Michael McBurney
2/23/14
Methods in Psychology
Human behavior is known to be one of the most complex and hardest concepts to
understand. The empirical method is the best way to approach this study since humans
are easy to observe. Although observing humans may be easy, the human brain varies for
everyone making it almost impossible to understand why people act differently in certain
situations (Schacter, Gilbert, &Wegner, 2013). To get the best results from human
research, the environment must remain the same for all participants in the study. Humans
put under the same conditions are much easier to understand why or why not they
respond a specific way. With the environment remaining the same, the independent
variable would be the only thing that causes change in behavior (Higgins 2011).
Studying human behavior can lead to understanding how some people can
accomplish a goal better than others. For example, integrity testing can be used in
employment settings to help identify participants that will perform better at a job. This
method can weed out the people who are more likely to be counterproductive while they
work. Although this test may be accurate for most, other variables can still influence how
attentive someone is doing their job such as money, emotional status, and physical status
(Higgins 2011). Some people may do the job at a faster pace than others, but this does not
necessarily mean they are better at it. Validity is a measurement that can be used to see
what variables increase efficient work. The amount of focus someone may have towards
the work could be a great way to show how much effort they are putting in. The speed at
which they work would be an invalid way of determining how good of a worker that
person is (Schacter, Gilbert, &Wegner, 2013).
Some methods of study will work better than others depending on the scenario.
Research done on humans is hard to successfully come to conclusions with when
multiple variables can have an impact on results. Observer bias is one issue that can
manipulate results that were more accurate than before. The researcher could favor one
particular person for whatever reason and rate their potential as something higher than
what it actually is. It can be hard to understand why people do what they do, but it is
human nature to always wonder.
References
Higgins, E. T. (2011). Human self-regulation and emotion. In Gernsbacher, M.A., Pew,
R.W., Hough, L.M. and Pomerantz, J.R. (Eds.), Psychology and the real world:
Essays illustrating fundamental contributions to society, (pp.10-20). Worth
Publishers, New York, NY.
Schacter, D., Gilbert, D., and Wegner, D. (2013). Neuroscience and Behavior. In
Schacter, D., Gilbert, D., and Wegner, D. (2nd ed.), Introducing psychology,
(pp. 32-39). Worth Publishers, New York, NY.