knowledge and the scientific mothod introductory remarks

Chapter 1: Introduction, acquiring knowledge, and the scientific method

Why Take a Research Methods Course?

I hope you already have an answer to this question, and that "because it is a required course" is not the only answer you can come up with!

The question "why take a research methods course" is posed on page 2 of your text book.

          (image of course textbook)

If the only answer you can come up with is, "because it is required," then the next logical question is, why is it a required course in all programs of study that lead to a bachelor of science degree in psychology?

The answer is: because research methods are used by behavioral scientists in order to gather, interpret, and report information. A research methods course is helpful for learning how to develop and conduct and research study.

You might be thinking something like, "well, I am not going to be doing research in the future, so why should I have to take this course?

The authors of your textbook pose some other good reasons to take a research methods course on pages 3 - 4 of your textbook.

• Reading and evaluating other people's studies...even if you never conduct a study it is very helpful to be able to read and understand others' studies. For example, a clinical psychologist might read a research report about a new treatment in order to make an informaed decison about whether or not to take the time to learn that new treatment method.

 

• understanding brief descriptions of studies...brief descriptions of studies are helpful, and in order to udnerstand them one needs to be familiar with research terms in order to make sense of the study. for example, do you understand what is meant by:
• quasi-experimental research design
• meta-analysis
• stratified sample
• measurement error

If you are not sure what those terms mean, don't worry -- you will by the end of the semester, and knowing them will allow you to look at even the most brief description of a study and evaluate whether it is worth continuing to read...

• gathering and evaluating information in your daily life...becoming familiar with the scientific method will also help you evaluate information in other domains.  In the future you may want to make decisions about things such as: whether to buy a home in a given region of the country; wheat school to go to or send a child to; whether to have one medical treatment versus another. Being familiar with how to understand and interpret research will come in handy for these sorts of decisions...

 Ways of knowing

How do we know things about the world and how do we acquire new knowledge and/or find the answers to questions?

These questions have intersted philosphers and scientists since the beginning of recorded history, and your textbook considers the various methods of acquiring knowledge on pages 6-15.

(image of the Greek philosopher Aristotle)

The method of tenacity

As the word 'tenacious' implies, the method of tenacity involves knowledge that persists because "that is what we have always believed". Some beliefs, e.g., "the sun will rise tomorrow morning" are likely to hold true.  And some are less true, e.g., superstitions such as the beleif --disproved only a few weeks ago -- that the end of the world would occur on December 21st 2012, or that wlkling under a ladder is bad luck.

The method of intiution

using this method, knowledge is accepted because one intuits, or feels, or senses, that it is true.  FOr instance, a person might "know" that 'today is my lucky day' or that 'he is the man for me' or that 'I shouldn't go to class because I don't feel like it.' One's intuition might be correct...sometimes...therein lies the problem; there is no good way do determine when intuition is accurate or not accurate.

The method of authority

Most of us have relied on the method of authority early and often. "Because my Dad said so" is an appeal to authority. Believing what teachers, 'superiors', or 'experts' say are also means of acquiring knowledge using the method of authority. When we put our complete trust in authorities, then we might call this the 'method of faith.' Belief in religious authorities is an obvious example of this, and conflicts between religion and science have existed since the beginning of science,

The rational method

We use the rational method when we acquire knowledge through logical reasoning,  For instance, when learn that Florida is East of Louisiana and that Louisiana is East of Arizona, then we might use the rational method to deduce that Arizona is West of Florida.

Rational knowing is useful, and can be problematic when the premises are inaccurate or incomplete.

The empirical method

This method relies on direct observation or sensory experience. Tools like microscopes and rockets extend what we can apprehend through our senses. Observations can be accurate or inaccurate, and the scientific method helps us ensure that information is more rather than less accurate.

Complete the following brief exercise at the link below to test your understanding of 'ways of knowing'

https://materia.ucf.edu/play/wTwK8/methods-of-acquiring-knowledge

The scientific method and research process

The scientific method is primarily empirical - we rely on observation.

That said, other ways of knowing, and especially the rational and authority methods might be used in the process of developing a research project.

Your textbook describes the process in detail on pages 16-21.

Step 1: Observe behavior or other phenomena

infomral observation of the world and reasoning are the source of ideas for research. We might observe something interesting and ask "why do people (or animals!) behave that way?" The answer to the question may already be available in the research literature, and if the question is not already answered AND the question seems important for being able to describe, predict or influence behavior, then it may be a good topic for a research study.

Step 2: formualte a hypothesis

A hypothesis is a tentative answer to yoru question or explanation fo the phenomena of interest.

For example, I might notice that not all students earn the same grade in a class. One explanation is that some students are smarter than others, or have taken more psychology courses. And I might predict that the vearialbe 'time spent viewing webcourses pages' also predicts grades in the class.

Step 3: Use your hypothesis to generate a testable hypothesis

The hypothesis is fairly specific, for instance, "the number of minutes a student spends viewing the webcourse pages will be positively related to his or her quiz scores."

This is specific and testable.

Step 4: Evaluate the prediction by making systematic planned observations

for example, for each module the number of minutes spent viewing the webcourse pages will be collected, as will the score on the module quiz.

Other features of the scientific method

Science is empirical

This means that answers to questions are obtained through the senses. We advance knowledge through observation, and technologies such as microscopes, and eeg machines, and scores on tests, extend what we can observe with our five senses.

Science is public

Research is made available for others to evaluate and replicate.

The scientist doesn't only report results of a study. She reports the method in detail. He describes his sample and method of data analysis.

The description fo the study allows others to evluate it, and to replicate it so there might eventually be consensus about whether a given result holds true when others repeat the experiment, or knowledge might be advanced when others expand on and extend a study.

