Introduction to Research Design

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Lecture 22032007

• Introduction to Research Design

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Flaws in thinking as part of everyday life

• Telling anecdotes a personal story to support
  or refute a general point
• Refers to instinct or laws of nature or what
  everyone knows
• Uses correlational data as causal (there has been
  a huge increase in crime since mothers started
  working)
• Uses emotional language instead of reason and
  evidence (dumping babies in child care to be
  looked after by a stranger has to be harmful)
• Taken from Dian Halpern APA President 2004
  Monitor on Psychbology February issue)

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3 Goals of Psychological Science

• Description
• Careful observation of events and the conditions
  under which they occur.
• Step one in the development of a theory
• Prediction
• Defines when events will and will not occur
• May allow us to identify magnitude and frequency
  and perhaps make judgments of importance
• Explanation
• Specify cause and effect
• Many causes maybe identified each with a varying
  degree of influence (e.g. the causes of heart
  disease)

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What defines a solvable research question?

• Is there life after death?
• Does ESP exist?
• Is there a God?
• Is water divining a good way to find water?

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The principle of falsifiability

• Theories must be stated in ways that make it
  possible to refute or disconfirm
• Predict what will/will not happen

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All swans are white

• The next swan you see is white
• is this a good test of your theory?
• The next swan you see is black
• Is this a better test of your theory?

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Basic and Applied Research

• Basic Science knowledge for its own sake.
• The development of logical thought in children
• Memory for different kinds of word lists
• Perception of transparency, depth, motion, light
  etc.
• Facial features and mate selection
• Bodily odours and sexual attraction
• Each may start out as an interest of groups of
  researchers the findings of which may or may not
  be developed for practical use.

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Practical uses of basic research

• Development of logical thought
• a test for diagnosing developmental disability
• Memory for word lists
• design of specialised vocabularies for
  communication (e.g. aviation)
• Perception of depth
• environmental design to warn of hazards (e.g.,
  warning lights)
• Facial features
• advertising
• Bodily odours
• - perfume

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Applied Research Questions

• In Clinical settings What type of therapy
  alleviates depression?
• In Educational settings What is the best way to
  teach children how to read?
• In Sport Psychology How does training regime
  impact on performance?
• In Organisational settings What form of
  management style motivates employees?

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Sources of ideas for Research

• Theory-confirmation, refutation, comparison,
  merger
• Practical Problems-problem definition, solution
  seeking, validating
• Practitioners' assumptions
• Prior Research-case studies, conflicting
  findings, overlooked variables, setting
• and expanding boundaries, testing alternative
  explanations
• Logical Analysis-analogy, looking at things
  backwards
• Everyday Experience

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Formulating a Question

• Characteristics of a Good Research Question has
  the potential to expand our knowledge base
• How well grounded the question is in the current
  knowledge base (the problem must have a basis in
  theory, research, or practice (we need to know
  what is already known so that we can judge how
  much it can add to the knowledge base gives us
  an anchor)
• How researchable it is (how easy it is to
  formulate clear operational definitions of the
  variables involved and clear hypotheses about the
  relationships between the variables)
• Importance the more information the answer to a
  research question provides, the more important it
  is

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Stand on the Shoulders of Giants
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What information will a review provide?

• relevant theories (be sure you know all relevant
  theories than can explain a phenomenon)
• look for information on what has been previously
  done on your research question (you want to know
  what has been done, what has not been done, and
  what still needs to be done)
• information concerning methodology (can borrow
  from methods previously used and can make changes
  in your design based upon what did not work well
  in the past)
• information on data analysis (need to know how
  you are going to analyze your data to be sure
  that you can actually answer your research
  question-analytic techniques must match the data
  that you collect)
• A way of turning an interest into a sensible
  question
• If you have a question you can generate
  hypotheses.

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Reviewing the Literature

• To provide a scientific context for the research
  and to validate it against the three criteria for
  a good research question
• To avoid duplication of effort (if a question has
  been addressed in numerous ways and the answer is
  always similar then it might not be worth
  pursuing further or, you might want to try to
  examine the question in a new way (new setting,
  new population, etc)
• To identify potential problems in conducting the
  research (knowing in advance the potential
  problems that can arise in the research can help
  you to avoid them)

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Hypotheses should take two forms-a research
hypothesisa statistical hypothesis

• Research Hypotheses states an expectation about
  the relationship between variables this
  expectation derives from and answers the research
  question, and so is grounded in prior theory and
  research on the question
• Statistical Hypotheses transforms the research
  hypothesis into a statement about the expected
  result of a statistical test (directional) must
  accurately represent the research hypothesis

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Designing the Study

• How will the study be conducted?
• Choose a research strategy and a specific design
  within the chosen strategy
• What will be studied?
• Choice of operational definition for the
  hypothetical constructs you're studying
• Where will the study be conducted?
• Who will be studied?
• When will the study be conducted?
• Time factors? Cross-sectional or longitudinal?

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Research Methods

• Three broad types
• Descriptive Methods
• Relational Methods
• Experimental Methods
• Appropriateness depends on the question

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Descriptive Methods

• Observational Studies
• Naturalistic courting behaviour in nightclubs
• Participant/Action Research
• Laboratory Observation observation of children
  in a playgroup (allows some manipulation)
• Case Study Methods
• N1 in depth analysis (Freud, Piaget)
• Is generalisability and replicability a problem?

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Descriptive Methods II

• Survey Methods
• Mail, Phone, Web
• Large samples often used
• Problems include
• Opportunism
• Response rates
• Gaining access
• Difficult to assign causation

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Predictive Relational (correlational) Methods

• A step up from description in the demonstration
  of co-variation the correlational method
• If a correlation can be demonstrated then
  predictions can be made from the knowledge of one
  variable only.

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Questions about the Correlational Method

• Height and weight are correlated - what can you
  not conclude?
• Pain experienced in child birth and foot size are
  strongly correlated can you conclude anything?
• After watching a violent TV program children are
  more aggressive. What can you conclude?
• But - You can infer causation from correlation
  under some circumstances using a combination of
  sophisticated methodology and statistical
  techniques

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Next Lecture

• The experimental method
• Its strengths
• Its weaknesses