INTRODUCTION TO SCIENTIFIC PROCESSES
SPECIFICATION:
SCIENTIFIC PROCESSES
Aims: stating aims, the difference between aims and hypotheses.
Hypotheses: directional and non-directional.
Sampling: the difference between population and sample; sampling techniques including random, systematic, stratified, opportunity and volunteer; implications of sampling techniques, including bias and generalisation.
Pilot studies and the aims of piloting
FOR THE THREE POINTS BELOW, PLEASE SEE RESEARCH METHODS
Experimental designs: repeated measures, independent groups, matched pairs.
Observational design: behavioural categories, event sampling, time sampling.
Questionnaire construction, including open and closed questions; design of interviews.
FOR THE THREE POINTS BELOW, PLEASE SEE “CONTROL OF VARIA
Variables: manipulation and control of variables, including independent, dependent, extraneous, confounding; operationalisation of variables.
Control: random allocation and counterbalancing, randomisation and standardisation.
Demand characteristics and investigator effects.
Ethics, including the role of the British Psychological Society’s code of ethics; ethical issues in the design and conduct of psychological studies; dealing with ethical issues in research.
The role of peer review in the scientific process.
The implications of psychological research for the economy.
Reliability across all methods of investigation. Ways of assessing reliability: test-retest and inter-observer; improving reliability.
Types of validity across all methods of investigation: face validity, concurrent validity, ecological validity and temporal validity. Assessment of validity. Improving validity.
Features of science: objectivity and the empirical method; replicability and falsifiability; theory construction and hypothesis testing; paradigms and paradigm shifts.
Reporting psychological investigations. Sections of a scientific report: abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion and referencing.
