2.

1 Goals of the Scientific

Approach

Measurement and Understanding and Prediction Application and Control

Description
Develop measurement
techniques making it possible
to describe behavior precisely
and clearly
Hypothesis - a tentative  Apply research
statement about the findings to practical
relationship between two or problems
more variables.  Scientific theory must
be testable
Variables - any measurable
 Research methods
conditions, events,
are a most important
characteristics or behaviours
part of the social
that are controlled or
sciences
observed in a study.
Theory - a system of
interrelated ideas used to
explain a set of observations

A Scientific Approach

 Aim: Make observations of phenomena of special interest in order to collect data

Improve the quality of human lives

Steps in a Scientific Investigation

Step 1: Identify a Problem

The first step begins with identification of a problem. Introduction section of a research report.
Step 2: State the Rationale

Through the rationale: researcher justifies why and how the study could advance knowledge.

Step 3: Develop a Research Question

Question seeks to address or answer the problem that was identified.

Step 4: Formulate a Hypothesis or State the Objectives of the Research

Formulation of a hypothesis

Good hypothesis - can be tested.

Operational definition - describes the actions or operations that will be used to measure or control a
variable.

Hypothesis - educated, testable prediction about what will happen.

Step 5: Develop a Research Design

How to put the hypothesis to an empirical test

Step 6: Collect Data

Gathering of information

Data collection techniques - procedures for making empirical observations and measurements

Sample - subgroup of people who are similar in terms of their characteristics and relatively
representative of the population a researcher is interested in drawing a conclusion about

Step 7: Analyse the Data

Outcomes - provide an answer to the research question posed earlier

Step 8: Report the Results

Reporting the results.

Journal - a periodical that publishes technical and scholarly material, usually in a narrowly defined
area of inquiry.

Advantages of the Scientific Approach

1. Clarity and precision

 Requires people: Specify exactly what they are thinking about when they formulate
hypothesis

2. Relative intolerance of error

Scientist demand: Objective data and thorough documentation before they accept ideas

3. Research methods
Differing approaches to: Observation, measurement, Manipulation and control of variables in
empirical studies.
2.2 Research Approaches

Qualitative and Quantitative studies

Qualitative Quantitative

Qualitative research - approach is to Larger samples

understand and interpret social interactions
Aim: to test hypotheses, assess cause-and-
Small sample sizes effect relationships and make predictions

Provide: researcher with in-depth knowledge

Quantitative Research Designs

1. Experimental Research Design

Experimental design - experimentation, in which one or more of the variables or factors are
manipulated while the other variables are held constant, so that the effects of the
experimentation can be observed

 Goal: provide answers to questions of interest by establishing whether cause-and-effect

relationships exist between the variables

2. Experimental and Control Groups

Random assignment - the procedure whereby each of the participants has an equal chance of
being assigned to an experimental or a control group

3. Independent and Dependent Variables

 Purpose: find out whether changes in one variable cause changes in another variable

Independent variable - a condition or event that an experimenter varies in order to see its
impact on another variable (experimenter controls or manipulates
 Dependent variable - the variable that is thought to be affected by the manipulation of the
independent variable

4. Extraneous Variables
 Extraneous variables (variables that may compete with the independent variable in
explaining the outcome of a study)

Internal validity - the extent to which a researcher can precisely state that the independent
variable produced the observed outcomes

Threats to Internal Validity

1. Selection Bias
 Pre-existing differences between the participants selected for a study

2. Mortality
 When participants drop out of a study or withdraw during the follow-up

3. Instrumentation Threat
 Observed changes are due to changes in the actual assessment instrument, but not
necessarily the effects of the intervention

4. History Threat
 There is an unrelated event during a study

5. Maturation Threat
 Internal changes in physiological and psychological conditions that occur with the passage of
time.

6. Testing Threat
 Repeated measurements on the same variable, which can lead to improved performance

because of learning and practice

7. Threats to External Validity

External validity - concerned with the extent to which the results of a study can be generalised to
the larger target population or across environments
 8. Multiple Treatment Effect
 This occurs frequently in studies with three or more treatments, whereby post-test scores for
treatment C appear to demonstrate the best results

9. Small Sample Size

 Conclusions derived from small sample sizes can be more susceptible to individual deviations
and anomalies, which can skew the results

Advantages and Disadvantages of Experimental Research

Advantage - the researcher is in control of the experimental situation

Disadvantage - the experimental method involves external validity

many important variables cannot be experimentally manipulated

expensive and time-consuming to carry out experimental research

 Advantage of manipulating two or three independent variables is that this approach allows
the experimenter to see whether two variables interact.

