1. 1.
1. Introduction to Research
Introduction to Research
What are the goals of descriptive, correlational, and experimental
research? What are the advantages and disadvantages of
each research approach?
What benefits are there to be gained from learning how to
evaluate research, conduct it, and think critically about it?
What are the goals of basic research and of applied research,
and how do the two types of goals relate to each other?
What is the difference between a fact and a value, and how do
a scientist’s values influence his or her research?
What is the scientific method and why do scientists use it?
What are the limitations of “everyday science” and intuition
for understanding behavior?
What is behavioral research, and why it is conducted?
2. Behavioral Research:
The goal of behavioral research is to discover, among other things,
how people perceive their world, how they think and feel, how
they change over time, how they make decisions, and how they
interact with others.
The statement made by behavioral researchers are empirical,
which means that they are based on systematic collection and
analysis of data, where data are information collected through
formal observation or measurement.
3. Why is behavioral research important?
Increase our understanding of behavior.
e.g. Autism
e.g. Racism, Sexism, Ethnocentrism
Provide important information that complements other
scientific approaches.
e.g. social aspects of death as opposed to medical research
• Provide methods for improving the quality of our lives.
Demonstrate the full range of capacities humans possess
4. How do we understand our everyday behavior?
Relying on our intuition.
Example. Nisbett & Wilson (1977)
We can not get accurate information
by simply asking people why they
do what they do.
Often provide valuable
Insights about human
behaviors.
But do we really understand
the reason of our behavior?
5. Why is it problematic?
1. We easily use intuition to understand human behaviors
(or concepts).
• If they seem so natural to us, we take them for granted .
4. If they are taken for granted, we are not aware why the behavior
is being performed.
5. Therefore, we can’t assess the reason for the behavior which is
what we are really trying to understand.
• Intuition makes the behavior seem natural
6. Scientific Methods
What is the scientific methods?
Being Objective
1. Free from the personal bias
2. Free from the investigator’s emotions
3. Replicable by others (scientists)
4. Open to other’s (scientists)’s scrutiny.
7. Values
Facts
Personal statements such as “abortion should not be permitted
in this country”, “Good people will go to heaven when they die”.
Objective statements determined to be accurate through empirical
study such as “there were over 20,000 homicides in the United
states”.
8. Scientific Methods
Observing everyday behavior carefully.
Constructing hypotheses or comprehensive theories .
Drawing inferences from the observation.
Choosing the best methods to prove your predictions.
Analyzing the collected data and objectively interpret
the data.
Replicating the findings to generalize the findings.
9. Basic Research
It investigates fundamental questions about behavior without
particular reason to study except to acquire a better knowledge of
how these processes occur.
Applied Research
It provides underlying principles that can be used to solve
Specific problems.
It gives ideas for the kind of topics that basic research can study.
e.g. memory for pictures, nerve impulse.
It investigates issues that have implications for everyday life and
provide solutions to everyday problems.
e.g. what types of psychotherapy are most effective in
reducing depression.
12. Research Methods Strengths Drawbacks
Descriptive
Research
Snapshot
of thoughts,
feelings
or behaviors
Allows capturing the
complexities of everyday
behavior.
It provides a relatively
detailed picture of what is
occurred at a given time.
Limited to providing static
picture.
Cannot answer how a certain
behavior develops, what impact
the behavior has, and why the
behaviors was performed.
Correlational
Research
Systematic
Relationships
among variables
Pearson r
correlation
coefficient
Allows testing of expected
Relationships between and
among variables and making
of predictions.
Cannot be used to identify
causal relationships among the
variables.
Remains a possibility that some
other variable caused the
observed variable to be
correlated.
Experimental
Research
Causal
relationships
of more than
two variables
ANOVA
MANOVA
It allows drawing of conclu-
sion about the causal
relationships among variable.
Cannot experimentally
manipulate many important
Variables.
13. Let’s select appropriate methods for
your research!
1. Availability of participants
2. Availability of researchers
3. Availability of equipment
4. Availability of space
5. Time constraint
Try to use more than one technique.
Nisbett & Cohen, (1996). Culture of Honor
Converging Operation
