Read Chapter 2.
Why is it important for us to understand the methods used in psychological research?
From your reading, which topic(s) are most interesting to you? The most confusing?
What was the most surprising or memorable thing you learned about in this reading?
Provide a list of psychological terms that you used in your comment at the bottom of your post.
It’s important for us to understand the methods used in psychological research so that we can better determine how reliable results from any such psychological studies are. If we are able to look at the methods used and the results, and can determine that both are reliable and valid, then it is possible to move on to the next steps of the process, such as analyzing the results, applying them, and determining what significance that this study may have in the field of psychology. Without a reliable set of universal methods, it would be far harder to determine which studies are reliable and useful, and which are flawed. For example, all studies must have results that can be replicated, so as to ensure that the results that were achieved weren’t just a flaw. Another example of taking such care in research is the double-blind procedure, a method that allows both researchers and participants from knowing whether they were in the control or experimental group. This prevents researchers from seeing the correlation they want to see, or the ones that they anticipate. The topic that was the most interesting to me was the idea of how difficult random selection can be for researchers to truly achieve. Researchers must determine both who would be best suited to participate within their study, and then they must enact a plan to randomize who they are choosing to be in their group. The book made a mention of and compared this process to the gathering of random samples during an election to formulate an idea of who will win the election. I found this interesting because not only am I very interested in politics, I am a political science minor, and I love when what I am learning about in one class connects to another class. It is important in both politics and psychology to remove biases from any survey or study that are undertaken. I think the most surprising thing in this chapter, for me at least, was the realization that there is someone (IRB- Institutional Review Board) who is constantly overseeing studies and ensuring that the methods are humane, able to be replicated, and they even do their best to minimize error. This surprised me so much because, despite years and years of repetition and material regarding the empirical method, it never occurred to me that there would be someone overseeing these studies, someone who is basically ensuring that everything is honest and as empirical as possible. This revelation also surprised me because this group also plays some part in protecting the rights of participants in these studies. There are regulations that I never even thought about. Researchers have to get informed consent, they have to ensure that post-study the participant is fully aware of what has happened in the study, and they have to ensure that the participant has some semblance of confidentiality. For some reason I had never really thought about the behind the scenes of the studies done. In short, this chapter revealed a lot about what I hadn’t thought about before.
replicated
double-blind procedure
correlation
random selection
biases
survey
IRB- Institutional Review Board
empirical
informed consent
confidentiality
Upon reading this chapter, each person is presented with many differing methods for understanding psychology. In order to capture why these methods are so important, taking a step back to reflect upon the definition of psychology will be beneficial. The definition of psychology according to this author is, “a natural science that uses experimental methods to study mental processes and behavior.” Based on this definition we know that methods are extremely important to understand for this branch of science. The scientific method, naturalistic observation, and surveys are important to understand in order to conduct psychological research and in order to fully grasp different psychological ideas and observations. Understanding the methods used in psychological studies shows its importance once again in unpacking the intricate details and the broad subjects of this science. Without these methods, psychology would look extremely different today and would have a harder time accomplishing studies and observing new knowledge that will help future generations.
One of the topics that was of most interest to me was the idea of deductive and inductive reasoning. The textbook explained that deductive reasoning was starting with a broad principle and applying it to a specific event where inductive reasoning was taking specific observations and producing a broad conclusion. I had heard of these terms in previous years, however, the way this book went about explaining these concepts cleared many things up and was useful not only for this class but in my major classes and career life ahead.
Alongside this was the Descriptive Research Methods portion of this chapter. I found this section very interesting because I had never considered case studies to be research. This may sound a bit odd, however, in my personal experience I had only hear of case notes being something that counselors fill out at the end of every session not necessarily observations for research. With this I found naturalistic observation to be quite interesting as well. This seemed like a difficult for of research to get unbiased information but never the less extremely beneficial to psychological findings.
