MODULE 4- Activity 1

RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY (I)

20 m

Introduction

Why Do Psychologists Conduct Research?
How Do Researchers Measure Psychological Phenomena?
How Do Researchers Test Their Hypotheses?
What Makes for Good Research?


ELEMENTS OF THE RESEARCH

I. PURPOSE OF RESEARCH

A. Question, Puzzle, Problem
Research always starts with a question: Why?

i.e. What part of the brain responsible for creativity?

B. Hypothesis
All questions can be stated in the form of a hypothesis, which is no more than a prediction about the relationship between variables

i.e. When the person is creative, the right hemisphere is actively processing info.

C. Research: Statements about the relationship among variables must be tested somehow. All research studies must do TWO things:

1. The researcher must choose a method for measuring the
variables specified;
2. The research must choose a method for testing the strength
of the relationship among these variables--design.

II. MEASUREMENT

A. Observational methods: watching events as they occur, being careful to what goes on, describe behavior, remain objective

B. Self-report : any method in which the subject, respondent, provides the research through oral or written methods (questionnaire, interview, etc.)

C. Case studies: one single incident, case, studied in detail, try to get as much information as possible

III. RESEARCH DESIGN

A. Nonexperimental (Correlational) Strategy. The purpose is to measure the "strength" of the relationship between two more variables.

B. Experimental Strategy. The purpose is to measure the strength of the causal relationship between two variables.

IV. EVALUATING RESEARCH

As scientist: must be able to evaluate the validity of the results of studies, no study is perfect; We must ask teh following questions about studies:

A. Is it valid?
B. Is it Ethical?
C. Is it informative and/or useful?


Based on the annotations of Donelson R. Forsyth.