DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL

SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY
Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines
Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021 ; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211
AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph ISO 9001: 2015
QMS-Certified E-Mail Address: [email protected]

MODULE 3: INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

Module 3: Psychological Science

Description

This module explores and appreciate the science of psychology in general. It highlights the importance

of psychological research

Objective:

After completing the module, the students are expected to:

1. Define and understand the psychological research.

2. Appreciate the scientific method and how psychologist use research.

Duration:

Start:

End:

Learning Contents:

Chapter 3: Psychological Science

A. Psychological Science

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 DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY
Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines
Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021 ; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211
AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph ISO 9001: 2015
QMS-Certified E-Mail Address: [email protected]

Some psychological research is basic research. Basic research is research that answers fundamental questions

about behaviour. For instance, biopsychologists study how nerves conduct impulses from the receptors in the

skin to the brain, and cognitive psychologists investigate how different types of studying influence memory for

pictures and words. There is no particular reason to examine such things except to acquire a better knowledge of

how these processes occur. Applied research is research that investigate issues that have implications for

everyday life and provides solutions to everyday problems. Applied research has been conducted to study,

among many other things, the most effective methods for reducing depression, the types of advertising

campaigns that serve to reduce drug and alcohol abuse, the key predictors of managerial success in business,

and the indicators of effective government programs.

The results of psychological research are relevant to problems such as learning and memory, homelessness,

psychological disorders, family in stability, and aggressive behaviour and violence. Psychological research is

used in a range of important areas, from public policy to driver safety. It guides court rulings with respect to

racism and sexism (Brown v. Board of Education, 1954; Fiske, Bersoff, Borgida, Deaux, & Heilman, 1991), as

well as court procedure, in the use of lie detectors during criminal trials, for example (Saxe, Dougherty, &

Cross, 1985). Psychological research helps us understand how driver behaviour affects safety (Fajen & Warren,

2003), which methods of educating children are most effective (Alexander & Winne, 2006; Woolfolk-Hoy,

2005), how to best detect deception (DePaulo et al., 2003), and the causes of terrorism (Borum, 2004).

3.1 Psychologists Use the Scientific Method to Guide Their Research

Psychologists aren’t the only people who seek to understand human behaviour and solve social problems.

Philosophers, religious leaders, and politicians, among others, also strive to provide explanations for human

behaviour. But psychologists believe that research is the best tool for understanding human beings and their
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 DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY
Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines
Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021 ; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211
AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph ISO 9001: 2015
QMS-Certified E-Mail Address: [email protected]

relationships with others. Rather than accepting the claim of a philosopher that people do (or do not) have free

will, a psychologist would collect data to empirically test whether or not people are able to actively control their

own behaviour. Rather than accepting a politician’s contention that creating (or abandoning) a new centre for

mental health will improve the lives of individuals in the inner city, a psychologist would empirically assess the

effects of receiving mental health treatment on the quality of life of the recipients. The statements made by

psychologists are empirical, which means they are based on systematic collection and analysis of data.

The Scientific Method

The scientific method is the set of assumptions, rules, and procedures scientists use to conduct research.

The scientific method demands that the procedures used be objective, or free from the personal bias or emotions

of the scientist. The scientific method prescribes how scientists collect and analyze data, how they draw

conclusions from data, and how they share data with others. These rules increase objectivity by placing data

under the scrutiny of other scientists and even the public at large.

Most new research is designed to replicate — that is, to repeat, add to, or modify — previous research findings.

The scientific method therefore results in an accumulation of scientific knowledge through the reporting of

research and the addition to and modification of these reported findings by other scientists.

One goal of research is to organize information into meaningful statements that can be applied in many

situations. Principles that are so general as to apply to all situations in a given domain of inquiry are known as

laws.

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 DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY
Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines
Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021 ; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211
AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph ISO 9001: 2015
QMS-Certified E-Mail Address: [email protected]

The next step down from laws in the hierarchy of organizing principles is theory. A theory is an

integrated set of principles that explains and predicts many, but not all, observed relationships within a given

domain of inquiry.

