Research Methods: A Primer for VCE Psychology 3&4

[Glockmeister]

Hi guys,

I know some of you want a headstart for Unit 4. One of the most exciting things in Unit 4 Psychology is Research Methods, because you, after hearing about all these exciting experiments, get a chance to actually start doing experiments yourself. Unfortunately, it can be one of the most frustrating things because you're conducting research. It's a good thing to do, because you can start to understand how frustrating it is to actually conduct research. Learning some of the basic principles can also be hard, because research methods is seen as quite synonymous with statistics, which you get adjectives describing it as dry, or boring. In some respects you're fortunate that VCE Psychology is very stats-lite. In fact, I don't think there's any statistics at all! Nonetheless the adjectives still apply.

Anyway, the point of all that is that I'm going to for the next few weeks after my last exams, be going through Research Methods in great detail, taking it beyond what you need to know for VCE, just so you can have some context of what Research Methods is - don't worry too much, I'll try making it as easy to understand as possible. I'll point out the things as well that you'll need to know for VCE, whether you're doing it this year, or next year when the new study design kicks in.

What's Research Methods?
Why bother with this Research business anyway?
The Different Types of Research Methods

Starting Out
Choosing your research question
Searching for Literature
Turning your research question into a research hypothesis
Selecting a research design
Selecting your measurement

I'm Gettin' Data
Getting volunteers (Sampling and Ethics).
Descriptive Statistics & Graphs (Or how to collate that data)
Correlations, and why they don't mean what you think they mean.*

Turning Data into Science
Making a conclusion and generalisation based on data
Telling the world (or at least your teacher) about your Science

Advanced Research Methods*^
Basis of Hypothesis Testing
How to conduct a Student's t-test

* Not in VCE Psychology 2005-2010 Study Design ^ Not in VCE Psychology 2011-2014 Study Design

Do you think I may have missed something, or is there something that you would like to be mentioned? Feel free to say so

[Glockmeister]

As part of your VCE Psychology 3&4 studies, you are expected to complete studies in Research Methods. Indeed, if you choose to study Psychology at the University level, you can be guaranteed that there will be at least a research component to your degree in every year level, up to Honours year (4th Year Psychology). This is because Psychology is considered a science, both at the VCE level as well as in University. As part of this, you will be required to complete at least one research report, where you will conduct a research on a particular topic. For those completing the 2005-2010 VCE Psychology 3&4 study design, you are required to complete this report as part of Unit 4 studies. For those completing the 2011-2014 VCE Psychology 3&4 Study Design, you will be required to complete this report as part of Unit 3 studies.

You might ask why bother completing Research Methods, except that it being a requirement for Psychology? Well, there is that. But another important reason is that, perhaps moreso than anything else, Research Methods teaches you how scientists go about finding out the information that you have been studying for the past year or two. Unfortunately not all scientists are good. There are many dodgy scientists out there who would publish stuff that is complete dribble, and plenty of media folk who would publish such material in newspapers, magazines etc. Having this knowledge will allow you to be able to critically consider scientific information that is published, both in proper scientific journals as well as in the popular media.

References
Gravetter, F. J., & Forzano, L. B. (2009). Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences(3rd ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

[sillysmile]

thank you

[Glockmeister]

So what sorts of research do psychologists do? Lots!

You can describe the design of a study by the way data is being gathered. You have:

Quantatiative - think quality. The data you are gathering usually revolves around scores. These scores are collected and statistical analysis is performed.

Qualitative- think quality. These are usually observations that is collated and then interpreted.

Generally speaking, every study that you will read in VCE Psychology is quantitative in nature. At university level, qualitative research is not covered unless you do 4th year psych. Hence I'm actually not familiar with quzalitative. So don't ask me those questions!

You can also talk about types of research by the manner data is collated and treated as opposed to merely the type of data. The following below are some examples:

Experimental - For those doing VCE Psychology 3&4 Study Design 2005-2010, this is the only one you need to be familiar with. What you are doing is trtying to find a cause and effect relationship between two or more variables.

Quasi-experimental - Like experiments but not quite. This research type does have the rigour of experimental designs but the difference here is that cause and effect determiations cannot be absolutely guranteed. This is due to the fact that one variable being 'fixed' i.e. It is not manipulated by the experimenter. Examples include gender, rates of depression, and age.

Non-experimental - This research type does not involve cause and effect relationships. These studies are not very rigourous and do not have controls, hence no conclusion can be made from what effect has been discovered.

Correlation - If your doing VCE Psychology 3&4 Study Design 2011 - 2014, you need a passing awareness of this because it is in Unit 2 of your study design. Basically you are measuring the relationship between two variables, as has been gathered from data existing outside the lab. Again, like Non-experimental, it's great for finding those relationships, but watch out for those who try to use it to explain a relationship. They're making a post hoc logical fallacy. Remember this phraise: 'Corrlation does not equal causation'. Make it your watchword when looking at correlational designs. A lot of dodgy science reporting revolves around this misunderstanding.

Descriptive - this is not a type rof research which looks at relationships but rather, attempts to describe variables. In its qualitative version, you might have been exposed to this from looking ar case studies in brain damaged patients such as HM.


References
Gravetter, F. J., & Forzano, L. B. (2009). Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences(3rd ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

[Glockmeister]

Research is all about discovering the world. As mentioned, a requirement for VCE Psychology 3&4 is the completion of a research activity where you get out there and actually do some research. For those doing the 2005-2010 study design, your topics are limited to memory or learning, depending on your school's policy. So what can you do? A quick survey of Grivas, Down and Carter (2004) gives a lot of research areas to choose from. A summary follows, although it may not be all of them.

Memory
Measures of Retention - Recall/Recognition/Relearing
Sensitivity of above measures - Nelson (1978)
Atkinson-shiffrin model
Iconic memory - Sperling (1960)
Echoic memory - Cowan et al. (2000)
STM Capacity 7 plus or minus 2 - Miller (1956)
STM Duration - Peterson and Peterson (1959)
Chunking - Miller (1956)
Rehearsal

[hawks08]

hey could someone give me a quick example of a operational hypothesis. also tell me exactly what to include. thanks

[ChairmanMao]

Quantatiative - think quality. The data you are gathering usually revolves around scores. These scores are collected and statistical analysis is performed.

Qualitative- think quality. These are usually observations that is collated and then interpreted.

I think you meant quantity for the first one? pardon me if I'm wrong.

[Glockmeister]

Quantatiative - think quality. The data you are gathering usually revolves around scores. These scores are collected and statistical analysis is performed.

Qualitative- think quality. These are usually observations that is collated and then interpreted.

I think you meant quantity for the first one? pardon me if I'm wrong.

Yeah thats correct. Oops. Will change it in the morning when on proper computer

[sillysmile]

yep glockmeister, you used 'think quality' to describe both qualitative and quantative data.

[Glockmeister]

Yeah i know.

It's a bit hard doing this without a computer. I typed that all out on my mobile phone.

[sillysmile]

holy moly, that's impressive.

[Hutchoo]

Holy shit, you did it all by phone@!?~

Very impressive work.

[Glockmeister]

It was done with much difficulty.

But now I have a functioning computer. Somewhat anyway.