welcome to research methods in psychology on the slide are the learning objectives for chapter one these are the things you should know by the end of chapter one and the things that are most likely to appear on the quizzes use these as your study guides we begin this course by examining the importance of scientific research to producers and consumers and how science can be told and narrated differently depending on who it is aimed at the producer or the consumer now reflect on this what do you think is the difference between a producer and a consumer can you think of some examples in different fields of producers of research and consumers of research how many of you see yourselves in more of the consumer role in the future and how many of you see yourselves more in the producer role in the future now the majority of people don't expect to ever be in the producer role that is the one who conducts writes up and publishes research that impact change in society rather most of us see ourselves in the consumer role and as a consumer of science it is very important for us to understand the research process in order to know what is plausible and what is not why do you think the producer role is important it's important to those who want to do research science it's important in learning how to conduct sound scientific research some of you may want to go on to graduate school in psychology there is no way you will get into graduate school unless you have played the producer role at some point that is you have conducted and written up research or worked in a lab alongside other scientists researchers and scientists ask important questions and study real world issues that can then be applied to a variety of different fields such as medicine human relations in the office technology engineering and so on now why is the consumer role important the consumer role is important to each and every one of us because we are all bombarded daily with information from the media about what to buy and what not to buy what classes to sign up for or sign our children up for what music to listen to and why what kinds of toys and games for us to involve our children in much of this information purports to be based in scientific research but as consumers it is our job to question the nature of the science they're reporting or the truth of what is being reported whether it is accurate misleading or simply false what do you think are the benefits of being a good consumer it is mainly so that we are not misled into doing something or buying something or investing money into something that may be far less effective than it is advertised to be the example given in your textbook is about the pros versus cons of facilitated communication and whether it's a good choice for occupational therapists and their patients review this example in your textbook and think of some other examples of advertisements and articles that lead us or mislead us to believe that something is useful for us when science makes its way into popular media for us to consume in the newspaper on reuters on npr on msnbc on the today show in magazines and so on this is actually the last step of the scientific cycle when science results in journalism so what comes before this what comes before the general public is given access to important research in such a watered-down way the four scientific cycles include the theory data cycle the basic applied research cycle the peer-reviewed cycle and the journal to journalism cycle that is the last stage when the science makes its way into the public eye the theory data cycle is by far the most important cycle in the scientific process can you think of some examples of theories that come to your mind a good theory in any field of study generates good research questions that are testable in nature bad theories generate few questions that are almost always untestable in nature so when you start to brainstorm ideas for your own study in our lab remember to base your questions off of good theories in psychology because then your study is more likely to be successful a good theory leads to a sound research question which leads to the development of a research or study design to test the question which leads to a hypothesis which generates data which either support the theory and strengthen it or lead to a revision of the theory your textbook uses harry harlow's classic study on infant monkeys as an example of a theory that was tested against another theory review this section of your textbook one set of theorists particularly the behaviorists and the freudians claim that feeding was the reason for attachment between baby and mother the mother feeds the baby so the baby feels a sense of relief from distress when it's fed so it associates the mother with relief from distress and hunger and so it becomes attached to her other theorists in particular attachment theorists argue that babies become attached to their mothers because mothers were comforting and sensitive and that no feeding was actually required for attachment to form now based on your readings which theory did harlow's experiment support now let's take a look at another classic theory in psychology social learning theory according to social learning theory models are an important source for learning new behaviors and for achieving behavioral change social learning theory is derived from the work of albert bandura who proposed that observational learning can occur in relation to three models a live model in which an actual person is demonstrating the desired behavior can you think of examples of this one example that comes to mind is a younger child who watches her older brother put a chair in front of the cupboard climb up the chair and steal a cookie from the cookie jar now what happens the next time the younger child wants to steal a cookie what does he do he does exactly what he saw his brother doing second verbal instruction in which an individual describes the desired behavior in detail and instructs the participant in how to engage in the behavior third symbolic in which modeling occurs by means of the media including movies tv the internet literature and radio this type of modeling involves a real or fictional character demonstrating the desired behavior now there is another theory of behavior behaviorism which we've mentioned before with regards to attachment behaviorism states that behavior is learned but not through social modeling but through conditioning and that is behavior is learned through rewards and punishment or through association with two different things so bandura tested his theory against the behaviorist theory watch the video i've posted on canvas on social learning in children once you've viewed the video that i've posted under chapter one in which bandura explains how he tested social learning theory on aggression in children reflect on which theory do you think pandora's results support the behaviorist theory of reward and punishment to reinforce behavior or the social learning theory of behavior clearly if you look at the data it supports the social learning theory so this is how the theory data cycle works you start with a good sound theory generate a good sound research question in this case bandura asks whether aggression is socially learned in children then you develop a hypothesis bender's hypothesis was that children would become aggressive just by observing an adult being aggressive then you design a study to test that hypothesis and allow your data to either strengthen or revise your theory now reflect what are some other good research questions that might be generated from social learning theory good theories as we said generate good research