Research Methods

Lecture 1

What is Science & Defining Research

Questions
Chapters 1 & 4
 What is Psychology?
 Study of human behaviour.
 Why are some people afraid to go on a bus?
 What intervention(s) are effective in helping
people overcome their fears about going on a
bus?
 What are the characteristics of a persuasive
salesperson?
 What work-related factors are associated with
higher work-related absenteeism?
Scientific Research in
Psychology

 Helps us fill the gaps in our knowledge

about human behaviour.
Scientific Method is Devoid Of:
 Personal beliefs
 Perceptions
 Biases
 Values
 Attitudes
 Emotions
 Scientific Method – 5 Steps
Asking the Question
Problem Identification &
Forming Hypothesis(es)

Experimental
Interpretation &
Design & Methods
Communication

Testing the Collecting

Hypothesis - Relevant
Data analysis Information (data)
 Asking the Question
 Problem identification or knowledge gap
 Why are some people afraid to go on buses?
 Identifying the important related concepts
or factors
 Demographics
 Number of other passengers on the bus.
 Afraid in other public places
 Afraid in other transportation vehicles
 Other fears
 Asking the Question
 Frame the question as a testable
hypothesis.
 Scientific hypothesis (expressed as the
expected or predicted relationships between
variables).
 “People who are afraid to travel on a bus are
also afraid in other public places.”
 Experimental Design &
Methods
 Takes considerable thought and research.
 Consider what needs to be controlled in
order to get an unbiased answer to the
question.
 Consider what variables will be manipulated
(i.e., controlled by the experimenter).
 Consider what variables will be measured as
responses to the experimental variables.
 Experimental Design &
Methods
 “People who are afraid to travel on a bus
are also afraid in other public places.”
 Consider what needs to be controlled in
order to get an unbiased answer to the
question.
 Travel on other vehicles in private.
 Being in a private place that is not a vehicle.
 Familiar but public place
 Unfamiliar but public place
 Experimental Design &
Methods
 “People who are afraid to travel on a bus
are also afraid in other public places.”
 Consider what variables will be manipulated
(i.e., controlled by the experimenter).
 Observe subjects in specific situations (e.g., on
bus in public, on bus in private, in car with
other people in public, in car by self in public, in
public walking, at home by self, at home with
others).
 Experimental Design &
Methods
 “People who are afraid to travel on a bus
are also afraid in other public places.”
 Consider what variables will be measured as
responses to the experimental variables.
 Self-reported anxiety symptoms using a
validated scale.
 Physiological arousal (e.g., heart rate)
 Behaviour (e.g., avoidance, escape)
 Experimental Design &
Methods
 “People who are afraid to travel on a bus are also
afraid in other public places.”
 Decide on which self-report measure of anxiety to
employ.
 Decide how to measure heart rate (apparatus and
who to do the assessment).
 Decide who your subjects will be.
 Decide how to select your subjects.
 Decide how many subjects to assess.
 Collecting Relevant
Information
 “People who are afraid to travel on a bus
are also afraid in other public places.”
 Important to approach the experiment with
an attitude of “testing” the hypothesis, not
“proving” the hypothesis.
 Pilot testing and refinement of methods.
 Implementing the methods.
 Testing the Hypothesis and
Data Analyses
 “People who are afraid to travel on a bus
are also afraid in other public places.”
 Using appropriate statistical analyses
techniques.
 How might we test this hypothesis with the
data we collected?
 Interpretation &
Communication of the Results
 “People who are afraid to travel on a bus are also
afraid in other public places.”
 Provide an interpretation of the results.
 Consider problems in the design that might weaken
your confidence in the results.
 Consider how the results inform understanding about
the theory for this question (if there is a theory).
 Consider next steps in furthering knowledge about this.
 Publish
 Responsibility to inform others of your findings.
 Characteristics of the Scientific
Approach
 Control – eliminating the influence of
extraneous variables that could affect the
observations (confounds).
 Operational definition – defining the steps
or operations used to measure the
phenomenon (e.g., anxiety).
 Replication – Reproducibility of the results.
 Basic Assumptions Underlying
Science
 Determinism – belief that there are causes or
determinants of behaviour.
 Reality – belief that there is an underlying reality
or truth in nature.
 Rationality – events can be understood through
the use of logical thinking.
 Regularity – events in nature follow same laws.
 Discoverability – it is possible to discover the
uniformity or laws in nature.
Objectives of Science
 Description
 Discover that the phenomenon exists
 Demonstrate that the phenomenon exists
 Describe its elements
Objectives of Science
 Explanation
 Why does the phenomenon exist
 What causes the phenomenon
 Causes are the antecedent conditions that
result in the occurrence or manifestation of
the phenomenon.
Objectives of Science
 Prediction
 Ability to anticipate the event.
 Knowing the antecedent to the
phenomenon allows one to predict the
phenomenon.
 Objectives of Science
 Control
 You can manipulate the antecedent conditions
and thus control the occurrence of the
phenomenon.
 Psychologist indirectly influence an organism’s
behaviour through manipulating the antecedent
events of that behaviour.
 You can’t control the behaviour directly but you
can usually exert some degree of control over
the antecedent events that cause the behaviour.
 Objectives of Science
 In science the term ‘control’ has three
meanings:
1. Check or verification in terms of a comparison
(e.g., control group comparison).
2. Eliminating the influence of extraneous
conditions that might cause the results of the
experiment.
3. Being able to produce a change in a
phenomenon by manipulating the antecedent
events.
Scientific Theory
 Theory is the explanation for the
phenomenon.
 Theories not only describe why or how
the phenomenon occurred but also
guides the way for further research.
 Theories are often referred to as
models for a specific phenomenon.
 Transtheoretical Model
(Prochaska & DiClemente, 1992)