Good theories have four important characteristics:

1. General - meaning they summarize many different outcomes.

2. Parsimonious - meaning they provide the simplest possible account of those outcomes.

3. Provide ideas for future research

4. Falsifiable (Popper, 1959), which means the variables of interest can be adequately measured and the

relationships between the variables that are predicted by the theory can be shown through research to be

incorrect.

No single theory is able to account for all behaviour in all cases. Rather, theories are each limited in that they

make accurate predictions in some situations or for some people but not in other situations or for other people.

As a result, there is a constant exchange between theory and data: existing theories are modified on the basis of

collected data, and the new modified theories then make new predictions that are tested by new data, and so

forth. When a better theory is found, it will replace the old one. This is part of the accumulation of scientific

knowledge.

The Research Hypothesis

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 DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY
Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines
Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021 ; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211
AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph ISO 9001: 2015
QMS-Certified E-Mail Address: [email protected]

A research hypothesis is a specific and falsifiable prediction about the relationship between or among

two or more variables, where a variable is any attribute that can assume different values among different people

or across different times or places. The research hypothesis states the existence of a relationship between the

variables of interest and the specific direction of that relationship. For instance, the research hypothesis “Using

marijuana will reduce learning” predicts that there is a relationship between one variable, “using marijuana,”

and another variable called “learning.”

When stated in an abstract manner, the ideas that form the basis of a research hypothesis are known as

conceptual variables. Conceptual variables are abstract ideas that form the basis of research hypotheses.

Sometimes the conceptual variables are rather simple — for instance, age, gender, or weight. In other cases the

conceptual variables represent more complex ideas, such as anxiety, cognitive development, learning, self-

esteem, or sexism.

The first step in testing a research hypothesis involves turning the conceptual variables into measured variables,

which are variables consisting of numbers that represent the conceptual variables. For instance, the conceptual

variable “participating in psychotherapy” could be represented as the measured variable “number of

psychotherapy hours the patient has accrued,” and the conceptual variable “using marijuana” could be assessed

by having the research participants rate, on a scale from 1 to 10, how often they use marijuana or by

administering a blood test that measures the presence of the chemicals in marijuana.

Psychologists use the term operational definition to refer to a precise statement of how a conceptual variable is

turned into a measured variable.

Conducting Ethical Research

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 DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY
Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines
Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021 ; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211
AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph ISO 9001: 2015
QMS-Certified E-Mail Address: [email protected]

Research in psychology may cause some stress, harm, or inconvenience for the people who

participate in that research. For instance, researchers may require introductory psychology students to

participate in research projects and then deceive these students, at least temporarily, about the nature of the

research.

Psychologists may induce stress, anxiety, or negative moods in their participants, expose them to weak

electrical shocks, or convince them to behave in ways that violate their moral standards. And researchers may

sometimes use animals in their research, potentially harming them in the process.

Decisions about whether research is ethical are made using established ethical codes developed by scientific

organizations, such as the Philippine Association of Psychology (PAP) and American Psycholigical Association

(APA).

Scientific research has provided information that has improved the lives of many people. Therefore, it is

unreasonable to argue that because scientific research has costs, no research should be conducted. This

argument fails to consider the fact that there are significant costs to not doing research and that these costs may

be greater than the potential costs of conducting the research (Rosenthal, 1994). In each case, before beginning

to conduct the research, scientists have attempted to determine the potential risks and benefits of the research

and have come to the conclusion that the potential benefits of conducting the research outweigh the potential

costs to the research participants.

Perhaps the most widespread ethical concern to the participants in behavioural research is the extent to which

researchers employ deception. Deception occurs whenever research participants are not completely and fully

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 DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY
Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines
Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021 ; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211
AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph ISO 9001: 2015
QMS-Certified E-Mail Address: [email protected]

informed about the nature of the research project before participating in it. Deception may occur in an

active way, such as when the researcher tells the participants that he or she is studying learning when in fact the

experiment really concerns obedience to authority. In other cases the deception is more passive, such as when

participants are not told about the hypothesis being studied or the potential use of the data being collected.

One important tool for ensuring that research is ethical is the use of informed consent. Informed consent,

conducted before a participant begins a research session, is designed to explain the research procedures and

inform the participant of his or her rights during the investigation. The informed consent explains as much as

possible about the true nature of the study, particularly everything that might be expected to influence

willingness to participate, but it may in some cases withhold some information that allows the study to work.

