PSYC 334

Research Methods

Session 3 – BASIC CONCEPTS IN RESEARCH

Lecturer: Dr. Adote Anum, Dept. of Psychology

Contact Information: aanum@ug.edu.gh

College of Education
School of Continuing and Distance Education
2014/2015 – 2016/2017
 Session Overview
• So far we have discussed the purposes of research
methods and ethics in psychological research. In this
Session, we will focus on understanding some
common concepts and terminologies that we use
regularly in research. You would have already come
across a few across a few.
• I am going to emphasize the familiar ones and
include some new ones as well. It is important to
understand what these refer to and how they are
distinguished from each other.
 Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:
• Topic One: Generating Research Questions and Hypotheses
• Topic Two: Theory and Hypothesis
• Topic Three: Types of Variables
 Reading List
• http://open.lib.umn.edu/psychologyresearchmethods/
(Chapter 6, pages 100 – 108). Please refer to Sakai for the PDF
version of this textbook.
Topic One

GENERATING RESEARCH QUESTIONS

 What is a Research Question?
• This is the initial step in the research process.
• A research question is an answerable inquiry into
a specific concern or issue.
• It is usually the idea that initiates the intention of
the researcher and points to where s/he should
start looking for information.
• A researcher is therefore the general conceptual
thinking about what the outcome of the research
should be at the end.
• It can also be referred to as research idea
 What is A Research Question?
• A few key issues are important when writing the
research question.
– Is your research question broad enough?
– Is the question clear/Is there a focus?
– Is the research question answerable

• Let us look at some examples

 What is A Research Question?
• Let us look at some examples.
Are boys more aggressive than girls?
What is wrong with this? It lacks clarity.
In what ways are boys more aggressive than girls OR
Are there differences between boys and girls in the
different types of aggression
Developing A Research Question
• How is research question different from hypothesis?
– Research Questions are more general
– Hypotheses are more focused and usually
directional

• The Research Process

– The research begins with the identification of
research question and statement of
hypotheses
Research Process
Topic Two

THEORIES AND HYPOTHESES

 Theories and Hypotheses
• What is a theory?
– A scientific theory is a set of principles that explain and
predict phenomena

– Do you know some examples of theories in psychology

and more importantly what behaviors they explain?
 What is a theory?
• A scientific theory is a set of principles that
explain and predict phenomena
• A theory is a based upon a hypothesis and
backed by evidence
• A theory is built upon one or more
hypotheses, and upon evidence.
 Theory
• Three important issues
– a theory is a set of propositions consisting of defined and
interrelated constructs
– a theory sets out the interrelations among a set of
variables
– a theory explains phenomena
 Theory
• Evaluating a theory: 3 criteria
– Parsimony –
• It should have fewer concepts and explain more
phenomena.
– Precision –
• Unless a theory is sufficiently precise, so that investigators
can agree on its predictions, its purposes become useless.
– Testability –
• Belief in a theory increases, as it survives tests that could
reject it.
 Hypothesis
• A tentative statement (educated guess) that makes
assumptions about the relation between two more
variables.

• The assumptions are based on theory that will be

tested empirically and rejected or confirmed on the
basis of the data alone.
 Hypotheses
• Heating water at 100 degrees Celsius will make it
boil.
• An increase in caffeine would lead to an increase in
anxiety
• Males will score higher on spatial tasks than females
• Males who drink alcohol twice or more a day would
perform worse on cognitive tasks than those who do
not.
• Females higher on depression than males
Topic Three

TYPES OF VARIABLES
 Variables
• A variable is a characteristic, event, behavior
or any psychological entity that can vary and
can be measured.

• Examples are
• Cognitive tasks, Performance on IQ test, Sex,
Aggression, Socio-economic Status (SES),
personality, happiness, depression etc.
 Variables
• There are four main categories
– Participant/Subject
– Response variables
– Situational variables
– Mediating/Moderating variables
 Variables
• There are four main categories
– Participant/Subject
– Response variables
– Situational variables
– Mediating/Moderating variables
 Types of Variables
• Concept of Categorical variables
– E.g., Subject variable - Gender

• Concept of Quantitative variables –

– Response variable
 Types of Variables
• Independent variable
– Manipulated variable - causal
• Dependent variables
– Response variable
 Variables
• Effects of caffeine on memory
• Effects of caffeine on memory
• Alcohol leads to a reduction in anxiety levels
• Alcohol leads to a reduction in anxiety levels
• Gender ideology and abuse in intimate
relationships among UG students
 Variables
What are the independent and dependent variables?
1. Frustration leads to aggression
2. Watching violent movies and level of aggression
3. Education and Income
4. Level of anxiety and Recall of verbal information
5. Behavior problems in children and Parenting skills
6. Teen pregnancy and poverty
7. Sex and GPA
 Variables
• Extraneous
– A variable that has similar effect (As the
IV) on the DV
• Confound
– A variable that is related to the IV and
therefore their effects on the DV may not
be separable
 Assignment
• Work on the Assignment in the Chapter
two of the Recommended textbook of this
Session (Page 32)
 References
• http://open.lib.umn.edu/psychologyresearchmeth
ods/ (Chapter 2, pages 19 – 32). Please refer to
Sakai for the PDF version of this textbook.
THANK YOU