PSY 200 Research Methods Part 1 of 4

welcome to the section on scientific research what is it and why do we do it today we're going to go over the scientific method the definition of research research designs research ethics and some case studies we'll also cover the Belmont report what you will learn today will be general information on the scientific method information on different research designs and the purpose of each design and its analysis ethical guidelines for conducting research and how some research in the past was conducted and why we do it differently today what you'll be able to do will be to understand the basics of the scientific method identify different research techniques and when or why they might be used and determine what is ethical or not when considering research design what is scientific research it is research that is critical tool for successfully navigating our complex world without it we would be forced to rely solely on intuition other people's Authority and blind luck while many of us feel confident in our abilities to decipher and interact with the world around us history is filled with examples of how very wrong we can be when we fail to recognize the need for evidence in supporting claim at various times in history we would have been certain that the sun revolved around flat earth the earth continents did not move and that mental illness was caused by possession it is through systematic scientific research that we divest ourselves of preconceived notions and superstitions ining an objective understanding of ourselves and our world to the right have picture of trepanation which is the practice of making hole in the skull as shown here which was thought to allow evil spirits to leave the body cure mental illness and other disorders know we covered this picture already in an earlier lecture but think it's amazing and it totally shows how far we've come the goal of all scientists is to better understand the world around them psychologists Focus their attention on understanding Behavior as well as the cognitive or mental and physiological or body processes that underly behavior in contrast to other methods that people might use to understand the behavior of others such as intuition and personal experience the Hallmark of scientific research is that there is evidence to support claim scientific knowledge is grounded in objective tangible evidence that can be observed time and time again regarding of who is observing while behaviors are observable the mind is not if someone is crying we can see that behavior however the reason for the behavior is more difficult to determine is the person crying due to being sad in pain or are they happy sometimes we can learn the reason for someone's Behavior by simply asking question like why are you crying however there are situations in which an individual is either uncomfortable or unwilling to answer the question honestly or incapable of answering for example infants would not be able to explain why they are crying in such circumstances the psychologist must be creative and finding ways to better understand Behavior trying to determine which theories are and are not accepted by the scientific Community can be difficult especially in an area of research that is as broad as psychology we have an incredible amount of information at our fingertips and simple internet search On Any Given research topic might result in number of contradictory studies in these cases we are witnessing the scientific Community going through the process of reaching consensus and it could be quite some time before consensus emerges for example the hypothesized link between exposure to Media violence and subsequent aggression has been debated in the scientific Community for roughly 60 years even today we will find detractors but consensus is building several professional organizations view media violence exposure as risk factor for actual violence including the American Medical Association the American Psychiatric association the American Psychological Association American Academy of Pediatrics American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the American Academy of family physicians this being said this doesn't mean that media violence causes actual violence it means that it's risk factor the agreement here is that there is more risk associated with exposure to Media violence than not being exposed to Media violence this means that we should strive to think critically about the information we encounter by exercising degree of healthy skepticism when someone makes claim we should examine the claim from several different perspectives what is the expertise of the person making the claim what might they gain if the claim is valid does the claim seem justified given the evidence what do other researchers think of the claim this is especially important when we consider how much information in advertising campaigns and on the internet claims to be based on scientific evidence when it's belief or perspective of just few individuals that are trying to sell that product or draw attention to their perspective we should be informed consumers of the information that's made available to us because decisions based on this information have significant consequences one one such consequence could be seen in politics and public policy imagine that you've been elected as the governor of your state one of your representatives is to manage the state budget and determine how to best spend your constituents tax dollars as the new governor you need to decide whether to continue funding the Dare program in public schools dare stands for drug abuse resistance education this program typically involves police officers coming into the classroom to educate students about the dangers of becoming involved with alcohol and Other Drugs according to the Dare website this program has been very popular since its Inception in 1983 and it is currently operating in 75% of school districts in the United States in some capacity and in more than 40 countries worldwide it might sound like an it could sound like an easy decision right so what do you think have you heard of this program do you remember it from when you were in school did you think it was good or helpful or not that great on closer review you discover that the vast majority of research into this program consistently suggests that participation has little if any effect on whether or not someone uses