Preparation

Contemplation Action

Precontemplation Maintenance

Relapse
 RISK-ADAPTATION MODEL
Risk-Adaptation
Appraisal
Modifiability Salience Attention
Dispositional
Tendencies High

Low High Good

optimism

pessimism Low Poor

Consequentiality

High

Low
 Developing the Research
Question
Model 1 Model 2
Idea Idea

Research Question Research Question

Research Hypothesis Literature Review

Literature Review Research Hypothesis

Research Design Research Design

Where do the ideas come
from?
 Everyday life
 Practical issues or needs
 Past research
 Theory
Sources of Research Questions
 Everyday life
 What are the most effective ways to teach
research methods?
 What personal characteristics make a
favorable impression in a job interview?

 What other questions come to mind?

Sources of Research Questions
 Practical Issues
 Why do some employees have very high
absenteeism rates.
 Why do more car accidents happen on
specific stretches of the road?
 Why are most heart attacks on a Monday
morning?
Sources of Research Questions
 Past research
 Knowledge develops in small steps. Rarely
does one study answer all the questions to
the research topic.
General Health Enhancement
Smoking Cessation Program is
Associated with Better
Smoking Cessation Rates than
a Targeted Cessation program
J. Irvine, P. Ritvo, A. Matthew, S.
Hotz, C. Strickland, R. Gilbert, F.
Ashbury, L. Lockyer, & E. Wilson
York University & University of Toronto
Rationale
 Self-efficacy about smoking cessation is
associated with a greater likelihood of
successfully quitting smoking.
 We hypothesized that assisting smokers
to build efficacy about health behaviour
changes generally would help build their
confidence about quitting smoking and
thereby result in higher cessation rates
than a program solely targeted to
smoking cessation.
 Smoking Cessation:
Research Question

 Does providing smokers with a program

that assists them build confidence about
health behaviour change generally, lead
to higher smoking cessation rates than a
program solely targeted to quitting
smoking?
Smoking Cessation Study
Design
Randomized Comparative Study

673 Smokers

Randomized

Targeted Program Confidence-Building Program

N = 334 N = 339

6 - Month 6 - Month
Follow-up Follow-up
 Smoking Cessation Programs
Intervention Elements
Targeted Intervention Confidence-Building
Intervention
 Physician advice
 Physician advice
 NRT  NRT

 Self-help guide  Self-help guide

 Telephone counseling
 Telephone
 Assessment &
counseling additional health
interventions tailored to
individual preferences
Targeted Program
 Smoking cessation program based on
the transtheoretical model (TTM)
developed by the Canadian Council on
Smoking and Health (CCSH).
 Stage-based intervention guide
 NRT
 Physician advice
 Telephone counseling
 Confidence-Building
Intervention
 CCSH – Stage-based intervention
 Confidence-building intervention
 Raising self-confidence re: resisting smoking
 Building realistic-optimistic expectancies
 Energy management
 Exercise
 Finding social support
 Stress management
 Controlling alcohol consumption
 Better sleep, rest, and relaxation
 Self-reported 4-week Sustained
Quit Rates at 6-Months Follow-up
16%
14%
12%
10%
Confidence
8%
Targeted
6%
4%
2%
0%
Not Smoking

Intention-to-treat analysis with subjects lost to follow-up

(n=158) classified as smokers: P < .05
 Conclusions
 The addition of interventions assisting
subjects to build their confidence about
making other health behaviour changes in
addition to smoking cessation resulted in
higher smoking cessation rates at 6-
months follow-up.
Unanswered Questions
 What questions about smoking
cessation programming remain
unanswered by this study?
 What questions about smoking
cessation programming are raised by
this study?
 Change in Confidence about
Resisting Smoking
80
70
60
50
Baseline
40
Follow-up
30
20
10
0
Confidence Building Targeted

Self-efficacy increased significantly in both groups (p< .0001).

