Psychologists study the behavior of both humans

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This text was adapted by The Saylor Foundation under a Creative CommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License without attribution asrequested by the work’s original creator or licensee.Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/booksSaylor.org1Chapter 2Psychological SciencePsychologists study the behavior of both humans and animals, and the main purpose of thisresearch is to help us understand people and to improve the quality of human lives. The results ofpsychological research are relevant to problems such as learning and memory, homelessness,psychological disorders, family instability, and aggressive behavior and violence. Psychologicalresearch is used in a range of important areas, from public policy to driver safety. It guides courtrulings with respect to racism and sexism (Brown v. Board of Education, 1954; Fiske, Bersoff,Borgida, Deaux, & Heilman, 1991), [1] as well as court procedure, in the use of lie detectorsduring criminal trials, for example (Saxe, Dougherty, & Cross, 1985). [2] Psychological researchhelps us understand how driver behavior affects safety (Fajen & Warren, 2003),[3] whichmethods of educating children are most effective (Alexander & Winne, 2006; Woolfolk-Hoy,2005), [4] how to best detect deception (DePaulo et al., 2003), [5] and the causes of terrorism(Borum, 2004). [6]Some psychological research is basic research. Basic research is research that answersfundamental questions about behavior. For instance, biopsychologists study how nerves conductimpulses from the receptors in the skin to the brain, and cognitive psychologists investigate howdifferent types of studying influence memory for pictures and words. There is no particularreason to examine such things except to acquire a better knowledge of how these processesoccur. Applied research is research that investigates issues that have implications for everydaylife and provides solutions to everyday problems. Applied research has been conducted to study,among many other things, the most effective methods for reducing depression, the types ofadvertising campaigns that serve to reduce drug and alcohol abuse, the key predictors ofmanagerial success in business, and the indicators of effective government programs, such asHead Start.Basic research and applied research inform each other, and advances in science occur morerapidly when each type of research is conducted (Lewin, 1999). [7]For instance, although researchconcerning the role of practice on memory for lists of words is basic in orientation, the resultscould potentially be applied to help children learn to read. Correspondingly, psychologistSaylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/booksSaylor.org2practitioners who wish to reduce the spread of AIDS or to promote volunteering frequently basetheir programs on the results of basic research. This basic AIDS or volunteering research is thenapplied to help change people’s attitudes and behaviors.The results of psychological research are reported primarily in research articles published inscientific journals, and your instructor may require you to read some of these. The researchreported in scientific journals has been evaluated, critiqued, and improved by scientists in thefield through the process of peer review. In this book there are many citations to originalresearch articles, and I encourage you to read those reports when you find a topic interesting.Most of these papers are readily available online through your college or university library. It isonly by reading the original reports that you will really see how the research process works.Some of the most important journals in psychology are provided here for your information.Psychological JournalsThe following is a list of some of the most important journals in various subdisciplines of psychology. The researcharticles in these journals are likely to be available in your college library. You should try to read the primary sourcematerial in these journals when you can.General PsychologyAmerican Journal of PsychologyAmerican PsychologistBehavioral and Brain SciencesPsychological BulletinPsychological MethodsPsychological ReviewPsychological ScienceBiopsychology and NeuroscienceBehavioral NeuroscienceJournal of Comparative PsychologyPsychophysiologyClinical and Counseling PsychologySaylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/booksSaylor.org3Journal of Abnormal PsychologyJournal of Consulting and Clinical PsychologyJournal of Counseling PsychologyCognitive PsychologyCognitionCognitive PsychologyJournal of Experimental PsychologyJournal of Memory and LanguagePerception & PsychophysicsCross-Cultural, Personality, and Social PsychologyJournal of Cross-Cultural PsychologyJournal of Experimental Social PsychologyJournal of PersonalityJournal of Personality and Social PsychologyPersonality and Social Psychology BulletinDevelopmental PsychologyChild DevelopmentDevelopmental PsychologyEducational and School PsychologyEducational PsychologistJournal of Educational PsychologyReview of Educational ResearchEnvironmental, Industrial, and Organizational PsychologyJournal of Applied PsychologyOrganizational Behavior and Human Decision ProcessesOrganizational PsychologyOrganizational Research MethodsPersonnel PsychologySaylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/booksSaylor.org4In this chapter you will learn how psychologists develop and test their research ideas; how theymeasure the thoughts, feelings, and behavior of individuals; and how they analyze and interpretthe data they collect. To really understand psychology, you must also understand how and whythe research you are reading about was conducted and what the collected data mean. Learningabout the principles and practices of psychological research will allow you to critically read,interpret, and evaluate research.In addition to helping you learn the material in this course, the ability to interpret and conductresearch is also useful in many of the careers that you might choose. For instance, advertisingand marketing researchers study how to make advertising more effective, health and medicalresearchers study the impact of behaviors such as drug use and smoking on illness, and computerscientists study how people interact with computers. Furthermore, even if you are not planning acareer as a researcher, jobs in almost any area of social, medical, or mental health science requirethat a worker be informed about psychological research.