Beginning
Behavioral Research
A Conceptual Primer
7th Edition
Ralph Rosnow, Robert Rosenthal
,Table of Contents
PART I GETTING STARTED
Chapter 1 Behavioral Research and the Scientific Method
Chapter 2 From Hunches to Testable Hypotheses
Chapter 3 Ethical Considerations and Guidelines
PART II OBSERVATION AND MEASUREMENT
Chapter 4 Methods of Systematic Observation
Chapter 5 Methods for Looking Within Ourselves
Chapter 6 Reliability and Validity in Measurement and Research
PART III DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
Chapter 7 Randomized Experiments and Causal Inference
Chapter 8 Nonrandomized Research and Causal Reasoning
Chapter 9 Survey Research and Subject Recruitment
PART IV DESCRIBING DATA AND DRAWING INFERENCES
Chapter 10 Summarizing the Data
Chapter 11 Correlating Variables
Chapter 12 Understanding p Values and Effect Size Indicators
PART V STATISTICAL TESTS
Chapter 13 The Comparison of Two Conditions
Chapter 14 Comparisons of More Than Two Conditions
Chapter 15 The Analysis of Frequency Tables
, CHAPTER 1: BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH AND THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Why Study Research Methods and Data Analysis?
A. The term “researching” (i.e., exploring a problem systematically) is traditionally
called the scientific method in college science courses.
1. This “method” is used in all scientific fields.
2. However, its applications vary from one discipline to another.
B. Why should we know the scientific method or study techniques of research?
1. We can enhance our understanding of the influence that science has on our
lives.
2. We can learn to differentiate between good science and pseudoscience.
3. We can acquire information and skills useful in our daily lives.
4. We can learn about the limits of particular studies and methods.
5. We may find that studying and doing research can be an exciting career.
II. What Alternatives Are There to the Scientific Method?
A. Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) described four distinct strategies for formulating
strongly held beliefs.
B. The four strategies for the “fixation of belief.”
1. Method of tenacity is clinging stubbornly and mindlessly to claims or beliefs
just because they have been around a while.
2. Method of authority is the acceptance of an idea as being valid because
someone in a position of power or authority states it.
3. The a priori method is the use of one’s individual powers of reason and logic
to make sense of the world.
4. The scientific method provides a framework with which to draw on
independent realities to evaluate claims.
III. How Do Scientists Use Empirical Reasoning and the Scientific Method?
A. The scientific method involves the use of empirical reasoning.
B. Empirical reasoning is a combination of logic, carefully organized observation, and
measurement.
C. It is the use of empirical reasoning that all scientists have in common, despite
differences in the particular methods of empirical inquiry they may employ.
D. Empirical reasoning entered into behavioral science during the late nineteenth century
when individuals such as Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) and William James (1843–
1910) began employing the scientific method utilized by physicists and biologists to
study psychological behavior.
E. Francis Galton (1822–1911) demonstrated the application of empirical reasoning to
questions thought to lie completely outside of science.
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, IV. Applications in Behavioral Research
A. Empirical reasoning has been applied to questions about human nature, cognition,
perception, and behavior.
B. Stephen J. Ceci and his colleagues employed empirical reasoning to investigate the
accuracy of children’s eyewitness testimony.
C. Solomon Asch used empirical reasoning to study conformity and the reasons why
people go along with certain consensual opinions.
V. How Do Extraempirical Factors Come into Play?
A. Although the scientific method is distinguished by its reliance on the primary use of
empirical procedures, extraempirical factors also play an important role in
ascertaining what is true.
B. Aesthetic considerations play a part.
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C. Opinions and arguments are articulated in the accepted rhetoric (rhetoric of
justification) of the particular field they represent.
1. Rhetoric includes specialized terms and structure of reporting.
2. Peer-reviewed journals rely upon this rhetoric.
D. Researchers have a penchant for poignant analogies and metaphors for visualizing one
thing in terms of another (i.e., perceptibility).
VI. What Does Behavioral Research Cover?
A. Behavioral Research is an umbrella term that includes covers the use of empirical
reasoning (viz., careful logic, organized observation, and measurement) from
different methodological vantage points in an effort to understand how and why
people act, perceive, feel, and think as they do in a variety of disciplines such as
psychologists, behavioral economists, political scientists, sociologists, and cultural
anthropologists.
B. The objective of behavioral and social science is to describe and explain how and why
humans think, feel, and behave as they do.
C. To develop a more complete and integrated picture of human nature, behavioral and
social scientists have come to embrace methodological pluralism, which means that
by necessity, researchers use different tools and designs (different methods) because
each is limited in some way, yet each method represents and reflects a particular
perspective on the phenomenon of interest and the multifaceted complexity of human
nature.
VII. How Does Research Go From Descriptive to Relational to Experimental?
A. Descriptive conclusions tell us how things are.
1. The goal of descriptive research is the careful mapping out of a situation or set of
events.
2. Causal explanations are not of direct concern except perhaps speculatively.
3. This orientation is often considered a necessary first step in the development of a
program of research because it establishes the logical and empirical foundation of
any future undertaking.
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