Join with a free account for more service, or become a member for full access to exclusives and extra support of WorldSupporter >>
What is the scientific method?
The scientific method is an empirical and sceptical approach to asking questions and obtaining answers.
Good habits for a researcher include enthusiasm, open-mindedness, common sense, role-taking ability, inventiveness, confidence in own judgement, consistency and care for details, ability to communicate, and being honest.
What is the issue in psychological research?
Evidence shows a deficiency in most social sciences to match the growth and theoretical integration that characterizes the history of more successful scientific disciplines. Meehl presupposes that, with certain exceptions, theories in ‘soft areas’ of psychology tend to go through periods of initial enthusiasm leading to large amounts of empirical investigation with ambiguous overall results. This is followed by various kinds of amendment and the generation of ad hoc hypotheses. In the long run, experiments lose interest instead of theories actually being falsified. “They never die; they just slowly fade away.”
This discussion constitutes research that shares three properties: (a) theories in ‘soft areas’, (b) data correlational, and (c) positive findings consisting of refuting the null hypothesis. Soft areas could include counselling, personality theory, and social psychology.
What is Meehl’s thesis?
“Null hypothesis testing of correlational predictions from weak substantive theories in soft psychology is subject to the influence of ten obfuscating factors whose effects are usually (1) sizeable, (2) opposed, (3) variable, and (4) unknown. The net effect of these ten obfuscating influences is that the usual research literature review is almost uninterpretable.”
The derivation of observational conditional
Theories, taken with a statement of conditions, entail relations between single observations (particulars). The derivation of a prediction about observational facts involves a conjunction of several premises.
- Derivation of observational conditional: T – A1 – A2 – Cp – Cn à (O1 É O2)
- T: substantive theory of interest
- A1, A2…: one or more auxiliary theories which aren’t the main focus of the investigator’s interest.
- Cp: ceteris paribus clause, a negative statement not formulated with concrete content like an auxiliary but states ‘other things being equal’.
- Cn: statements about the experimental ‘conditions’.
- O1 & O2: observational statements.
Meehl’s ten obfuscating factors
The combined operation of the ten factors makes it impossible to tell what a score of statistical significance in research proves about a theory’s plausibility.
1. Loose derivation chain
There are very few tight derivation chains in most areas of psychology and almost none in soft psychology. Some parts of the chain are well explained, while others are vague or not explicitly stated. Meehl states that if your observation 2 doesn’t follow observation 1 as expected, you won’t know why it happened and which part of the derivation chain was problematic.
2. Problematic auxiliary theories
Auxiliary theories are explicitly stated. Sometimes it happens in soft psychology that each auxiliary theory is almost as problematic as the main theory we’re testing. When there are multiple problematic auxiliary theories, the joint probability that they have could be lower than the prior probability of the theory of interest. We intended to investigate T, but the logical structure leaves us not knowing whether the prediction failed because our T was false or because one or more of the conjoined statements (A1, A2, Cp, or Cn) were false. – this reasoning applies to sections 3 and 4 as well.
3. Problematic ceteris paribus clause
Ceteris paribus means ‘everything else being equal’, but everything else isn’t always equal. This clause means that when we test a theory by showing a statistical relationship, while individuals may vary in certain factors that we have not controlled but allowed to vary, the alleged causal influence doesn’t have a significant additional effect operating in a direction opposed to our theory. There is usually a problem of control in the study. There are some situations where we can’t or don’t know how to control for certain factors, which could to some extent counteract the induced state we’re trying to test.
4. Experimenter error
Experimenter mistakes in manipulation. Includes errors due to biases, expectancies etc. on the part of the experimenter (or others involved on the input side of a testing process like research assistants). The experimenter may be enthusiastic about their theory and, without consciously intending, slant results into their favour, e.g. by the way they interact with their subjects/keenness.
5. Inadequate statistical power
Most tests in psychology can be expected to fail because of insufficient statistical power (usually due to small sample sizes) to detect a ‘real effect’.
6. Crud factor
In social sciences, everything correlates to some extent with everything else. Any measured trait is some function of a list of causal factors in the genes and history of the individual. Genetic and environmental factors are also known from empirical research to be correlated.
