Research Methods

Why Study Research Methods?

  • Learn to think critically about others’ research

  • Will help you conduct behavioral research

  • Help with treating & diagnosing patients

  • Evaluate research reports

    • Educated consumer

Ways of Knowing

  • Subjective ways that we learn new facts:

    • Intuition: Relying on common sense

      • Knowledge without conscious reasoning

      • “I want to know if my phone is on. I decide that it is because my phone is always on.”

    • Authority: Relying on a knowledgeable person or group (trustworthy source)

      • Heavily opinionated

      • “I want to know what my pancreas does.

  • Objective ways that we learn new facts:

    • Deduction: Using logical reasoning & current knowledge

    • Observation: Relying on what one observes

    • Scientific Method: A combination of the 2 methods

Research is a Process

  • We need…

    • Critical thinking

      • Dynamic engagement with information and ideas (Active Process)

      • Careful analysis based on current knowledge (evidence)

      • Careful evaluation of how personal biases or emotional reasoning impact the interpretation of knowledge

    • Scientific approach

      • Specific type of critical thinking that includes…

        • Approaching a topic to understand it

        • Identify and minimize biases

        • Avoid overly simplistic explanation

        • Follow a systematic method to study the topic

Canons (Principles) of the Scientific Method

  • Empiricism

    • Knowledge about behavior can be gained through systematic observation

    • Replication is important!

  • Determinism

    • Behaviors have identifiable causes that we can understand by conducting observations

  • Parsimony

    • Simpler explanations of behavior are more likely to be correct

  • Testability

    • Explanations of behavior can be tested and falsified through observation

    • Goal is to avoid confirmation bias

      • Seeking evidence that supports our belief and ignoring evidence that contradicts those beliefs

Steps to the Scientific Method

  • Identify a topic

  • Learn about the topic

  • Form hypothesis

  • Design study

  • Collect data

  • Analyze data

  • Interpret results

  • Communicate results

Objectives of the Scientific Method

  • Description

    • Identifying and describing phenomena

  • Explanation

    • Determine why a phenomenon occurs

  • Prediction

    • Make specific hypotheses about future occurrences of a phenomenon

  • Control

    • Applying previous findings in order to control a behavior

Basic vs. Applied Research

  • Basic Research

    • Goal is to understand fundamental processes of behavior (expand knowledge)

    • Research questions are typically about how a behavior works

  • Applied Research

    • Goal is to solve everyday practical problems

    • Apply results to a problem that applies to individuals who are not participants in their study

    • Concerned with external validity of their studies

      • “How can I generalize my results”

Developing a Research Question

  • Goal to add new knowledge and use the scientific method to answer the question

    • What the researcher is interested in learning about

    • Can be developed from observations, theories, and/or previous research

    • Theory: Explanation of behavior that can be tested through research

Conducting a Literature Review

  • Searching for and reviewing prior studies relevant to your proposed study

  • Ensures that a new study will add to the current knowledge without duplicating

  • Helps with making predictions

  • Are there validated scales and instruments all you can use?

  • Primary Source

    • Authors report the results of an original research study they’s conducted

  • Secondary Source

    • Authors review/summarize research but do not reporrt results of an original study

    • Meant to educate or entertain a general audience

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

  • Most current

  • Authors have expertise in the field

  • Work builds upon other scholarly sources

  • Extensive peer review

Books

  • Pros

    • Summary of important contributions

    • Coherent body of knowledge

  • Cons

    • Biased by author

    • Outdated

    • No extensive peer review

Steps to Reading Research Articles

  • Read the abstract

  • Read the introduction

    • Highlight or underline statements related to your research topic or question

  • Read the discussion/conclusion

    • Take note of the main findings

  • Read method and results

  • Check reference list

Constructs and Operationalization

  • Construct’s are a hypothetical attribute or mechanism that helps explain and predict behavior in a theory

  • Operational definitions are precise statements of how a conceptual variable is turned into a measured variable

    • How are you measuring the variable?