To me the most confusing part of this chapter was at the very end where the topic was Experimental Analysis. It was confusing in part because although I am familiar with most of the terminology such as standard deviation and significance these concepts are better understood in my mind through example calculations and practice historically.
The most surprising thing that I learned from this reading was toward the end of Chapter 2. The section about experiments really caught my eye when they started to talk not only about participant biases but also researcher bias. In one sense, I had already known a fair amount about participant bias through other outlets but my curiosity was struck by the idea of researcher bias. Reading through the extent of this topic I found that this concept makes sense. As scientists we have background knowledge that we use to form hypotheses and conduct experiments. This background knowledge can help us but in turn sometimes it can be detrimental, such as through biases toward an outcome or many different things.
Psychology
Scientific Method
Naturalist Observations
Surveys
Deductive Reasoning
Inductive Reasoning
Case Studies
Standard Deviation
Significance
Although I found this chapter to be somewhat uninteresting and complicated compared to some of the chapters I know will be upcoming, I realize that learning about research methods used in psychological studies is very important. Because of the internet and other easily accessed communication channels, information spreads very quickly and is often believed even if it is false. As I’m sure everyone has experienced at one point or another, people will believe anything they see on the internet such as the rumor that went around that if the recent lottery were divided up everyone in the United States would receive 4.33 million dollars. It is important for people to have the ability to analyze the findings from research whether it be medical, mathematical sociological, or psychological. As far as psychological studies go, learning about the empirical method helps to be able to find the limitations of the study and also allows us to analyze whether or not the conclusions found in the study are reliable or valuable. For instance, as mentioned in the book, picking an appropriate sample for an experiment is extremely difficult. Being familiar with the process of random sampling can come in use here and the study can be analyzed to find whether or not sample biases are present. This can be used to decide whether or not the conclusions are accurate.
In this chapter I recognized many terms that I heard in the statistics class that I took last year. This was very interesting to me because it finally applies the terms I was forced to learn about to a real life situation that I can understand. Although interesting, I also found these terms and processes to be the most confusing as well (I did not excel in stats). This chapter really showed me that planning and carrying out the experiment are only part of the process of developing relevant conclusions in a psychological study. After the data is collected correlations, means, and standard deviations still have to be analyzed, a process I find to be very overwhelming. The chapter certainly gave me a new appreciation for the work that psychologists conducting a particular experiment must do.
The most surprising thing that I took away from this chapter was the insane amount of work that must go in to doing a psychological study. From the beginning to the end, intense detail must go in to making sure that the experiment will end up with valid conclusions that will not be dismissed by another psychologist who was able to point out limitations in the experiment. While I was reading this chapter I found myself imagining how I would go about conducting an experiment and even just the process of creating a reliable sample made me stressed out. So many minute things have to be considered such as who will be exposed to the independent variable and who will not, how much the participants will be allowed to know before the experiment takes place, as well as all of the ethical considerations in an experiment. This chapter gave me a whole new appreciation for the experiments behind the psychological facts we know today.
Vocab: sample, sample bias, empirical, random sample, correlation, mean, standard deviation, independent variable
These psychological research methods are the building block with which we construct hypotheses and theories about the science of psychology. Without them, psychology wouldn’t have any principles and any particular theory could be considered true or false. These principles and scientific methods are put into place so that there is a measurable way for people to know whether the theory is proven as fact or not. The scientific method in psychology also weeds out any untestable theories that could be controversial and lead to more confusion. This process requires a barrage of checkpoints throughout the entire scientific process where the researchers must think back at what they have collected and whether it is truly relevant or not. These checkpoints such as statistical analysis, experimental analysis, and t-testing, probability analysis, and effect size testing are all set forth as checkpoints in the data collection to make sure that the data being collected has the best chances of being proven beyond a reasonable doubt that it is in fact true. All of them check different areas of frailty and researcher or participant bias within the studies so they build up an air-tight defense against further scrutiny. It also is important to have a set method with which researchers can replicate anything they find within the given experiment, because without any replication, how can a person be sure if the results are constant and consistent? Throughout the course of this empirical scientific method psychologists use, we find solid ground to base all of our opinions off of. It is also important to have a way for people to critique the studies on an academic level through board such as the IRB’s (institutional review board’s) to be able to access how ethical and necessary these studies truly are to people in the real world.