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 DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY
Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines
Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021 ; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211
AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph ISO 9001: 2015
QMS-Certified E-Mail Address: [email protected]

A sample of an Informed consent. The informed consent form explains the research procedures and informs the
participant of his or her rights during the investigation. Informed consent should address the following issues:

• A very general statement about the purpose of the study

• A brief description of what the participants will be asked to do

• A brief description of the risks, if any, and what the researcher will do to restore the participant

• A statement informing participants that they may refuse to participate or withdraw at any time without being
penalized

• A statement regarding how the participant’s confidentiality will be protected

• Encouragement to ask questions about participation

• Instructions regarding whom to contact if there are concerns

• Information regarding where the subjects may be informed about the study’s findings

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 DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY
Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines
Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021 ; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211
AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph ISO 9001: 2015
QMS-Certified E-Mail Address: [email protected]

Because participating in research has the potential for producing long-term changes in the research participants,

all participants should be fully debriefed immediately after their participation. The debriefing is a procedure

designed to fully explain the purposes and procedures of the research and remove any harmful after-effects of

participation.

3.2 Psychologists Use Descriptive, Correlational, and Experimental Research Designs to Understand Behaviour

A research design is the specific method a researcher uses to collect, analyze, and interpret data. Psychologists use three

major types of research designs in their research, and each provides an essential avenue for scientific investigation.

1. Descriptive research - a research designed to provide a snapshot of the current state of affairs.

2. Correlational research –a research designed to discover relationships among variables and to allow the prediction of

future events from present knowledge.

3. Experimental research - a research in which initial equivalence among research participants in more than one group is

created, followed by a manipulation of a given experience for these groups and a measurement of the influence of the

manipulation.

Let us discuss how the three major types of research differs:

Descriptive research is designed to create a snapshot of the current thoughts, feelings, or behaviour of individuals. This

section reviews three types of descriptive research: case studies, surveys, and naturalistic observation. Sometimes the

data in a descriptive research project are based on only a small set of individuals, often only one person or a single small

group.

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 DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY
Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines
Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021 ; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211
AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph ISO 9001: 2015
QMS-Certified E-Mail Address: [email protected]

Types of descriptive Research

1. Case studies — descriptive records of one or more individual’s experiences and behaviour.

Sigmund Freud was a master of using the psychological difficulties of individuals to draw conclusions about basic

psychological processes. Freud wrote case studies of some of his most interesting patients and used these careful

examinations to develop his important theories of personality. One classic example is Freud’s description of “Little

Hans,” a child whose fear of horses the psychoanalyst interpreted in terms of repressed sexual impulses and the

Oedipus complex (Freud, 1909/1964).

2. Survey — a measure administered through either an interview or a written questionnaire to get a picture of the

beliefs or behaviours of a sample of people of interest. The people chosen to participate in the research (known as the

sample) are selected to be representative of all the people that the researcher wishes to know about (the population). In

election polls, for instance, a sample is taken from the population of all “likely voters” in the upcoming elections.

3. Naturalistic observation — is research based on the observation of everyday events. For instance, a developmental

psychologist who watches children on a playground and describes what they say to each other while they play is

conducting descriptive research, as is a biopsychologist who observes animals in their natural habitats.

The results of descriptive research projects are analyzed using descriptive statistics — numbers tha tsummarize the

distribution of scores on a measured variable. Most variables have distributions similar where most of the scores are

located near the centre of the distribution, and the distribution is symmetrical and bell-shaped. A data distribution that

is shaped like a bell is known as a normal distribution.

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 DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY
Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines
Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021 ; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211
AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph ISO 9001: 2015
QMS-Certified E-Mail Address: [email protected]

Figure 1. Normal Distribution

https://www.google.com/search?q=bell+shaped+distribution&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwj-
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MgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAA6BAgjECc6BQgAELEDOgcIABCxAxBDULpKWJ9TYKlhaABwAHgCgA
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 A distribution can be described in terms of its central tendency — that is, the point in the distribution around

which the data are centred — and its dispersion, or spread.

