The Method in Scientific Psychology

A method of procedure that has characterized natural science since the seventeenth century, consists of the systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and formulation, testing, and modification of hypothesis. Currently, psychologists use the scientific method to conduct their research.

Like other social sciences, psychology requires a specific methodology to regulate both the studies and the production of knowledge of it. In the following Psychology-Online article, we will present the method in scientific psychology. In addition, we will analyze the main methodologies.

Index

1. Introduction to the Method in Scientific Psychology
2. The Experimental Technique in psychological methodology
3. Correlational method
4. Observational method

The cientific method it is a standardized way of making observations, collecting data, forming theories, testing predictions, and interpreting results. Researchers make observations to describe and measure behavior.

The basic steps of the scientific method in psychology are:

• Make an observation that describes a problem,
• Create a hypothesis,
• Test the hypothesis, and
• Draw conclusions and refine the hypothesis.

Theory of the scientific method

The method common to all science is the method hypothetical-deductive or scientific method. It consists of four moments:

• Observation measurement of behavioral or cognitive facts.
• Hypothesis formulation: conjectures formulated by the scientist about the observed facts. The hypothesis has to allow the possibility of being falsified in experimentation.
• deduction of conclusions: In experimentation, specific cases of the hypothesis are tested, never the hypothesis in general. It has to be posed in terms of the conditional (if... then).
• Contrasting: is to subject to experimentation the specific cases deduced from the hypothesis. It is now when the inductive technique is used. With the completion of the experiment, the hypothesis can be verified, when the data supports or rejected it, thus being falsified.

With the hypothesis verification, the scientific method looks for regularities for the formulation of laws and theories. The methodical techniques. They refer to the different ways of carrying out each of the moments of the hypothetico-deductive method.

In psychology three methodical techniques are used fundamentally in the contrast phase: experimental, correlational and observational.

It is a way of testing hypotheses through experiments, through which a situation is created, normally in the laboratory, in which it is intended to find out the effects of one (independent) variable on another (dependent) variable and thus be able to establish a relationship between they.

The main characteristic of this technique is that the researcher can manipulate and control the variable as appropriate, to find out such relationship. For laboratory research, a prior design is required where the following are described:

• the subjects that will be part of the experiment.
• the necessary appliances.
• the procedure and the situation in which the experiment is to be carried out.
• the mathematical analysis to be carried out with the data obtained.

As a consequence of all this process, it will be possible to decide whether or not the initial hypothesis is fulfilled. The most elementary experiment in which the effect of an independent variable on the dependent variable uses a type of design called bivariate (only the relationship between two variables).

But you may also be interested in finding out the effect of several independent variables for which it is necessary to use multivariate designs. The main advantages of the experimental method are: The great manipulation capacity that is exerted on the situation.

For greater control of the effect of the independent variable, the control group. This group is also subjected to the experimental situation, except for the independent variable. Thus, it can be verified with great certainty that the changes in the experimental group are due solely to the effect of the treatment. It allows the experiment to be repeated at the time the experimenter deems appropriate; this is called duplication.

When some changes are introduced in the repetition of the experiment, it is called constructive repetition. The main criticisms of the experimental method come from the behavioral environment:

• the situations created in the laboratory are excessively artificial.
• While this is true, in these situations the functions and processes that determine behavior in their natural environment can be studied.
• not all the intervening variables are really controlled.
• the experimenter increases the ambiguity of the observable aspects of the behavior. These criticisms have led to the use of the introspective report, although with some limitations, given its private nature.

In relation to the internal validity, or existence of a relationship between the variables, two criticisms have been raised:

• The experimenter effect: certain characteristics of the experimenter can influence the results. This is corrected by employing several experimenters.
• The characteristics of the demand: the subject usually answers according to what he thinks is expected of him.

Refering to external validity, or possibility of generalization of the results, has been solved by the reduplication of the experiment.

Another technique in the scientific methodology of psychology is known as correlational method: since it is not always possible to carry out an experiment to test a hypothesis, when psychological variables are studied, such as hypothetical constructs (ex. intelligence), which cannot be manipulated by the experimenter, but occur among the subjects of a population, the comparative or correlational technique is used.

This technique is based on the correlation coefficient, which determines the relationship between two variables but not its cause. Its use is descriptive, not explanatory and serves to establish comparisons. It is mainly used in personality psychology through the mathematical technique of factor analysis.

With this method in applied psychology, phenomena are studied as they occur in nature. Psychological observation uses a series of hypotheses already raised and its main objective is to directly verify the phenomena. This technique is necessary on many occasions to know the behavior of the individuals to be analyzed.

It is mainly used in clinical psychology, when it comes to variables that can only be observed. There are two kinds of observation:

• Passive: It is the one carried out in the data collection phase of the hypothetical-deductive method.
• Active: it is carried out in a controlled way and is called systematic observation. It is used in contrasting.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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