Interaction - the effect of one variable relies on the effect of another variable.

Quasi-Experimental Research Design

Quasi-experimental research design - experimental design where the independent variable is

manipulated, but it does not provide for full control of less important variables because the
participants are not randomly assigned to groups

Descriptive Research Design

Descriptive research - provides a snapshot or summary of the present thoughts, feelings or

behaviour of individuals regarding a particular phenomenon

Survey Design

Survey research - a type of descriptive research that involves asking a large sample of people
questions about their perceptions, attitudes and behaviour
Correlational Research Design

Correlational research - describes the strength of the relation between two or more variables or
characteristics

Qualitative Research Designs

Observational Design

Observational research - involves the direct observation of individuals in their natural setting’

Case Study Design

Case study design - the in-depth observation of an individual or a small group of individuals

 Involves: investigators analysing a collection of case studies to look for patterns that permit
general conclusions

Phenomenology Design

Phenomenology - based on understanding that the world and reality are not objective but are
socially constructed by people.

 Aims: provide rich lived

2.3 Types of Data Collection Methods

 Data used: gathered by either primary / secondary data collection methods

 Primary data collection methods : direct forms of data collection

(surveys, questionnaires, interviews and experiments)

 Secondary data collection methods: indirect ways of collecting data and comprise sourcing
information

(documents, electronically published information such as articles published in journals,

newspapers)

Meta-analysis studies - combining and comparing the results of different studies

Meta-analysis - an epidemiological design, commonly used to systematically assess previous research

studies in order to derive conclusions about a body of research

Quantitative Data Collection Methods

1. Standardised Tests
 Enable researchers to examine the participants’ ability to solve problems

2. Questionnaires
 Uto elicit participants’ feelings, perceptions, beliefs or attitudes toward a particular issue that
is of interest to the researcher
 Set of pre-planned questions designed to provide specific information

Qualitative Data Collection Methods

1. Interviews
 Face-to-Face Interview: Presence of a participant
 Telephone or Online Interview: Cost-effective, Rapidly gathering data
 Focus Group Interview: Small group of people, led by a trained moderator
semi-structured
opportunity to express an opinion
diversity of
Structured Interview

Structured interviews - characterised by the use of questions that are developed before the interview
is conducted.

 Researcher educated on topic

Unstructured Interview

Unstructured interviews - referred to as conversational interviews.

 Researcher does not have adequate information on the topic while planning the study and is
interested in exploring the topic in more detail

Semi-Structured Interviews

Semi-structured interviews - follow a script of prescribed questions, commonly known as an

interview

 Interview guide enables the researcher to probe new leads, while also covering
predetermined questions
 Researcher prepares questions in advance and generates follow-up questions during the
interview.

Naturalistic and Laboratory Observation

 Two categories of the observational method:

1. naturalistic observation
2. laboratory observation

1. Field study (naturalistic observation) - researcher observes the impact of the use of cell
phones on students' interactions during lunch breaks on campus.

 Naturalistic observation (‘field study’)

Involves: in-depth observation of a phenomenon
Occurs: in a natural setting without the experimenter interfering with it in any way.

Ecological validity - the extent to which the results of a research study can be used in
real-life situations

Participant observation - researchers immerse themselves within the social setting under study,
in order to gain deeper insights into the social world.
  limitation of this method: is that the participants observed may alter their behaviour
due to the presence of the researcher

Laboratory observation - takes place in the artificial, extremely controlled environment of the
laboratory.

 Laboratory observations assist: researchers in having more control over variables than
would be possible in naturalistic observation.
 Reduces the influences of confounding variables
 Laboratory observations are commonly less time-consuming and cheaper than
naturalistic observations
 Easy to replicate, this increases the generalisation of the results.

Documents

Personal documents - include diaries, autobiographies, letters, notes, memos and life histories;
public documents include university records and mass media; archival records comprise service
records of organisations, hospitals.
 2.4 Statistics in Psychological Research

 Statistics are commonly divided into two main areas: descriptive and inferential statistics.

Descriptive Statistics

Descriptive statistics - include statistical procedures used to analyse data.

 Concerned: presentation of numerical facts, or data, in the form of tables, charts or

graphs. Purpose of descriptive statistics is to help researchers to describe, show or
summarise data in a meaningful way.

Measures of Central Tendency

 Tendency (scores/numbers) to group themselves about the central point within a data set =
central tendency.

 Ways of describing the central position of a frequency distribution for a data set
 Inform researchers about the shape and nature of the distribution of scores.
 Three measures of central tendency: median, mean and mode.

