheses.
• If more and more hypotheses related to a theory turn out to be true, the theory gains credibility.
• For example, a researcher who believes that social belonging is the most important aspect of human functioning might predict that people who belong to social groups will be happier than those who do not.
• Another hypothesis from the theory that belonging to a group is important to human functioning might be that individuals who have been socially excluded will feel less happy than those who have been socially included.
• These general hypotheses can be tested in different studies.
• A prediction is a specific expectation for the outcome of a study.

Step 3: Testing Through Empirical Research

• The next step is to test the hypothesis by conducting empirical research.
• The empirical method means gaining knowledge by observing objective evidence.
• In empirical research, we learn about the world by conducting systematic inquiries, collecting data, and analyzing that data.
• During this step, it is time to design a study that will test predictions that are based on the theory.
• To do so, a researcher first needs to find a concrete way to measure the variables of interest.
• Empirical researchers gain knowledge by observing objective evidence, not by relying on beliefs.
• The person who designed the research described in Figure 1 probably believed that spending on others would lead to higher happiness than spending on oneself.
• But science requires empirical research to determine whether this is true.

Key Terms:

• Hypothesis: An educated guess that derives logically from a theory; a prediction that can be tested.

• Prediction: A statement about the specific expectation for the outcome of a study.

• Empirical method: Gaining knowledge through the observation of events, the collection of data, and logical reasoning.

• Variable: Anything that can change.

• Operational definition: A definition that provides an objective description of how a variable is going to be measured and observed in a particular study.

• The phenomena that scientists study are called variables.

• A variable is anything that can change.

• All the different things psychologists study are variables, including experiences like happiness, gratitude, aggression, belongingness, conformity, and so forth.

• An operational definition provides an objective description of how a variable is going to be measured and observed in a particular study.

• Operational definitions eliminate the fuzziness that might creep into thinking about a problem.

• Establishing an operational definition ensures that everyone agrees on what a variable means.

• To measure personal happiness, psychologist Ed Diener and his students devised a self-report questionnaire that measures how satisfied people are with their life, called the Satisfaction with Life Scale.

• Scores on this questionnaire are then used as measures of happiness.

• Research using this scale and others like it has shown that certain specific factors--marriage, religious faith, purpose in life, and good health--are strongly related to being happy (Diener, 1999, 2012b).

• There is not just one operational definition for any variable.

• Researchers have used diverse operational definitions for happiness.

• For instance, in a study of the relationship between happiness and important life outcomes, researchers used the facial expressions displayed by women in their college yearbook pictures as a measure of happiness.

• The women in the pictures had graduated 30 years prior.

• The researchers coded the photographs for the appearance of Duchenne smiling (Harker \& Keltner, 2001).

• This type of smiling is genuine smiling--the kind that creates little wrinkles around the outer corner of the eyes--and it has been shown to be a sign of true happiness (Danvers \& Shiota, 2018).

• Researchers followed up on the women's life experiences since graduating and found that happiness, as displayed in yearbook pictures, predicted positive life outcomes, such as successful marriages and satisfying lives, some 30 years later (Harker \& Keltner, 2001).

• Happiness was operationally defined as a score on a questionnaire; however, in this second study, happiness was operationally defined as Duchenne smiling.

• These definitions are just two among the many ways that psychologists have operationalized happiness.

• Another way to operationally define happiness is to make people happy, for example, by giving them an unexpected treat like candy or cookies or having them watch an amusing video or listen to happy music.

• Devising effective operational definitions for the variables in a study is a crucial step in designing psychological research.

• To study anything, we must have a way to see it or measure it.

• To establish an operational definition for any variable, we first have to agree on what we are trying to measure.

• If we think of happiness as something that people know about themselves, then a questionnaire score might be a good operational definition of the variable.

• If we think that people might not be aware of how happy they are (or aren't), then a facial expression might be a better operational definition.

• Our conceptual definition of a variable must be set out clearly before we operationally define it.

• Because operational definitions allow for the measurement of variables, researchers have a lot of numbers to deal with once they have conducted a study.

• A key aspect of the process of testing hypotheses is data analysis.

• Data are all the information researchers collect in a study--say, the questionnaire scores or the behaviors observed.

• Data analysis means "crunching" those numbers mathematically to find out whether they support predictions.

• One theory of well-being is self-determination theory (Ryan \& Deci, 2017).

• According to this theory, people are likely to feel fulfilled when their lives meet three important needs: relatedness (warm relationships with others), autonomy (independence), and competence (mastering new skills).