[1] Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954); Fiske, S. T., Bersoff, D. N., Borgida, E., Deaux, K., & Heilman, M. E. (1991).Social science research on trial: Use of sex stereotyping research in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins. American Psychologist, 46(10),1049–1060.[2] Saxe, L., Dougherty, D., & Cross, T. (1985). The validity of polygraph testing: Scientific analysis and publiccontroversy. American Psychologist, 40, 355–366.[3] Fajen, B. R., & Warren, W. H. (2003). Behavioral dynamics of steering, obstacle avoidance, and route selection. Journal ofExperimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 29(2), 343–362.[4] Alexander, P. A., & Winne, P. H. (Eds.). (2006). Handbook of educational psychology(2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: LawrenceErlbaum Associates; Woolfolk-Hoy, A. E. (2005).Educational psychology (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.[5] DePaulo, B. M., Lindsay, J. J., Malone, B. E., Muhlenbruck, L., Charlton, K., & Cooper, H. (2003). Cues todeception. Psychological Bulletin, 129(1), 74–118.[6] Borum, R. (2004). Psychology of terrorism. Tampa: University of South Florida.[7] Lewin, K. (1999). The complete social scientist: A Kurt Lewin reader (M. Gold, Ed.). Washington, DC: American PsychologicalAssociation.Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/booksSaylor.org52.1 Psychologists Use the Scientific Method to Guide Their ResearchLEARNING OBJECTIVES1.Describe the principles of the scientific method and explain its importance in conducting and interpreting research.2.Differentiate laws from theories and explain how research hypotheses are developed and tested.3.Discuss the procedures that researchers use to ensure that their research with humans and with animals is ethical.Psychologists aren’t the only people who seek to understand human behavior and solve socialproblems. Philosophers, religious leaders, and politicians, among others, also strive to provideexplanations for human behavior. But psychologists believe that research is the best tool forunderstanding human beings and their relationships with others. Rather than accepting the claimof a philosopher that people do (or do not) have free will, a psychologist would collect data toempirically test whether or not people are able to actively control their own behavior. Ratherthan accepting a politician’s contention that creating (or abandoning) a new center for mentalhealth will improve the lives of individuals in the inner city, a psychologist would empiricallyassess the effects of receiving mental health treatment on the quality of life of the recipients. Thestatements made by psychologists are empirical, which means they are based on systematiccollection and analysis of data.The Scientific MethodAll scientists (whether they are physicists, chemists, biologists, sociologists, or psychologists)are engaged in the basic processes of collecting data and drawing conclusions about those data.The methods used by scientists have developed over many years and provide a commonframework for developing, organizing, and sharing information. The scientific method is the setof assumptions, rules, and procedures scientists use to conduct research.In addition to requiring that science be empirical, the scientific method demands that theprocedures used be objective, or free from the personal bias or emotions of the scientist. Thescientific method proscribes how scientists collect and analyze data, how they draw conclusionsfrom data, and how they share data with others. These rules increase objectivity by placing dataunder the scrutiny of other scientists and even the public at large. Because data are reportedobjectively, other scientists know exactly how the scientist collected and analyzed the data. ThisSaylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/booksSaylor.org6means that they do not have to rely only on the scientist’s own interpretation of the data; theymay draw their own, potentially different, conclusions.Most new research is designed to replicate—that is, to repeat, add to, or modify—previousresearch findings. The scientific method therefore results in an accumulation of scientificknowledge through the reporting of research and the addition to and modifications of thesereported findings by other scientists.Laws and Theories as Organizing PrinciplesOne goal of research is to organize information into meaningful statements that can be applied inmany situations. Principles that are so general as to apply to all situations in a given domain ofinquiry are known as laws. There are well-known laws in the physical sciences, such as the lawof gravity and the laws of thermodynamics, and there are some universally accepted laws inpsychology, such as the law of effect and Weber’s law. But because laws are very generalprinciples and their validity has already been well established, they are themselves rarely directlysubjected to scientific test.The next step down from laws in the hierarchy of organizing principles is theory. A theory is anintegrated set of principles that explains and predicts many, but not all, observed relationshipswithin a given domain of inquiry. One example of an important theory in psychology is the stagetheory of cognitive development proposed by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. The theorystates that children pass through a series of cognitive stages as they grow, each of which must bemastered in succession before movement to the next cognitive stage can occur. This is anextremely useful theory in human development because it can be applied to many differentcontent areas and can be tested in many different ways.Good theories have four important characteristics. First, good theories are general, meaning theysummarize many different outcomes. Second, they