In eerste zit geslaagd na het leren van deze samenvatting!
RMT: HOC 1: introduction to scientific reasoning:
A scientific way of thinking can often lead to better results.
Psychology is a way of thinking:
Producing versus consuming research:
We can make a division between two types of people:
1) Research producer
= in this study (psychology) everyone will eventually become a research producer
E.G. during your master you will write a thesis, for this writing you will have to do a study
yourself so you have to know how research works to be able to do it yourself
E.G. people who decide to become a researcher later on in live (as a job)
2) Research consumer
= you will use research to make decisions, you will consume research
E.G. people who will not become a researcher but will work in a clinical center will still get in
touch by research
→ you will read research and find out solutions because of research that others have
produced to make evidence based decisions
E.G. Has research shown that a certain therapy is effective?
E.G. STUDY: reducing crime rates by scaring children - they get taken to prison to get scared
about the idea of going to prison – the idea is that they are so scared that they will never do a
crime again (children get scared of doing a crime)
Is there evidence that this type of therapy works (scaring)?
= by reading scientific articles it is clear that the amount of children committing a crime after the
study isn’t less (it is the same of higher) – so scaring the children of prison can lead to a higher
crime rate
→ therefor it is important to read and consume research so that you know that such therapies
don’t work
→ before assuming that a certain theory is right you have to know and understand the research
that this study is based on, how the research happened, what the pros and cons of the research
are,…
Everyone will become either a research producer or a research consumer at the end of the day!
E.G. STUDY: another example that illustrates the importance of the research consumer role
1
,It involves an author that appeared on a tv show and talked about mental problems – based on
these experience she started giving therapy → she has no background for giving therapy but she
only has her own experience so this got a lot of criticism
BUT she then afterwards claims that she did follow a few classes and released research that
shows that her therapy works.
Before we believe her we have to take a look at her research, because there are a couple
problems with the study:
• Small sample: only 17 participants → with a small sample you can’t really trust the
outcomes of the research
• They did not have a control group → this means that you can never be sure that the
results are because of the therapy or because of other criteria (there is nothing to
compare the results with)
Important: you need to understand research to make conclusions !
There are three important rules:
1) Having a critical mindset is essential
2) Not all published research is correct of robust
3) Replication crisis in psychology → How sure can we be about studies? They want to
replicate the studies BUT often it is not possible to replicate the results of the studies
E.G. a study that showed that people can predict what can happen in the future → it was
published in a very prestigious journal and got a lot of criticism
The article showed 9 experiments in which people could predict what was going to happen →
the researcher used standard (traditional) experiments but he reversed the order of things that
were done in the experiment
• Standard experiment for priming effects: they show you an image (positive of negative)
which can lead to different emotions → they see a word and need to react to this word
(happy of ugly)
• The idea was: positive image + positive word = you will react more rapidly (it is congruent)
• When the stimuli is not congruent: positive image + negative word = the reaction will be
more slow
• The reversed experiment for priming effects: first a word was given (positive of negative)
and people needed to categorize the word (react to it), afterwards an image (positive or
negative) was shown
• Results: priming effect were still show, so people still reacted faster to the word when
the image later shown was congruent
BUT this makes no sense, because this would mean that people can predict the future
→ not everyone wanted to believe this BUT eventually it was shown that there were a lot of
problems with the study
What was wrong with the study?
2
, • The research shows that it is based on 9 experiments → statistic effects were found BUT
the effects it selves were very small (the effect size is also important)
• It is not because something is significant, that is also meaningful
• People also tried to replicate the study → all of the replication attempts failed
• The researcher of the original study actually did a lot more than nine studies in which he
didn’t find a significant effect → he only reported the experiments that found an effect
(these effects were probably found by luck)
Conclusion: the study shows that you need to be critical with the results of an scientific
article! (not all published research is correct or robust)
How scientist work:
There are a few important things when we look at the way that scientists work:
• Science is based on empiricism
• Scientists test theories
• Scientist form a community
• Scientists work on fundamental and applied problems
• Science is continuously evolving
• Scientist publish their findings in scientific journals
• Scientists communicate with the general public via journalist
Empiricism:
Scientists use an empirical method → this method is based on data and can be obtained in
different ways:
• Our senses (e.g. sight, hearing, touch)
• Instruments/ equipment that assist our senses (e.g. thermometer, questionnaires, timer)
• Both quantitative and qualitative methods can be used to collect empirical evidence
→ in this course the focus will be on quantitative data, but in real life both are playing a
big role
Data is very important because it allows us to do research!
What is important while doing research?
= empiricist aim to do research in a systematic, rigorous and replicable manner → they are very
clear about what they are doing, why they are doing things and how they are doing things
→ this way other people can do their own research and replicate the study
Important: empiricism is not based on own experiences, intuition or authority figures
Scientists test theories:
There is a certain order/ cycles in which the testing of theories happens:
1) It all starts with a theory (a theory that explains how certain things work and operate
→ when there is a theory this causes a lot of things
3
, 2) There are research questions linked to the theory
3) Those research questions then eventually lead to a research design to test specific
hypothesis that a researcher has → based on all these hypothesis they design a study
4) Ideally the hypothesis is preregistered → before collecting data and before analyzing
the researcher will specify it’s hypothesis (this way it cannot be changed afterwards to
avoid fraud)
5) The researcher runs a study and test the hypothesis → data is collected and can be
analyzed
6) Finaly there are two options:
• Support: the collected data can support and strengthen the theory
• Revision: the collected data does not support the theory → either a revised theory is
needed or an improved research design
Important: there is a difference between exploratory (inductive) research and confirmatory
(deductive) research
→ the order from testing that is talked about above is about a confirmatory research BUT not all
research is confirmatory
→ with exploratory research there is not a theory to start with
4
RMT: HOC 1: introduction to scientific reasoning:
A scientific way of thinking can often lead to better results.
