The Steps of Scientific Research

1. The Steps of Scientific Research

2. The scientific method card sort in pairs, sort the scientific method in the correct order • 1. The hypothesis and theory are adjusted in the light of the results, and the findings are published. • 2. The scientist analyses the problem in the light of relevant theory. • 3. As a result, he or she obtains data. • 4. The scientist is confronted with a problem requiring explanation. • 5. Through observation or experiment the scientist tests out his or her hypothesis, using accurate measurement, under controlled conditions. • 6. From the theory, the scientist decides specific hypotheses to be tested. • 7. The data is analysed to establish whether the hypothesis can be supported or refuted by the fact or results.

3. The stages of the scientific method • The scientist is confronted with a problem requiring explanation. • The scientist analyses the problem in the light of relevant theory. • From the theory, the scientist decides specific hypotheses to be tested. • Through observation or experiment the scientist tests out his or her hypothesis, using accurate measurement, under controlled conditions. • As a result, he or she obtains data. • The data is analysed to establish whether the hypothesis can be supported or refuted by the fact or results. • The hypothesis and theory are adjusted in the light of the results, the findings are published.

4. Step One Formulate a research question • Questions come from daily life or from existing psychological theory. • Can you think of a psychological research question?

5. Step Two Formulate a hypothesis • This is an educated guess in answer to the question • Why do you think the word educated is so important?

6. Step ThreeTest how accurate the hypothesis is. • Decide what information is needed to Decide what is the best method to use. • What are the possible methods? • Observation, experiment, survey, test, correlation…….

7. Step Four Analyze results of the test • This is asking what your results actually mean. • You need to look for patterns and relationships in the data gathered.

8. Step Five Draw a conclusion • You need to decide how accurate your hypothesis was. • If your hypothesis was not accurate you need to replicate the study. This means repeat it.

9. Psychologists must be skeptical and think critically What is the evidence? How was it collected? Psychology is Empirical Knowledge acquired through observation Psych conclusions based on research NOT tradition or common sense

10. Research in Psychology • Psychology is one of the human sciences, so psychology empirical (scientific) methodology in order to gather data about behavior • Question – looking at the history of psychology which areas do you think use the scientific method? • Psychologists apply the scientific method to the study of behavior – but it is not without its problems……..

11. What Causes Behavior? Behavior

12. Behavior is Shaped by Culture Personal Space Value of Education Punctuality Social Norms

13. Influence of Heredity & Environment Nature versus Nurture

14. Internal Information Prior Expectations Current Mental State Experience External Information Actual Words/Actions Image Reflected from Objects “Sound” Waves Both Determine Our Experience of the World Perception Is Subjective

15. Understanding qualitative/quantitative research • In Psychology theories are developed using • Quantitative research ……..that is ….experiments • Qualitative research……..interviews; observations and case studies

16. Qualitative/quantitative debate • Debate issue • Psychology is a science and must therefore achieve its goal of predicting and controlling human behavior. This can only be achieved if nomothetic quantitative data is the foundation of theories relating to the mind and human behavior.

17. The stages of the scientific method • The scientist is confronted with a problem requiring explanation. • The scientist analyses the problem in the light of relevant theory. • From the theory, the scientist decides specific hypotheses to be tested. • Through observation or experiment the scientist tests out his or her hypothesis, using accurate measurement, under controlled conditions. • As a result, he or she obtains data. • The data is analysed to establish whether the hypothesis can be supported or refuted by the fact or results. • The hypothesis and theory are adjusted in the light of the results, the findings are published.

18. So…how do we know if research methods are effective?

19. Evaluation in IB Psychology MCEG Gender Equal no of M & F PPs? Can results be Generalised? Methodology Culture Ethics Controls? – Variables? Reliability? Validity? Ecological validity? From what culture are the PPs? Is it generalisable? Are PPs protected from psychological and physical harm? APA/BPS Guidelines followed?

21. Reliability & Validity • Why should we consider whether research has applications? • What is cross cultural validity? • What is ecological validity? • What is reliability?

22. Sampling Methods • What areparticipants? • What is arepresentative sample? • What is opportunity sampling & what are its strengths and weaknesses? • What is a self selected sample and what are its strengths & weaknesses? • What is snowball sampling and what are its strengths and weaknesses? • What is random sampling & what are its strengths and weaknesses? • What is stratified sampling & what are its strengths and weaknesses?

23. SO………..how is an experiment conducted in psychology??

24. Random sampling exercise Why is random sampling important for an experiment?

25. Ethics are…….. • Standards for proper and responsible behavior.

26. Some past experiments • Lobotomy-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0aNILW6ILk • Milgram http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcvSNg0HZwk • Elliot - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjDxAwfXV0 • http://listverse.com/2008/09/07/top-10-unethical-psychological-experiments/

27. Exercise • After watching sections of past experiments in class work with a partner to…… • Brainstorm a list of activities/procedures in the experiment which were unethical. • Consider the date of the experiment and identify how the year may have influenced the procedure(s) or the research topic. • Answer this question for debate in the class- Did good outcomes of the research outweigh the ethical transgressions?

28. Ethics are aimed at…….. • Promoting the dignity of people • Maintaining scientific integrity • Preventing research that will be irreversibly harmful.

29. Major ethical considerations are…. • Informed Consent • Confidentiality • No cause of harm or stress-leave as you came in. • Right to withdraw. • Debriefing

30. Ethical use of animals in psychological research….. • When it is unethical to use humans but by using animals the good outweighs the bad. • When you avoid or minimize stress. • Use as few animals as possible • Do not cause irreversible harm.

