The Process of Research in Psychology
Answers to Test Yourself
(1a) Results. (1b) Method--Participants. (1c) Introduction and Discussion. (1d) Discussion. (1e) Method--Procedure. (2) Theory-driven hypotheses are made using predictions of a theory for a research study. Data-driven hypotheses are made by generalizing results from past studies to the results of a research study. (3) This is an inappropriate research question for psychological studies because it would be difficult to observe behaviors to answer this question. In other words, it is a question that cannot be answered by scientific methods because there are no clear behaviors that are seen as indicative of a soul. (4) A peer-reviewed journal article is typically an article written to describe a research study to inform other researchers what has previously been found in an area of psychology. Peer reviewed means that the article has been reviewed by experts in the area before publication to improve the article and make a recommendation about publication. An article in a popular magazine would likely provide a short summary of the study and may not accurately reflect the original article. Thus, magazine articles are considered secondary (rather than primary) sources. (5) A literature review is a review of previous research in an area to allow a researcher to conduct research that does not replicate what has previously been done and to allow researchers to make accurate predictions about a study’s outcome. (6a) Behavior variable: conscientiousness; Causal variable: gender (men and women). (6b) Behavior variable: sleep quality; Causal variable: waking up at the same time. (6c) Behavior variable: violent behavior; Causal variable: ostracism. (6d) Behavior variable: eyewitness memory; Causal variable: age (children and adults). (6e) Behavior variable: perceiving the size of an opening; Causal variable: using crutches. (7) PsycINFO will yield peer-reviewed articles about research. Google will yield other types of information (such as popular magazine articles) that are considered secondary sources that may not be reliable. (8) abstract. (9) deductive. (10) descriptive. (11) The primary difference between an empirical article and a book chapter or review article is that the empirical article will describe the details (purpose, method, results, conclusions) of a single study (or set of studies), whereas book chapters and review articles summarize and organize a large set of studies by many researchers.