Ch. 2 Flashcards
simple model of scientific research in psychology
The researchers formulate a research question, conduct an empirical study designed to answer the question, analyze the resulting data, draw conclusions about the answer to the question, and publishes the results so that they become part of the research literature (i.e., all the published research in that field).
Because the research literature is one of the primary sources of new research questions, this process can be thought of as a cycle.
New research leads to new questions, which lead to new research, and so on.
research questions can originate outside of this cycle either with informal observations or with practical problems that need to be solved.
But even in these cases, the researcher would start by checking the research literature to see if the question had already been answered and to refine it based on what previous research had already found.
Finding a Research Topic
- Finding Inspiration
Research questions often begin as more general research ideas—usually focusing on some behavior or psychological characteristic.
Three of the most common sources of inspiration are informal observations, practical problems, and previous research.
- Informal observations include direct observations of our own and others’ behavior as well as secondhand observations from non-scientific sources such as newspapers, books, blogs, and so on.
- Practical problems can also inspire research ideas, leading directly to applied research in such domains as law, health, education, and sports.
- Previous research. Recall that science is a kind of large-scale collaboration in which many different researchers read and evaluate each other’s work and conduct new studies to build on it. Of course, experienced researchers are familiar with previous research in their area of expertise and probably have a long list of ideas.
This suggests that novice researchers can find inspiration by consulting with a more experienced researcher (e.g., students can consult a faculty member). But they can also find inspiration by picking up a copy of almost any professional journal and reading the titles and abstracts.
Finding a Research Topic
- Reviewing the Research Literature
Research literature: All the published research in that field.
important to review the literature early in the research process.
means finding, reading, and summarizing the published research relevant to your topic of interest.
In addition to helping you discover new research questions, reviewing the literature early in the research process can help you in several other ways.
- It can tell you if a research question has already been answered.
- It can help you evaluate the interestingness of a research question.
- It can give you ideas for how to conduct your own study.
- It can tell you how your study fits into the research literature.
research literature definitely does not include self-help and other pop psychology books, dictionary and encyclopedia entries, websites, and similar sources that are intended mainly for the general public.
These are considered unreliable because they are not reviewed by other researchers and are often based on little more than common sense or personal experience.
Finding a Research Topic
- Professional Journals
Are periodicals that publish original research articles.
Most articles in professional journals are one of two basic types: empirical research reports and review articles.
- Empirical research reports describe one or more new empirical studies conducted by the authors. They introduce a research question, explain why it is interesting, review previous research, describe their method and results, and draw their conclusions.
- Review articles summarize previously published research on a topic and usually present new ways to organize or explain the results.
- When a review article is devoted primarily to presenting a new theory, it is often referred to as a theoretical article.
- When a review article provides a statistical summary of all of the previous results it is referred to as a meta-analysis.
- Most professional journals undergo a process of double-blind peer review: A process in which the reviewers of a research article do not know the identity of the researcher(s) and vice versa.
is helpful because it ensures that the work meets basic standards of the field before it can enter the research literature.
However, in order to increase transparency and accountability, some newer open access journals utilize an open peer review process wherein the identities of the reviewers (which remain concealed during the peer review process) are published alongside the journal article.
Finding a Research Topic
- Scholarly Books
Books written by researchers and practitioners mainly for use by other researchers and practitioners.
- A monograph is written by a single author or a small group of authors and usually, gives a coherent presentation of a topic much like an extended review article.
- Edited volumes have an editor or a small group of editors who recruit many authors to write separate chapters on different aspects of the same topic.
Although edited volumes can also give a coherent presentation of the topic, it is not unusual for each chapter to take a different perspective or even for the authors of different chapters to openly disagree with each other.
In general, scholarly books undergo a peer review process similar to that used by professional journals.
Finding a Research Topic
- Literature Search Strategies
The primary method used to search the research literature involves using one or more electronic databases.
Finding a Research Topic
- Using Other Search Techniques
First, if you have one good article or book chapter on your topic—a recent review article is best—you can look through the reference list of that article for other relevant articles, books, and book chapters.
In fact, you should do this with any relevant article or book chapter you find.
You can also start with a classic article or book chapter on your topic, find its record in PsycINFO (by entering the author’s name or article’s title as a search term), and link from there to a list of other works in PsycINFO that cite that classic article.
This works because other researchers working on your topic are likely to be aware of the classic article and cite it in their own work.
You can also do a general Internet search using search terms related to your topic or the name of a researcher who conducts research on your topic.