The most interesting topic that I found in this reading was about the differences between deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, and the evolution of them to eventually involve hypothetico-deductive reasoning. I had never really thought before about where the scientific method originated from until I read about this. I don’t know about anyone else but when I first came across deductive reasoning I immediately thought about Sherlock Holmes but it is so much more than detective work and used to be widely used in science. I thought it was interesting how bias and flaws of deductive reasoning through theory, predictions and then observations, led to them completely flipping the entire process around creating inductive reasoning. I just think it’s fascinating how this all came together to create the scientific method which we now know today with proving and disproving hypotheses through the use of observations. What was confusing to me was the part about standard deviation. I don’t think I have ever had a full discussion where I was specifically taught this topic.
What I thought was surprising is just how much bias can make or break a study and how many forms it can take. It could be researcher bias where the researcher basically sees only what he wants to see and it could also be participant bias where the researcher may have given them too much information before testing. I was surprised how much it shows up in any sort of experiment whether its case studies, experiments, or even surveys.
Terms:
researcher/participant bias
IRB (institution review boards)
standard deviation
inductive/deductive reasoning
hypothetico-deductive reasoning
empirical scientific method
effect size
t-testing
probability/experimental analysis
Science, while always being a source of intrigue for me, has never been my strong suit, and part of that is because I have a terrible memory and I always mix up the specifics of what’s what in the scientific procedure. Because of that, I found it really helpful to go through a refresher course of the basics in this chapter. The basics are just that: the essential foundation on which so much of our knowledge is built. This procedure is so important because it creates a way in which hypotheses can be tested, variables can be controlled, experiments can be conducted, and results can be deduced in the most efficient and reliable way possible. If done correctly, the results should be able to be replicated in through similar procedure but different techniques. From there, we are able to add to the collective knowledge of psychology. If these procedures aren’t followed or if we don’t understand the methods used, the result may be inaccurate information that could confuse people (whether other researchers or the general public) or in a more extreme case, lead to the harm of an experimental subject or group.
I took for granted how big of a role statistics plays in psychology, although in retrospect, it makes a lot of sense, just like with any other science. There are so many concepts that are essential to making sense of the data, but it seemed like the most important one was the significance of positive correlation, negative correlation, or no correlation at all. I found it interesting how a quantifiable mathematical concept could relate so easily to a qualitative subject of causality. I’ve heard over and over in my life how “correlation does not imply causality”. It was interesting, however, to explore why exactly that is, and it makes much more sense through the example provided than as an abstract concept that had been drilled into my head in high school.
I found the section about ethics particularly interesting. It seems really ridiculous to me that the Canadian and American governments got away with basically abusing people in the name of science for the MK-ULTRA project. Perhaps they could not find any willing participants (which is completely understandable seeing as how the experiment should not have happened at all) and that is why they performed experiments without their subject’s consent. It’s comforting to know that IRBs exist to protect human participants in psychological experiments. I wasn’t quite sure how informed consent would work, considering that people may modify their behavior based on the experiment, but it makes a lot of sense to have a debriefing after the experiment is completed. Participants should be able to perform to the best of their ability (or, the most true to their nature) and still have the right to know what they were involved with. The MK-ULTRA project was definitely the most memorable part of the reading for me, and it really drove home the idea of following fair and ethical procedures in psychology.