questions that lead to empirical studies and data good theories have several qualities one they are supported by data social learning theory and attachment theory have been supported by the data over many many decades since their development until today and they have been supported by data collected by hundreds of researchers across many different cultures and in many different environments a good theory must also be falsifiable that is you must be able to prove it wrong if someone has a mental disorder and you do therapy with them but find no unresolved mental conflicts instead of disproving psychodynamic theory supporters of the theory might argue that those unresolved conflicts have been repressed or denied or pushed into the subconscious so that they are no longer available to the conscious mind in other words there is no way to know if the mental disorder was ever truly caused by some unresolved childhood conflict because those conflicts are then thrown into the subconscious mind so in essence the theory is not falsifiable good theories are also parsimonious that is they are simple social learning theory is a good theory because of its simplicity that is we learn behaviors from our models in our environment whether they're parents teachers peers tv video games and so on as long as the data continues to support the simplest theory it stands when the data do not support the theory a good theory is open to revision for example social learning theory was revised to include not just live models of behavior but also models of behavior on tv including cartoon characters such as tom and jerry the next cycle of the scientific process is taking basic research into the applied domain basic research is done simply to enhance scientific knowledge they don't take into account real world problems can you think of some examples of basic research done just for the sake of knowledge examples of basic research include studies on how memory develops in children how children learn language how neurons connect in the brain to give rise to behavior how signals are transmitted from the environment to the sensory nerves to the brain and then back to the body most fields of study within psychology involve basic research that is done just for the sake of improving knowledge but when basic research is done right and the right questions are asked they form the basis of applied research applied research is done with a practical problem in mind that is the scientist asked how can this research benefit the general public or how can this research benefit this population of people basic research has a huge impact on applied research for example basic research in neuroscience has taught us how neurons communicate with each other and which specific neurons communicate with each other to give rise to different bodily functions such as eye movement muscle movement and so on from this very basic neuroscience research has emerged an entire industry of applied research in many different domains including prosthetic limbs how to get prosthetic limbs to move just by thinking about the action the development of technology that can perform certain actions for a quadriplegic just by having them think about the action the development of cars that can drive just by you thinking about the movements and so on from the social learning theory basic findings on aggression in children applied research on how to reduce violence in children can then be done once the research has been completed the next step is to write it up what the researcher writes is called a manuscript it is then sent to a journal that is relevant to the field of study for peer reviewing and editing journals are like magazines but they contain only scientifically conducted studies that have been peer reviewed by experts in the field the journal you see on the slide is a publication of the american psychological association that publishes only articles on development that is from birth through adolescence anything beyond adolescence is not considered suited for this journal it is one of the premier journals in psychology and the premier journal in the field of developmental psychology now what do you think might be the role of the journal editor journal editors determine whether the manuscript is fit for that particular journal if i send an article about adult memory lapses to developmental psychology you can guarantee that the editor will send it back to me without ever even considering it or sending it out for peer review this is called a desk rejection that is it is not even considered for publication because it simply does not fit the nature of the journal editors have the final say in whether an article is accepted for publication or not and the types of changes that must be made to the article before publication if i send an article that the editor seems to think might be a good fit for the journal the editor will then select two or three reviewers that are experts in the field and send the manuscript to them for blinded review blinded review means that the author does not know who the reviewers are and the reviewers do not know who the author is why do you think the job of the peer reviewers is the peer reviewers review the songness of the research methodologies used the statistical analyses used the organization and writing of the paper and so on if the peer reviewers think that the science in the article is sound and the manuscript contributes significant new information to the field of psychology then it is accepted for publication to the journal the vast majority of manuscripts are never accepted immediately reviewers always ask for revisions to the manuscript before it is accepted if the science on the other hand does not appear sound or the manuscript is badly written it is most likely rejected for publication by the editor so the peer review process is very important in allowing good research to be highlighted and made known in the field and bad science to either be revised and made better or rejected from the field here is one of my publications in the journal developmental psychology stories of parents and self relations to adolescent attachment it was submitted to developmental psychology in 2011. it was sent out for a peer review the reviewers asked us to revise and resubmit once with major revisions then once with minor revisions and then it was fully accepted then it was published first online and then in print several months later in 2013 and that's typically how long it takes for a manuscript to become fully published in the field that's about two years so if you plan to go to graduate school and become a psychologist in academia remember that this is a labor of love it takes time commitment and there is no hurrying up science and publications if your only aim is to get your name out there and become famous then forget psychology and go somewhere else scientific journals are read by scientists researchers graduate students and so on but not many elves will read them but if the science is good enough it may be picked up by the popular media and reported to the general public in that way it makes its way from scientific journal to journalism and this is the last step in the scientific cycle on the slide is one of my studies that got picked up by some health and fitness magazine not the study i just showed you but a different one you can see that they took a very very long scientific article that contains a lot of details and condensed it into two or three paragraphs some of which is often inaccurate or misrepresented so to end this chapter for your own benefit and to increase your understanding of the material we just covered try to complete this activity at home