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Psychological Methods Dec 2019This article reflects on what qualitative research in psychology can contribute to the accumulation of psychological knowledge. It provides an overview of qualitative...
This article reflects on what qualitative research in psychology can contribute to the accumulation of psychological knowledge. It provides an overview of qualitative research in psychology and discusses its potential value to quantitative researchers. It also reviews the differences and similarities between qualitative and quantitative research and explains how qualitative research can be differentiated from other forms of knowing that are concerned with human experience. The article explains what makes qualitative research "research" and how to determine if something is qualitative research or another kind of meaning-making activity. It starts by defining and characterizing qualitative psychology and by identifying qualitative psychology's aims and objectives, and then goes on to examine qualitative psychology's relationship with the pursuit of knowledge and to position it within the wider field of psychological inquiry. The article identifies ways in which qualitative research contributes to psychological knowledge (including thick description, critique, and theory development) and concludes by affirming its place in a psychological research community that seeks to improve our understanding of ourselves and the world we live in. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Humans; Knowledge; Psychology; Qualitative Research
PubMed: 31008623
DOI: 10.1037/met0000218 -
Behavioral Sciences & the Law 2002Researchers considering novel or exploratory psycholegal research are often able to easily generate a sizable list of independent variables (IVs) that might influence a... (Review)
Review
Researchers considering novel or exploratory psycholegal research are often able to easily generate a sizable list of independent variables (IVs) that might influence a measure of interest. Where the research question is novel and the literature is not developed, however, choosing from among a long list of potential variables those worthy of empirical investigation often presents a formidable task. Many researchers may feel compelled by legal psychology's heavy reliance on full-factorial designs to narrow the IVs under investigation to two or three in order to avoid an expensive and unwieldy design involving numerous high-order interactions. This article suggests that fractional factorial designs provide a reasonable alternative to full-factorial designs in such circumstances because they allow the psycholegal researcher to examine the main effects of a large number of factors while disregarding high-order interactions. An introduction to the logic of fractional factorial designs is provided and several examples from the social sciences are presented.
Topics: Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; Humans; Jurisprudence; Multivariate Analysis; Psychology; Regression Analysis; Research Design
PubMed: 11979488
DOI: 10.1002/bsl.475 -
The Behavioral and Brain Sciences Dec 2020Most theories and hypotheses in psychology are verbal in nature, yet their evaluation overwhelmingly relies on inferential statistical procedures. The validity of the...
Most theories and hypotheses in psychology are verbal in nature, yet their evaluation overwhelmingly relies on inferential statistical procedures. The validity of the move from qualitative to quantitative analysis depends on the verbal and statistical expressions of a hypothesis being closely aligned - that is, that the two must refer to roughly the same set of hypothetical observations. Here, I argue that many applications of statistical inference in psychology fail to meet this basic condition. Focusing on the most widely used class of model in psychology - the linear mixed model - I explore the consequences of failing to statistically operationalize verbal hypotheses in a way that respects researchers' actual generalization intentions. I demonstrate that although the "random effect" formalism is used pervasively in psychology to model intersubject variability, few researchers accord the same treatment to other variables they clearly intend to generalize over (e.g., stimuli, tasks, or research sites). The under-specification of random effects imposes far stronger constraints on the generalizability of results than most researchers appreciate. Ignoring these constraints can dramatically inflate false-positive rates, and often leads researchers to draw sweeping verbal generalizations that lack a meaningful connection to the statistical quantities they are putatively based on. I argue that failure to take the alignment between verbal and statistical expressions seriously lies at the heart of many of psychology's ongoing problems (e.g., the replication crisis), and conclude with a discussion of several potential avenues for improvement.
