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Chapter 1
Psychological investigations
This chapter looks at how psychologists conduct research. Like all scientists, psychologists use systematic techniques for collecting and analysing data in order to produce objective and verifiable data.
Introduction
Research method 1: observations
Observations
More on observations
Evaluating observations
Research method 2: self-report
Self-report
More on self-report
Evaluating self-report
Research method 3: experiments
Experiments
More on experiments
Evaluating experiments
Research method 4: correlation
Exam-style questions
Other issues and techniques
Representing data
Ethics
Sampling
We use research methods to find out information about the world. We try to collect information that will help us understand our world a bit better. The alternative is to make up information – just guess why things happen; this is less likely to help our understanding.
The first way to find out things is to look at what is happening around you and record it. To start with we tell a story about what we see and then we try to put it in categories. This is the process of observation; we all use it in everyday life to make sense of our world. This intuitive method of ‘research’ has been developed by psychologists to increase our knowledge of the world. Sometimes they record things that are usual in everyday life, such as people’s behaviour in a library, and sometimes they record rather unusual things that are rarely experienced, such as response to emergencies.
The main subject for psychological research is the behaviour and experience of people, and if you want to know what someone thinks, feels or does the first thing to do is to ask them. This gives us first-hand accounts called self-reports. These are excellent sources of data but not necessarily accurate. We are not always the best witnesses of ourselves because we forget what we did, or we want to put over a good impression of ourselves, or because sometimes we just don’t know why we do things.
As we build up our evidence (from observations and self-reports) we start to develop theories which we want to test to see if they are right or not. For example, observations of children with autism led to the theory that children with this condition had a specific deficit in their way of interpreting the world. The study by Baron-Cohen et al. tested this theory using the Eyes Task that examines how accurate we are at reading emotion in another person. They compared the judgements of people with autism against the judgements of other people. Psychologists use experiments to see if one factor (in this case autism) causes a difference in behaviour (in this case difficulty interpreting emotion). These results can then be used to challenge or support their theories.
Some issues can be explored by looking at differences between groups while others are better explored by looking for associations between scores. For example, we might measure a person’s level of stress and also their sense of control over their behaviour (locus of control). Our hypothesis might be that the more control we feel we have over our lives the less stress we will experience. We can examine this hypothesis using a test of correlation.
In this chapter we look at these four ways of collecting data and comment on the relative strengths and weaknesses of them.
Basics of scientific research
Testable
Scientific research starts with theories which explain things in the world about us. However, for a theory to be any good it must stand up to being tested. For example, the science of phrenology was based on the idea that the shape of the brain determined personality. However, this has not been supported by any evidence and so cannot be held to explain any facts.
Replicable
If a result is sound it ought to be possible to repeat it. If it is not possible to get the same result again it raises a question about the original study. Sometimes studies are not repeated because of ethical issues, for example Milgram’s study of obedience but the question still remains.
Objective
If we are objective then we try to remove as much bias as possible from our study (the opposite is to be subjective and personal). We can do this by using controls and by, for example, recording exactly what we observe rather than our interpretations. Freud’s study is a very subjective account of Little Hans’ fears.
Valuable
Psychological research doesn’t have to have direct benefit to the general public but many people think it should make a contribution to our understanding of ourselves and others. In other words it should be useful. Whatever criticisms are made of Milgram’s study, it has provided a valuable insight into human behaviour.
Play with psychological methods
Why not use your phone or iPod to carry out some research? If you haven’t got an iPod then just make one out of pink cardboard and white string; nobody will notice. You can observe people’s behaviour with an iPod: do they make less eye contact in the street? Do they hum out loud, or move in rhythm? You can experiment whether people do better at simple tests when listening to the iPod than when not listening. Or you can compare the effects of different types of music on performance. You can make a questionnaire about iPod playlists or colours, or attitudes to people who have iPods. And you might correlate the amount of time people use shuffle (com...
