PSYC B6
L. Larkin
Chapter 2: Conducting Psychological Research
A. BRIEF CHAPTER OUTLINE
I.
Initial Observations and Questions
A.
B.
C.
D.
II.
Gathering Background Information
A.
B.
C.
D.
III.
Personal Experience and Daily Events
Prior Research and Theory
Real-World Problems
Serendipity
Searching Scientific Databases
Obtaining Articles
Reading Research Articles
Reading Review Articles
Forming a Hypothesis
A. Forming Hypotheses Inductively
B. Forming Hypotheses Deductively
C. Characteristics of a Good Hypothesis
IV.
Designing and Conducting a Study
A. Approaches to Conducting Research
B. Planning and Performing the Study
C. The Role of Sampling
V.
Analyzing Data and Drawing Conclusions
A. Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis
B. Descriptive and Inferential Statistics
C. Drawing Conclusions
VI.
VII.
Reporting the Findings
Building Knowledge and Theories
A. Characteristics of a Good Theory
B. Proof and Disproof
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CHAPTER 2: Conducting Psychological Research
B. LEARNING OUTCOMES. After studying this chapter students should be able to:
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Discuss sources for getting ideas about a research topic.
Identify major online psychological databases.
Describe ways to broaden and narrow a literature search.
Describe the main sections of a research article and different types of review articles.
Explain how hypotheses are formed, both inductively and deductively.
Describe characteristics of a good hypothesis.
Describe general types of approaches to conducting research.
Discuss the concepts of internal and external validity in relation to laboratory and field research
settings.
Identify some key issues in preparing to conduct a study.
Distinguish between qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
Describe the general uses of descriptive and inferential statistics, and identify measures of
central tendency and dispersion.
Explain the concept of “statistical significance” and provide two general types of errors that can
occur when researchers make inferences from data.
Describe diverse ways in which researchers communicate their findings to the scientific
community.
Describe some benefits of building theories, and give the characteristics of a good theory.
Discuss whether the results of a study should be viewed as proving or disproving a theory.