Chapter 11Chapter 1Experimental Psychology and the Scientific MethodChapter OverviewResearchers obtain knowledge about psychological processes by using scientificmethodology. The alternative,commonsense psychology, utilizes nonscientific sourcesof data and inference, and is subject to many kinds of errors. Modern science avoids theerrors inherent in commonsense psychology by assuming a natural order (the scientificmentality). Scientists gather observable data, developlawsortheoriesto organize andexplain our findings, usegood thinking(objective, organized, rational, andparsimoniousreasoning), challenge findings through attempts tofalsify–not verify–new hypotheses(self-correction), publicize results, and repeat experimental procedures to confirmprevious findings (replication).Psychologists revise explanations and theories whenrequired by theweight of evidence.The four major objectives of psychological research includedescription,prediction,explanation, andcontrol.Diverse psychological researchmethods are used in bothappliedandbasic research.The tools of psychological science areobservation,measurement, andexperimentation. Researchers manipulate sets ofantecedentscalledtreatmentsin a psychology experiment. The minimum requirements for an experimentare that we must have procedures for manipulating the antecedents and the predictedoutcome must be observable. Apsychology experimentis a controlled procedure inwhich we apply at least two different treatment conditions tosubjectsand then measureand compare subject behaviors to test an experimental hypothesis. Scientists useexperiments to infer acause andeffect relationshipbetween treatment conditions andsubjects’ behavior.When psychology joined the discipline of mental philosophy in the1800s, itcontended against the popular pseudosciences ofphrenology, physiognomy,spiritualism, and mesmerism. Contemporary psychology deals with their moderncounterparts, likeeye movement desensitization therapy. All of these therapies sharethe appearance of being scientific,butthey lack ascientific basis andhavenot beenconfirmed using the scientific method.Psychologists begin the experimental process by reviewing the research literatureto generate hypotheses about behavior, which provides the basis for the Introductionsection of a psychological report. We design a procedure to systematically test thathypothesis,which is described in the Method section. We statistically analyze ourexperimental data and report whether or not they support the hypothesis in the Resultssection. Finally, we evaluate the meaning of our findings in the context of previousresearch and re-evaluate our procedures and hypothesis in the Discussion sectionPreview Mode
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