Psychological Research And Its Impact On Society

In the fields of research, psychological research poses a number of challenges due to the subjective nature of assessing and measuring emotional states and the development of personalities and disorders. Many biological and environmental factors contribute to a person’s unique psychological functioning. Although similarities can usually be drawn, a single experience can affect a varying number of people in different ways. This paper will focus on two particular methods of research and identify the pros and cons of both.

Dunbar, G. (2005). Evaluating Research Methods in Psychology. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Almost all human beings agree that everyone is different and that there is a need to experiment to better understand the differences within the human race. The role of scientific experiments in psychology is an attempt to better understand the mental process of humans and the possible discovery of something in human makeup that has not been noticed by past scientists and psychologists. Experiments can change the permanent thinking of psychologists and scientists. If one psychologist theorized an idea and every other generation agreed with that view, no one voicing an opposition to the idea, then psychologists would get nowhere in understanding the human mind, failing the innate purpose of psychology- to study and answer questions about actions, thoughts, and emotions. Thus, to fulfil the need of psychology, psychologists experiment and refer back to past psychologists for ways to expand.

When it comes to the scientific method, especially in the science of psychology, there are many different ways a question can be asked in order to get the conclusion to a hypothesis. Psychology is by its nature something that not only produces many questions but also helps to find the answer to those questions. Through asking the right questions a person can see a whole new world of understanding unfold before them. This understanding of why a person or animal acts the way it does has been groundbreaking in the growth of understanding a individual on a much deeper level than the sociological standpoint. Before this understanding can be obtained however one must learn first how to ask a proper question and then in turn how to test that

Research, systematic inquiry aimed at the discovery of new knowledge, is a central ingredient of the scientific method in psychology. It provides the key to understanding the degree to which hypotheses (and the theories behind them) are accurate. Just as we can apply different theories and hypotheses to explain the same phenomena, we can use a number of alternative methods to conduct research.

Psychology Study Guide Chapter 1: Different types of psychologists (clinical, forensic, social, health, industrial etc) • Clinical: aim to reduce psychological distress. Anxiety, depression, relationship problems, addictions and relationships. • Forensic: applying theory to criminal investigations, understanding psychological problems associated with criminal behavior, and the treatment of criminals. • Social: The study of relations between people and groups. Thoughts, feelings and behaviors altered by others. typically explain human behavior as a result of the interaction of mental states and immediate social situations • Health: relatively new. Principles are used to help changes about people’s attitudes about health and illness.

As stated in our syllabus, research is essential to the science of psychology. This course was an introduction to the basic concepts and instruments needed to assess and conduct research. Through understanding the research process, as well as the ideas such as validity and reliability, we become better acute consumers and producers of research. I have also learned that research comes in many different tests and observation, but each method is just as important as the last one.

The general public has doubts about the psychology’s credibility and usefulness (Lilienfeld, 2012). These misconceptions have been tied to possible sources of skepticism such as “illusions of understanding, psychology’s problematic public face, and individual’s hindsight bias” (Lilienfeld, 2012). This skepticism must exist for a reason and it is crucial to understand why the general public finds behavioral science research less credible than that of other scientific disciplines often described as “harder” sciences.

The research should not harm the participant and at no point should they feel distressed or uncomfortable, the participant needs to obtain the correct information and at no point be deceived or lied to (Diniz, 2008). The participant needs to be seen as an individual not just a number and needs to take into account that they are unique and will respond differently to other participants. Furthermore, the participant needs to agree to take part in the research on their own accord and must not be forced into partaking. Social research and the experiments conducted to acquire the research sometimes have ripple effects that can cause unanticipated consequences on the community. The community and in particular community psychologists need to identify an ethical dilemma that could result from social research when they see one, understand the fundamentals of the predicament, and decide what a solution should include

In assessing psychology’s public image, two dimensions are paramount in the issue: “popularity” (or how the public feels toward psychology and psychologists), and “understanding” (what the public knows about psychology and what psychologists do) (Benjamin, 1986, p. 945). While overall, psychologists are met with a moderately favorable attitude (Guest, 1948), several studies have revealed a deficiency in the knowledge of who psychologists are and what they do (Wood et al., 1986; Wollersheim & Walsh, 1993; Lent, 1990; Cialdini, 1997; Webb & Speer, 1986; Farberman, 1997). This deficiency is the driving force behind many of the negative misperceptions that the public holds, and one cannot help but spy the tendency of the public to doubt the mechanisms behind psychology, namely the science. Lilienfeld (2012) published an article titled “Public Skepticism of Psychology: Why Many People Perceive the Study of Human Behavior as Unscientific.” In this article, Lilienfeld suggests that, “the general public agrees with the soft science nomenclature that is frequently applied to psychology” (Munro & Munro, 2014, p.534). He lists six common criticisms of the scientific basis of psychology, some of which include: psychology does not use scientific methods, psychology cannot yield meaningful generalizations because everyone is unique, and psychology is not useful in to society. An addition criticism listed is that psychology as merely common sense (Janda, England, Lovejoy, & Drury, 1998;

Psychology is a science because it involves empirically testing concepts and observations of behavior and mental process. Psychology uses systematic methods to observe human behavior and draw conclusions on their findings. The main goals of scientific psychological studies is to predict, explain, and describe behavior. Those in the field only scientifically test concrete concepts based on previous research or assumptions. The overall process of the scientific method involves making a hypotheses, deriving predictions from them as logical consequences, and then carrying out experiments based on those predictions. A hypothesis is a conjecture, based on knowledge obtained while formulating the question. “Debate and controversy are a natural part

No matter where a person goes, what job they take on, or who they work with, there are always behaviors and mental activity that can be analyzed. Through what is analyzed and what we know about certain types of people’s upbringings one could ultimately predict their next behaviors. Psychological science is the study through research, mind, brain, and behavior (Gazzaniga, M., Heatherton, T., & Halpern, D., 2016). This definition can be applied to the everyday of life any human in their professional goals, prospective population they will serve, and in their personal life.

Within the eight weeks of this course, we learned a lot about psychological research. This course provided an understanding of how research is completed. This course also gave an understanding of what methods to utilize based on that particular research that is being conducted. In this paper I will discuss exactly what I learned about research at an introductory level as a case study. In the field of mental health, professionals must be constantly looking for ways to help their patients (Cozby & Bates 2015).

At the beginning of this subterm, I had a limited understanding of the proper research methods used within psychology. Despite having previously completed several psychology courses, two being upper level courses, there was still much I needed to learn pertaining to psychology research methods. While this research class has been on only an introductory

This paper will explore the fundamentals of research methodology in the Psychology field and discuss the importance of psychology. The answers to these questions are the basis for the theories that led to research. Research is the groundwork performed by Psychologists in order to answer questions about behavior and the mind. The outcome of the research will offer a clear picture of why an individual act the way he or she does. In the Psychology field, data is gathered to conduct the research and produce an outcome. This is a time-consuming process but without it there would be many of unanswered