Topics: Humans; Intention; Psychology
PubMed: 33342451
DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X20001685 -
The British Journal of Educational... Mar 2005While reviews abound on theoretical topics in educational psychology, it is rare that we examine our field's instrumentation development, and what effects this has on... (Review)
Review
While reviews abound on theoretical topics in educational psychology, it is rare that we examine our field's instrumentation development, and what effects this has on educational psychology's evolution. To repair this gap, this paper investigates and reveals the implications of software technologies for researching and theorizing about core issues in educational psychology. From a set of approximately 1,500 articles published between 1999 and 2004, we sampled illustrative studies and organized them into four broad themes: (a) innovative ways to operationalize variables, (b) the changing nature of instructional interventions, (c) new fields of research in educational psychology, and (d) new constructs to be examined. In each area, we identify novel uses of these technologies and suggest how they may advance, and, in some instances, reshape theory and methodology. Overall, we demonstrate that software technologies hold significant potential to elaborate research in the field.
Topics: Anxiety; Computers; Humans; Psychological Theory; Psychology, Educational; Research; Software
PubMed: 15831178
DOI: 10.1348/000709904x19263 -
Journal of Clinical Psychology Sep 2001The emerging discipline of cognitive neuroscience (CN) enjoins the efforts of cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, computer scientists, clinical neurologists,... (Review)
Review
The emerging discipline of cognitive neuroscience (CN) enjoins the efforts of cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, computer scientists, clinical neurologists, neurophilosophers, and many others working collaboratively across traditional disciplinary boundaries to elucidate the manner in which the physical operations of the brain give rise to the vast panoply of human mental and behavioral events. The present article describes the foundational tenets of the CN metatheoretical framework and contends that the CN framework is capable of providing a coherent, unifying scientific paradigm for the discipline of clinical psychology. Clinical psychology's adoption of the CN paradigm would facilitate (a) its consilient linkage with the natural sciences, (b) resolution of long-standing internecine theoretical schisms, and (c) enhanced understanding and treatment of numerous forms of psychopathology. Nevertheless, psychology's historically influential radical behavioral (RB) perspective is not easily reconciled with the CN paradigm. However, unlike CN, RB (a) is not fully consilient with the natural sciences, (b) fails to articulate the proximal causal mechanisms that mediate environment-behavior relations, and (c) engages in "greedy reductionism" in its disavowal of informational levels of complexity in the patterning of neural activity. The article concludes with a discussion of the possibility of theoretical rapprochement between CN and RB.
Topics: Behaviorism; Cognition; Cognitive Science; Humans; Mental Processes; Neurosciences; Psychological Theory; Psychology, Clinical; Psychopathology
PubMed: 11494238
DOI: 10.1002/jclp.1124 -
The American Psychologist May 2000Psychology has an indispensable role in understanding environmental problems and finding solutions. To fill this role, psychologists must work within an...
Psychology has an indispensable role in understanding environmental problems and finding solutions. To fill this role, psychologists must work within an interdisciplinary effort to build a scientific understanding of human-environment interactions. This article enumerates 8 widely held beliefs about these interactions and assesses the strengths and limitations of each belief. It suggests that psychology can contribute more strongly by counteracting disciplinary biases, focusing research where a behavioral analysis identifies major opportunities, making appropriately modest claims, collaborating with other disciplines, and building on psychology's relative strengths among the human sciences.
Topics: Conservation of Natural Resources; Environmental Pollution; Forecasting; Humans; Psychology; Science
PubMed: 10842433
DOI: No ID Found -
Perspectives on Psychological Science :... Jul 2017Is psychology headed in the right direction? In this essay, I share my views on the answer to this question. I begin by describing how recent advances in technology,...
Is psychology headed in the right direction? In this essay, I share my views on the answer to this question. I begin by describing how recent advances in technology, heightened levels of interdisciplinary collaboration, a renewed emphasis on considering the broader implications of basic psychological research, and field-wide efforts to encourage optimal research practices have combined to tilt psychology's trajectory upward. I then offer three suggestions for how to maintain the field's upward slanting course: (a) collaborate more to build cumulative knowledge, (b) improve the way we communicate contextual factors in psychological research, and (c) examine the psychological effects of technology. I conclude by offering a single piece of advice for new researchers and a few closing comments.