There were no treatment group differences.
Sources of Research Questions
 Theories
 Summarize & integrate existing knowledge
 Suggests new relationships between
factors
 Helps one make new predictions about a
phenomenon based on the theory.
 Defining the Research
Question
 Caveat – Not all ideas are subject to
scientific enquire.
 Research question must be capable of
being confirmed or refuted.
 The study must be feasible.
 Variables in the problem should express a
relationship:
 E.g., What relationship exists between two or
more variables?
 Defining the Research
Question - continued
 Problem should be capable of being stated
in a question form. Examples are:
 What is the effect of….?
 Under what conditions do….?
 Does the effect of….?
 A research question defines the area of
interest but is not a declarative statement
like a hypothesis.
Formulating Hypotheses
 Stated in declarative form.
 Posits a relationship between variables.
 Ideally reflects a theory or body of
literature.
 Is brief and to the point.
 Is testable.
 Examples of Hypotheses
Research Question Hypothesis
Idea
Drug abuse Is drug There is a positive
and child abuse relationship between
abuse related to drug abuse among
child abuse? adults and their
physical and
psychological abuse
as children.
 Examples of Hypotheses
Research Question Hypothesis
Idea
Effects on Does caring There is a positive
your health for a relationship between
of caring for partner who degree of caregiver
a partner has a burden and risk of
who is dementia dying prematurely.
demented affect the
caregivers’
health?
Hypotheses
 Scientific hypothesis states the
‘predicted’ relationship amongst the
variables.
 Null hypothesis is a statement of no
relationship amongst the variables.
 Assignment
 Decide on a research idea.
 Write your research question.
 Perform a limited literature search related
to your question.
 Write a brief paragraph as foreground
justification for your research question.
 Based on the lit search, refine your
question.
Reading and Reviewing a
Research Article
Overview
 Understanding the article

 Developing ideas from the article.

Reading for Understanding
 Choosing an article
 Reading the abstract
 Reading the introduction
 Reading the method’s section
 Reading the result’s section
 Reading the discussion
 Choosing an Article
 Selecting the right articles may be the most
important step.
 Approaches to finding an interesting article.
 Track down study that you heard or read about.
 Look through contents of current journals
looking for articles with relevant titles.
 Search the literature using printed tools like
Psychological Abstracts or electronic indexes.
Reading the Abstract
 The abstract is a summary of the
article.
 If you don’t like the abstract of the
paper, consider finding another paper.
Abstract
 Author & title
 Publication information
 General statement of purpose of study
 Methods (how it was carried out,
including measures)
 Main results
 Conclusion
 Reading the Introduction
 May be difficult and time-consuming, but
it tells you what hypotheses they are
testing and why.
 It sets the stage for the rest of the article.
 Don’t leave the introduction without
knowing:
 What the hypothesis is
 Why they are testing the hypothesis
Reading the Methods Section
 Who the participants were
 This is usually in the Participants
subsection
 What happened to the participants
 This is usually in the Procedures subsection
Reading the Results Section
 Know what the scores (data) mean

 Know whether the hypotheses were

supported.
 Reading the Discussion
 Summarizes the results relating to the
hypothesis
 Integrates/reconciles results with
introduction
 Discusses study’s limitations
 May suggest future research
Literature Search
 Decide on information sources
 Journals, book, dissertation abstracts
 Decide which databases
 PsychINFO, Index Medicus, review articles,
other related articles, etc.
 How far back to search?
 What terms to include in your search?
Literature Search
 Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms
 American Psychological Association
publication of terms to use in doing a
literature search on psychological topics.
 Index Medicus
 Science Citation Index Expanded
 Social Science Citation Index
 Index of Scientific Reviews
 Searching the Research
Question
 State your research topic as a single
question.
 Identify the separate concepts that make
up the question.
 Use the Psychological Thesaurus to find
descriptors for the concepts or try your
own descriptors.
 Limit your literatures searches by
language, year, etc.
 Literature Searches
 In addition to electronic data bases, you
can get great leads on literature by
consulting the reference list of related
review articles or even primary sources of
research studies.
 Let me know…
 If there are any topics from today’s
lecture that need fuller explanations.
 Anything you particularly liked about the
lecture (today’s or others as we go along).
 Anything you particularly disliked about
the lecture (today’s or others as we go
along).