Psych 231: Research
Methods in Psychology
Reading the Literature cont.
 Science of Psychology
 Theories in Science
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Download (full text available at library) and read the
article for lab THIS week (Raz, Kirsch, Polard, & NitkinKaner,2006)
Exam 1: two weeks from today
Announcements
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What's the goal of a research article?
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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
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The basic parts of a research article:
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Title and authors
Abstract
Introduction
The anatomy of a research article
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The basic parts of a research article:
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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
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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 anatomy of a research article
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The basic parts of a research article:
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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 anatomy of a research article
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The basic parts of a research article:
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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?
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References - full citations of all work cited
Appendices - additional supplementary
supporting material
The anatomy of a research article
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Write down the names of three scientists
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What field of science do they belong to?
Write down the name of a famous psychologist
Dr. Sigmund Freud
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Dr. Phil (McGraw)
Do they represent the standard psychologist?
• NO!
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Psychology is a diverse discipline
• ISU’s Psych Dept has 6 different groups
• APA has 54 different divisions of psychology
Psychology as a science
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What is science?
What are the goals of science?
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Is psychology a science?
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Yes
• Studies the full range of human behavior using
scientific methods
• Applications derived from this knowledge is
scientifically based
Psychology as a science
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Psychology’s goals are similar to the goals of
the physical sciences (e.g., physics and
chemistry)
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Psychologists are concerned with the behavior of people (and
animals) rather than the physical world.
How is psychology different from the physical
sciences?
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Human (and animal) behavior is typically much more variable
than most physical systems.
• Statistical control
• Methodological control
Psychology as a science
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Description of behavior
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Prediction of behavior
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Describe events, what changes what might affect
change, what might be related to what, etc.
Given X what will likely happen
Control of behavior
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For the purpose of interventions (e.g., how do we
prevent violence in schools)
5 Goals of psychology
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Causes of behavior
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Sometimes predictions aren’t enough, want to
know how the X and the outcome are related
Develop specific theories
Explanation of behavior
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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
5 Goals of psychology (cont.)
Theory:
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An interrelated set of concepts that is used to
explain a body of data and to make predictions
about the results of future experiments
Hypothesis:
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Are specific predictions that are derived from
theories (more specific than the theories)
Theories & Hypotheses
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Organizes, Explains, & Accounts for the data
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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
Properties of a good theory
“Data driven research”
reasoning from the data
to the general theory
Theory
Deduction
Induction
Data
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“Theory driven research”
reasoning from a general
theory to the data
Exclusive usage of one or the other can be problematic
Typically good research programs use both
The chicken or the egg?
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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.”
Properties of a good theory
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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
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Beware theories that are so powerful/general/flexible
that they can account for everything. These are not
testable
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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.
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So, as stated, the theory is too powerful and can’t be tested and so it
isn’t useful
Omnipotent Theory
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Organizes, Explains, & Accounts for the data
Testable/Falsifiable
Generalizable – not too restrictive
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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
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Organizes, Explains, & Accounts for the data
Testable/Falsifiable
Generalizable
Parsimony (Occam’s razor)
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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
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Organizes, Explains, & Accounts for the data
Testable/Falsifiable
Generalizable
Parsimony
Makes predictions, generates new knowledge
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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
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Organizes, Explains, & Accounts for the data
Testable/Falsifiable
Generalizable
Parsimony
Makes predictions, generates new knowledge
Precision
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Makes quantifiable predictions
Properties of a good theory
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Download (full text available at library) and
read the article for lab THIS week (Raz, Kirsch,
Polard, & Nitkin-Kaner,2006)
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Basic Methodologies
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Making observations and conducting
experiments
Read Chapter 6
Next Week