alcohol or other drugs there's video here that will be linked below some controversy exists there's challenges with this dare program some researchers believe that adolescent drug use is not linked to rational thought because adolescent often engage in unplanned Behavior no theoretical or empirical data support this selfesteem exercise used in Dare and controversy exists regarding the relationship between self-esteem and drug abuse the program also mostly focused on upper middle class schools for making classroom presentations about drug use studies repeatedly found that students who participated were no less likely to use drugs than students who had not gone through the Dare program other challenges with the Dare program include that in 2004 children were asked to submit to the Dare police officers pieces of sensitive written questionnaires that could easily refer to the kids' homes and that dare lesson was called the three Rs recognize resist and Report which encouraged children to tell their friends teachers or police if they found drugs at home in addition the officers were encouraged to put dare boxes in every classroom and this was where students could drop drug information or questions under the pretense of it being anonymous officers are instructed that if student makes disclosure related to drug use the officer should report the information to further authorities both school and police this applies whether the drug use was legal or illegal harmless or harmful in several communities around the country students have been enlisted by the Dare officers as informants against their parents another study in 1992 by Indiana University which was commissioned by the Indiana school officials found that those who completed the deare program subsequently had significantly higher rates of hallucinogenic drug use than those who were not exposed to the program additionally Marsha rosenbom who headed the West Coast Office of the lind Smith Center which is drug policy reform organization provided an opinion that reported in deer's worldview marble or light cigarettes bardi and drag from joint are all equally dangerous for that matter so is snorting few lines of cocaine dare isn't really education it's indoctrination basically what her she was saying was this is not good right this is saying every level of illicit substance use is the same is equally dangerous so in her opinion it was minimizing some of the worse or potentially more dangerous drugs and kind of maximizing others which in turn could make students feel like well if cocaine isn't as big of deal as cigarettes or if cigarettes are as big of deal as cocaine perhaps that decision- making could be skewed and they could be lumping all of these things together back in 2001 the Surgeon General of the United States placed the Dare program in the category of ineffective primary prevention programs the US general Accounting Office concluded in 2003 that the program was sometimes counterproductive in some populations with those who graduated from dare later having higher than average rates of drug use which would we would call boomerang effect some Alternatives would be teaching safety measures for when students do choose to use Professor Bonnie Halper fer from Stanford University said that the most important tenant of drug education is to be honest and to have balanced perspective we cannot lie and we cannot exaggerate to teens this researcher directs Stanford University's reach lab which focuses on understanding preventing and reducing teen and young adult substance use among other risky behaviors her lab maintains high school curriculum called Safety First which was initially developed by the nonprofit drug policy Alliance which encourages young people to abstain from drug use while also providing them with information to reduce their risk of addiction or death if they or their friends do choose to use this this concept is called harm reduction first Halper feler says students need to know the facts about drugs including their benefits and their harms for example opioids like fentanyl have been used safely in healthc care facilities for decades to treat patient pain but when used recreationally either purposefully or unknowingly it's extremely dangerous because very small amounts can lead to an overdose she reports that the most important piece of the curriculum is not to use but if they are using or they're in situations where they might be using they are trying to keep them safe or as safe as possible there are few studies that focus on harm reduction drug education programs in schools and more research is needed to evaluate this efficacy experts told NPR that harm reduction could help save lives at moment when teens are dying at alarming rates pilot study of this Safety First curriculum found it significantly increased high school students knowledge of harm reduction techniques and behaviors and found decrease in overall substance use here are some tips that are part of that program if you're using drugs the healthiest choice is to stop using or at least cut down on how much and how often you use if possible ideally you're using drugs only as recommended by doctor or pharmaceutical label but if you're not don't take lot of any drug wait and see how it affects you before taking more consider your mindset before using drugs what you're thinking and feeling before and during substance use can affect your experience consider the setting where and with whom you're using drugs can reduce your chance of injury or death check the substance before you use it testing drug for things like fentanyl can reduce the risk of harm there are test strips available but even the test trips are not always 100% accurate don't mix drugs the effect of combining drugs may be stronger and more unpredictable than one drug alone it could even be deadly also know how to respond in an emergency spot the signs of an overdose call 911 Place someone on their side to prevent choking and administer the opioid reversal medication that is available to you if possible we might need to use research in our own lives when we do this we need to remember to consider all possible mle perspectives and why the information is being shared from each particular resource that is sharing it now that we've talked little bit about how to consider both sides of research let's let's think about how we might look to research when making decisions in our own lives imagine you just