Chapter 1

Question 1

Why do we need science?

Answer 1

to question our assumptions and pursue truth through systematic observation

Question 2

What does scientific research provide us with?

Answer 2

a way to gather evidence that can shape our beliefs about the answers to important questions

Question 3

Can understanding research methods help you become an informed consumer or news, health care, products, and services? How?

Answer 3

yes.

a background in research methods will help you to read reports critically , evaluate the methods, and decide whether the conclusions and assertions being made are appropriate and justifiable.

Question 4

What are some common ways in which ‘research’ is reported by news organizations, popular magazines, bloggers and advertizers? (2 ways)

Answer 4

make bold claims and ask provocative questions like “study finds that lonely people use facebook all the time”, “will getting a dog help you live longer?”, “when drugs and therapy don’t cure depression, running will”

often hear about survey results that draw conclusions about a group’s beliefs and attitudes

Question 5

Can understanding research methods give you a competitive edge for various careers? How/Why?

Answer 5

yes.

many occupations require the ability to interpret, appropriately apply, and conduct solid research.

Question 6

Why might a mental health professional be required to understand research methods?

Answer 6

mental health professionals must make decisions about treatment methods, medications, and testing procedures which requires the ability to read relevant research literature and apply it effectively.

Question 7

Why might people who work in business frequently rely on research?

Answer 7

to make decisions about marketing strategies, ways of improving employee productivity or morale, and methods of selecting and training new employees

Question 8

Why might educators need to keep up with research?

Answer 8

for topics such as the effectiveness of teaching strategies or programs for students with special challenges. Others are engaged with program evaluation, conducting research to evaluate the efficacy of govt and other programs to ensure funding is well-spent.

Question 9

how might understanding research methods help you be an informed and engaged citizen and engage in debates regarding public policy?

Answer 9

legislators and political leaders at all levels of govt often take political positions and propose legislation based on research findings.

Question 10

What is an example of how research can impact legal decisions and practices? What is a specific case? What study was used? What is another way psychologists influence judicial decisions?

Answer 10

• numerous wrongful murder convictions triggered the use of psychological research to inform police investigation and courtroom procedures

Thomas Sophonow was wrongly convicted of murder by a Manitoba jury in 1983. After serving 4 years of his life sentence, his conviction was overturned. In the inquiry that followed a retired Supreme court of Canada judge used psychological science as the basis for numerous recommendations to prevent future wrongful convictions

• one of the studies influencing these recommendations was conducted by queen’s university and showed that people make fewer false identifications of suspects when they are presented with a set of photographs one at a time rather than simultaneously. Police are now required to follow this procedure when asking for suspect identificiation.
• providing expert testimony on things like domestic violence, risk for violence, and memories retrieved through hypnosis

Question 11

How can research methods help you evaluate programs in your community that you might want to participate in or implement? What are examples of possible programs?

Answer 11

Many different programs exist to provide assistance to various groups such as parenting skills for parents of aggressive/antisocial youth, reduce behaviorus associated with the contractions of HIV, and to teach students and employees to help reduce the effects of stress.

we need to be able to determine whether those programs are successful in meeting their goals and the application of research methods allows us to do just that.

Question 12

What are 4 areas in which understanding research methods may help you?

Answer 12

• help you become an informed consumer or news, health care, products, and services
• give you a competitive edge for various careers
• engage in debates regarding public policy
• help you evaluate programs in your community that you might want to participate in or implement?

Question 13

How does science offer a way to avoid bias derived from relying solely on intuition and authority?

Answer 13

it systematically seeks high quality evidence that requires much more rigorous evidence before drawing conclusions.

Question 14

What does the following example represent?

” someone, who after years of actively looking for a long-term relationship stops looking for love then happens to find the love of their life. Anectotes like this contribute to a common belief that love arrives when one is not looking for it. “

Answer 14

This example illustrates the use of intuition based on anecdotal evidence to draw general conclusions.

Question 15

What are you doing when you rely on intuition? What does the intuitive approach often involve? (2 things)

Answer 15

you accept unquestioningly what your personal judgement or a single story about one’s experience tells you about the world.

often involves finding an explanation for our own or others’ behaviours. other times intuition is used to explain intriguing events that you simply observe in the world.