This might lead you directly to works that are part of the research literature (e.g., articles in open-access journals or posted on researchers’ own websites).
Finally, you can talk to people (e.g., your instructor or other faculty members in psychology) who know something about your topic and can suggest relevant articles and book chapters.
Finding a Research Topic
-What to Search For
focus on sources that help you do four basic things: (a) refine your research question, (b) identify appropriate research methods, (c) place your research in the context of previous research, and (d) write an effective research report.
Several basic principles can help you find the most useful sources.
- First, it is best to focus on recent research, keeping in mind that what counts as recent depends on the topic.
— A good general rule, however, is to start with sources published in the past five years.
— The main exception to this rule would be classic articles that turn up in the reference list of nearly every other source.
— If other researchers think that this work is important, even though it is old, then, by all means, you should include it in your review.
-Second, you should look for review articles on your topic because they will provide a useful overview of it—often discussing important definitions, results, theories, trends, and controversies—giving you a good sense of where your own research fits into the literature.
— You should also look for empirical research reports addressing your question or similar questions, which can give you ideas about how to measure your variables and collect your data.
— As a general rule, it is good to use methods that others have already used successfully unless you have good reasons not to.
— Finally, you should look for sources that provide information that can help you argue for the interestingness of your research question. For a study on the effects of cell phone use on driving ability, for example, you might look for information about how widespread cell phone use is, how frequent and costly motor vehicle crashes are, and so on.
Generating Good Research Questions
- Generating Empirically Testable Research Questions
— discussion section
questions expressed in terms of a single variable or relationship between variables.
One way to do this is to look closely at the discussion section in a recent research article on the topic.
These suggestions often take the form of specific research questions, which you can then try to answer with additional research.
This can be a good strategy because it is likely that the suggested questions have already been identified as interesting and important by experienced researchers.
Generating Good Research Questions
- Generating Empirically Testable Research Questions
— If scientific research has already answered the question of how frequent or intense the behavior or characteristic is
then you should consider turning it into a question about a relationship between that behavior or characteristic and some other variable.
— What are some possible causes of the behavior or characteristic?
— What are some possible effects of the behavior or characteristic?
— What types of people might exhibit more or less of the behavior or characteristic?
— What types of situations might elicit more or less of the behavior or characteristic?
Generating Good Research Questions
- Generating Empirically Testable Research Questions
— may also want to generate your own research questions
First, if you have a particular behavior or psychological characteristic in mind, you can simply conceptualize it as a variable and ask how frequent or intense it is.
How many words on average do people speak per day?
How accurate are our memories of traumatic events?
What percentage of people have sought professional help for depression?
If the question has never been studied scientifically—which is something that you will learn when you conduct your literature review—then it might be interesting and worth pursuing.
Generating Good Research Questions
- Generating Empirically Testable Research Questions
- already been studied scientifically
For one thing, the fact that the question has been studied scientifically and the research published suggests that it is of interest to the scientific community.
For another, the question can almost certainly be refined so that its answer will still contribute something new to the research literature.
Again, asking yourself a series of more general questions about the relationship is a good strategy.
- Are there other ways to define and measure the variables?
- Are there types of people for whom the relationship might be stronger or weaker?
- Are there situations in which the relationship might be stronger or weaker—including situations with practical importance?
Generating Good Research Questions
- Interestingness
How interesting the question is to people generally or the scientific community.
Three things need to be considered: Is the answer in doubt, fills a gap in research literature, and has important practical implications.
- First, a research question is interesting to the extent that its answer is in doubt.
— the fact that a question has not been answered by scientific research does not necessarily make it interesting. There has to be some reasonable chance that the answer to the question will be something that we did not already know.
— But how can you assess this before actually collecting data? One approach is to try to think of reasons to expect different answers to the question—especially ones that seem to conflict with common sense. If you can think of reasons to expect at least two different answers, then the question might be interesting. - Second important factor to consider when deciding if a research question is interesting is whether answering it will fill a gap in the research literature.
— this means in part that the question has not already been answered by scientific research. But it also means that the question is in some sense a natural one for people who are familiar with the research literature. - Third factor to consider when deciding whether a research question is interesting is whether its answer has important practical implications.
Generating Good Research Questions
- Feasibility
How likely is the research question going to be successfully answered depending on the amount of time, money, equipment and materials, technical knowledge and skill, and access to research participants there will be.
A second important criterion for evaluating research questions is the feasibility of successfully answering them
A final point here is that it is generally good practice to use methods that have already been used successfully by other researchers.