Experimental group
Variables
Experiment
Correlation (positive/negative)
Causality
IRB
Informed consent
Debriefing
I believe it is important for us to understand the methods used in psychological research for a variety of reasons, each with their own significance. First and foremost, I believe it’s important to understand and follow the correct research methods in order to obtain correct and reliable results. If the correct steps aren’t followed when research is being conducted, incorrect conclusions can be drawn and even more dangerously, incorrect theories can be formed. There are several ways to prevent such mistakes from being made, but again, that is only if the correct research methods are followed as well. When conducting psychological research, the goal is to obtain the most accurate results possible in order to form theories and laws that can be used to more concretely explain mental processes and behaviors. The only way these concrete theories and laws can be accurately obtained is by using correct research methods, only greater promoting the importance of understanding these methods. Along the lines of research methods, it is also important that we understand and follow the ethical guidelines that go along with psychological research. Most obviously, it is important research is conducted with the best interests of the participants in mind so that they trust that there participation is being used in a useful manner and they, as well as others, are confident in the research process and more likely to continue to participate in research. Also following ethical guidelines, again, ensures that accurate information is being collected and can be used to form accurate theories. The topic that was most interesting to me in this chapter was definitely the way statistics and statistical analysis is used in psychological research. I am a math major, with a strong interest in statistics, so this subject is right up my alley. I love all things math and numbers, and especially find interest in the way it can provide more concrete conclusions than other data alone. The most confusing part of this section was how to pick a research method for the kind of research you wish to conduct. To me, it does not seem entirely clear how I would pick a specific research method for the question I wish to answer. The most memorable thing I learned about in this reading is the ethical research guidelines that need to be followed when conducting psychological research. Ethics and morals, and protecting the rights of everyone, is a topic very important to me so it is important that these are addressed when conducting any sort of research that involves the use of vulnerable subjects. It’s also very important that the rights of animals are protected, as they can’t speak out against what is being done to them as humans can.
Theories – ideas about laws that govern phenomena
It is important for us to understand the methods used in psychological research for many reasons. One important reason is that if we know and understand the methods used in psychological research, we can then determine whether or not a person's research is a credible source or not. By understanding the research we can critically analyze journal articles and case studies in order to determine their validity. Another reason that understanding the methods used in psychological research is so important is so that we can make sense of the information that is presented. If we understand how the research is being done, we can then interpret and apply the data to other aspects of research or life. The research conducted must also be able to be replicated in order to ensure that the results being produced are accurate rather than some random mistake. The replication should therefore, produce the same statistical outcomes such as correlation, mean, and standard deviation. If we can produce the same results when doing different experiments, then we know that the research is credible evidence. If there were no research methods set in place, psychological research would be far less advanced and would take on more of a pseudopsychology aspect. Research methods provide guidance to an experiment and allow true results rather than simply what the researchers expect or want to see happen.
I think that to me, some of the most interesting topics in this chapter are the application sections. I find these interesting because they show and explain how psychology is connected throughout our lives every single day. The sections show how psychology can affect our way of life, and even our own governmental policies. For example, the section about how research was conducted to prove that adolescent minds are not yet fully developed which led to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that no child who committed murder can be subject to the death penalty. Without this research to prove that adolescents can't yet understand the consequences of their behavior, many more deaths could have occurred.
For the most part, I thought that this chapter was pretty straight forward so I wasn't confused on much. I guess the part that somewhat confused me was the discussion over the statistical process. While I did just finish with my stats class, I think that it confused me because I never thought about the fact that math could be applied to psychology. After finishing this chapter however, I realize that it in fact can be applied to psychology because it helps find correlations in data to determine whether it is positively or negatively related.
One of the most surprising things I learned from this chapter is the concept of debriefing. I have heard it used before, but never in a talk about psychological research. I liked the idea of the participants in the research studies being given the opportunity to learn about the research as a whole after it had been completed. It gives them the chance to understand everything that happened during the research process, including the parts that may have been withheld from them in a double-blind procedure.