• One hypothesis that follows logically from this theory is that people who value money, material possessions, prestige, and physical appearance (that is, extrinsic rewards) over relatedness, autonomy, and competence (intrinsic rewards) should be less fulfilled, less happy, and less well adjusted (Sortheix \& Schwartz, 2017).

• In a series of studies entitled "The Dark Side of the American Dream," researchers Timothy Kasser and Richard Ryan asked participants to complete self-report measures of values and of psychological and physical functioning (Dittmar \& others, 2014; Kasser \& Ryan, 1996; Kasser \& others, 2004).

• Thus, the operational definitions of values and psychological functioning were questionnaire scores.

• The researchers found that individuals who value material rewards over more intrinsic rewards do indeed tend to suffer as predicted.

Types of Psychological Research

• Descriptive research cannot prove what causes some phenomenon, but it can reveal important information about people's behaviors and attitudes.
• Descriptive research methods include observation, interviews and surveys, and case studies.

Observation

• Scientific observation requires important skills.
• For observations to be effective, they must be systematic.
• You must know whom you are observing, when and where you will observe, and how you will make the observations.
• Also, you need to know in advance how you will document your observations: in writing, by sound recording, or by video.

Interviews and Surveys

• One technique is to interview people directly.
• A related method that is especially useful when you need information from many people is a survey, or questionnaire.
• A survey presents a standard set of questions, or items, to obtain people's self-reported attitudes or beliefs about a topic.
• Surveys can measure only what people think about themselves.
• People do not always know the truth about themselves.
• One particular problem with surveys and interviews is the tendency of participants to answer questions in a way that will make them look good rather than in a way that communicates what they truly think or feel. This problem is called socially desirable responding.
• Another challenge in survey construction is that when a questionnaire is used to define variables operationally, the items must clearly measure the specific topic of interest and not some other characteristic.
• The language used in a survey must be clear and understandable if the responses are to reflect participants' actual views.
• Interviews and surveys can examine a wide range of topics, from personality traits to sexual habits to attitudes about many issues.
• Some survey and interview questions are unstructured and open-ended.
• Other interview and survey questions are more structured and ask about specific things.
• Surveys often use rating scales as a way for participants to indicate their agreement with a statement.
• Such scales, sometimes called Likert scales, usually involve the person selecting a number that indicates a level of agreement.

Case Studies

• A case study or case history is an in-depth look at a single person.
• Case studies are performed mainly by clinical psychologists when, for either practical or ethical reasons, the unique aspects of an individual's life cannot be duplicated and tested with other people.
• A case study provides information about one person's goals, hopes, fantasies, fears, traumatic experiences, family relationships, health, and anything else that helps the psychologist understand the person's mind and behavior.
• Case studies can also involve in-depth explorations of particular families or social groups.
• An example of a case study is the analysis of India's spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) by psychodynamic theorist Erik Erikson (1969).
• Erikson studied Gandhi's life in great depth to discover how his positive spiritual identity developed, especially during his youth.
• In piecing together Gandhi's identity development, Erikson described the contributions of culture, history, family, and various other factors that might affect the way people form an identity.
• A case history provides a detailed portrait of a person's life, but we must be cautious about applying what we learn from one person's life to others.
• The subject of a case study is unique, with a genetic makeup and personal history that no one else shares.
• Case studies can be valuable as the first step of the scientific method, in that they often provide observations that can then be tested in other ways through psychological research.
• However, an in-depth study of a single case may not be generalizable to the wider population.
• A case study can tell us a great deal about the person studied but not very much about people in general.

Key Terms:

• case study or case history An in-depth look at a single individual.

The Value of Descriptive Research

• Descriptive research allows researchers to get a sense of a subject of interest, but it cannot answer questions about how and why things are the way they are.
• Nevertheless, descriptive research explores intriguing topics, such as the experience of happiness in different cultures.
• One study examined levels of happiness in groups of people who have not generally been included in psychological studies (Biswas-Diener \& others, 2005).
• The research assessed three groups: the Inughuits of Greenland, the Maasai of southern Kenya, and the American Old Order Amish.
• All three groups completed measures that were essentially the same as the one you just did.
• The Inughuits averaged a 5.0 on the Satisfaction with Life Scale.
• Maasai men and women who completed the measure orally in their native tongue, Maa, averaged a 5.4 on the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Biswas-Diener \& others, 2005).
• Still, the Amish are relatively happy, averaging 4.4 on the 7-point scale (Biswas-Diener \& others, 2005).
• Like a host of other studies conducted in industrialized nations, these results indicate that most people are pretty happy.
• Such descriptive findings provide researchers who study well-being with a valuable foundation but these studies cannot tell us why differences exist