found out that close friend has breast cancer or that one of your young relatives has recently been been diagnosed with autism in either case you want to know which treatment options are most successful with the fewest side effects how would you find that out you would probably talk with your doctor and personally review the research that has been done on various treatment options always with critical eye to ensure that you're informed as possible research is what makes the difference between facts and opinions facts are observable realities and opinions are personal judgments conclusions or attitudes that may or may not be accurate in the scientific Community facts can be established only using evidence collected through Empirical research this is type of research that is based on observation or experimentation and is used to gain knowledge through direct or indirect experience Empirical research is often published in peer reviewed journals Empirical research is basically research that the people who wrote that paper did themselves either they observed it themselves they did the experiment themselves they themselves were part of collecting this data what do we mean when we say peer reviewed what exactly does that entail peer-reviewed publication is also sometimes referred to as scholarly publication an academic publication and the peerreview process subjects an author's scholarly work research or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are also experts in the same field or their peers and is considered necessary to ensure academic scientific quality please note when we say peers we don't mean friends we mean people who are neutral who do not know who the author is or the author is hidden from view when these people or this committee are reviewing this paper so it could be experts in their field experts in closely related field or combination of both research design Empirical research includes description of the research design including the selection criteria controls and testing instruments when we talk talk about research design what we're really talking about is what kind of study was it how long did it take what kind of information did they get all of those details when we speak about selection criteria we want to know how they found their participants did they find them all in one in in one neighborhood on one college campus in one city were all of them college students were they college students from certain region of the United States or some other country country we want to know the selection criteria also we want to know the controls that were in place so what did these researchers do to ensure that they were unbiased and also the participants were as unbiased as possible when participating in this study when we speak about testing instruments what we're talking about is for example survey what survey did they use and was that survey or questionnaire something that has been tested or proven to collect the information that it's intended to collect so what does that mean that means basically say we have survey that that asks people about depression well when that survey or that questionnaire first gets built or created it gets tested over and over and over again to make sure that it's getting the information that we want the questions are worded appropriately people understand them and they're able to respond in such way that we're actually getting the information that we want when we use that questionnaire or instrument research methods Empirical research can use either quantitative or qualitative research methods quantitative research uses numerical data to establish causal relationships well qualitative research analyzes behaviors beliefs feelings or other values one way you can think about this is that quantitative research could be something like how many many times person performs certain Behavior throughout day you can count that right you can understand you can watch video of someone in an office and say interesting they turn their chair 400 times an hour or maybe they never turn their chair but there's number we can put with that right quantitative number quantity number qualitative is more about feelings so if for example there was survey asking people about how they felt about certain political candidate it might say agree with this ideology never sometimes usually always right there could be selection for us to pick from so while we do get some numbers from that data collection it's not concrete numbers because everyone's perception of those questions is going to be slightly different so that's the difference quantita ative is can we count it and qualitative is trying to kind of Corral or figure out how to determine feelings or be or beliefs or things like that ethics Empirical research must adhere to ethical guidelines such as obtaining informed consent from participants protecting participant privacy and minimizing the risk of harm to participants part of the process of scientific research is using the scientific method ideas in the form of theories and hypotheses are tested against the real world in the form of empirical observations and those empirical observations lead to more ideas that are tested against the real world once we have an answer we can repeat the process the scientific process is circular the types of reasoning within the circle are called deductive and inductive in deductive reasoning ideas are tested against the empirical World in inductive reasoning empirical observations lead to new ideas these processes go together but different research approaches Place different emphasis on the deductive and inductive aspects let's talk about this some more deductive reasoning begins with generalization one hypothesis that is then used to reach logical conclusions about the real world if the hypothesis is correct then The Logical conclusions reached through deductive reasoning should also be correct deductive reasoning argument might go something like this all living things require energy to survive this could be your hypothesis in this example the hypothesis is correct therefore the conclusion is correct as well inductive reasoning moves in the opposite direction it uses empirical observations to construct Broad generalizations unlike deductive reasoning conclusions drawn from inductive reasoning may or may not be correct regardless of the observations on which they are based for instance you may notice that your favorite fruits