are parsimonious, meaning they provide thesimplest possible account of those outcomes. The stage theory of cognitive development meetsboth of these requirements. It can account for developmental changes in behavior across a widevariety of domains, and yet it does so parsimoniously—by hypothesizing a simple set ofcognitive stages. Third, good theories provide ideas for future research. The stage theory ofSaylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/booksSaylor.org7cognitive development has been applied not only to learning about cognitive skills, but also tothe study of children’s moral (Kohlberg, 1966) [1] and gender (Ruble & Martin,1998) [2] development.Finally, good theories are falsifiable (Popper, 1959), [3] which means the variables of interest canbe adequately measured and the relationships between the variables that are predicted by thetheory can be shown through research to be incorrect. The stage theory of cognitivedevelopment is falsifiable because the stages of cognitive reasoning can be measured andbecause if research discovers, for instance, that children learn new tasks before they havereached the cognitive stage hypothesized to be required for that task, then the theory will beshown to be incorrect.No single theory is able to account for all behavior in all cases. Rather, theories are each limitedin that they make accurate predictions in some situations or for some people but not in othersituations or for other people. As a result, there is a constant exchange between theory and data:Existing theories are modified on the basis of collected data, and the new modified theories thenmake new predictions that are tested by new data, and so forth. When a better theory is found, itwill replace the old one. This is part of the accumulation of scientific knowledge.The Research HypothesisTheories are usually framed too broadly to be tested in a single experiment. Therefore, scientistsuse a more precise statement of the presumed relationship among specific parts of a theory—aresearch hypothesis—as the basis for their research. A research hypothesis is a specific andfalsifiable prediction about the relationship between or among two or more variables, wherea variable is any attribute that can assume different values among different people or acrossdifferent times or places. The research hypothesis states the existence of a relationship betweenthe variables of interest and the specific direction of that relationship. For instance, the researchhypothesis ―Using marijuana will reduce learning‖ predicts that there is a relationship between avariable ―using marijuana‖ and another variable called ―learning.‖ Similarly, in the researchhypothesis ―Participating in psychotherapy will reduce anxiety,‖ the variables that are expectedto be related are ―participating in psychotherapy‖ and ―level of anxiety.‖Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/booksSaylor.org8When stated in an abstract manner, the ideas that form the basis of a research hypothesis areknown as conceptual variables. Conceptual variables are abstract ideas that form the basis ofresearch hypotheses. Sometimes the conceptual variables are rather simple—for instance, ―age,‖―gender,‖ or ―weight.‖ In other cases the conceptual variables represent more complex ideas,such as ―anxiety,‖ ―cognitive development,‖ ―learning,‖ self-esteem,‖ or ―sexism.‖The first step in testing a research hypothesis involves turning the conceptual variablesinto measured variables, which are variables consisting of numbers that represent the conceptualvariables. For instance, the conceptual variable ―participating in psychotherapy‖ could berepresented as the measured variable ―number of psychotherapy hours the patient has accrued‖and the conceptual variable ―using marijuana‖ could be assessed by having the researchparticipants rate, on a scale from 1 to 10, how often they use marijuana or by administering ablood test that measures the presence of the chemicals in marijuana.Psychologists use the term operational definition to refer to a precise statement of how aconceptual variable is turned into a measured variable. The relationship between conceptual andmeasured variables in a research hypothesis is diagrammed in Figure 2.1 "Diagram of a ResearchHypothesis". The conceptual variables are represented within circles at the top of the figure, andthe measured variables are represented within squares at the bottom. The two vertical arrows,which lead from the conceptual variables to the measured variables, represent the operationaldefinitions of the two variables. The arrows indicate the expectation that changes in theconceptual variables (psychotherapy and anxiety in this example) will cause changes in thecorresponding measured variables. The measured variables are then used to draw inferencesabout the conceptual variables.Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/booksSaylor.org9Figure 2.1 Diagram of a Research HypothesisIn this research hypothesis, the conceptual variable of attending psychotherapy is operationalized using the numberof hours of psychotherapy the client has completed, and the conceptual variable of anxiety is operationalized usingself-reported levels of anxiety. The research hypothesis is that more psychotherapy will be related to less reportedanxiety.Table 2.1 "Examples of the Operational Definitions of Conceptual Variables That Have BeenUsed in Psychological Research" lists some potential operational definitions of conceptualvariables that have been used in psychological research. As you read through this list, note that incontrast to the abstract conceptual variables, the measured variables are very specific. ThisSaylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/booksSaylor.org10specificity is important for two reasons. First, more specific definitions mean that there is lessdanger that the collected data will be misunderstood by others. Second, specific definitions willenable future researchers to replicate the research.Table 2.1 Examples of the Operational Definitions of Conceptual Variables That Have Been Used in PsychologicalResearchConceptual variableOperational definitionsDepressionNumber of millimeters