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What is Research?
JANE GOODALL
• Observed chimpanzees in Tanzania, Africa for more than 30 years
• She used the research method of naturalistic observation
• Collect information like most people do in everyday life-only more
carefully and more systematically
PRE-RESEARCH DECISIONS
• Must ask a specific question about a limited topic or hypothesis
• The method or research depends on the research topic
• It does not matter what approach the data is collected, but
decisions need to be made ahead of time
SAMPLES
• A sample is the small group of participants, out of the total number
available, that a researcher studies
METHODS OF RESEARCH
• Surveys- research method in which information is obtained by
asking many individuals a fixed set of questions
• Longitudinal study- research method in which data are collected
about a group of participants over a number of years to access
how certain characteristics change or remain the same during
development.
EXPERIMENTS
• Hypothesis- an educated guess about the
relationship between two variables
• Variable- any factor that is capable of change
• Experimental group- the group to which an
independent variable is applied
• Control group- the group that is treated in the
same way as the experimental group except that
the experimental treatment (the independent
variable is not applied.
ETHICAL ISSUES
• Ethics- the methods of conduct or standards for proper and
responsible behavior
• Using animals in research has become an issue in recent years
SECTION 2
Problems and Solutions in
Research
SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY
• Is a situation in which a researcher’s expectations influence that
person’s own behavior, and thereby influence the participants
behavior.
AVOIDING A SELF-FULFILLING
PROPHECY
• Single-blind experiment- is an experiment in which the participants
are unaware of which participants received the treatment
• Double-blind experiment- is an experiment in which neither the
experimenter nor the participants know which participants received
which treatment
• By conducting this type of experiment the researcher can remain
unbiased.
THE MILGRAM EXPERIMENT
• Stanley Milgram wanted to determine whether participants would
administer painful shocks to others because an authority figure
instructed them to do so
• He gathered 1000 participants
• The volunteers were paired with learners
• The volunteer would shock the learner when the learner made a
mistake
• Milgram Experiment Video
THE MILGRAM EXPERIMENT
• The volunteers were told that with each mistake,
the electrical shock would become stronger
• The volunteers did not realize the shocks were
fake
• 65% of the volunteers pushed the shock button
until it reached maximum severity
• Proved that ordinary individuals could easily inflict
pain if orders were given by a respected authority
THE MILGRAM EXPERIMENT
•
•
•
•
Was an excellent example of a single-blind experiment
Swarthmore College conducted the same study
88% of undergraduates administered the highest level of shock
Updated
THE PLACEBO EFFECT
• Is a change in a participant’s illness or behavior that results from a
belief that the treatment will have an effect rather than from the
actual treatment
• Psychiatric patients in two study groups were given a drug, after a
six-week period the groups were evaluated
THE PLACEBO EFFECT
• 53% to 80% reported they benefited from the drugs
• The drugs administered were placebos
• The people reacted to their own expectations of how the drug
given would affect them.
• Neither the researchers or the patients new they were placebos
until after the experiment
SOURCE:
• Kasschau, Richard, A. Understanding Psychology. McGraw-Hill,
Glencoe, New York, New York, 2008.