Topics: Communication; Humans; Psychology; Public Opinion; Research; Research Design
PubMed: 28727959
DOI: 10.1177/1745691617701184 -
The British Journal of Social Psychology Jan 2019Psychologists have typically defined obedience as a form of social influence elicited in response to direct orders from an authority figure. In the most influential set...
Psychologists have typically defined obedience as a form of social influence elicited in response to direct orders from an authority figure. In the most influential set of studies of obedience, conducted by Stanley Milgram in the early 1960s, the orders at the disposal of the authority figure were a series of verbal prods. However, recent research has suggested that Milgram's experiments do not show people following orders. It has therefore been suggested that the experiments are not demonstrations of obedience. However, in the present paper, it is argued that rather than abandoning the idea that Milgram's work is a demonstration of obedience, it is in fact our conceptualization of obedience that is wrong. Obedience should not be understood as requiring direct orders from an authority figure. This argument is developed with reference to an extended case example from one of Milgram's experimental conditions in which a participant completed the experiment in the absence of direct orders. It is argued that such participants can still be understood as obedient if we consider the implicit demands of the system in which participants find themselves. The study concludes by presenting a new definition of obedience that omits the need for direct orders.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Interpersonal Relations; Psychology, Social; Social Behavior
PubMed: 30156301
DOI: 10.1111/bjso.12272 -
The American Psychologist Sep 2013In 2010, an interorganizational effort among the American Psychological Association, the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology, and the Council of Chairs of...
In 2010, an interorganizational effort among the American Psychological Association, the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology, and the Council of Chairs of Training Councils, known as the Health Service Psychology Education Collaborative (HSPEC), was initiated to address mounting concerns related to education and training for the professional practice of psychology. Given that professional psychology includes diverse areas of practice and the mounting concerns about psychology's role in a reformed health care system, HSPEC chose to focus on preparation of psychologists for the delivery of health care services and made seven recommendations that constitute the core of a blueprint for the future. These recommendations require significant changes in graduate education-changes critical to the future of psychology as a health profession. As part of its work, HSPEC developed a statement of core competencies for the preparation of health service psychologists, integrating feedback solicited through public comment and review by the psychology community, including education and training councils and APA governance groups. The articulation of these competencies serves to inform not only the preparation of health service psychologists but students, employers, regulators, and policymakers as well. It also reflects the discipline's commitment to quality and accountability in the preparation of its workforce. HSPEC recognizes that its recommendations to strengthen the core preparation and identity of health service psychologists will result in some limitations on degrees of freedom at the program level but believes such limitation to be in the service of coherent and uniform standards for education and training. This blueprint supports the evolution and development of the profession within a scientific context. It supports standards as meaningful, versus minimum, indicators as part of the profession's obligation to the public. The blueprint also calls for the profession to develop a mechanism for systematic monitoring of progress, challenges, and opportunities to ensure that psychology as a health profession meets societal needs.
Topics: Clinical Competence; Delivery of Health Care; Education, Graduate; Humans; Mental Health Services; Psychology
PubMed: 23915400
DOI: 10.1037/a0033265 -
Topics in Cognitive Science Jul 2010This paper considers the past and future of Psychology within Cognitive Science. In the history section, I focus on three questions: (a) how has the position of...
This paper considers the past and future of Psychology within Cognitive Science. In the history section, I focus on three questions: (a) how has the position of Psychology evolved within Cognitive Science, relative to the other disciplines that make up Cognitive Science; (b) how have particular Cognitive Science areas within Psychology waxed or waned; and (c) what have we gained and lost. After discussing what's happened since the late 1970s, when the Society and the journal began, I speculate about where the field is going.
Topics: Animals; Cognitive Science; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Humans; Psychology
PubMed: 25163863
DOI: 10.1111/j.1756-8765.2010.01103.x