Science is objective

We all have our own biases and preferences. Almost any research hopes that her hypothesis will be supported! And we do whatever we can to prevent our biases from affecting the results. For example, we might use random assignment of participatns, and double blind data collection.

Science Vs Pseudoscience

One negative side effect of the internet is the proliferation of 'pseudoscience'.

Pseudoscience looks like science, but is lacking in some feature of th escientific method. For instance, when you watch an ad for a 'mirical weight loss drug' the drugs' producer might say that it was "developed by a doctor" and hope that viewers think that means it was developed through the scientific method. Or they might rely on personal testamonials, where a few individuals talk about how great the drug worked for them. But in then they are not making all the data public, and are only sharing postivie stories.

There are some scientists dedicated to correcting misinformation and exposing pseudiscientific theories and products. They do a great public service.

For example, The New England Skeptic Society maintains a website at www.theness.com Links to an external site. that is dedicated to providing scientists and members of the public accurate information and pointing out where pseudoscience may be mistaken for the real thing. They and similar groups expose products such as medical devices, and supplments that make false claims, and point readers to research that is based in the scientific method rathe rthan pseudoscience.

The research process

we can divide the reserch process into several steps. If you looked a several different research methods texts you might find that authors do not all agree on the exact number of steps. One might present 'the five steps of the research process' whiel another presents 'the 12 steps of the research method. Just as there are many ways to describe a painting or a person or a procedure, while there is one research method, it can be deswcribed in more or less detail.

Your textbook authors (on pages 25 - 35) present the researhc process in 10 steps, with each step being a part of the process where on has to make a decision about what to do.

step 1: Find a research idea

you might get an idea through a sudden intuition that follows observing the world around you. And more often, a scientist has a genral area of interest and he develops a more specific research idea by reviewing the literature. How to do a literature search is the subject of chapter 2, and you will do two as part of your lab assignment.

step 2: Form a hypothesis and a prediction

a hypthesis shoudl be logical, testable, refutable, and positive

For example, suppose I hypothesize that people who own dogs are nice.  If I made this hypothesis by noticing that 1) many people are nice and (2) many people own dogs, so it must be the case that dog owners are nice people, then I am using faulty logic

If I hypothesize that Barak Obama would have beaten Ronald Reagan in an election, the problem with this hypothesis is tha tit is not testable.

If I hypothesize that the earth's sun keeps unicorns from being visible, then there is no way to refute this hypthesis because we can't see what would happen in the absense of the sun.

If i hypothsize that there is no difference between young people and old people in reading ability. This might look like a testable hypothesis, but if I do a study and fail to find a difference, then that could mean that I used a poor method. Just because I don't observe something doesn't mean that it doesn't exist! On the other hand, if I DO observe somethign, then that observation is evidence for it's existence.

Step 3: determine how you will define and measure your variables

How should one define and measure "stress" "the elderly" "intelligence" "democrats" or "good schools vs bad schools"?

There are many ways to define and measure phenomena of interest. For isntance, we might define a democrat as someone who calls himself a democrat, or as someone who is registered for the democratic party, or as someone who obtains a certains chore on a test of political attitudes.  One defintion/measure might elad to a different research outcome tha another.

How we define and measure variables will be a large part of module 2

Step 4: Identify and select the participants (humans) or subjects (non-humans) for the study

Suppose you want to study learning in dogs. Is it better to study a bunch of different kinds of dogs, or to narrow the study to poodles of some other specific breed of dog? Shoudl they be puppies or adult dogs?  There are pros and cons to using broader or narrower subject criteria. "Puppies will learn better when there are few distractions" is a different hypothesis than "adult poodles will learn better when there are few distrations."

Step 5: select a research strategy

Several chapters of the textbook are dedicated to describing different research strategies, and chapter 4 considers ethics in research. Different research strategies lead to different research designs and outcomes, and we should make sure that our strategy follows ethicla guidelines.

For example, "do poodles learn better when there are fewer distractions?" is a different question than "will increasing the noise level decrease learning in poodles?"

And "do children learn better if we punish them for incorrect answers" might be unethical if we used 'severe electric shock' as a form of punishment.

Step 6: Select a research design

Here we come up with a specific procedure. For example, do I want to study one poodle several times, or study 10 poodles, or 100? Should I have each poodle learn one thing in either a room that is free of distractions or full of distractions, or would it be better to have each poodle learn two things, one is a distration-free room, and the other in a distracting environment?

Different designs and their strnegths and weaknesses are addressed in chpaters 8 - 11.

Step 7: Conduct the study

notice how many fo the steps take place before any data is collected!

Step 8: Evaluate the data

In this step you use statistical procedures to analyze the data and determine if your hypothesis is supported. Statistical analysis of data is considered in chapter 15.

Step 9: Report the results

Describe what you did in detail. Create graphs an charts and tables to clearly illustrate your findings. Provide a discussion of your findings, for instance, in a discussion section you might consider the strengths and weaknesses of your study and why your hyptohesis was not supported, or why your result is different from others results, or what future research is suggested by your results.

Chapter 16 is about the procedures for writing a report, and in your final paper you will design a research study and write parts of a report for a study on a topic that interests you.

Step 10: Refine or reformulate your research idea

Was your hypothesis supported or not? Say, for example, that you found that a sample of dogs learned better in aless distrating environment. You might refine the study by by hypothesizing about how this effect differs in dogs of different ages or in different breeds of dogs. Or you might reformulate your hypothesis if your hypothesis was not sopported by your data. Maybe having a good trainer, or good nutrition is more important than distractions when it comes to learning in dogs.

 Test your knowledge of the steps in designing and executing a research study by following the link below

https://materia.ucf.edu/play/vnWfA/steps-in-the-research-process

This concludes consideration of chapter 1. The material above should not be considered a substitute for reading the chapter, and it is intended to complement it.