Article 2

Methods of Psychology

      Psychology is a social science that focuses on an individual’s mind. It is considered a soft science for drawing conclusions instead of finding certainty. Psychology is still an experimental science no matter if it is a soft one. Therefore it must follow the steps of scientific research. There are a variety of methods used by psychologists to study mind and behavior. Many of these methods differ in great amounts but they still use similar steps to apply these methods. These steps are what form scientific research.

       There are seven steps to scientific research and the first one is coming up with a research question. An example is why are Siamese fighting fish so aggressive? Aggressiveness is a psychological construct which means that it is present but cannot be measured. The next step is forming a hypothesis. A hypothesis is an educated guess which can be tested by research. An example is, “If fighting fish are aggressive, then they will attack each other.” Testing the hypothesis is very important in this process. No matter how good or convincing a hypothesis sounds, it cannot be verified or proved correct if there are no tests that prove it correct. A way to test the fish hypothesis is to place a mirror in front of the fighting fish and see if it attacks its own reflection. Now scientists look at their results and think about what they meant. This step is analyzing the results. In the experiment the reaction of the fish had to be analyzed. Based on this conclusions were drawn, the fish was in a defensive position. Finally the experiment must be replicated, meaning that it must be repeated and show the same results for it to be verified. In this case the testing with the fish would have to be repeated or furthered. Two fish could be placed in the same bowl and see if they attack each other or not.

(Siamese fighting fish and it’s reacting to its reflection)

       A very popular way of gathering information is the survey method. In a survey people are asked to answer a series of questions on a subject. It is a very effective way to gather information from the general public and it is also a quick way of getting information. A problem with surveys is that a person may or may not be completely honest when answering the questions. The people that are being asked are part of the target population which is the group that researchers want to study. It is impossible to interview every single person in the target population so they ask a sample which is the group of individuals they are asking. There are problems that come with surveys. One of them is generalizing results. Researchers cannot draw conclusions on preferences of all people if they only study or ask a group of people. Of course it would be unpractical or impossible to ask all people so researchers must be careful when displaying their results. Another problem is volunteer bias which is that the volunteers participating may have a different outlook than people who do not volunteer for research.

       The six methods of observation are more research tools that can be used by professionals. One of them is the testing method which is several types of tests (intelligence, personality, etc) which are used to determine certain behavior, abilities, traits, etc. The case study method  is a very popular method among researchers. A case study is an investigation of a certain group or individual.  Case studies are based on interviews which may affect the results because of dishonesty of the subjects or because individuals cannot remember certain details. The longitudinal method is in which researchers select a group or individual and study them for a long period of time, many of these studies last years. This is the disadvantage to this method, it is very time consuming. The opposite of the longitudinal method is the cross sectional method. In this method instead of studying individuals over a period of years, researchers study samples of different age groups. The disadvantage to this is that individuals differ in many different other than age. Researchers study people or animals in their natural habitat with the naturalistic observation method. This method allows researchers to observe how people or animals act in their natural life or habitat, the problem is that they have no control over the setting. This method has an opposite which is the laboratory observation method. Here the environment in which subjects or animals are being observed in is artificial. Its benefit is that the researcher has absolute control of the setting but no artificial setting will never be the same as a natural one.  To analyze these observations correlations are used. This is a measurement of how one thing is related to another. Correlations can be positive or negative correlations.  A positive correlation is the need for achievement and salaries. As one goes up, the other goes up as well. A negative correlation is stress and health. As one goes up, the other goes down.

       An experiment is when subjects receive a treatment and researchers observe how this treatment affects their behavior. Participants being introduced to a new drug are an example. Experiments have variables which are factors that change. The independent variable is the factor that is manipulated to determine its effect, while the dependent variable depends on the independent variable.  In the tested groups there needs to be an experimental group to actually test the treatment and the control group for comparison.

       Ethics play a big part in psychology. There is a standard set of ethics that psychologists follow to protect the dignity of the individual. When dealing with people, psychologists treat records and clients with confidentiality because of people’s right to privacy. This may be broken if the individual reveals plans to harm others or him/herself. Informed consent is when people agree to participate in research and are fully aware of the conditions. Sometimes though an experiment cannot run without deceiving the subjects, for example in some drug experiments subjects can be told that they are taking an actual drug but they are actually receiving fake pills or vice versa.

       As a science, psychology runs many experiments by many different methods. Something is discovered everyday by simply asking a question and then taking the right steps to find the answer. The first steps are always the universal scientific method but there are many ways to research, observe and test these questions.  Psychology is not a science like biology or physics but it tests, verifies or falsifies hypothesis and theories just like any other science.