1. Introduction to Research
 What is behavioral research, and why it is conducted?
 What are the limitations of “everyday science” and intuition
for understanding behavior?
 What is the scientific method and why do scientists use it?
 What is the difference between a fact and a value, and how do
a scientist’s values influence his or her research?
 What are the goals of basic research and of applied research,
and how do the two types of goals relate to each other?
 What benefits are there to be gained from learning how to
evaluate research, conduct it, and think critically about it?
 What are the goals of descriptive, correlational, and experimental
research? What are the advantages and disadvantages of
each research approach?
Behavioral Research:
The goal of behavioral research is to discover, among other things,
how people perceive their world, how they think and feel, how
they change over time, how they make decisions, and how they
interact with others.
The statement made by behavioral researchers are empirical,
which means that they are based on systematic collection and
analysis of data, where data are information collected through
formal observation or measurement.
Why is behavioral research important?
 Increase our understanding of behavior.
e.g. Autism
• Provide methods for improving the quality of our lives.
e.g. Racism, Sexism, Ethnocentrism
 Provide important information that complements other
scientific approaches.
e.g. social aspects of death as opposed to medical research
 Demonstrate the full range of capacities humans possess
How do we understand our everyday behavior?
Relying on our intuition.
But do we really understand
the reason of our behavior?
Example. Nisbett & Wilson (1977)
We can not get accurate information
by simply asking people why they
do what they do.
Often provide valuable
Insights about human
behaviors.
Why is it problematic?
1. We easily use intuition to understand human behaviors
(or concepts).
•
Intuition makes the behavior seem natural
•
If they seem so natural to us, we take them for granted .
4. If they are taken for granted, we are not aware why the behavior
is being performed.
5. Therefore, we can’t assess the reason for the behavior which is
what we are really trying to understand.
Scientific Methods
What is the scientific methods?
Being Objective
1. Free from the personal bias
2. Free from the investigator’s emotions
3. Replicable by others (scientists)
4. Open to other’s (scientists)’s scrutiny.
Values
Personal statements such as “abortion should not be permitted
in this country”, “Good people will go to heaven when they die”.
Facts
Objective statements determined to be accurate through empirical
study such as “there were over 20,000 homicides in the United
states”.
Scientific Methods
 Observing everyday behavior carefully.
 Drawing inferences from the observation.
 Constructing hypotheses or comprehensive theories .
 Choosing the best methods to prove your predictions.
 Analyzing the collected data and objectively interpret
the data.
 Replicating the findings to generalize the findings.
Basic Research
It investigates fundamental questions about behavior without
particular reason to study except to acquire a better knowledge of
how these processes occur.
e.g. memory for pictures, nerve impulse.
It provides underlying principles that can be used to solve
Specific problems.
Applied Research
It investigates issues that have implications for everyday life and
provide solutions to everyday problems.
e.g. what types of psychotherapy are most effective in
reducing depression.
It gives ideas for the kind of topics that basic research can study.
The importance of Studying Research Methods
•Evaluating Research Reports
•Conducting Research
•Thinking Critically about Research
Behavioral Research
Descriptive
Research
Survey &
Interview
Correlational
Research
Naturalistic
Observation
Converging Operations
Experimental
Research
Research
Descriptive
Research
Correlational
Research
Experimental
Research
Methods
Strengths
Drawbacks
Allows capturing the
complexities of everyday
behavior.
It provides a relatively
detailed picture of what is
occurred at a given time.
Limited to providing static
picture.
Cannot answer how a certain
behavior develops, what impact
the behavior has, and why the
behaviors was performed.
Systematic
Relationships
among variables
Pearson r
correlation
coefficient
Allows testing of expected
Relationships between and
among variables and making
of predictions.
Cannot be used to identify
causal relationships among the
variables.
Remains a possibility that some
other variable caused the
observed variable to be
correlated.
Causal
relationships
of more than
two variables
ANOVA
MANOVA
It allows drawing of conclusion about the causal
relationships among variable.
Cannot experimentally
manipulate many important
Variables.
Snapshot
of thoughts,
feelings
or behaviors
Let’s select appropriate methods for
your research!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Availability of participants
Availability of researchers
Availability of equipment
Availability of space
Time constraint
Try to use more than one technique. Converging Operation
Nisbett & Cohen, (1996). Culture of Honor