1. Mode

Mode (Mo) - also known as the ‘modal value’ (midpoint), is the most frequently occurring
value (number).

Multimodal distribution occurs when there are more than two modes within a data set

2. Median

Median (Mdn) - the middle value of all given observations arranged in numerical order

3. Mean

Mean/ ‘average’ - is the sum of a set of data divided by the number of data.

Given that it is commonly not possible to obtain data from an entire population, a sample of the
population is used. As a result, the sample mean is used. It is represented by , (pronounced x
bar), to distinguish it from the population mean, which is denoted by the Greek letter μ (mu).

Measures of Spread

Measure of spread/‘measure of dispersion’ - used to describe the variability or spread of data in

a sample or population
1. Range

Range - difference between the highest and lowest values in a data set, and is the simplest
measure of spread.

2. Variance and Standard Deviation

Variance and standard deviation - measures of how values are spread or dispersed about their
mean.

Variance is an average of the squared differences between each data value and the mean.
Standard deviation is one of the most commonly used measures of spread.

Correlation

Correlation - examines whether there is a relationship between two or more variables.

 Positive correlation - indicates that two variables covary in the same direction.
Tend to increase and decrease together

 Negative correlation – indicates that two variables covary in opposite directions

One tend to increase and the other decrease
Strength of Correlation

Correlation - a robust statistical tool used to measure the strength of a relationship between the
variables.

1. Correlation coefficient (positive or negative)

Positive correlation - implies that the higher the scores are on one variable, the higher they are
on the other. (0 - +1.00)

Negative correlation - occurs when the higher scores on one variable are associated with lower
scores on the other variable. (0 - -1.00)

Numerical index of relationship between two variables

 Moderate correlation coefficients range from −0.5 to −0.3 or from 0.3 to 0.5
 Weak correlation coefficient is demonstrated values between −0.3 and –0.1 / 0.1 and
0.3.
  No correlation when the coefficients are between −0.1 and 0.1.

Correlation and Prediction

 Link exists between the strength of a correlation and the power it gives scientists to
make predictions.

 As a correlation increases in strength (gets closer to either −1.00 or +1.00), the ability to
predict one variable based on knowledge of the other variable increases.

Correlation and Causation

Correlation not equivalent to caustion

Advantages and Disadadvantages of descriptive/correlation research

Advantages Disadvantages

 Gives research a way to explore  Descriptive/correlation research

questions they could not examine cannot demonstrate conclusively
with experimental procedures. that correlated variables are
casually related.
 Broadens the scope of
phenomena that psychologists
can study

Inferential Statistics

 Used to: interpret data and draw conclusions

 Concerned with: making predictions or inferences, as the name suggests, about a
population from observations and analyses of a sample

 Results obtained from the sample can be generalised to the larger population that the
sample represents results obtained from the sample in Gauteng, the researcher can then
generalise the results to all other patients in the country.

2.5 Ethics in Psychological Research

Voluntary Participation

 Participants should be voluntary with the ability to withdraw at any time

(financial or material rewards may be provided to research participants in exchange for their time
and effort participating in the study)
Informed Consent

 Researchers: required to obtain informed consent freely, without the coercion of the
participants, based on a clear understanding of what ‘participation’ entails.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality - an explicit or implied guarantee given by the researcher to a research participant

that steps will be taken to protect the identity of the participant

Debriefing

Debriefing - takes place after the study is completed.

 Debriefing process: researcher reveals to the participants any deception, the hypotheses of
the study and the possible implications of the results

Deception

Deception - occurs when the researcher withholds information from the research participants about
the true (or full) intention of the study

Participation: Voluntary with ability to leave at any time

Not subjected to harmful or dangerous treatments

Debriefed as soon as possible if study requires deception

Right to privacy should never be compromised

 Ethics committees approve a study based on thei consederation on how these issues will be
treated.

The Question of Animal Research

 Animal testing was first used and legislated in the USA in the 1930s
 Only 7–8% of all psychological studies involve animals

Argument against
  Wrong to submit animals to harm or Arguments in favour
pain for research
 To learn more about a specific animal
 Violates animal rights by subjecting
 To identify general laws that apply to
animals to unnecessary cruelty in trial
both humans and animals
studies

 Can expose animals to treatments

that would be unacceptable with
 Waste of time as result do not apply
humans
to humans

2.6 Evaluating Research

 Replication is the repetition of a study to see if the same results can be achieved.
 The replication process helps science:
1. identify and remove inaccurate findings
2. poor ability to provide accurate estimates of replication rates
3. OSC projects is fostering dialog on how to improve and increase reproducibility in
psychological research
4. Meta-analysis – combines statistical results of many studies of the same questions,
yielding an estimate of size and consistency of varieble’s effects.

