心理学的研究方法.ppt

Lesson TwoResearch Methodsin Psychology Psychology as an independent science, like many others, needs distinct methods. For over 100 years the scientific method has been the basis for investigation in the discipline of psychology. The scientific method is intended to meet four goals: description, explanation, predication, and creating change (control and application). Usually, study procedures include formulating a testable hypothesis, designing a study and selecting an appropriate research method, collecting the relevant data, analyzing the data, drawing conclusion, and reporting the findings. Step 1. Formulating a Testable Hypothesis. The first step in a scientific investigation is to translate a general idea into a testable hypothesis. A hypothesis is a tentative explanation for something. Hypotheses frequently attempt to answer the questions “how” and “why” . Usually, researchers express these hypotheses as predications which comes from large numbers of scientific data. The scientific hypotheses are testable. To be testable, scientific hypotheses must be formulated precisely, and the variables under study must be clearly defined. Therefore, setting specific operational definition for the relevant variables appears very important. An operational definition explains various conditions in terms of its measurement, operation, or procedure used to determine its existence in the research setting. All variables in an experiment must be given an operational definition. e.g.: “depressive mood” may be defined as a set of symptom scores derived from a specific questionnaire. The independent variable The dependent variable. Independent variables are manipulated by the experimenter and are free to vary. They can be defined as the predictor variables in nonexperimental (e.g. correlational) research. Dependent variables are those whose values result from changes in independent variables. They can be defined as outcome variables and are predicted in a nonexperi