 The arithmetic average, or arithmetic mean, symbolized by the letter M, is the most commonly used measure

of central tendency.

 In some cases, however, the data distribution is not symmetrical. This occurs when there are one or more

extreme scores (known as outliers) at one end of the distribution.

 The median is used as an alternative measure of central tendency when distributions are not symmetrical. The

median is the score in the center of the distribution, meaning that 50% of the scores are greater than the

median and 50% of the scores are less than the median.

 Final measure of central tendency, known as the mode, represents the value that occurs most frequently in the

distribution
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 DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY
Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines
Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021 ; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211
AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph ISO 9001: 2015
QMS-Certified E-Mail Address: [email protected]

 In addition to summarizing the central tendency of a distribution, descriptive statistics convey information about

how the scores of the variable are spread around the central tendency. Dispersion refers to the extent to which

the scores are all tightly clustered around the central tendency.

 The standard deviation, symbolized as s, is the most commonly used measure of dispersion. Distributions with a

larger standard deviation have more spread.

Correlational Research: Seeking Relationships among Variables

Correlational research involves the measurement of two or more relevant variables and an assessment of the

relationship between or among those variables. When there are two variables in the research design, one of them is

called the predictor variable and the other the outcome variable.

Example: the variables of height and weight are systematically related (correlated) because taller people generally

weigh more than shorter people. In the same way, study time and memory errors are also related, because the

more time a person is given to study a list of words, the fewer errors he or she will make.

 A scatter plot is a visual image of the relationship between two variables. A point is plotted for each

individual at the intersection of his or her scores for the two variables. When the association between the

variables on the scatter plot can be easily approximated with a straight line, the variables are said to have a

linear relationship.

 When the straight line indicates that individuals who have above-average values for one variable also tend

to have above-average values for the other variable, as in part (a), the relationship is said to be positive

linear.

 Negative linear relationships, in contrast, as shown in part (b), occur when above-average values for one

variable tend to be associated with below-average values for the other variable.

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 DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY
Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines
Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021 ; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211
AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph ISO 9001: 2015
QMS-Certified E-Mail Address: [email protected]

 Relationships between variables that cannot be described with a straight line are known as nonlinear

relationships.

 Relationships that change in direction and thus are not described by a single straight line are called

curvilinear relationships.

Figure 2. Scatter Plot

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 DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY
Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines
Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021 ; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211
AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph ISO 9001: 2015
QMS-Certified E-Mail Address: [email protected]

The most common statistical measure of the strength of linear relationships among variables is the Pearson correlation

coefficient, which is symbolized by the letter r.

Multiple regression is a statistical technique, based on correlation coefficients among variables, that allows predicting a

single outcome variable from more than one predictor variable.

Experimental Research: Understanding the Causes of Behaviour

The goal of experimental research design is to provide more definitive conclusions about the causal relationships among

the variables in the research hypothesis than is available from correlational designs. In an experimental research design,

the variables of interest are called the independent variable (or variables) and the dependent variable.

1. The independent variable in an experiment is the causing variable that is created (manipulated) by the experimenter.

2. The dependent variable in an experiment is a measured variable that is expected to be influenced by the

experimental manipulation.

Validity of Research

Good research is valid research. When research is valid, the conclusions drawn by the researcher are legitimate.

There are four major types of threats to the validity of research:

1. Threats to construct validity. Although it is claimed that the measured variables measure the conceptual variables of

interest, they actually may not. One requirement for construct validity is that the measure be reliable, where reliability

refers to the consistency of a measured variable.

2. Threats to statistical conclusion validity. Conclusions regarding the research may be incorrect because no statistical

tests were made or because the statistical tests were incorrectly interpreted.
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 DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL
SCIENCES
UNIVERSITY
Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines
Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021 ; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211
AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph ISO 9001: 2015
QMS-Certified E-Mail Address: [email protected]

3. Threats to internal validity. Although it is claimed that the independent variable caused the dependent variable, the

dependent variable actually may have been caused by a confounding variable.

4. Threats to external validity. Although it is claimed that the results are more general, the observed effects may

actually only be found under limited conditions or for specific groups of people. (Stangor, 2011)

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