Research Methods in Social Science

• Research involves creating new knowledge by applying existing knowledge to develop fresh ideas, methodologies, and understandings.

Scientific Method

• Inquiring about nature requires certain assumptions, attitudes, goals, and procedures.

Studying Human Experience

• Social and behavioral scientists use empirical methods.
• Empirical methods include selecting participants, collecting data, analyzing findings, and reporting results.

Social Science and the Scientific Method

• The scientific method is effective for removing bias and opinion to reach a consensus.
• Consensus is about understanding behavior and correcting errors.
• The scientific method offers the most compelling evidence due to its basis in real-world events.

Social science accuracy

• Social scientists aim to understand behavior because this knowledge greatly impacts lives.
• Accuracy is very important.

Assumptions of Science

• Nature is Lawful (Empiricism)
• Events are understood as a series of natural causes.
• Lawful behavior helps with understanding nature.
• The law of nature is deterministic

Attitude

• Must be uncertain and open minded.
• Must remain skeptical and cautious.
• Must act ethically.

Approach

• Assume that nobody fully understands how a behavior works.
• Any approach or statement could be correct.
• Any approach or statement might contain errors.
• Conclusions are theories, not facts.
• Research must not harm anyone.

Pseudoscience

• Pseudoscience includes activities and beliefs presented as scientific but are not.
• Examples of pseudoscience: astrology, graphology, and phrenology.

The Goals of Science

• Describe
• Explain
• Predict
• Control

Research Categories

• Basic research aims to achieve detailed and accurate understanding of human behavior.
• Basic research is done without targeting a practical problem.
• Talkativeness differences and psychological processes as people adapt to change are examples of basic research.
• Examples of basic research also include work motivation and work structure.
• Applied research aims to solve practical problems.
• Examples of applied research include studying: the effects of cellphone use while driving, the impact of quarantine on adolescents, and the impact of social amelioration funds on minimum wage earners.
• Social science can include basic or applied research which are not always clearly split.
• Applied research can lead to basic and vice versa.
• Understanding cellphone use while driving can offer insights into perception, attention, and action.

Confounding Researches

• Demand characteristics are external hints that guide or bias a participant's behavior.
• Reactivity is a demand characteristic that occurs when participants know they are being observed.
• Social desirability is a demand characteristic that leads participants to behave acceptably.
• Researcher expectancies: Cues from the researcher signal the responses participants should provide.

Avoiding Demand Characteristics

• Eliminate habituation.
• Habituation is the decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentation.
• Use Placebo- placebo is defined as a treatment without any active properties.

Procedures

• Single-blind procedure: In a clinical trial, one researcher knows the received treatment/procedure.
• Double-blind procedure: Both researchers and participants do not know who receives treatment

Experimental Realism

• The extent to which created situations in social psychology experiments are real and impactful to participants.
• Unobtrusive measures: Measures that do not require the researcher to be present.