Introduction to Scientific Research

Research Methods, Design, and Analysis

Copyright ©2011 by Pearson Education, Inc.All rights reserved.

Research Methods, Design, and Analysis, Eleventh EditionChristensen • Johnson • Turner

CHAPTER

Eleventh Edition

Introduction to Scientific Research

1



Why learn about the scientific research process?

• To learn the research process• Provides a foundation for other courses• To become a critical consumer of

information• To develop critical and analytic thinking• Learn to critically read a research article• Necessary for most graduate programs



Methods of Acquiring Knowledge

• Intuition – knowing without reasoning– used in forming some hypotheses (hunches)– problem – no mechanism for separating

accurate from inaccurate knowledge

• Authority – facts stated from a respected source– can be used in the design phase of a study– problem – authority can be wrong



Methods of Acquiring Knowledge (cont'd)

• Rationalism – knowledge from reasoning – used to derive hypotheses

• Empiricism – knowledge from experience– observation used to collect data in science– potential problem is researcher bias



Science

• A more reliable and valid method of acquiring knowledge

• Different scientific methods have been popular historically



Scientific Methods

• Induction – specific to general reasoning – used from late 17th to middle of 19th century– still used today when generalizing from

specific experiments to general hypotheses or theory

• Deduction – general to specific reasoning– involved in forming hypotheses from theory



Scientific Methods (cont'd)

• Hypothesis testing – testing a predicted relationship from theory or experience– prominent from mid 19th century to about

1960 but still used extensively today– associated with logical positivists

philosophical position started by scholars at University of Vienna

believed that statements meaningful only when verifiable by observation




• Hypothesis testing – testing a predicted relationship from theory or experience– associated with logical positivists

is an inductive position – observation confirming a general hypothesis

– critic – Popper and his falsification position




• Naturalism – evaluate science empirically and methodology will evolve from this study– Kuhn and paradigms

paradigm – framework or thought or belief science governed by types of activities

– normal science-shared paradigm– revolutionary science – replace one paradigm with another




• Naturalism – evaluate science empirically and methodology will evolve from this study– Lakatos and research programs

research program – framework in which a scientific activity takes place




• Feyerabend’s Anarchists Theory of Science– no prior approach identified a distinguishing

feature of science– advocated that science does not give

knowledge superior to other forms of knowledge




• Feyerabend’s Anarchists Theory of Science– his position – the unchanging principle of

scientific method is that “anything goes” scientific knowledge is not better than other forms

of knowledge



What is Science? (cont'd)

• Method has to be defined at a single stage in the development of a field– Consists of some specific aims to arrive at

knowledge of some specific kind, methods for arriving at those aims together with the standards for judging the extent to which they are met, and specific facts and theories that represent the current state of play as far as the realization of the aim is concerned



Basic Assumptions Underlying Scientific Research

• Uniformity or regularity in nature– determinism – the belief that mental process

are fully caused by prior natural factors– probabilistic causes – a weaker form of

determinism that indicates regularities that usually but not always occur

• Reality in nature – the assumption that the things we see, hear, feel, smell, and taste are real



Basic Assumptions Underlying Scientific Research (cont'd)

• Discoverability – the assumption this is possible to discover the regularities that exist in nature



Characteristics of Scientific Research

• Control—eliminating the influence of extraneous variables

• Operationism—representing constructs by a specific set of operations– original focus was on operational def.– objections to strict operational definition

demands too strict each operational definition completely specified the

meaning of the term



Characteristics of Scientific Research (cont'd)

• Operationism—representing constructs by a specific set of operations– operationalism focuses on features used to

represent a construct is essential for communication many different ways of representing constructs multiple operationalism involves use of multiple

measures of a construct



Characteristics of Scientific Research (cont'd)

• Replication— reproduction of results in a new study– reasons for failure to replicate

effect doesn’t exist replication study is not an exact replication effect may depend on context

– meta-analysis – a quantitative technique for describing the relationship between variables across multiple studies



Role of Theory in Science

• To summarize and integrate existing data• To guide new research• Continuous interaction between theory

and empirical observation



Figure 1.2Illustration of the relationship between theory and research.



Role of Scientist in Psychological Research

• Curiosity• Patience• Objectivity• Change



Objectives of Psychological Research

• Description –portraying the phenomenon • Explanation – Identifying the cause(s) of

the phenomenon• Prediction – anticipating the outcome the

occurrence of an event



Objectives of Psychological Research (cont'd)

• Control – manipulation of the conditions that determine a phenomenon– different meanings of the word control

comparison eliminating influence of extraneous variables guidance



Pseudoscience

• An approach that claims to be scientific but in fact violates many tenets of science

• Attempted association with science made in an attempt to gain legitimacy



Strategies Used in Pseudoscience

• Overuse of ad hoc hypotheses to explain away negative findings– characterized by statements that can’t be

falsified or ad hoc hypotheses to explain problems with the claim

• Emphasis on confirmation rather than refutation– science tries to prove hypotheses wrong



Strategies Used in Pseudoscience (cont'd)

• Absence of self-correction– does not try to verify or refute claims

• Reverse burden of proof– asks critics to prove that their claims are

wrong

• Overreliance on testimonials and anecdotal evidence



Strategies Used in Pseudoscience (cont'd)

• Use of obscurantist language– language that confuses versus clarifies– uses scientific terms to sound respectable

• Absence of “connectivity” with other disciplines

Introduction to Scientific Research

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