Scientific Method Used in Psychological Research

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Q: Discuss in detail, the scientific method used in psychological research. The goal of psychological research is to discover, describe, explain and change the causes of behaviour. There are three major scientific approaches to research. Naturalistic observations – observations of people or animals in their natural environment. Correlational studies are observations in nature, but they involve more formal measurement of environmental events and indivisuals behaviour. Experiments go beyond mere measurement. A psychologist performing an experiment makes things happen and observes the result. The scientific method consists of a set of ruls that dictates the general procedeure a scientist must follow in their research. The following five steps simmarize the rules of the scientific methos that apply to experiments, the mist rigorous form of scientific research. Identify the problem and formulate a hypothetical cause and effect realtions among variables. This step involves identifying variables (particular behaviours and environmental and psychological events) and describing relations among them in general terms. Consider the hypothesis that positive mood increases creativity. This statement describes a relation between two variables – mood and creativity – and states that an increase in one causes an increase in the other. Design the experiment Experiments involve the manipulation of factors called independant variables and the observation of dependent variables. For example, if we wanted to test the hypothesis that a positive mood (independant variable) increases creativity (dependent variable), each variable would have to be opportunallly defined. The independant variable must be controlled so that only it, and no other variable, is responsible for any changes in the dependant variable. Conduct the experiment The researcher must organize the

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