Vocabulary Terms: case study, replication, experiment, correlation (positive and negative), mean, standard deviation, debriefing, double-blind procedure
Like any science, there has to be methods for the madness in order for it to be comprehended and valuable. Any science without methods can be considered chaos. I have learned, through other science courses, how important it is to understand scientific methods so that the data and observations of these studies can be used to support ones’ theories or claims. Therefore if one makes a claim, they should know the method behind the evidence to truly understand what is being stated. Most often the public hears and sees things that they don’t quite understand but if it comes from what they believe is to be a credible source then it must be true. Very little do people look into why a statement is true but rarely do people go to long distances to understand why it can be proven to be true. Behind that statement lays the methods that prove its validity. This is the reason why having specific methods to research in any area is extremely important, it not only supports a person’s claim but it allows for others to follow research and repeat a study for their own purposes.
I really enjoyed reading about the different research methods the case studies in particular because I often think of research in a science field to be mostly based on experiments or observations. Although psychology is considered a science, it varies from other types of sciences because it can use research methods like surveys and case studies more common than in biology or chemistry research methods. Psychological research does not have to be pure numbers and observations like other sciences; it can incorporate responses from outside sources. Also knowing how psychologists conduct research was interesting to learn and easy to understand since it is very similar to how other scientists conduct research. I guess I never really thought of psychology as a science, to me it was just something different. This chapter made me realize that psychology uses a lot of the same terminology as other science areas such as dependent and independent variables, control group, experimental group, and of course scientific method.
While a lot of the information in the first half of the chapter was a review of what we learn in other science courses but applied to psychology, it was a great review nonetheless and set a foundation for understanding the methods of psychological research. What I really enjoyed reading were the small paragraphs that had a little knot in the corner. The one I remember the most was the one that talked about pseudo psychology for example astrology. I have heard of pseudoscience mentioned before but never in the context of psychology. It was interesting to learn that something that once thought was true turned out to be false because of the lack of evidence to support it.
Vocabulary Terms: Scientific method, theories, independent variable, dependent variable, experiment, survey, case study
Upon reading this chapter, I found it less interesting than I expected and I found myself drifting off into high school and thinking about all the other science classes I’ve taken that talk about reasoning, data, hypothesis, and theory as being methods of research and uses for experiments. While I understand every science does it different in some ways it is still the same to me. But I understand it is important to understand the methods used in psychological research so that someone may further their knowledge of a certain subject, particularly the mind or body since that is what psychology focuses on.
The most interesting topic I found was the discussion on, “Is Psychology a Science?” Psychology as stated in the textbook says, psychology is a natural science that uses experimental methods to study mental processes and behavior. Everyone uses psychology on a daily basis, whether talking with friends, arguing with a partner, or disciplining their children. Most people just do not realize that there is science behind their decisions. The scientific methods, surveys, naturalistic observation, experiments are important to help conduct and understand psychological research.
I also liked that they talked about “What is a Science?” Taking about the scientific principles and Method, and the people that helped make history in a specific science, psychology to be exact is something that I like reading about and learning more on. Karl Popper made a sound scientific theory to establish observations could prove him wrong.
I was surprised by the fact that there was a lot of statistics in this chapter. Math is not my strong suit so when I was going over it, it was something that I looked at a little longer to help better understand it. It seems that a lot of time and planning has to be carried out too for an experiment in psychology and for better reliable conclusions. After reading about the whole process it does seem a bit overwhelming. But hearing about the IRB (Institutional Review Board) who oversees the studies, ensuring everything is done correctly, able to be replicated, and minimizing errors. This group plays a part in protecting the rights of participants in these studies. These are things I had never thought about before. Researchers MUST have informed consent, ensure post-study participant is fully aware of what is happening in the study, if anything has changed, and there has to be a semblance of confidentiality for the participant. I had never really thought of this before, I mean I have read studies before, but I guess I had never really thought about the people that participate in these kinds of studies.
The background knowledge can help us in case, we ourselves ever want to do an experiment, but considering I do not really plan on doing that unless required to I really I took more from what I was surprised by and what I liked and found. I also hope that Chapter three on Human Development is more interesting and fun.
