Essay about The Use of the Scientific Method in Psychology

Imagine a life locked away in a cage with no form of control on your existence. It’s cold, dark, and you are scared. You don’t have a choice of what you eat, where you live, or how you are treated. You are unsure if it is day or night or what will happen to you next. You are locked away in a prison cell and you committed no crime. This is the life of a laboratory animal. Animal testing is the use of animals for scientific research purposes and experiments. It can be used for the findings of cures and medicines to testing new drugs, to understanding the behavioral psychology of the animals themselves. “Around fifty to one hundred million vertebrate animals, ranging from fish to primates, are used in experiments each year” (Lloyd). There are

There has been an ongoing debate on whether psychology is indeed scientific, although recent, psychology is now considered a science. This is because it uses scientific methodology in researching, devising treatments and measuring the outcomes. These methods include collecting and analysing data and concluding their findings in order to identify whether the research or treatment adequality solves the problem. Scientific studies must be replicable, this means the if repeated exactly the same, the results should produce an identical outcome. Replicability can be increased by ruling out any alternatives that may not have originally been thought of. Objectivity in science is the idea that scientist, in an attempt to get the best results, must first

To support the theory of continental drift is through topography, surveying the floors of oceans, charts of rock magnetism, and statistics on rock ages (Trefil & Hazen, 2010). At one time scientist believed that the deep ocean floors were flat; accumulating the sediment that progressively wore away from the prehistoric landmasses (Trefil & Hazen, 2010). However, they discovered steep-walled valleys and elevated highlands. This was evidences that just as the continents are transformed and are active, so to is the seafloor (Trefil & Hazen, 2010). The Mid- Atlantic Ridge, positioned in the central part of the Atlantic Ocean, is recorded to be the longest mountain range on this planet. Volcanoes, lava flow, and earthquakes are a source of

In the paper by Mook (1983), it is argued that the setting for an experiment does not have to be realistic, and that

The Scientific Method is the standardized procedure that scientists are supposed to follow when conducting experiments, in order to try to construct a reliable, consistent, and non-arbitrary representation of our surroundings. To follow the Scientific Method is to stick very tightly to a order of experimentation. First, the scientist must observe the phenomenon of interest. Next, the scientist must propose a hypothesis, or idea in which the experiments will be based around. Then, through repeated experimentation, the hypothesis can either be proven false or become a theory. If the hypothesis is proven to be false, the scientist must reformulate his or her ideas and come up with another hypothesis, and the experimentation begins again. This

Two important factors of psychology and studying it are statistics and research. This paper will explain what research is and the scientific method. This paper will also explain how research is important to psychology. When a researcher does studies on psychology they receive data from the subjects, they are studying. In any type of research there are two major types of data, they are primary data and secondary data. Data is important to statistics because it is the information a researcher receives from the studies they perform. Statistics puts all the data into a form that many people can understand. Statistics is an excellent way to

Humans have inhabited the Earth for thousands of years and it is perceived by many that we are among the most intellectual species on this planet. Although having lived on this planet for so long, being able to distinguish fact from fiction has escaped the minds of many. People of today’s society are easily influenced by what is told to them instead of what can be proven. Believing in something that has no scientific evidence is not only absurd but can be classified simply as ignorance. Many of the erratic ideas that are believed by many today have originated in a time where superstition was more popular than science. These beliefs appear to be proven by science, but in reality are not valid and frequently confused with

In conclusion, there are many different data collection methods that are used for research. Many arguments in

Review the literature. Research can be conducted by the use of external sources, i.e. Internet, books, interviews, pictures, focus groups, and historical accounts just to name a few.

Psychological research has many advantages within society, helping us to better understand many different aspects of the world around us; this essay will be looking at three different research methods to ascertain the advantages of using methods within psychology. First of all we will identify which methods we are going to examine then we will assess the advantages of using these methods through the eyes of the relevant psychologist against their individual studies but first let’s distinguish what is meant by the term research method. Methods are used within a psychological study to help determine the hypotheses of the psychologist, or can be

Experimental laboratory methods, for example, Bandura 's (1961) Bobo Doll experiment, where he was trying to investigate the relationship between a child imitating aggression (DV) and the child 's direct exposure to it (IV) found a positive correlation between the two variables. The advantages being that it enables the maximum level of control over variables, such as the gender of the adult model, the time the child observed the model. The cause and effect relationships between them can be clearly determined and the experiment can be easily replicated, as it was in 1963. Limitations are that the experiment is artificial

An experiment is a test to study the effect an independent variable (IV) has on a certain dependent variable (DV). The classic experiment model is the most basic. First, all test subjects are “measured” and their initial opinion is recorded. Next, the test subjects are split evenly into two groups; a control group and the test group. The test group is given a “stimuli,” such as biased reading material on the topic at hand, whereas the control group is given more neutral, unbiased information on the same topic. After, all test subjects are “re-measured.” In theory, the opinions of the control group would remain static, where the opinion of the test group would measurably change, and the change could be contributed to the more biased information given as a stimulus. Other types of experiments become more complex; test subjects are not split into a test group and a control group; many more variables can be considered and more stimuli added, but the test still takes place inside a laboratory where the scientist has control over the stimuli. These types of experiments are considered quasi-experimental designs and include tests such as simulations and games. The most complex experiment is called a field experiment, it takes place in the real world and the scientist does not have control over all the factors and stimuli at play. (Van Thiel, 2014)

In order to get tests up and going, scientists will need to have volunteer test subjects. However most of these volunteers may not understand what they may be getting into. In most cases, the subjects are taught the risks of these experiments but may not understand the actual toll it may take on them. Some of the these experiments are so complex, that it is very difficult to explain to the volunteers and may even mislead them. It is also very common that some

Animal experimentation has become a very controversial subject since the development of more advanced technology. Estimates of the number of animals used each year for experiments in United States laboratories range from seventeen to seventy million (as cited in “Animal Friends Croatia”, 2009, p. 15). Animal experimentation, which is also known as animal testing, is experiments that use non-human animals that seek to control the variables that affect the behavior or biological system under study. Although animal

Experimental Designs, frequently called authentic experimentation, use the scientific technique to set up motive-impact courting among a collection of variables in a studies look at.[7]