Slides to accompany Weathington, Cunningham & Pittenger (2010),

Chapter 1: Research and the Social Sciences

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Objectives

• Rationale for the course

• Role of science in everyday life

• The scientific method

• History of psychological science

• Assumptions of science

• Requirements for scientific research

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What Scares You about Science?

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Why Should I Care about RM?

• 1 of 3 core areas of psychology and social sciences

– Statistics and tests/assessments are the others

• Provides a systematic approach to learning, understanding, and questioning that you can use in all areas of life

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Role of Science in Life

• What are some examples of science in your life?

• Have you “researched” anything today?

• What are some big decisions or questions you are currently considering?

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The Scientific Method

• H ypothesize

• O perationalize

• M easure

• E valuate

• R eplicate, revise, report

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Psychological Science is...

• A way of thinking

• A way of explaining

• Based on determinism and measurability

• Research methods + statistics help us to be scientists

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The Science of Psychology

• Young late 19th century (i.e., late 1800s)

• Informally, an ancient field of study

– Philosophy

– Literature

– Religion

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Tastes like Bacon!

• Sir Francis Bacon’s novum organum

– “new instrument” for finding answer = Scientific method

• Human biases “idols” can prevent us from thinking clearly and critically

– Intellectual fallacies

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Idols of the Tribe• Error in logical reasoning allowing our

intuition or common sense to get in the way

• Examples:

– Selective perception

– Self-fulfilling prophecy

– Gambler’s fallacy

– Tendency to look for simple explanations

– Emotion over reason (e.g., road rage)

• Why is this a limitation?10

Idols of the Cave• Perception dictated by personal

experiences

– Tied to culture, society, upbringing

– Engineer seeing all problems as an engineer

– Judging people based on similarity to others you know

– Failing to explore issues on more than one level

• Why is this a problem?

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Idols of the Market-place

• Thought processes influenced by language

– Misuse of words

– Misunderstanding of words/language

– Slang

• Why is this a limitation?

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Idols of the Theatre

• Accepting explanations without critical evaluation

• Often associated with the power of authority or lasting myth

– You know what they say…

– Religion

– Political systems

• Why can this be a problem?

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Requirements for Scientific Research1. Empirical analysis

2. Public verification

3. Systematic observation

4. Environmental control

5. Rational explanation

6. Parsimony

7. Tentative explanation/conclusions14

What’s Next

• *Instructor to complete as a heads-up to the students

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