Terms: hypothesis, theory, survey, naturalistic observation, experiment, IRB (Institutional Review Board), replicated, informed consent.
To understand Psychology as a science, one needs to have an understanding of the process that Psychologists use to obtain data. The scientific method is extremely common among all disciplines of research. Having an understanding of the way in which data for research is obtained, one can better understand the research itself. In the field of psychology, researchers look for correlations and attempt to find information in a large enough proportion of their subjects to make assumptions about the general population. Not all findings can be guaranteed to relate the every individual person but there can be assumptions made about majorities. It is important to understand this is Psychology to know that outliers from the norm do exist.
In the reading I was most interested in the Animal Research section. I was really unaware that Psychology used animals. Or I guess I was rather not aware that they related the gathered data to humans. I never put those details together in my head. It was also interesting to see peoples’ opinions on animals’ rights and such. I was less interested in the discussion on Eugenics, however, I’m not as interested the biological aspect I don’t know if I would say it confuses me but it doesn’t interest me nearly as much. Rather I feel it lessens my desire to study it.
I will remember the article about the television personalities the most. Reality television is a hilarious concept to me and I love the fact that there are people claiming to be psychologists and making money doing it but, in fact, they actually have no training. Our culture is funny to me like that. How strange that we can idolize these random people who have no actual skills or qualifications.
To understand Psychology as a science, one needs to have an understanding of the process that Psychologists use to obtain data. The scientific method is extremely common among all disciplines of research. Having an understanding of the way in which data for research is obtained, one can better understand the research itself. In the field of psychology, researchers look for correlations and attempt to find information in a large enough proportion of their subjects to make assumptions about the general population. Not all findings can be guaranteed to relate the every individual person but there can be assumptions made about majorities. It is important to understand this is Psychology to know that outliers from the norm do exist.
In the reading I was most interested in the Animal Research section. I was really unaware that Psychology used animals. Or I guess I was rather not aware that they related the gathered data to humans. I never put those details together in my head. It was also interesting to see peoples’ opinions on animals’ rights and such. I was less interested in the discussion on Eugenics, however, I’m not as interested the biological aspect I don’t know if I would say it confuses me but it doesn’t interest me nearly as much. Rather I feel it lessens my desire to study it.
I will remember the article about the television personalities the most. Reality television is a hilarious concept to me and I love the fact that there are people claiming to be psychologists and making money doing it but, in fact, they actually have no training. Our culture is funny to me like that. How strange that we can idolize these random people who have no actual skills or qualifications.
It is important for us to understand the methods used in psychological research so that we can assess the validity of the findings of such researches. First, we will be able to understand how researchers obtain the empirical data that serves as the foundation for their research. Subsequently, we can determine whether these data originate from case studies, surveys, naturalistic observations, or controlled experiments. In the latter case, we could know which variables are controlled and / or manipulated and how the experiments’ environments serve to regulate such conditions. Lastly, taking all these into account, we would be able to make an informed decision on the reliability of the data and the legitimacy of the psychological findings that follows.
However, when all the psychological methods presented in this chapters have their advantages and disadvantages, the most notable problem seems to be personal bias (researchers’ and participants’). After all, we are human and it seems inconceivable that all the personal biases could be taken into account in a psychological research. Too small a sample size of participants will not be able to reflect an entire population, but too large a sample size will come with an exponentially greater number of predispositions from the participants. I am, ultimately, confused as to how researchers overcome this drawback.
I find the section about ethical research guidelines in psychology most interesting. By definition, psychological researches operate on people, and will ultimately affect other people as well. Therefore, it makes total sense that there must be a set of clear rules and regulations (APA Code of Ethics) and governing institutions that oversees psychological researches (the Institutional Review Boards). In addition, it is personally satisfying to me that the welfare of animals is also taken seriously in psychological researches. All in all, the ethical guidelines help uphold the moral values, which are essential, not only in scientific researches, but also in everyday life.