7. Pilot study
A pilot study essentially duplicates a main study. A true pilot study is a mini version of a main study with a few minor improvements perhaps. Pilot studies have two aims, firstly they try to see whether an effect exists or not (to then decide whether to pursue the research to a larger extent). Secondly, they try to get a rough idea of the relationship between a mean difference and the approximate variability as a basis for inferring the number of cases that would be necessary to achieve statistical significance. If nothing significant is found, the pilot will be discarded and not published (because no effect = evidence against a theory). This means there’s a large collection of data missing from the collective understanding of the human psyche.
8. Selective bias in submitting reports
A researcher is more likely to submit a study if significant results were found. This comes partly from thinking that a null result ‘doesn’t prove much’. This creates bias in the literature available to the population.
9. Selective editorial bias
People who have been editors or referees say the same thing as investigators: they’re somewhat more inclined to publish a clear finding of a refuted null hypothesis than one that simply fails to show a trend. There’s a failure to report everything. Non-significant results are deemed to say that ‘there’s nothing here’.
10. Detached validation claim for psychometric instruments
Testing should be done with valid instruments. Sometimes, theories and instruments are validated at the same time. This isn’t good practice because you should establish validity of an instrument before you use it.
Summaries per article with Research Methods: theory and ethics at University of Groningen 20/21
Summaries per article with Research Methods: theory and ethics at University of Groningen 20/21
- 1 of 2142
- next ›
JoHo can really use your help! Check out the various student jobs here that match your studies, improve your competencies, strengthen your CV and contribute to a more tolerant world
Online access to all summaries, study notes en practice exams
- Check out: Register with JoHo WorldSupporter: starting page (EN)
- Check out: Aanmelden bij JoHo WorldSupporter - startpagina (NL)
How and why would you use WorldSupporter.org for your summaries and study assistance?
- For free use of many of the summaries and study aids provided or collected by your fellow students.
- For free use of many of the lecture and study group notes, exam questions and practice questions.
- For use of all exclusive summaries and study assistance for those who are member with JoHo WorldSupporter with online access
- For compiling your own materials and contributions with relevant study help
- For sharing and finding relevant and interesting summaries, documents, notes, blogs, tips, videos, discussions, activities, recipes, side jobs and more.
Using and finding summaries, study notes en practice exams on JoHo WorldSupporter
There are several ways to navigate the large amount of summaries, study notes en practice exams on JoHo WorldSupporter.
- Use the menu above every page to go to one of the main starting pages
- Starting pages: for some fields of study and some university curricula editors have created (start) magazines where customised selections of summaries are put together to smoothen navigation. When you have found a magazine of your likings, add that page to your favorites so you can easily go to that starting point directly from your profile during future visits. Below you will find some start magazines per field of study
- Use the topics and taxonomy terms
- The topics and taxonomy of the study and working fields gives you insight in the amount of summaries that are tagged by authors on specific subjects. This type of navigation can help find summaries that you could have missed when just using the search tools. Tags are organised per field of study and per study institution. Note: not all content is tagged thoroughly, so when this approach doesn't give the results you were looking for, please check the search tool as back up
- Check or follow your (study) organizations:
- by checking or using your study organizations you are likely to discover all relevant study materials.
- this option is only available trough partner organizations
- Check or follow authors or other WorldSupporters
- by following individual users, authors you are likely to discover more relevant study materials.
- Use the Search tools
- 'Quick & Easy'- not very elegant but the fastest way to find a specific summary of a book or study assistance with a specific course or subject.
- The search tool is also available at the bottom of most pages
Do you want to share your summaries with JoHo WorldSupporter and its visitors?
- Check out: Why and how to add a WorldSupporter contributions
- JoHo members: JoHo WorldSupporter members can share content directly and have access to all content: Join JoHo and become a JoHo member
- Non-members: When you are not a member you do not have full access, but if you want to share your own content with others you can fill out the contact form
Quicklinks to fields of study for summaries and study assistance
Field of study
- All studies for summaries, study assistance and working fields
- Communication & Media sciences
- Corporate & Organizational Sciences
- Cultural Studies & Humanities
- Economy & Economical sciences
- Education & Pedagogic Sciences
- Health & Medical Sciences
- IT & Exact sciences
- Law & Justice
- Nature & Environmental Sciences
- Psychology & Behavioral Sciences
- Public Administration & Social Sciences
- Science & Research
- Technical Sciences
Add new contribution