Task/Lecture 1 Flashcards
Basic research
Investigating issues relevant to testing theoretical/empirical positions. Goal: acquire general information on a phenomenon.
Applied research
Investigating real-world problems. Goal: acquiring information that is directly applicable to real-world issues
Steps of research process
- Develop hypothesis
- Choose a research design
- Choose subjects
- Decide what to observe and what the appropriate measures are.
- Conduct study
- Analyse results
- Report results
- Start process over again
Confirmation bias
Looking for information that confirms what we already believe
Deception
Actively misleading participants or purposely withholding information from them.
- Allows for creation of unnatural situations
- Sometimes this is the only way behaviour can be studied
Issues with deception
- Different reactions from participants in subsequent experiments
- Violates the assumed trust between participant and researcher –> feeling of betrayal can lead to negative attitudes towards research
- Ethical treatment requires informed consent
Deception is allowed under restricted conditions.
Solutions for deception: Role Playing
Participants are fully informed and are asked to act as if they were in a given situation.
- Sometimes informed participants behave differently, so it is not equivalent to deception.
Solutions for deception: Prior consent
Obtaining the participants consent to being deceived in an experiment.
Solutions for deception: Debriefing
Post study session where participants are informed about the nature of deception. Goal is to restore participant’s trust + self-esteem.
Sometimes it is ethical to not debrief:
- when it would contaminate the subject pool
- if it will harm participants
- when it is impractical
Debriefing
Should include:
1. full disclosure of the purpose
2. Complete description of the deception
3. Discussion of the problem of perseverance of the effects
4. Why deception was necessary and its benefits.
To make debriefing convincing:
1. use demonstrations
2. allow participants to observe subsequent sessions
3. give them an active role in the research.
(True) Science
Relies on established scientific methods to acquire information + adheres to certain rules when determining validity.
Non-science
Not empirically testable. Ex. Philosophy
Pseudoscience
“False science” Statements, beliefs or practices that are claimed to be scientific/factual but are not. (Ex. Astrology)
Scientific explanations are…
Empirical, Rational, Testable, Parsimonious, General, Tentative, Rigorously evaluated
Commonsense explanations
based on our own sense of what is ture about the world
Belief-based explanations
arise from individuals or groups who have accepted on faith the truth of their beliefs.
Method of authority
Using expert sources to obtain information. Helpful in the early stages of acquiring knowledge, but may be biased.
Rational method
Logically deduced conclusions from self-evident truths
Scientific method
- Make an observation
- Form a hypothesis
- Perform experiment
- Analyze data
in line → confirm hypothesis → test new predictions
not in line → hypothesis wrong? → reconsider hypothesis and/or predictions - Report findings
- Invite other to reproduce the experiment
Theory
goes beyond the level of a hypothesis, highly ordered and structured. consists of a set of interrelated propositions that attempt to specify the relationship between a variable and a behaviour. (Only partially verified)
Hypothesis
Connected with prior research and logical
Testable and falsifiable - observable and measurable variables, focused on real situations, events or individuals. Theories that are non-falsifiable are not scientific.
Positive - entails presence, not absence of a relation
Parsimonious - based on a minimum number of assumptions, keep things concise, simple and short.
Good Theories
ability to account for data, explanatory relevance, testability, prediction of novel events, parsimony
Testing theories: conformational strategy
Setting up a situation and observing whether the predicted effects occur. If yes the theory is supported by the results and the confidence in the theory increases.
Limitation: fake confirmations might happen for a long time
Testing theories: Disconformational strategy
Determining whether outcomes not expected by the theory, do or do not occur.
Testing theories: Strong inference
Developing several alternative explanations for a phenomenon, testing them and ruling out the false alternatives, until only one remains.
Fraud
Data fabrication, falsification, plagiarism
Why does one do this?
- Personal recognition
- Pursuit of money
- Publish or perish atmosphere
Ethics and animal subjects
- Minimizing discomfort, illness, pain
- Research has to be approved by an animal care committee and there must be a veterinarian who overseas this research.
Ethical issues
Prresent research protocol for review of ethical issues before one can conduct their research.
General issues
- Consent (for children also from parents)
- Anonymity and confidentiality
- Deception (only allowed in special cases)