of pupil dilation when one person looks at anotherNumber of days per month an employee shows up to work on timeRating of job satisfaction from 1 (not at all satisfied) to 9 (extremely satisfied)Number of groups able to correctly solve a group performance taskNumber of seconds in which a person solves a problemDecision-making skillsNumber of inches that an individual places his or her chair away from another personEmployee satisfactionNumber of seconds taken to honk the horn at the car ahead after a stoplight turns greenInterpersonal attractionAggressionNumber of presses of a button that administers shock to another studentNumber of negative words used in a creative storyNumber of appointments made with a psychotherapistConducting Ethical ResearchOne of the questions that all scientists must address concerns the ethics of their research.Physicists are concerned about the potentially harmful outcomes of their experiments withnuclear materials. Biologists worry about the potential outcomes of creating geneticallyengineered human babies. Medical researchers agonize over the ethics of withholding potentiallybeneficial drugs from control groups in clinical trials. Likewise, psychologists are continuallyconsidering the ethics of their research.Research in psychology may cause some stress, harm, or inconvenience for the people whoparticipate in that research. For instance, researchers may require introductory psychologystudents to participate in research projects and then deceive these students, at least temporarily,Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/booksSaylor.org11about the nature of the research. Psychologists may induce stress, anxiety, or negative moods intheir participants, expose them to weak electrical shocks, or convince them to behave in waysthat violate their moral standards. And researchers may sometimes use animals in their research,potentially harming them in the process.Decisions about whether research is ethical are made using established ethical codes developedby scientific organizations, such as the American Psychological Association, and federalgovernments. In the United States, the Department of Health and Human Services provides theguidelines for ethical standards in research. Some research, such as the research conducted by theNazis on prisoners during World War II, is perceived as immoral by almost everyone. Otherprocedures, such as the use of animals in research testing the effectiveness of drugs, are morecontroversial.Scientific research has provided information that has improved the lives of many people.Therefore, it is unreasonable to argue that because scientific research has costs, no researchshould be conducted. This argument fails to consider the fact that there are significant coststo not doing research and that these costs may be greater than the potential costs of conducting theresearch (Rosenthal, 1994). [4] In each case, before beginning to conduct the research, scientistshave attempted to determine the potential risks and benefits of the research and have come to theconclusion that the potential benefits of conducting the research outweigh the potential costs tothe research participants.Characteristics of an Ethical Research Project Using Human ParticipantsTrust and positive rapport are created between the researcher and the participant.The rights of both the experimenter and participant are considered, and the relationship between them ismutually beneficial.The experimenter treats the participant with concern and respect and attempts to make the research experience apleasant and informative one.Before the research begins, the participant is given all information relevant to his or her decision to participate,including any possibilities of physical danger or psychological stress.Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/booksSaylor.org12The participant is given a chance to have questions about the procedure answered, thus guaranteeing his or herfree choice about participating.After the experiment is over, any deception that has been used is made public, and the necessity for it isexplained.The experimenter carefully debriefs the participant, explaining the underlying research hypothesis and thepurpose of the experimental procedure in detail and answering any questions.The experimenter provides information about how he or she can be contacted and offers to provide informationabout the results of the research if the participant is interested in receiving it. (Stangor, 2011)[5]This list presents some of the most important factors that psychologists take into considerationwhen designing their research. The most direct ethical concern of the scientist is to preventharm to the research participants. One example is the well-known research of Stanley Milgram(1974) [6] investigating obedience to authority. In these studies, participants were induced by anexperimenter to administer electric shocks to another person so that Milgram could study theextent to which they would obey the demands of an authority figure. Most participants evidencedhigh levels of stress resulting from the psychological conflict they experienced between engagingin aggressive and dangerous behavior and following the instructions of the experimenter. Studiessuch as those by Milgram are no longer conducted because the scientific community is nowmuch more sensitized to the potential of such procedures to create emotional discomfort or harm.Another goal of ethical research is to guarantee that participants have free choice regardingwhether they wish to participate in research. Students in psychology classes may be allowed, oreven required, to participate in research, but they are also always given an option to choose adifferent study to be in, or to perform other activities instead. And once an experiment begins,the research participant is always free to leave the experiment if he or she wishes to. Concernswith free choice also occur in institutional settings, such as in schools, hospitals, corporations,and prisons, when individuals are required by the institutions to take certain tests, or whenemployees are told or asked to partic…

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