Psych 231: Research Methods in Psychology Reading the Literature cont. Science of Psychology Theories in Science

Announcements Download (full text available at library) and read the article for lab THIS week (Raz, Kirsch, Polard, & Nitkin- Kaner,2006) Exam 1: two weeks from today

The anatomy of a research article  Title and authors  Abstract  Introduction The basic parts of a research article: What's the goal of a research article?  For the reader to be:  Informed, Understand what was done, and Convinced  Standardization of research report format  APA style  Organization reflects the logical thinking  Standardization helps with clarity

The anatomy of a research article  Method - tells the reader exactly what was done  Enough detail that the reader could actually replicate the study.  Subsections:  Participants - who were the data collected from  Apparatus/ Materials - what was used to conduct the study  Procedure - how the study was conducted, what the participants did  Reading checklist 1 a) Is your method better than theirs? b) Does the authors method actually test the hypotheses? c) What are the independent, dependent, and control variables? 2) Based on what the authors did, what results do YOU expect? The basic parts of a research article:

The anatomy of a research article  Results - gives a summary of the results and the statistical tests  Reading checklist 1) Did the author get unexpected results? 2 a) How does the author interpret the results? b) How would YOU interpret the results? c) What implications would YOU draw from these results? The basic parts of a research article:

The anatomy of a research article  Discussion - the interpretation and implications of the results  Reading checklist 1 a) Does YOUR interpretation or the authors' interpretation best represent the data? b) Do you or the author draw the most sensible implications and conclusions?  References - full citations of all work cited  Appendices - additional supplementary supporting material The basic parts of a research article:

Psychology as a science Write down the names of three scientists What field of science do they belong to? Write down the name of a famous psychologist Do they represent the standard psychologist? NO! Psychology is a diverse discipline ISU’s Psych Dept has 6 different groupsISU’s Psych Dept 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 is scientifically based

Psychology as a science 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. 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

5 Goals of psychology Description of behavior Describe events, what changes what might 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)

5 Goals of psychology (cont.) 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 Given the diversity of psychology, some argue that we may never have a universal theory This is a problem in other disciplines too

Theories & Hypotheses Hypothesis: Are specific predictions that are derived from theories (more specific than the theories) Theory: An interrelated set of concepts that is used to explain a body of data and to make predictions about the results of future experiments

Properties of a good theory Organizes, Explains, & Accounts for the data If there are data relevant to your theory, that your theory can’t account for, then your theory is wrong Either adapt the theory to account for the new data Develop a new theory that incorporates the new data

The chicken or the egg? Exclusive usage of one or the other can be problematic Typically good research programs use both Theory Data Induction Deduction “Data driven research” reasoning from the data to the general theory “Theory driven research” reasoning from a general theory to the data

Properties of a good theory Organizes, Explains, & Accounts for the data Testable/Falsifiable – can’t prove a theory, can only reject it “No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.”

Omnipotent Theory Beware theories that are so powerful/general/flexible that they can account for everything. These are not testable EXTINCTION OF THE DINOSAURS FULLY EXPLAINED

Omnipotent Theory Beware theories that are so powerful/general/flexible that they can account for everything. These are not testable Karl Popper claimed that Freudian theory isn’t falsifiable If display behavior that clearly has sexual or aggressive motivation, then it is taken as proof of the presence of the Id If such behavior isn’t displayed, then you have a “reaction formation” against it. So the Id is there, you just can’t see evidence of it. So, as stated, the theory is too powerful and can’t be tested and so it isn’t useful

Properties of a good theory Organizes, Explains, & Accounts for the data Testable/Falsifiable Generalizable – not too restrictive The theory should be broad enough to be of use, the more data that it can account for the better The line between generalizability and falsifiability is a fuzzy one.

Properties of a good theory Organizes, Explains, & Accounts for the data Testable/Falsifiable Generalizable Parsimony (Occam’s razor) For two or more theories that can account for the same data, the simplest theory is the favored one “ Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler.”

Properties of a good theory Organizes, Explains, & Accounts for the data Testable/Falsifiable Generalizable Parsimony Makes predictions, generates new knowledge A good theory will account for the data, but also make predictions about things that the theory wasn’t explicitly designed to account for

Properties of a good theory Organizes, Explains, & Accounts for the data Testable/Falsifiable Generalizable Parsimony Makes predictions, generates new knowledge Precision Makes quantifiable predictions

Next Week Download (full text available at library) and read the article for lab THIS week (Raz, Kirsch, Polard, & Nitkin-Kaner,2006) Basic Methodologies Making observations and conducting experiments Read Chapter 6