This document outlines several key principles of scientific research in psychology: 1) Cause and effect relationships and falsifiability are important concepts that allow psychological research questions to be scientifically tested. 2) Hypotheses should be clearly operationalized and variables manipulated to allow for falsifiability and replicability of research findings. 3) Control, standardization, and objectivity help ensure research is replicable and free from bias. 4) Deduction, induction, and producing quantifiable results are important for drawing scientific conclusions from psychological research evidence.

1. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Research methods
How science works

2. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Research methods
Introduction
• Psychology is the science of mind and behaviour.
• Because scientific methods are rigorous and respected it is important that
psychology follows the basic scientific principles outlined in this
presentation.

3. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Research methods
Cause and effect
• One of the most important concepts that is looked for in psychology is
cause and effect.
• Cause and effect is how one variable can have an effect on another
variable. For example, you could research how eating vegetables will have
an effect on a person’s energy levels.
• In experiments, we look for how the independent variable can have an
effect on the dependent variable.
• However, correlations only reveal relationships between variables and not
how one variable will have an effect on another.

4. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Research methods
Falsification
‘The aim of science is not to open
the door to infinite wisdom,
but to set a limit to infinite error.’
B. Brecht

5. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Research methods
Falsification
• To be scientific, psychological ideas and hypotheses need to be falsifiable.
• This means that you should be able to conduct tests to see if research
questions can be proved false.
• For example, a research question like ‘Are all swans white?’ is falsifiable as
you can test this claim and see if it’s true or not.
• However ‘Does God exist?’ is not falsifiable as you cannot scientifically
prove this right or wrong.
• In modern psychology most research is falsifiable and can be tested
scientifically. Some research, however, like Freud’s theory of the
unconscious, is not falsifiable. This makes it unscientific.

6. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Research methods
Hypothesis testing
• One way in which you can provide falsifiability in psychology is to write
good hypotheses.
• All psychological hypotheses should be able to be clearly tested.
• For example, ‘Children will be significantly more intelligent after reading
books’ is not a clearly testable hypothesis.
• A way to make hypotheses clearly testable is by operationalising the
variables so they are clear and specific.
• For example, ‘Children will score significantly higher on a standard IQ test
after having read at least five books in a year when compared to children
who have read four books or fewer in a year.’
• Because this hypothesis has its variables clearly operationalised, anyone
could test it to see if it is true.

7. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Research methods
Manipulation of variables
• In psychological experiments there are independent and dependent
variables.
• Dependent variables are what is being measured.
• Independent variables should be able to be clearly manipulated.
• For example, if you were researching whether alcohol impairs speech, you
could clearly manipulate the amount of alcohol you give to different
participants.

8. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Research methods
Replicability
• Replicability is the ability to be able to repeat research again and again to
see if the same results will keep happening.
• Different researchers should be able to repeat the same research and
obtain the same results.
• If research is replicable it tends to be precise and detailed – this is one of
the reasons why replicability is a key scientific principle.
• Think of the research you’ve looked at so far. Could you repeat it? If not,
why not? Look at Activity 1 of your worksheet.

9. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Research methods
Control and standardisation
A way in which you can ensure that research is replicable is to control it.
• Controls mean making a study constant and keeping it the same for each
participant who takes part in it.
• This could include making sure all participants have the same time to
complete a task, and that they complete the same task and follow
instructions in the same order.
• When a procedure has a clear set of instructions to follow, we can say that
it is standardised. This means there is a standard way of carrying out the
study.
• A clearly standardised study should mean that anyone could read the
procedure instructions and carry out the study themselves. This will make
the study more replicable and therefore more scientific.

10. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Research methods
Objectivity
• Studying human behaviour can be quite personal. It is often easy for
researchers to look at things from their own point of view and be
influenced by personal experience, morals and beliefs (subjectivity).
• When people are subjective they are prone to bias, which can lead to
recording inaccurate results.
• Being objective means conducting research in a completely neutral way
that eliminates all biases, emotions and feelings.
• Ways to improve objectivity may be to use independent researchers to
analyse results from participants they have never met.
• You could also use researchers who are blind to the purpose of the
research, to guarantee they will not be biased when researching.

11. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Research methods
Deduction
• Psychological research relies on drawing conclusions from evidence.
• If you deduce then you come to a conclusion by eliminating other
possibilities until you are left with one.
• For example, if researching why a child acts aggressively, there are lots of
possible reasons for this. A scientist would try to eliminate as many
reasons as possible and deduce the main cause for aggression.
Deuce = Reduce

12. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Research methods
Induction
• Induction is when you generalise a limited finding to a larger population.
• For example, a researcher may observe in a single cafe that the time
people most often buy cappuccinos is between 4pm and 5pm and so
induce that people in all cafes in that city tend to buy cappuccinos at the
same time.
Induce = increase

13. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Research methods
Quantifiable results
• Psychology researches concepts that are difficult to make scientific, e.g.
emotions, memories and feelings.
• Scientific results are usually numbered and quantitative. This is good as
results can easily be compared and analysed.
• A challenge in psychology is to take human concepts like memory and
make them quantifiable (turn them into numbers).
• How can you take a concept like memory and make it measurable through
numbers?
• You could use a memory test where participants look at a list of 30 words
and write down as many as they can remember.
• Think about concepts in the human mind that you could make
quantifiable. Use the worksheet for Activity 2 to help you.

14. OCR Psychology for A level Year 1 2015 © Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Research methods
Pick a psychological study
Explain how scientific it is using one these key
words
• Cause and effect
• Falsification
• Hypothesis testing
• Manipulation of variables
• Replicability
• Control and standardisation
• Objectivity
• Deduction
• Induction
• Quantifiable
Make a top trump card for a study you have learnt with these features
Play top trumps and decide who wins each turn through negotiation!
Can you decide which is the most scientific study?