Overview of Scientific Method

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Broad View of Various Stages of The Research Process:

Finding a topic

Reviewing the literature

Refining the research Question

Generating a Hypothesis

Designing & Conducting a Study

Analyzing the data

Conclusions

Results

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Model of Scientific Research in Psychology:

Formulate research question

Conduct empirical study-designed to answer the question

Analyze resulting data

Draw conclusions about answer to question

Publish results

Research literature is primary source for new research questions-this process becomes a cycle-questions can originate outside of the research process-in these cases researcher need to check the research literature to see if the question has already been asked and or answered-refine question based on previous research findings

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Finding a Research Topic:

A creative process

Product of ordinary thinking strategies and persistence

Finding general research ideas

Turning them into empirically testable research questions

Evaluating those questions

How interesting are they

How feasible are they to answer

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Finding Inspiration:

Begin with ideas

Usually focused on behavior or psychological characteristic

Talkativeness

Learning

Depression

Anxiety

Addiction

Three places that ideas come from:

Informal observations

Direct observations-our own or others behavior

Newspapers

Books etc

Practical problems

Lead to applied research

Does psychotherapy lead to less depression

Do cell phones impair peoples ability to drive

Previous research

Probably the most common

Science is a large scale collaboration

Researchers evaluate each others work

Conduct new studies to build on it

Find research questions by consulting with expert researchers-reading publication-titles & abstracts-narrow down interests into particular topics or domains-use specific jounals

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Reviewing the Research Literature:

Research literature

Published research with any field

Reviewing the research literature means

Finding

Reading and summarizing published research relevant to the topic of interest

This process helps in the following ways

To develop new research questions

If a question has already been answered

Evaluate the interestingness of the question

Ideas on how to conduct study

Informs where the study fits with existing research literature

Research literature does not include

Self-help books

Pop psychology

Dictionary and encyclopedia entries

Websites

Information intended for the public

They are considered unreliable because they are not peer reviewed-wikipedia is considered unreliable. Research considered reliable:

Articles in professional journals

Scholarly books about psychology

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Professional Journals:

Periodicals that publish original research articles

Organised into volumes

Published in both hard copy and digital format

The re one of two basic types:

Empirical research reports

Describe new empirical studies conducted by the authors

Introduce research question'

Explain why it is of interest

Review previous research

Describe method and results

Draw conclusions

Review articles

Summarize previously published research

Present new ways to view and interpret the results

Theoretical article

Meta analysis

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Double-blind peer review:

Submit manuscript to editor

Editor forwards it to 2-2 experts in the field

Each writes a critical review and returns it to the editor along with recommendations

Its either published or rejected or recommended changes are communicated

Books:

Edited Volumes