31. Ethical issues Review: Discuss in pairs • What is Informed consent? • What is Debriefing? When should it occur? • What is Deception? Is it ever justified? • What is a cost benefit analysis? How does it relate to ethical issues • What is the right to withdraw? • Why should data from psychological research be confidential? • Why is it important for participants to be protected from psychological and physical harm • Outline the ethical guidelines for the use of animals in research

32. Culture • Moghaddam (1993) An interactive relationship with culture • Jahoda (1978) Cultural evolution • The ‘universal man’ assumption • Smith & Bond (1998) Ethnocentrism • Cultural relativists (culture important) vs. absolutists (bio most important) • http://www.slideshare.net/praveenvarghese/eastern-culture-vs-western-culture

33. What is culture? • Moghaddam (1993) Humans have an ‘interactive’ relationship with culture – we shape culture and we are also shaped by it • Jahoda (1978) believes that ‘Cultural Evolution’ rather than ‘Biological Evolution’ the reason for our progress and civilization today

34. How can we Define culture? • There are many different definitions of culture. Matsumoto (2004) mentions a book from 1998 that analyzed 128 different definitions of culture. • Culture is a complex concept that is used in many different ways (e.g. to describe food and eating habits, clothing, rituals, communication patterns, religion, and status behavior).

35. Another definition of culture…. • Culture is defined by Matsumoto (2004) as “a dynamic system of rules, explicit and implicit, established by groups in order to ensure their survival, involving attitudes, values, beliefs, norms, and behaviors”. • Culture is dynamic—it changes over time in response to environmental and social changes. It also exists on many levels.

36. Is culture invisible? • According to Kuschel (2004) culture cannot be seen but we can see the manifestations of culture. • There is “deep culture” which is related to beliefs, attitudes, and values that underpin cultural manifestations.

37. Why is culture understanding culture important? • Understanding the role of culture in human behavior is essential in a diverse, multicultural world. • Many of the founding theorists of psychology took a solely western view. • They attempted to find universal behaviors—that is, they were looking for “rules” of human behavior that could be applied to all cultures around the world

38. Cultural differences artwork…

39. How culture influences the way we see the world

41. The danger of making generalizations …. • One does have to be careful, however, with applying the idea of dimensions too casually. • Hoefstede warns against the ecological fallacy—that is, when one looks at two different cultures, it should not be assumed that two members from two different cultures must be different from one another, or that a single member of a culture will always demonstrate the dimensions which are the norm of that culture. • These concepts simply give psychologists a way to generalize about cultures in order to better discuss the role that culture plays in behaviour.

42. Should we use culture to explain behavior? • Kuschel claims that culture should not be used as an explanation of behaviour. • Instead, descriptions of cultural factors can be used to understand: • how people have survived in their environment, • how they have organized life in social groups, • what beliefs, attitudes, and norms influence behavior in the social and cultural groups. • These cultural factors may lead to specific kinds of behavior.

43. Homework questions Using slides 32- 42 answer the following questions. • Provide a definition of culture in your own words. • Briefly describe an incident you have experienced which reflects this definition. • Has culture always been a consideration when developing psychological theory? • Is culture visible? Provide a reason for your answer and an example. • What do you think the ‘universal man’ assumption is about? Explain • Provide two reasons why we should use culture to explain behavior and two reasons why it may not be reliable to consider culture in explaining behavior. • Explain the difference between biological evolution and cultural evolution using an example.

44. Dimensions of culture • In your group create a poster which explains the assigned cultural dimension. • Use a slogan as a heading which conveys the main idea of the dimension. • Provide a visual which explains the dimension. • Provide an analogy which explains the dimension.

45. Dimensions • Individualism vs collectivism - 45 & 46 • Uncertainty vs avoidance – 47 & 48 • Personal space - 49 & 50 • Time perceptions – 51

46. Individualism v.s. Collectivism • One dimension is individualism; another one is collectivism. In individualist societies, the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after himself or herself and his or her immediate family. • In collectivist societies, from birth onwards people are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families (with uncles, aunts, and grandparents), which provides them with support and protection. • However, if an individual does not live up to the norms of the family or the larger social group, the result can sometimes be severe.

47. Individualism vs. Collectivism • Markus and Kitayama (1991) characterized the difference between US and Japanese culture by citing two of their proverbs: • “In America, the squeaky wheel gets the grease; in Japan, the nail that stands out gets pounded down.” • Markus and Kitayama argue that perceiving a boundary between the individual and the social environment is distinctly western in its cultural orientation, and that non-western cultures tend towards connectedness.

48. Uncertainty vs. Avoidance • A second dimension is uncertainty versus avoidance, which deals with a society’s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity. • It indicates to what extent a culture programmes its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations. • Unstructured situations are novel, unknown, surprising. • Uncertainty-avoiding cultures try to minimize the possibility of such situations by strict laws and rules, safety and security measures, and, on the philosophical and religious level, by a belief in absolute Truth—there can only be one Truth and we have it.

49. Confucian Dynamism… • Bond (1988) argues that Chinese culture replaces the uncertainty- avoidance dimension with Confucian work dynamism:instead of focusing on truth, some cultures focus on virtue. • China and other Asian countries have a long-term orientation.These cultures value persistence, loyalty, and trustworthiness. • Relationships are based on status. They have a need to protect the collective identity and respect tradition—what is often called “saving face”. • Hoefstede found that Finland, France, Germany, and the US have a short-term orientation. In contrast to Confucian work dynamism, these cultures value personal steadiness and stability. There is a focus on the future instead of the past, and innovation is highly respected.

50. An alternative view.. Proxemic theory (1966) • Hall’s proxemic theory (1966) is based on a culture’s need for personal space”. • In his book, The Hidden Dimension, he shows that different cultures have different perceptions of the amount of personal space that is required to be comfortable. • People only allow their closest, most intimate friends into this bubble of space.