Psychological Science Handout 2 Research Designs Page 2.1 _ _ HANDOUT 2 RESEARCH DESIGNS The Whole Picture Principle: Research scientists are so caught up in their own narrow endeavors that they have difficulty seeing the whole picture of anything, including their own research. BASIC CONCEPTS Research According the Kerlinger, the purpose of research is theory. Research that is not theory based is simply journalism - a reporting of facts with no connecting thread. Research serves three purposes: 1 - theory building: to generate a theory where none currently exists 2 - theory confirmation: to test propositions derived from our theory, and thus test the soundness of our theoretical conceptualizations 3 - theory modification: to seek out the boundaries of our theory; to identify the areas where the theory is not adequate at explaining the phenomenon we are interested in addressing Good research extends our knowledge into new areas, and makes known information that was previously unknown. More importantly, research helps us identify the fundamental relationships between events in our universe. Research depends on the four ways of knowing. Dogma is an appeal to authority. In using this approach we ask the people who are authorities in the area to explain the nature of the relationships. The benefit of dogma is that we don't have to re-learn what someone else has discovered - we can continue from where they stopped. The problem with dogma is that we can never know more than the authorities know. Reason is the use of logic and rational thought to determine what is and what isn't. Science proceeds from the proposition that while reality may transcend logic, it does not defy logic. The problem with reason is that two things may both be logically possible, but mutually exclusive - in other words, if one explanation is correct, the other one cannot be. While reason tells us how our world CAN go together, it does not always tell us how our world DOES go together. Phenomenology is the use of subjective experience in determining how the world is put together. However, when two people have different subjective experiences, phenomenology cannot tell us who has the "right" or "correct" experience. Phenomenology is helpful in the creative process, and without our subjective (or intuitive) processes, creativity (even in science) is not possible. However, it is not useful in resolving disputes about the nature of the world. _ _ Cappelletty, Aug-13 Handout 2 Psychological Science Page 2.2 Research Designs _ _ Empiricism is the use of objective measurement and observation to determine reality. Within the empirical method, only that which can be observed and agreed to by all is considered "real" and used to validate or build theories. In reality, all four methods are used to build, test, and modify the theories we use in science. Theory A theory is a set of interrelated propositions about the relationships between concepts. In this definition of theory, we have a number of important issues: Proposition - A proposition is a principle connecting two or more concepts by stating the mechanism that holds them together. For example, low self esteem (concept 1) causes depression (concept 2) by increasing the negative thoughts (concept 3) one has about oneself (the mechanism connecting concepts 1, 2 and 3). We can have two different types of propositions: specific and general. Specific: A specific proposition is very limited, and generally involves only 2 or 3 concepts. General: A general proposition is more global and often combines specific propositions into more wide ranging generalizations about a phenomenon. Relationship - A relationship is the manner in which two concepts go together. There are only three types of relationships: positive (increasing A also increases B), negative (increasing A decreases B and vice versa), and ambivalent (increasing A increases B only under certain conditions; under other conditions, increasing A decreases B). Concepts - A concept is a single "thing," specific entity or mental image. For example, "intelligence" is a concept in that it is a single entity in a theory. It is important to note that concepts, in and of themselves, have no truth value. That is, you cannot debate the validity of a concept. Thus, a concept such as "unconscious" may or may not be useful in describing our topic of study, but it is not "valid" in and of itself. Construct - Once you define a concept, you have a construct. When you define a concept, you can now begin to rationally debate and argue the "thing" about which you are talking. A construct, like a concept, has no objective truth value. In other words, the construct may be a useful tool to use in describing reality, but it is not reality in and of itself. Operational Definition - With an operational definition, we now get into objective, empirical truth. An operational definition tells us the operations we will perform in order to observe the _ _ Cappelletty - Aug-13 Psychological Science Handout 2 Research Designs Page 2.3 _ _ construct we have defined. In other words, we need to decide how we are going to observe the concept. The validity of the operation definition depends on the operational definition involved. So far we have the diagram at the top of the next page. Philosophical Issues Science is interested in the development (rational) and testing (empirical) of theories. At issue is the search for cause and effect relationships. A basic premise of psychology is that behavior is caused by something - it doesn't just arise spontaneously. Determinism is a guiding principle of research: everything is determined by something. Aristotle's four causes: Material: What a thing is made out of, the material that goes into it Formal: The form and shape a thing takes; the "pattern" followed in making that thing Motive: The impetus that moved things to create the thing Final: The end result toward which the thing moves Necessary & Sufficient Causes _ _ Cappelletty, Aug-13 Handout 2 Psychological Science Page 2.4 Research Designs _ _ Necessary: A cause that must exist in order for the thing to come into being Sufficient: A cause that, by itself, will cause a thing to come into being Determining causal connections is often more a logical, rational endeavor than it is an empirical one. In connecting events to one another in a causal chain of events, it is important to remember a few basic principles. These principles are outlined below. Temporal nature of cause: After cannot cause before. Causes occur before effects, and not after them. "Sticky" versus "Loose" variables: "Sticky" variables are those that rarely change, are hard to change, and generally have little variation over the life of an idividual. "Loose" variables are those than often change, are easy to change, and have a large variability over the life of an individual. In general, sticky variables are the causes, and loose variables tend to be the effects. The more "sticky" a variable, the less likely it is to be affected by something else; the more "loose" a variable is, the more likely it is to be caused by something else. Truth: In science, Truth is conceptualized as the way in which the world is put together. However, truth is not a unitary thing but is composed of different types: necessary truths, contingent truths, and impossibilities. Truth can be seen as existing on a continuum from the necessary to the impossible, as below. true false +-------------------------------------------+ necessary impossible | contingent possible Necessary Truth: Something which, by definition, is true. It makes no sense to check out a necessary truth as it cannot possibly be false. Impossibility: Something which, by definition, cannot be true. For example, the question: "Are bachelors married?" is silly to ask since the answer is apparent in the definition of the term "bachelor." Contingent: Something which can be either true or false. Only observation will determine the truth value of a contingent truth. These types of truth are the proper object of research in psychology. MEASUREMENT ISSUES Measurement is the hallmark of a science. An axiom in science is that "if something exists, it can be measured." In developing a research design, one _ _ Cappelletty - Aug-13 Psychological Science Handout 2 Research Designs Page 2.5 _ _ always comes to the question of how the concepts shall be measured. Measurement should always follow your construct definition and be guided by that definition. The selection of an appropriate measurement device is one of the hardest things in research. In psychology, the questionnaire is the most common form of measurement. Questionnaires can include the following types of interview or reporting methods: - structured interview - unstructured interview - rating scales - self-report inventories - psychological tests The thing all of these have in common is that we are asking the subject (or a significant other in the case of a rating scale) to report on his or her own behavior, feelings, beliefs, attitudes, etc. There are a number of problems with the questionnaire, such as the honesty of the person filling it out, and thus an alternative to the questionnaire is the direct observation of behavior by the researcher. Regardless of the type of measurement/observation being made, the basic steps in measurement selection will apply. Step 1: Decide WHAT To Measure This step may sound redundant, yet many research projects have failed miserably because the researchers failed to adequately consider what they needed to measure. Before we can put together our questionnaire packet or begin to collect data, we need to have some idea of what it is we are looking for. By looking at all of the implications of what we are measureing, both theoretical and practical, we can avoid major pitfalls later on.