Getting your ideas Psych 231: Research Methods in Psychology

Announcements Your Class Mallard Page: as of this morning, still not there. I’ll keep you posted as I find out more. Remember to bring your PIP packet and completed library assignment to lab this week (in DeGarmo for the rest of the semester)

Where do ideas come from? Research is often driven by curiosity. –We typically study things that we’re interested in. Continuum of the development of research ideas InformalFormal “This is interesting. I’d like to know more.” “The theory says X. Let’s test the theory.” “We’ve got a problem to solve.” “We understand some things, but there are still questions.”

Where do ideas come from? Glueck & Jauck (1975) –Examined where researchers tend to get their research ideas Self Literature Colleagues % of time get ideas from various sources

Idea origins Common Sense – things that we all think are true “Opposites attract” –Nice social psych experiment, does this work? But note: a lot of our common sense is contradictory –absence makes the heart grow fonder –long distance affairs never last

Idea origins Common Sense Observation – both of others and of yourself (and maybe even of animals or kids). Direct observation - includes public observation, self observation, observing children, observing animals Vicarious observation - what somebody else has observed and reported

Idea origins Common Sense Observation Past research – find out what research has already been done and ask yourself “what don’t we know still” (or perhaps better “what do we NEED to know that we don’t already know) follow-up studies, expanding the past research in more detail or new directions improvements on past research studies, maybe you think the past research had some serious flaws or limitations

Idea origins Common Sense Observation Past research Identify a problem – perhaps there is an important problem or issue that needs a (or some) solution(s). WWII - why do air force’s planes keep crashing? Led to early cognitive theories of attention

Idea origins Common Sense Observation Past research Identify a problem Ask the Experts – basically boils down to putting your trust in somebody else who says that they know what the research

Idea origins Common Sense Observation Past research Identify a problem Ask the Experts Stick with it and get lucky (serendipity) –Look at Ivan Pavlov

Classic barriers to good research ideas I’m not smart enough. –Yes you are, but it may be hard work

Classic barriers to good research ideas I’m not smart enough. Somebody else must have already done this. review the literature, if somebody has done it remember two things: –replication is an important part of science –perhaps there is a new angle to add to the research idea

Classic barriers to good research ideas I’m not smart enough. Somebody else must have already done this. I don’t know how to pursue the idea. –again, review the literature, how have others examined similar issues

Classic barriers to good research ideas I’m not smart enough. Somebody else must have already done this. I don’t know how to pursue the idea. It’s too simple, something must be wrong. –Parsimony (simplicity) is generally a GOOD thing

Classic barriers to good research ideas I’m not smart enough. Somebody else must have already done this. I don’t know how to pursue the idea. It’s too simple, something must be wrong. The idea will take too much work. –don’t be afraid to work hard, sometimes you can think of ways to –simplify things to reduce the workload

Classic barriers to good research ideas I’m not smart enough. Somebody else must have already done this. I don’t know how to pursue the idea. It’s too simple, something must be wrong. The idea will take too much work. My goal is that you come away from this course with the knowledge and ability to see past most, if not all, of these pitfalls.

Are my ideas good? Evaluate your idea –Focus: Is your idea specified enough to be manageable –ROT rule: Replicable - one time deal? Observable - can you measure it? Testable - can you test it & can you falsify it?

Replication Many interesting results are not accepted until they are replicated –Cold fusion - the answer to all of our energy needs The results were never replicated and are not generally accepted by the scientific community –Extrasensory perception (ESP) Some proponents claim that ESP only occurs under certain unknown conditions and that it is impossible to predict when the conditions are right.

Observable Many interesting questions may not be examined experimentally because they aren’t directly or even indirectly observable. –Do dogs think like humans? Since we can’t directly observe a dog’s thoughts, we can only make inferences about their thoughts via their behavior –Is my experience of the color red the same as yours?

Testable Many interesting hypotheses are not testable until they are further specified –There is no relationship between brain size and intelligence Stated as a negative, experimental method is designed to look for evidence of the existence of things –Is abortion wrong? Are drugs evil? Tests opinions which aren’t answerable with experimental methods –Meditation affects how good one feels about oneself. Which direction? What counts as meditation? How much meditation? What does ‘feel good about oneself” mean?

Example: A research idea How do people remember? –This is a pretty big question –To begin to answer it we’ve got to FOCUS break the general idea down into smaller more specific ideas & to develop theories as to how & why –Then we can begin using experiments to test parts of the theories

Focusing the idea –What does memory involve? Encoding - getting the memories in Storage - keeping the memories Retrieval - getting the memories out –Are all kinds of memory the same? Procedural vs. declarative memories Pictures vs. words –How long do memories last?

Evaluating the idea –How do we observe memory? –Can we re-do the experiments, do we get similar results? –Are our predictions testable?