PSYC 1100 Week 3 Discussion

PSYC 1100 Week 3 Discussion  | Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Peer Learning Discussion Week 3

Design a Study

One method to comprehend the steps of the scientific method is to work through the actual design for a study. The more outrageous the topic chosen for study, the more interested you will be. The safest approach to this exercise is to select a general topic yourself and let your students design the study in class. For example, you might select general topics like playing violent videogames and aggression, single parenting and behavioural disturbances among children, caffeine and memory enhancement, or a topic pertinent to your research area. If you are feeling bold, you might consider come up with a general topic pertaining to human behaviour based upon their observations (refer to the handout activity 1D of this week). Once the general topic is chosen, work though the remaining five steps in the scientific process and write your responses.

Formulating Hypotheses – Once you understand the basic question, formulate a written hypothesis. In writing the hypothesis, you will need to consider whether they want to describe relations between variables (correlational approach) or whether you want to make causal statements about relations between variables (experimental approach). The study hypothesis will be written slightly differently based upon your choice. For purposes of simplicity, it is best to limit the number of variables to two.

Testing Hypotheses – One of the first steps in testing the hypothesis is to state operational definitions for the variables in the study. You will need to consider whether your measures represent self-report measures, psychological tests, behavioural observations, or physiological when stating your operational definitions. Once the variables have been defined, you will need to consider the basic elements of the method chosen, including a description of the participants and procedures used for data collection. 

Analyzing Data – For this step, you are going to have to pretend you have spent months collecting the data and are now presenting the findings. This will involve a discussion of correlation coefficients and tests of statistical significance. Review how these data analytic strategies assist in drawing conclusions.

Building Theories – Once you have reported your results and conclusions, you can return to the six perspectives of psychology and interpret your findings with regard to a particular perspective (or several perspectives).

Developing and Testing New Hypotheses – Finally, once your data is tied to a theoretical framework, it permits additional questions for future research, starting the whole process over again.