apples bananas and oranges all grow on trees therefore you assume that all fruit must grow on trees this would be an example of inductive reasoning and the existence of strawberries blueberries and kiwi demonst demonstrates that this generalization is not correct despite it being based on several direct observations scientists use inductive reasoning to formulate theories which in turn generate hypotheses that are tested with deductive reasoning so science involves both deductive and inductive processes theory is well-developed set of ideas that propose an explanation for observed phenomena theories are repeatedly checked against the world but they tend to be too complex to be tested all at once instead researchers create hypotheses to test specific aspects of theory think of it like this circle there's theory we use the theory to form hypothesis we then design study to test that specific hypothesis we do the research we observe and then we create or modify the theory remember hypothesis is testable prediction about how the world will behave if our idea is correct and it's often worded as an if then statement for example if study all night will get passing grade on the test Pro tip studying all night is probably not the best plan because you'll be exhausted and that will also impact your ability to recall information anyhow the hypothesis is extremely important it Bridges the gap between the realm of ideas in the real world as specific hypotheses are tested theories are modified and refined to reflect and incorporate the results of these tests let's consider specific Theory and hypothesis that might be generated from that theory in later chapter the James Ling theory of emotion is something we're going to go over and that theory asserts that emotional experience relies on the physiological arousal associated with the emotional state if you walk out your out of your home and you discover very aggressive snake waiting at your doorstep your heart might begin to race and your stomach might begin to churn according to this James Lang Theory these physiological changes would result in you feeling fear hypothesis that could be derived from this Theory might be that person who is unaware of the physiological arousal that the sight of the snake elicits wouldn't feel fear so let's hold that thought for just second and talk about how scientific hypothesis is also falsifiable or capable of being shown to be incorrect so we have to be able to prove it either right or wrong over and over again scientific research's dependence on falsifiability allows for great confidence in the information that it produces typically by the time information is accepted by the scientific Community it's been tested repeatedly recall from our introductory chapter that Sigman Freud has lots of interesting ideas to explain various human behavior major criticism of Freud's theories is that many of his ideas are not falsifiable for example it is impossible to imagine empirical observations that would disprove the existence of the ID the ego and the super ego which are the three elements of Personality described in Freud's theories despite this T's theories are widely taught in introductory psychology texts because of their historical significance for personality psychology and Psychotherapy and these Remain the root of all modern forms of therapy brief explanation of the three parts of Personality According to Freud would be the ID which is the part of our personality that says want that now want the thing right now our super ego is kind of the judge in our personality that says well okay we you may want that right now but right now is not the best time there's rules involved that's not okay and then our ego says maybe we can compromise maybe we want to do the thing but we can't do it right this second but we will do it in little while right so the ego helps us to kind of find balance throughout our urges and the rules that we are made to adhere to throughout the day to explain these Concepts just little bit further on the conscious level our ego does things like executive mediating between ID impulses and super ego inhibitions so it kind of tests reality it's rational and it operates mainly at conscious level but also little bit of preconscious level the super ego is our ideals and morals striving for Perfection it's Incorporated from our parents usually or Guardians and it can become person's conscious it operates mostly at the preconscious level then there's the ID this is the unconscious level of thought or operation where basic impulses like sex or aggression or seeking immediate gratification both irrational or impulsive and this operates at that unconscious level in contrast to Freud's theories the James laying Theory does generate falsifiable hypotheses some individuals who suffer significant injuries to their spinal columns are unable to feel those bodily changes that often accompany emotional experiences so we could test the hypothesis by determining how emotional experiences differ between individuals who can detect the changes in their physiological arousal and those who can't so in fact This research has happened it's been conducted and while the emotional experiences of people deprived of an awareness of their physiological arousal might be less intense they still experience emotion let's do couple of review questions scientific hypotheses are blank and falsifiable are they observable original provable or testable they're testable blank are defined as observable realities behaviors facts opinions or theories facts scientific knowledge is blank intuitive andure permanent or subjective empirical major criticism of Freud's early theories involves the fact that his theories are blank they were too Limited in scope they were too outrageous they were too broad or they were not testable they were not testable so here asked the class to pick one of these questions to respond to and reflect on the first is the Dare program that was described in as that incredibly popular program at first in schools across the United States even though the research consistently suggested the program was largely ineffective how would you explain this discrepancy the other review question option is that the scientific method is often described as self-correcting and cyclical briefly describe your understanding of the scientific method with regard to these Concepts this concludes the introductory section on scientific research