Question 16

What is one problem with intuition?

Answer 16

many cognitive and motivational biases affect our perceptions, which means we can arrive at mistaken conclusions

Question 17

What is the most likely reason that we believe that no longer looking for love leads to finding it?

Answer 17

most likely because of a cognitive bias called an illusory correlation

Question 18

What is an illusory correlation?

Answer 18

When two events occur closely in time, this draws our attention, and we often conclude that one must cause the other. We see these things as causally related even if they are just coincidences.

Question 19

Do we notice events that do not confirm our belief in illusory correlations?

Answer 19

no

Question 20

When are illusory correlations likely to occur?

Answer 20

when we are highly motivated to believe that a certain causal relationship is true.

Question 21

What are we doing when we make decisions based on authority?

Answer 21

we place our trust in someone else who we think knows more than we do.

Question 22

Why can blind trust in medical authority be problematic?

Answer 22

because many health care workers are prone to drawing incorrect conclusions from statistics regarding health.

Question 23

What is an example of how people make decisions based on authority? Do advertisers use this? How?

Answer 23

many people readily accept anything they encounter from the news media, books, govt officials, or religious figures.

yes. They use this to sell products.

Question 24

What does the scientific method reject when it comes to authority?

Answer 24

rejects the notion that one can accept on faith the statements of any authority. The scientific approach is to require lots of good quality evidence before coming to any conclusion.

Question 25

What does the scientific method of acquiring knowledge acknowledge about authority and intuition? What does it not accept?

Answer 25

it acknowledges that authority and intuition can be useful sources of initial ideas about behaviour. However, it does not accept these ideas as truth without further evidence.

Question 26

What does being a scientist mean when it comes to knowledge acquisition? How must ideas be evaluated?

Answer 26

means not accepting anyone else’s intuitions or conclusion without first evaluating the evidence. This includes our own intuitions and ideas as well.

ideas must be evaluated on the basis of results from structured investigations.

Question 27

What is the mindset of scientific skepticism?

Answer 27

not accepting something as true unthinkingly, but rather seeking out and evaluating the relevant evidence to shape our beliefs about what might be true.

Question 28

Does scientific skepticism reject intuition and blind acceptance of authority as ways of knowing about the world?

Answer 28

yes.

Question 29

What is the fundamental characteristic of the scientific method?

Answer 29

empiricism

Question 30

What is empiricism?

Answer 30

gaining knowledge through systematic observations of the world.

Question 31

What doe we mean by conducting systematic observations of the world

Answer 31

conducting research

Question 32

Describe how a scientist conducts research in a basic form.

Answer 32

a scientist develops a hypothesis (an idea that might be true), then carefully collects data relevant to this hypothesis, then evaluates whether the data is consistent or inconsistent with the hypothesis. if the data matches the hypothesis we have acquired some evidence that the hypothesis might accurately reflect the nature of the world.

Question 33

What is the overview of the process of conducting research from a scientists’ perspective? (10 steps)

Answer 33

1. Generate idea
2. Consult Past Research
3. State Hypothesis
4. Design Study
5. obtain ethics approval
6. collect data
7. Analyze data
8. Conduct New study to replicate or extend results (optional)
9. Write Manuscript
10. Submit manuscript to peer reviewed journal

Question 34

What are some reasons the scientific method may be perverted by other pressures in society?(2 things)

Answer 34

• Researchers have a pressure to publish many studies to build one’s career
• Researcher’s may have pressure to publish many studies for their ego or a desire to be viewed as important by others

Question 35

What is one reason that it is important to adopt a skeptical scientific mindset even towards scientists and published works?

Answer 35

there is a risk that science may fall short and scientists may pervert the scientific method.

Question 36

What are the 4 norms that the majority of scientists across various disciplines agree should characterize scientific inquiry at its best?

Answer 36

1. Universalism
2. Communality
3. Disinterestedness
4. Organized skepticism

Question 37

What is meant by universalism?

