PYC 3704 Psychological Research

A construct is some event or entity which the researcher regards as being of importance in an explanation of the phenomenon under investigation. In quantitative research, where data are treated in numeric form, the problem is how to measure it, and the procedure used to achieve this is referred to as operationalization. For example, one may suppose that persons with concentration problems are affected by anxiety. To research this, some way will have to be found to measure each of the constructs ‘ability to concentrate’ and ‘anxiety’, perhaps by developing suitable tests or observation methods. Option 1 refers to the process of developing theories and Option 2 to the process of developing hypotheses. Option 3 is fairly ambivalent but is not part of a definition of the process called ‘operationalizing’. Question 4 A theory is a(n) - - - - -. 1. explanation of observed facts and relationships among them 2. inspired guess or supposition about the relationships among constructs 3. careful description of the facts based on observations of objects or events 4. explanation of human behaviour based on literature Answer: Option 1 is correct. The word ‘theory’ is used in scientific text to indicate an explanation of why facts are as they are, or how they are connected (see Section 1.2.2 in the PYC3704 Guide). Option 2 is wrong because this is actually a definition of a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a guess used to explain something, whereas a theory will be based on the result of testing one or more hypotheses and establishing their validity. Option 3 is wrong because while all scientific research should begin with a careful description of phenomena based on observation to establish the facts (and this may include careful measurements), a theory goes beyond this to explain why things are as they seem to be, or how and why they are connected in certain ways. Theories are reported in the literature so that people can read about it, but the theory as such is based on research, not on literature, so Option 4 is wrong.