Theorie Kwalitatief onderzoek
1. Psychology Is a Way of Thinking (P.5-54)
There are research producers and consumers. The producers are studying or doing research and the
consumers are reading researches. They have a commitment to the practice of empiricism. By
participating as a research producer, you can deepen your understanding of psychological research.
A consumer of research needs to know how to ask the right questions, determine the answers, and
evaluate a study on the basis of those answers.
Evidence-based treatments: therapies that are supported by research.
How scientists approach their work:
1. They act as empiricists in their investigations
2. They test theories through research and revise their theories based on the resulting data
3. Empirical approach to both applied research and fundamental research
4. Further research to test why, when, or for whom an effect works
5. Make their work public
Theory-data cycle:
Theory: set of statements that describes general principles about how variables relate to one
another
Hypothesis (prediction): the specific outcome the researcher expects to observe in a study if the
theory is accurate.
Data: a set of observations > it supports or it challenges the theory
Features of good scientific theories:
1. Supporting by data: a theory that is supported by a large quantity and variety of evidence is a
good theory
2. Falsifiable: when tested the hypothesis could actually fail to support the theory
3. Parsimony: as long as the data supports the simple theory, the simple stands. However,
when the data contradicts the theory, the theory has to change in order to accommodate the
data.
No single confirming finding can prove a theory. Rather than thinking of a theory as proved or
disproved scientists evaluate their theories based on the weight of the evidence. Data supports or
are inconsistent with a theory.
Applied research (toegepast): the researches conduct their work in a particular real-world context
(practical problem).
Basic research (fundamenteel): the goal is to improve the general body of knowledge.
Translational research (translationeel): a dynamic bridge from basic to applied research.
Peer-reviews: when scientists public their story it needs to be controlled by experts. The expert tells
the editor about their flaws, and the editor considering these reviews, decides whether or not the
article should be published.
Important benefits of science writing:
1. The general public can what scientists really do
2. Those who read or hear the story might also pick up tips for living
,These benefits depend on two things:
1. Journalists need to report on the most important scientific stories (peer-reviewed, conducted
rigorously, important question and accurate)
2. They must describe the research accurately
Mozart effect: journalists sometimes misrepresent research findings
2. Sources of Information: Why Research Is Best and How to Find It
Two general problems with basing beliefs on experience:
1. Experience has no comparison group > that enables us to compare what would happen both
with and without the thing we are interested in. basing conclusions on personal experience is
problematic because daily life usually doesn’t include comparison experiences. In contrast,
basing conclusions on systematic data collection has the simple but huge advantage of
providing a comparison group.
2. In everyday life there is too much going on at once. Experiences is confounded (confused) >
this happens when you think one thing caused an outcome but in fact other things changed
too, so you are confused about what the cause really was. In a research setting, scientists can
use careful controls to be sure they are changing only one factor at the time.
The important point is that the results of a single study are certainly better evidence than
experience. In addition, consistent results from several similar studies mean that scientists can be
confident in the findings.
Confederate: an actor playing a specific role for the experimenter.
Sometimes our personal stories contradict the research results, but behavioural research is
probabilistic > findings are not expected to explain all cases all of the time. Scientific conclusions are
based on patterns that emerge (appears) only when researchers set up comparison groups and test
many people.
Intuition vs. research:
Intuition is biased (good story) > people are likely to accept the explanation of a story that
makes sense intuitively, even if it’s not true.
Availability heuristic > things that pop up easily in our mind tend to guide our thinking.
People can overestimate how often things happen.
Present/present bias > our failure to consider appropriate comparison groups. People
cannot see the relationship between an event and its outcome. It is easy to notice what is
present, but we often fail to look for absences. >>> Compared to what?
Confirmation bias > people only look to information that agrees with what we already
believe. We ask leading questions that confirm our beliefs.
We have a bias blind spot > thinking that we are less biased than others. It makes us trust
our faulty reasoning even more.
To be an empiricist, you must also strive to interpret the data you collect in an objective way; you
must guard against common biases.
If claims of authorities are based on their own experience/intuition, we should probably not accept
them. If they use studies to support their claims, we can be more confident about their claim. (p. 41)
Finding and reading researches
, 1. Journal articles
Empirical journal articles: report the results of a research study.
Review journal articles: provide a summary of all published studies that have been done
in one research area. Sometimes a review article uses a quantitative technique called
meta-analysis, which combines the results of many studies and given number that
summarizes the magnitude, or the effect size, of a relationship.
>>> both must be peer-reviewed
2. Edited book > collection of chapters on a common topic; each chapter is written by a
different contributor.
3. Full-length books > common way for scholars to publish their work. Most likely to found in
academic libraries.
Advantage from PsycINFO: it can show you all articles written by a single author or under a single
keyword, they are peer-reviewed. Disadvantage from PsycINFO: you cannot use it until your school
subscribes to it and you need to use the right keywords. Advantage from Google Scholar: Free PDF.
Disadvantage from Google Scholar: it doesn’t let you limit your search to specific fields.
Component of an empirical journal article:
1. Abstract: concise summary of the article
2. Introduction: first section of regular text and the first paragraphs typically explain the topic
of the study.
3. Method: explains in detail how the researcher conducted their study.
4. Results: describes the quantitative and qualitative results of the study.
5. Discussion: summarizes the studies research questions and methods and indicates how well
the results of the study supported the hypotheses. They discuss the importance of the study.
6. References: contains a full bibliographic listing of all the sources the authors cited in writing
their article, enabling interested readers to locate these studies.
Read with a purpose: empirical articles >
(1) What is the argument? (2) What is the evidence to support the argument?
First read the abstract, after that you read the end of the introduction. You can find the primary goals
and hypotheses. Then u read the rest of the introduction. Also, u can read the first paragraph of the
discussion. In an empirical article the evidence is contained in the Method and Results sections.
Read with a purpose: chapters and review articles >
(1) What is the argument? (2) What is the evidence to support the argument?
A way to get an overview is by reading the heading (title). The argument often presents an entire
theory.
Trade books, wikis, and popular media can be good sources of information about psychological
research, but they can also be misleading. Such sources should be evaluated by asking whether they
are based on research and whether the coverage is comprehensive accurate, and responsible. If you
read trade books pay attention to the references, if doesn’t have any consider it to be light
entertainment or irresponsible.
10. Ethnography (P.302-339)