Psychology as a science & Getting Research Ideas

Psych 231: Research Methods in Psychology

Reminders

This week’s labs are at the library. Meet in the main lobby. Then groups will split up

• 213C

Psychology as a science

Think of a famous psychologist

Do they represent the standard psychologist?• NO!

Psychology is a diverse discipline • ISU’s Psych Dept has 6 different groups• APA has 54 different divisions of psychology

Dr. Sigmund Freud Dr. Phil (McGraw)

Psychology as a science

What is science? What are the goals of science?

Is psychology a science? Yes

• Studies the full range of human behavior using scientific methods

• Applications derived from this knowledge are scientifically based

• Researchers• Practitioners

Psychology as a science

Description of behavior Describe events, what changes affect change, what might be related to

what, etc. Prediction of behavior

Given X what will likely happen Control of behavior

For the purpose of interventions (e.g., how do we prevent violence in schools)

Causes of behavior Sometimes predictions aren’t enough, want to know how the X and the

outcome are related Develop specific theories

Explanation of behavior A complete theory of the how’s and why’s

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Psychology’s goals are similar to the goals of the physical sciences (e.g., physics and chemistry)

• Psychologists are concerned with the behavior of people (and animals) rather than the physical world.

Psychology as a science

How is psychology different from the physical sciences? Human (and animal) behavior is typically much more variable

than most physical systems. • Statistical control

• Methodological control Often the thing of interest requires indirect measurement (and

thus underlying assumptions)

Where do research ideas come from?

You

Great research ideas

Barriers

Classic barriers

“I’m not smart enough.” “Somebody else must have already done this.” “I don’t know how to pursue the idea.” “It’s too simple, something must be wrong.” “The idea will take too much work.”

Do consider the practicality of the work load, but don’t be afraid of hard work.

“I’m not interested in the topic.” Glued to your first idea.

Be flexible, adjust your idea as you learn more

You Great ideas

Where do ideas come from?

Curiosity We typically study things that interest us.

Continuum of the development of research ideasInformal Formal

“This is interesting. I’d like to know more.”

“The theory says X. Let’s test the theory.”

“We’ve got a problem to solve.”

“We understand some things, but there are still questions.”

“Here [is] a first principle not formally recognized by scientific methodologists: When you run onto something interesting, drop everything else and study it.” (B. F. Skinner, 1956)

Where do ideas come from?

Observation

• Direct observation - things that you observe: includes public observation, self observation, observing children, observing animals

• Vicarious observation - what somebody else has observed and reported

Curiosity

Where do ideas come from?

Observation Common Sense - things that we all think are

true• “Opposites attract”

• But note: a lot of our common sense is contradictory

• Absence makes the heart grow fonder• Long distance affairs never last

Curiosity

Where do ideas come from?

Observation Common Sense Past research – find out what research has

already been done and ask yourself “what don’t we know still”

• Follow-up studies, expanding the past research in more detail or new directions• Improvements on past research studies, maybe you think the past research had some serious flaws or limitations

Curiosity

Where do ideas come from?

Observation Common Sense Past research Identify a problem – perhaps there is an

important problem or issue that needs a (or some) solution(s).• WWII - why did airplanes keep crashing?

• Led to development early cognitive theories of attention

Curiosity

Are my ideas good?

Focus: Is your idea specified enough to be manageable

ROT rule: • Replicable - one time deal?• Observable - can you measure it?• Testable - can you test it & can you falsify it?

Evaluating your research ideas

Replication

Many interesting results are not accepted until they are replicated Cold fusion - a potential answer to our energy needs

• The results were never replicated and are not generally accepted by the scientific community

Extrasensory perception (ESP)• Some proponents claim that ESP only occurs under

certain unknown conditions and that it is impossible to predict when the conditions are right.

Observable

Many interesting questions may not be examined experimentally because they aren’t observable (either directly or indirectly).

Do dogs think like humans?• Since we can’t directly observe a dog’s thoughts, we can only

make inferences about their thoughts via their behavior

Is my experience of the color blue the same as yours?

Testable

Other hypotheses may not have objective testability (e.g., imaginary events) What if the dinosaurs hadn’t become extinct?

Reviewing the literature

Why do a review of the literature?

What is the literature?

How do you search the literature? Guest lecturer: Sarah French, psychology librarian, in labs

Thur & Fri

Why review the literature

What are the underlying motivations for doing a review of the literature? Getting ideas. What has been done, what hasn’t been done? Understanding the relevant theories. What variables are important? Avoid past mistakes.

What is the literature?

Primary Sources - essentially reading the original report Journal articles Edited books (sometimes) Professional meetings Electronic publishing (fairly new, pluses and

minuses) Faculty members & other personal

communications

Secondary Sources - reading a report of the report

What is the literature?

Advantages: • Good starting place• Often reviews a lot of relevant literature• Relatively brief descriptions

Disadvantages:• Somebody else’s description

• May be incorrect • May be biased

• Not enough detail

Secondary Sources - reading a report of the report Literature Reviews

Psychological Bulletin, Annual Review of Psychology Text books Citations in books and articles

Example: A research idea

Getting the idea How do people remember things?

• This is a pretty big question• To begin to answer it we’ve got to FOCUS

• Break the general idea down into smaller more specific ideas

• Develop theories as to how & why

• Then we can begin using experiments to test parts of the theories

Example: A research idea

Focusing the idea What does memory involve?

• Encoding - getting the memories in• Storage - keeping the memories• Retrieval - getting the memories out

Are all kinds of memory the same?• Procedural vs. declarative memories• Pictures vs. words

How long do memories last?

Example: A research idea

Evaluating the idea (ROT) Can we re-do the experiments, do we get similar results? How do we observe memory?

• Recall tests, recognition tests, “brain waves,” ,,, Are our predictions testable?

Reading the literature will help greatly with evaluating research ideas