CHAPTER 2 PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS CONDUCTING RESEARCH

Psychology like chemistry and biology is an experimental science and it must be supported by evidence. To support their work psychologists and scientists use a variety of research methods to study behavior and mental processes. These methods differ in a number of ways, but psychologists tend to follow the same procedures when conducting research the steps are the following. Conducting Research

THE STEPS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH 1.Forming a Research Question 2. Forming a Hypothesis 3. Testing the Hypothesis 4. Analyzing Results 5. Drawing Conclusions

FORMING A RESEARCH QUESTION Psychologists begin a study by forming a research question, they can arise from daily experience, psychological theory, folklore and common knowlegde. These questions from daily experience arise from common situations that we encounter everyday, from psychological theory, when we use observation to to learn from others and common knowledge, things that people know or that they think they know.

FORMING A HYPOTHESIS After psychologists ask a research question, they form a hypothesis about the answer. A HYPOTHESIS, is an educated guess. The accuracy of a hypothesis can be tested by research. Psychologists may word a hypothesis inthe form of an if-then statement. If-then reasoning is an example of social scientific reasoning. Because is an educated guess a hypothesis must be tested.

TESTING THE HYPOTHESIS Because psychology is a science, psychological knowledge rests on carefully examined human experience. No matter how good a hypothesis sounds and no matter how many people believe it, a hypothesis cannot be considered to be correct until it has been scientifically tested and proved to be right. Psychologists don`t rely on people`s opinions, instead they examine the evidence and draw their own conclusions.

ANALYZING THE RESULTS After psychologists have tested their hypotheses, they analyze their results. They ask what their findings mean. In most psychological studies, psychologists collect a great deal more information, or data, psychologists would test their hypothesis through several ways. The more information, they collect and the more data they get to support their hypothesis the better.

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS Once psychologists have analyzed their research observations, they draw conclusions about their questions and their hypotheses. These conclusions are useful in the development and validation of theories in psychology. When their observations do not support their hypotheses, they often must change their theories or beliefs from which the hypotheses were derived. Therefore psychologists need to keep open minds, they must be willing to adjust or modify their hypotheses.

REPLICATION Even when a study carefully follows proper procedures, its findings might just represent a random occurance. For the findings of a study to be confirmed, the study must be replicated, that is, the study must be repeated, and it must produce the same results as before. When scientists replicate a study but obtain different results than were obtained the first time, the findings of the first study are questioned.