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    CG Ch2

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    Onur Asım İlhan
    The document outlines the scientific method and key aspects of conducting psychological research. It discusses the basics of theory, hypotheses, and operational definitions. It then describes different types of research including descriptive research like archival research, naturalistic observation, surveys, and case studies. It also discusses correlational research involving variables and the correlation coefficient, as well as experimental research involving manipulation of independent and dependent variables through random assignment and control groups. Finally, it discusses critical issues like research ethics, treatment of animal subjects, ensuring representative samples, and maintaining experimental validity.

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    CG Ch2

    Uploaded by

    Onur Asım İlhan
    9 views15 pages
    The document outlines the scientific method and key aspects of conducting psychological research. It discusses the basics of theory, hypotheses, and operational definitions. It then describes different types of research including descriptive research like archival research, naturalistic observation, surveys, and case studies. It also discusses correlational research involving variables and the correlation coefficient, as well as experimental research involving manipulation of independent and dependent variables through random assignment and control groups. Finally, it discusses critical issues like research ethics, treatment of animal subjects, ensuring representative samples, and maintaining experimental validity.

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    The document outlines the scientific method and key aspects of conducting psychological research. It discusses the basics of theory, hypotheses, and operational definitions. It then describes different types of research including descriptive research like archival research, naturalistic observation, surveys, and case studies. It also discusses correlational research involving variables and the correlation coefficient, as well as experimental research involving manipulation of independent and dependent variables through random assignment and control groups. Finally, it discusses critical issues like research ethics, treatment of animal subjects, ensuring representative samples, and maintaining experimental validity.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    9 views15 pages

    CG Ch2

    Uploaded by

    Onur Asım İlhan
    The document outlines the scientific method and key aspects of conducting psychological research. It discusses the basics of theory, hypotheses, and operational definitions. It then describes different types of research including descriptive research like archival research, naturalistic observation, surveys, and case studies. It also discusses correlational research involving variables and the correlation coefficient, as well as experimental research involving manipulation of independent and dependent variables through random assignment and control groups. Finally, it discusses critical issues like research ethics, treatment of animal subjects, ensuring representative samples, and maintaining experimental validity.

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    The Scientific Method

    &
    Conducting Psychological Research
    Basics
    • Theory: A broad explanation concerning a phenomena of interest

    • Hypothesis: Theory driven testable prediction

    • Operational Definition: The translation of a H into specific, testable


    procedures that can be measured
    Descriptive Research
    • Archival research: With the use of existing data such as records,
    documents, online databases, newspaper articles (- - -)

    • Naturalistic observation: The researcher observes passively (- - -)

    • Survey research: A sample of people from a population is asked a


    series of questions about their behavior, thoughts, attitudes (- - -)

    • Case study: An in-depth intensive investigation of a single individual


    or a small group (- - -)
    Correlational Research
    • Variables: Behaviors, events, other characteristics that can vary (the
    bits of Hs)

    • The correlational research two variables are examined to determine


    whether they are corelated/associated

    • The strength and direction of the relationship between the two


    variables are represented by a mathematical statistic (correlation
    coefficient), which can range from -1 to +1
    Correlation
    • A positive correlation indicates that as the value of V1 increases, the
    value of the V2 also increases
    • A negative correlation indicates that as the value of V1 increases, the
    value of the V2 also decreases

    • No relationship would be indicated by an r close to 0


    • R provide a measure of the strength of a relationship between the
    two Vs, not about cause and effect
    Experimental Research
    • The only way to establish causal relationships
    • In a standard experiment, a researcher investigates the relationship
    between two (and more) Vs by delibaretly changing V1 and observing
    the effects on V2 (namely experimental manipulation)
    • The effects of manipulation must be compared
    • Experimental Group + Control Group
    • To rule out the possibility that something other than the experimental
    manipulation produced the results
    • In order to isolate specific causal relationships
    • Independent variable: The condition that is manipulated by the
    researcher
    • Dependent variable: The variable expected to change as a result of
    the experimental manipulation of independent variable
    • Random assignment: Participants are assigned to different
    experimental groups or control group on the basis of chance only
    • To ensure that there is equal chance that participant characteristics
    will be distributed across the groups
    • Significant findings: Statistically meaningful results showing that the
    differences between conditions are large enough to confirm the H
    • Replication: One finding doesn’t resolve the question forever. The
    findings must be replicated in order to have greater confidence
    • Also to pinpoint limitations
    Critical Research Issues
    Ethics
    • To protect the rights of the participants
    • There are strict set of ethical guidelines
    • Physical or mental harm
    • Privacy
    • Voluntary participation
    • Informed consent
    • Ethics committee approval
    • Debriefing
    Nonhuman animal subjects
    • Again a set of strict ethical guidelines apply
    • Pain and suffering should avoided
    • Any discomfort, illness, pain should be minimized
    • Physical and psychological well-being of the subject animals should be
    promoted
    • Procedures that subject animals to distress are permitted only when
    an alternative is unavailable and the research is justified by its
    prospective value
    Representative sample
    • The sample should represent the general population
    • Age
    • Gender
    • Ethnicity
    • Race
    • Education level
    • Socioeconomic status
    • Education level and more….
    Experimental validity
    • Experimenter’s expectations
    • Participants’ expectations

    • Disguising the true purpose of the experiment


    • Placebo group
    • Blind design
    • Double-blind design

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