Answer 37

scientific observations are systematic and structures, and evaluated objectively using the accepted methods of the discipline. By relying on empiricism one group of scientists an publish research and reach one conclusion, another group can disagree and publish their own research that reaches a different conclusion, and the research reported from both sides can be objectively evaluated by others.

Question 38

What is meant by communality? What do researchers do to support this idea?

Answer 38

Methods and results are to be shared openly.

• to support this idea many researchers have begun posting their data and materials online so that others can properly evaluate and/or replicate their research

Question 39

What are 2 major benefits of open reporting?

Answer 39

• others can replicate a study to see if they get the same results
• the results of many studies can be combined in meta analysis

Question 40

What do replications help ensure?

Answer 40

that the effects being reported are not the result of chance, false positives, scientific fraud, or some other reason.

Question 41

does any single study provide a perfect or complete answer to a research question?

Answer 41

no.

Question 42

Why is meta-analysis an important tool for science?

Answer 42

They attempt to give a bigger picture of what has been discovered across many studies and thus forms an important tool for science.

Question 43

What norm does metanalysis rely crucially on?

Answer 43

communality

Question 44

What is meant by disinterestedness?

Answer 44

ideally, scientists should be making observations that will help them discover accurate things about the world. They collect systematic observations, develop theories to explain these observations, conduct further research to evaluate these theories, and revise their theories as needed when new data demands it. Scientists should be motivated by an honest and careful quest for truth, and ideally, are not motivated by fame, ego, or personal gain.

Question 45

what is meant by organized skepticism?

Answer 45

All new evidence and theories should be evaluated based on scientific merit, even those that challenge one’s own work or prior beliefs. Science exists in a free market of ideas in which research is expected to be critiqued and evaluated. This means scientists should be critical of work even if its supports their ideas

Question 46

Which ideal/norm is most directly associated with the practice of peer review?

Answer 46

organized skepticism

Question 47

What is peer review?

Answer 47

the process of judging the scientific merit of research through review by peers of the researcher - other scientists with the expertise to evaluate research

Question 48

What must happen before a study can be published in a scientific journal?

Answer 48

it must be reviewed by other scientists who have the expertise to carefully evaluate research and recommend whether it should be published

Question 49

Is peer review perfect? should we still take a skeptical view to peer reviewed work?

Answer 49

no. yes.

Question 50

In which of the ideals/norms does knowledge of research methods really come in?

Answer 50

organized skepticism

Question 51

What is the main advantage of the scientific approach as opposed to other ways of knowing?

Answer 51

it strives to provide an objective way to gather, evaluate, and report evidence.

Question 52

What kind of ideas are researchers interested in?

Answer 52

falsifiable ideas

Question 53

What are falsifiable ideas?

Answer 53

capable of being shown to be false or capable of being refuted; a good scientific idea or theory should be falsifiable.

Question 54

What is an example of when scientific evidence might not be attainable?

Answer 54

when religions ask us to accept certain beliefs on faith.

Question 55

What is an example of what can be scientifically tested and what cannot be scientifically tested in regards to religion?

Answer 55

can test: whether a belief in god is associated with altruism

cannot test: whether a god actually exists

Question 56

What is an empirical question?

Answer 56

A question that can be answered through empiricism or systematic observation

Question 57

What kind of question can science tackle?

Answer 57

empirical questions

Question 58

Why are falsifiable empirical questions useful when they are proven false?

Answer 58

because this result will spur the development of new and better ideas.

Question 59

Do scientists ever rely on intuition or authority?

Answer 59

Yes. When generating ideas

Question 60

What are examples of when motivations or agendas might make us skeptical of research?

Answer 60

if a pharmaceutical company funded a study that supports the effictiveness of a drug they produce.

Question 61

What is pseudo science?

Answer 61

claims that are made with evidence designed to appear scientific, but this evidence is not based on the principles of the scientific method.