Psychology is a way of thinking:
Producing versus consuming research:
We can make a division between two types of people:
1) Research producer
= in this study (psychology) everyone will eventually become a research producer
E.G. during your master you will write a thesis, for this writing you will have to do a study
yourself so you have to know how research works to be able to do it yourself
E.G. people who decide to become a researcher later on in live (as a job)
2) Research consumer
= you will use research to make decisions, you will consume research
E.G. people who will not become a researcher but will work in a clinical center will still get in
touch by research
→ you will read research and find out solutions because of research that others have
produced to make evidence based decisions
E.G. Has research shown that a certain therapy is effective?
E.G. STUDY: reducing crime rates by scaring children - they get taken to prison to get scared
about the idea of going to prison – the idea is that they are so scared that they will never do a
crime again (children get scared of doing a crime)
Is there evidence that this type of therapy works (scaring)?
= by reading scientific articles it is clear that the amount of children committing a crime after the
study isn’t less (it is the same of higher) – so scaring the children of prison can lead to a higher
crime rate
→ therefor it is important to read and consume research so that you know that such therapies
don’t work
→ before assuming that a certain theory is right you have to know and understand the research
that this study is based on, how the research happened, what the pros and cons of the research
are,…
Everyone will become either a research producer or a research consumer at the end of the day!
E.G. STUDY: another example that illustrates the importance of the research consumer role
1
,It involves an author that appeared on a tv show and talked about mental problems – based on
these experience she started giving therapy → she has no background for giving therapy but she
only has her own experience so this got a lot of criticism
BUT she then afterwards claims that she did follow a few classes and released research that
shows that her therapy works.
Before we believe her we have to take a look at her research, because there are a couple
problems with the study:
• Small sample: only 17 participants → with a small sample you can’t really trust the
outcomes of the research
• They did not have a control group → this means that you can never be sure that the
results are because of the therapy or because of other criteria (there is nothing to
compare the results with)
Important: you need to understand research to make conclusions !
There are three important rules:
1) Having a critical mindset is essential
2) Not all published research is correct of robust
3) Replication crisis in psychology → How sure can we be about studies? They want to
replicate the studies BUT often it is not possible to replicate the results of the studies
E.G. a study that showed that people can predict what can happen in the future → it was
published in a very prestigious journal and got a lot of criticism
The article showed 9 experiments in which people could predict what was going to happen →
the researcher used standard (traditional) experiments but he reversed the order of things that
were done in the experiment
• Standard experiment for priming effects: they show you an image (positive of negative)
which can lead to different emotions → they see a word and need to react to this word
(happy of ugly)
• The idea was: positive image + positive word = you will react more rapidly (it is congruent)
• When the stimuli is not congruent: positive image + negative word = the reaction will be
more slow
• The reversed experiment for priming effects: first a word was given (positive of negative)
and people needed to categorize the word (react to it), afterwards an image (positive or
negative) was shown
• Results: priming effect were still show, so people still reacted faster to the word when
the image later shown was congruent
BUT this makes no sense, because this would mean that people can predict the future
→ not everyone wanted to believe this BUT eventually it was shown that there were a lot of
problems with the study
What was wrong with the study?
2
, • The research shows that it is based on 9 experiments → statistic effects were found BUT
the effects it selves were very small (the effect size is also important)
• It is not because something is significant, that is also meaningful
• People also tried to replicate the study → all of the replication attempts failed
• The researcher of the original study actually did a lot more than nine studies in which he
didn’t find a significant effect → he only reported the experiments that found an effect
(these effects were probably found by luck)
Conclusion: the study shows that you need to be critical with the results of an scientific
article! (not all published research is correct or robust)
How scientist work:
There are a few important things when we look at the way that scientists work:
• Science is based on empiricism
• Scientists test theories
• Scientist form a community
• Scientists work on fundamental and applied problems
• Science is continuously evolving
• Scientist publish their findings in scientific journals
• Scientists communicate with the general public via journalist
Empiricism:
Scientists use an empirical method → this method is based on data and can be obtained in
different ways:
• Our senses (e.g. sight, hearing, touch)
• Instruments/ equipment that assist our senses (e.g. thermometer, questionnaires, timer)
• Both quantitative and qualitative methods can be used to collect empirical evidence
→ in this course the focus will be on quantitative data, but in real life both are playing a
big role
Data is very important because it allows us to do research!
What is important while doing research?
= empiricist aim to do research in a systematic, rigorous and replicable manner → they are very
clear about what they are doing, why they are doing things and how they are doing things
→ this way other people can do their own research and replicate the study
Important: empiricism is not based on own experiences, intuition or authority figures
Scientists test theories:
There is a certain order/ cycles in which the testing of theories happens:
1) It all starts with a theory (a theory that explains how certain things work and operate
→ when there is a theory this causes a lot of things
3
, 2) There are research questions linked to the theory
3) Those research questions then eventually lead to a research design to test specific
hypothesis that a researcher has → based on all these hypothesis they design a study
4) Ideally the hypothesis is preregistered → before collecting data and before analyzing
the researcher will specify it’s hypothesis (this way it cannot be changed afterwards to
avoid fraud)
5) The researcher runs a study and test the hypothesis → data is collected and can be
analyzed
6) Finaly there are two options:
• Support: the collected data can support and strengthen the theory
• Revision: the collected data does not support the theory → either a revised theory is
needed or an improved research design
Important: there is a difference between exploratory (inductive) research and confirmatory
(deductive) research
→ the order from testing that is talked about above is about a confirmatory research BUT not all
research is confirmatory
→ with exploratory research there is not a theory to start with
4