The topic I found most surprising is how important a role that statistics play in psychological research. I used to think that psychology is more about observing people’s behaviors (naturalistic observation) for certain patterns in their behaviors, and possibly coming up with (testable) hypotheses that could explain those phenomena. While it is possible to “describe” these patterns, it seems unquantifiable. As a result, when I found out that psychological research’s data could also be presented in explicit, mathematical numbers, I was (pleasantly) surprised. It is pleasing to see familiar mathematical concepts such as “standard deviation” and “t-tests” make an appearance in psychological researches. Again, this shows me how science and mathematics are closely tied together. Lastly, I could see how psychologists could integrate advanced modern technologies in their research.
Terms:
First of all, psychology is a science, which means it discovers and tests laws about how things happen. It’s important for us to understand the methods used discover and test laws so we can perform scientific tests. Psychologists use a hypothetic-deductive reasoning approach to test their hypotheses. Once psychologists test their hypotheses, they form a theory. These theories guide our understanding of psychology today. If we don’t understand how psychologists form their theories, we won’t be able to tell if they are scientifically accurate.
The most interesting part to me was the part about ethics and psychology. I am very interest in ethics and guidelines, and I had never really thought about how they applied to psychology. Things like informed consent seemed obviously necessary to me, but apparently they needed to make rules about it. I wonder what caused them to finally do that?
I was also interested in the misrepresentations and applications of psychology. I had always thought that pseudopsychology was what psychology was: psychologists thinking that their science was the answer to all of life’s questions. I always thought that psychology was just about therapy, but I was surprised to learn that it is used in so many different things, like genetic research. This was the part of the reading that I will remember the most.
It was also somewhat interesting to learn exactly how psychologists used the scientific method in their research. That part of the chapter was a little boring to me, since I had learned the scientific method before, but it opened my eyes to how it was used in psychology.
The most confusing part of the chapter was the part on correlations. I mean, I understand correlations, but when they started applying numbers to them I got pretty confused. I really don’t like when numbers are applied to what I see as nonnumerical concepts.
Terms: hypothetic-deductive reasoning, hypotheses, theories, correlation, informed consent
It is important to understand the methods of psychological research so we can understand how psychologists first get the information and also so we can possibly perform our own research in the future. Understanding the methods also gives some credibility to the psychological research itself – knowing how and why the information was gathered shows that a thought process or a hypothesis was involved and not sloppily thrown together. The use of certain methods also allows the opportunity to replicate (or try to replicate) the results for yourself.
I have always been interested in the ethics of science; I think I grew up watching too many Sci-Fi movies where a scientist broke an obvious ethical barrier, and then one day I realized that I didn’t know the actual ethical guidelines nonfictional scientists follow. Especially in the field of psychology where the research is being done on people to better understand people, there needs to be a very clear idea of what can and cannot be done to a person. I was glad to read that there are institutional review boards to keep the research ethical from a non-biased standpoint. I was also interested in the double-blind testing procedure. I never realized that it would be important for the tester not to know who was getting a treatment and who was getting a placebo. The most confusing part of the reading for me, was “making sense of research results.” I am not, or have I ever been a math person and statistics might be a problem for me. I was also having some difficulty understanding the way standard deviation works. Reading technical and scientific papers have also been problems for me in the past, but I do think that I’m getting better, and the tips on reading research papers in this chapter where quite helpful.
The most memorable part of the reading for me was the information about the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and MK-ULTRA. I believed that in the 20th century, most sciences had a solid ethical foundation to work on and it took me by surprise that something like that would have happen so recently. I had read some things about MK-ULTRA and similar studies, but I didn’t always trust the sources I was reading from and ignored most of the information they presented as tabloid-esque. I found it disturbing that the US government would allow testing on non-consenting people to either try and control their minds or to not treat a disease.
Hypothesis
Bias
Double-blind test
Standard deviation
Institutional Review Boards