this note continues from the the previous lecture on how the scientific method in Intro to Psychological Science.
The Scientific Method
Outlining the steps of the method looks like the following:
- Formulate a theory
- how can you state this problem as a general question?
- Develop a hypothesis
- how can you translate this question into a testable prediction?
- Design your study
- Collect Data
- compare to our original hypothesis and amend our theory
Importance of Replication
More than a single study is necessary to build confidence in a theory.
Definition
Replication: conductiong a study more than once on a new sample of participants, with the same findings
There is a crisis in psych, as nobody wants to fund a study that finds nothing new and simply verifies what we already appear to know.
An Experiment
Theory: studying more leads to better test grades
Hypothesis: students who study science more than 6 hours per day will do better on their science test than those who spend less that 5 hours per day studying for science.
Data: track the number of hours spent studying for science for each senior level student in one high school and then collect all of their final science tests scores
The Foundation of a Research Study
Variables: something of interest that varies from person to person, or situation to situation, and has at least two levels or values.
Some examples
- socioeconomic status
- culture
- etc
Operationalizing Our Variables
To test a theory using the scientific method, researchers must convert concepts of variability into concrete, quantifiable, and measurable variables.
Operationalizing a variable usually means turning it into a number, which can be recorded and analyzed.
Variables can be operationalized in differing ways:
- self reporting: people describe themselves in an interview or survey, using a rating scale
- direct observation: researchers observe and record the occurrence of behavior
- technology can be used to record physiological measures