Question 62

What are examples of pseudoscience? (2 things)

Answer 62

astrology, some forms of self help

Question 63

What are some warning signs of pseudoscience? (8 things)

Answer 63

• the claims are not falsifiable
• If data are reported, the methodology producing these data is not scientific and the accuracy of the data is questionable.
• Supportive evidence is often anecdotal or relies heavily on authorities who are “so-called” experts in the area of interest. Genuine, peer-reviewed, scientific references are not cited.
• the claims ignore evidence that is contrary
• the claims are stated in scientific sounding terminology and ideas
• the claims tend to be vague, rationalize strong held beliefs, and appeal to pre-conceived ideas and biases
• the claims are never revised to account for new data
• they propose a simple solution to your problem in exchange for money

Question 64

What are the 4 main goals of scientific research?

Answer 64

1. to describe behaviour
2. to predict behaviour
3. to determine the causes of behaviour
4. to understand or explain behaviour

Question 65

What is the primary goal of scientific research in psychology?

Answer 65

to describe behaviour and events

Question 66

Why is descriptive research essential for understanding human psychology and human behaviour?

Answer 66

before we can predict of properly understand something, we first need to understand what that phenomenon is, what it looks like, and how often occurs, and for whom.

Only after we have described phenomena well (its features and prevalence), can we ask additional questions like why it occurs.

Question 67

After we have identified and described a phenomenon or behaviour, what is the second goal of scientists? Example?

Answer 67

to be able to predict when that behaviour will occur and not occur.

Example: if 2 events have been observed to be consistently related, it becomes possible to make predictions about when an event might occur and anticipate it.

Question 68

if we have accurately predicted the occurance of a behaviour, have we correctly identified its cause? Example? how can be uncover causes?

Answer 68

not necessarily

High school grades do not cause University grades although they are related. There are likely various shared causes for both of these things (motivation, study skills, conscientiousness, reading ability etc)

• in order to uncover these causes we must conduct focused research into these factors

Question 69

What allows us to identify cause-and-effect relationships, when circumstances allow?

Answer 69

the experimental method

Question 70

What are the 3 criteria for causal claims?

Answer 70

1. when the cause is present, the effect occurs; when the cause is not present, the effect does not occur (covariation of cause and effect)
2. the cause must precede the effect in time, known as temporal precedence (it is not possible for the effect to affect the cause)
3. nothing other than the causal variable can be responsible for the observed effect. This is called ruling out alternative explanation.

Question 71

What is covariation of cause and effect?

Answer 71

one of the criteria for making an appropriate causal inference, observing that a change in one variable is accompanied by a change in the other variable.

Question 72

What is temporal precedence?

Answer 72

One of the criteria for making an appropriate causal reference; the cause comes before the effect in time.

Question 73

What is ruling out alternative explanation? What helps ensure this?

Answer 73

one of the criteria for making an appropriate causal inference ; ensuring that there are no other explanations for what might have caused the outcome

• random assignment

Question 74

What type of research do the 4 goals of science focus on?

Answer 74

basic research

Question 75

What is basic research? What does it typically focus on?

Answer 75

research that attempts to answer fundamental questions about the nature of behaviour.

typically focuses on testing theories rather than developing a specific application

Question 76

What is applied research? What does it offer?

Answer 76

conducted to address practical problems in the real world and often to propose potential solutions

some applied research offers insight into problems or solutions and some offer real tools to address those problems.

Question 77

Where is applied research conducted?

Answer 77

Some is conducted at universities and some is connected in settings such as large businesses, market research companies, govt agencies, and public polling organizations.

Question 78

Is applied research always published?

Answer 78

no. Some industry-based applied research is not published, but rather is used within the company itself or by the company’s clients

Question 79

What is program evaluation? What area of research is this in?

Answer 79

Research designed to evaluate programs (social reforms, innovations) designed to produce changes or certain outcomes in a target population.

• applied.

Question 80

What is progress in science depenant on?

Answer 80

a synergy between basic an applied research

Question 81

What is applied research often guided by?

Answer 81

the theories and findings of basic research

Question 82

Can applied research inspire future basic research?

Answer 82

yes. findings obtained in applied settings often suggest modifications on existing theories and thereby inspire further basic research

Question 83

Can we predict the ultimate application of basic research? Example?

Answer 83

no

in the 1930s BF skinner conducted basic research on operant conditioning (effects of reinforcement in pigeons), years later this researhc led to practical applications in therapy, education, and workplace.