Bias in Research

Bias - a form of systematic error that can affect scientific investigations and alter the measurement
process
  Essential: researcher is designing a study, control bias ensure = clearer relationship between
the variables can be distinguished
 Categories of bias that can negatively impact the validity of research include:

Selection bias, measurement bias, intervention bias and social desirability bias

 Common methodological problems that can weaken research findings and negatively impact
the validity of the research

1. Selection Bias
 Occurs: when potential research participants, selected to take part in a study, are not
representative of the population of interest

AND

groups to be compared are different, and these differences may influence the outcome.

 Not possible to study an entire population = select participants closely resemble the
characteristics of the population of interest

 Selection bias is a systematic error that results in a non-random research sample

 Suggests: that potential participants are not equally likely to be included in the sample, and
therefore has greater potential to influence external validity

Therefore…

Inaccurate results are a probable outcome of a study with selection bias, since the statistical analyses
of the study are likely to be distorted

2. Sampling Bias

Sampling bias – occurs when a sample is not representative of the population from which it was
drawn

Sampling bias - a type of selection bias, and refers to a particular error that occurs due to the sample
selection

 Sample: is biased if some participants are under-represented or over-represented, relative to

others in the population

 Sampling bias is a subtype of selection bias and refers to the decreased likelihood of
including a fair representation of the intended population.
  Suggest: proper randomisation will not be achieved, and therefore has greater potential to
influence internal validity

Therefore…

research findings may be incorrectly attributed to a particular phenomenon, but there is a good
chance that the findings will differ if sampling bias is limited.

Sample – collection of subjects selected for observation in an empirical study

Population – the larger collection of animals or people that the researcher want to generalise about

Ethnic minorities and people from non-western cultures are historically undersampled by American
psychologists

Review composition of the sample first when concerned about results

3. Measurement Bias

Measurement bias- involves a systematic error that can occur during the collection of data

Internal validity - the ability of any instrument to measure what it claims to

Measurement biases include:

Instrumental Bias

instrument bias - expectation bias and insensitive measure bias. Instrument bias occurs when the
instrument used to assess a particular phenomenon gives incorrect information because of a
communication barrier between the researcher and the participant

 Instrument bias can also happen when an instrument is not calibrated properly and, as a
result, it may consistently measure inaccurately

Experimental Bias (experimenter expectancy effect)

Experimenter bias - a subjective bias that occurs towards particular results because the experimenter
anticipates such findings

 Occur: when researchers, because of human error and/or their commitment to the
hypotheses, tend to interpret the results in an expected way
  Avoiding bias: withhold the hypothesis from the researchers interacting with the
participants, or to keep them ‘blind’ about the condition assigned to the participant

Distortions in Self-Report Data

 Researchers: use self-report measures such as interviews or questionnaires to collect data

about people’s beliefs, experiences or behaviour

 Participants: may feel compelled to give socially desirable answers

 Minimise the chances of social desirability bias: researchers should ensure they establish a
connection with participants before the interview begins

 Anonymous feedback may help prevent this

2.7 The Placebo Effect

 Commonly used in medical research

 Refers to: an inactive or inert substance
 Identified as: procedures aimed at satisfying the patient rather than exerting a specific effect
 Relate to participants expectations
 Participants in a treatment group often expect to get better
 Occur: when participants' expectations lead them to experience some change even though
they receive empty, fake or ineffectual treatment

 Control: the placebo effect in medication studies, research participants: placebo pills

(pills look like the real pills, but contain no active ingredients - Participants think they are
taking a medication report that their symptoms disappeared)

2.8 Reflecting on chapter

 Two unifyning themes highlighted in this chapter:

1. Psychology is empirical
Entails: Testing ideas, Basing conclusions on systematic observation and Relyong on
specticism

2. People’s experience of the world can be highly subjective

Researchers report beneficial effects from a fake treatment – expected to see these
effects (placebo)

Trained to be objective – even scientist may see what they expect to see
2.9 Personal Application: finding and reading journal articles

Journal

Journal – preiodicals focusing on technical ans scholary material, usually in a narrowly

defined area of inquiry

Most journal articles: reports that describe original empirical research

PsyclINFO

PsyclINFO – houses most psychological research and is a searchable online database

Often mention the name of researcher

Reading jouranal articles:

Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, References