What Are the Steps to the Scientific Method

Verywell / Theresa Chiechi

How exercise researchers investigate psychological phenomena? They utilize a process known equally the scientific method to written report different aspects of how people think and behave. This process non only allows scientists to investigate and understand unlike psychological phenomena, but it also provides researchers and others a way to share and discuss the results of their studies.

What Is the Scientific Method?

What is the scientific method and how is it used in psychology? The scientific method is essentially a step-by-stride process that researchers tin follow to determine if there is some type of human relationship between two or more variables.

Psychologists and other social scientists regularly propose explanations for human behavior. On a more informal level, people make judgments about the intentions, motivations, and actions of others on a daily basis.

While the everyday judgments nosotros make about human behavior are subjective and anecdotal, researchers employ the scientific method to study psychology in an objective and systematic way. The results of these studies are often reported in popular media, which leads many to wonder only how or why researchers arrived at the conclusions they did.

In social club to truly understand how psychologists and other researchers reach these conclusions, yous need to know more than about the enquiry process that is used to written report psychology and the basic steps that are utilized when conducting whatever type of psychological inquiry. By knowing the steps of the scientific method, you tin can better empathize the process researchers go through to arrive at conclusions virtually human behavior.

Reasons to Employ the Steps of the Scientific Method

The goals of psychological studies are to describe, explain, predict and perhaps influence mental processes or behaviors. In order to do this, psychologists employ the scientific method to conduct psychological enquiry. The scientific method is a set of principles and procedures that are used by researchers to develop questions, collect data, and accomplish conclusions.

What are the goals of scientific research in psychology? Researchers seek non just to depict behaviors and explain why these behaviors occur; they also strive to create research that tin be used to predict and even change human behavior.

Key Terms to Know

Before you brainstorm exploring the scientific method steps, there are some key terms and definitions that you should exist familiar with.

• Hypothesis: An educated approximate near the possible relationship between two or more variables.
• Variable: A factor or chemical element that tin can change in observable and measurable ways.
• Operational Definition: A total description of exactly how variables are divers, how they will exist manipulated, and how they will be measured.

The Steps of the Scientific Method

While research studies can vary, these are the basic steps that psychologists and scientists use when investigating human beliefs.

Pace i. Make an Ascertainment

Before a researcher can begin, they must cull a topic to report. In one case an area of interest has been called, the researchers must and then acquit a thorough review of the existing literature on the subject. This review will provide valuable information virtually what has already been learned near the topic and what questions remain to be answered.

A literature review might involve looking at a considerable amount of written material from both books and academic journals dating back decades. The relevant data collected by the researcher will exist presented in the introduction department of the final published report results. This background cloth will also assistance the researcher with the outset major step in conducting a psychology study — formulating a hypothesis.

Step 2. Ask a Question

Once a researcher has observed something and gained some background information on the topic, the next step is to ask a question. The researcher will form a hypothesis, which is an educated guess well-nigh the relationship betwixt 2 or more variables

For example, a researcher might ask a question about the relationship between sleep and academic performance. Do students who get more sleep perform better on tests at school?

In order to formulate a proficient hypothesis, it is important to recall well-nigh different questions yous might have about a item topic. Y'all should also consider how y'all could investigate the causes. Falsifiability is an important function of any valid hypothesis. In other words, if a hypothesis was false, there needs to exist a style for scientists to demonstrate that information technology is imitation.

Stride 3. Test Your Hypothesis and Collect Data

Once yous accept a solid hypothesis, the adjacent footstep of the scientific method is to put this hunch to the test past collecting data. The exact methods used to investigate a hypothesis depend on exactly what is being studied. There are two basic forms of inquiry that a psychologist might utilize – descriptive enquiry or experimental inquiry.

Descriptive research is typically used when it would be difficult or even impossible to dispense the variables in question. Examples of descriptive research include case studies, naturalistic observation, and correlation studies. Phone surveys that are oftentimes used by marketers are one instance of descriptive inquiry.

Correlational studies are quite common in psychology research. While they practice non permit researchers to make up one's mind cause-and-effect, they do get in possible to spot relationships between dissimilar variables and to measure the strength of those relationships.

Experimental research is used to explore crusade-and-result relationships between two or more variables. This type of research involves systematically manipulating an independent variable and then measuring the event that it has on a defined dependent variable. One of the major advantages of this method is that it allows researchers to actually determine if changes in 1 variable actually cause changes in another.

While psychology experiments are oft quite complex, a simple experiment is adequately basic but does allow researchers to determine cause-and-issue relationships between variables. Virtually simple experiments use a control group (those who do not receive the treatment) and an experimental group (those who do receive the handling).

Step 4. Examine the Results and Draw Conclusions

Once a researcher has designed the study and collected the data, it is time to examine this data and describe conclusions about what has been found. Using statistics, researchers tin can summarize the data, analyze the results, and describe conclusions based on this testify.

And so how does a researcher decide what the results of a study mean? Not only can statistical assay support (or refute) the researcher'due south hypothesis; information technology tin can as well be used to determine if the findings are statistically pregnant.

When results are said to be statistically meaning, it ways that it is unlikely that these results are due to run a risk.

Based on these observations, researchers must then determine what the results mean. In some cases, an experiment will support a hypothesis, only in other cases, it will fail to support the hypothesis.

So what happens if the results of a psychology experiment do non support the researcher's hypothesis? Does this mean that the study was worthless? Just because the findings neglect to support the hypothesis does not mean that the enquiry is not useful or informative. In fact, such inquiry plays an important function in helping scientists develop new questions and hypotheses to explore in the hereafter.

Later conclusions have been drawn, the adjacent pace is to share the results with the rest of the scientific customs. This is an important office of the process because it contributes to the overall noesis base of operations and can help other scientists find new enquiry avenues to explore.

Stride 5. Report the Results

The final footstep in a psychology written report is to report the findings. This is ofttimes done by writing upwardly a description of the written report and publishing the article in an academic or professional journal. The results of psychological studies can be seen in peer-reviewed journals such asPsychological Bulletin, theJournal of Social Psychology,Developmental Psychology, and many others.

The structure of a journal article follows a specified format that has been outlined past the American Psychological Clan (APA). In these articles, researchers:

• Provide a cursory history and groundwork on previous research
• Nowadays their hypothesis
• Identify who participated in the study and how they were selected
• Provide operational definitions for each variable
• Describe the measures and procedures that were used to collect data
• Explain how the information nerveless was analyzed
• Discuss what the results mean

Why is such a detailed tape of a psychological study then important? By clearly explaining the steps and procedures used throughout the study, other researchers can then replicate the results. The editorial process employed by academic and professional person journals ensures that each commodity that is submitted undergoes a thorough peer review, which helps ensure that the study is scientifically sound.

One time published, the written report becomes another piece of the existing puzzle of our noesis base on that topic.

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Verywell Heed uses only loftier-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial procedure to acquire more nigh how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

• Shaughnessy, JJ, Zechmeister, EB, & Zechmeister, JS. Research Methods In Psychology. New York: McGraw Hill Education; 2015.

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Source: https://www.verywellmind.com/steps-of-the-scientific-method-2795782

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