Why do research?

Many people have questions about psychological phenomena. We want to know whether people with schizophrenia are dangerous to society, or whether being in a large crowd causes people to riot. Over human history, people have developed “folk wisdom” or “common sense” to try to answer such questions. Society has often passed along that folk wisdom without ever checking to see if it is true.

This is where research steps in. Psychologists also have questions about behavior and mental processes, but they try to find the answers through careful and objective research. They try to answer questions empirically—based on study, not on opinion.

There are many examples in the psychological literature of research findings contradicting what many people hear from society. One such example is the belief that “opposites attract.” However, many studies have demonstrated that in friendships and romantic relationships, people are more attracted to those similar to themselves.

Psychologists do studies and research to answer questions about behavior and mental processes, instead of relying on opinions or “common sense.” Good researchers keep an open mind and try to find answers based on research, not feelings.

Creating a hypothesis

Often, researchers start out with a hypothesis. This is a statement of what the psychologist thinks is true. It is a prediction. This is the statement that the psychologist is testing. The researcher wants to see if the hypothesis is supported by the evidence. For example, hypotheses that researchers have tested in the past include:

1. Experts are more persuasive than non-experts.

2. Babies can recognize their mothers' voices at birth.

3. Drinking alcohol slows drivers' reaction times.

Each of these hypotheses, or predictions, was supported by the evidence. They are findings that many people now take for granted, as if we “knew it all along.” Psychologists want to see research findings to support the hypothesis before they will believe it.

Before reading on, take a minute to create your own hypothesis. What would you like to study about psychology?

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Operational definitions

Once we have our hypothesis, we have to figure out how to test it. This will involve defining or quantifying the concepts involved. Some concepts are easy to quantify and to measure. For example, time is easy to measure. We all agree that 5 seconds is faster than 20 seconds.

However, other things are not as easy to quantify. For example how do you quantify “expert”? How do you know that a baby “recognizes” a sound? This brings us to the operational definitions of concepts or variables. An operational definition describes as specifically as possible the elements and procedures of the research. A researcher gives the exact criteria he or she used in the research, so that other psychologists can understand what the researcher did.

For example, we can operationally define “expert” as “a person whose career directly involves the subject matter that she or he is talking about.” So, a teacher is an expert at teaching and a medical doctor is an expert at getting healthy.

This is often a difficult part of the research process. However, it is crucial. It is like needing a recipe with specifications for amounts of ingredients before starting to bake a cake. Before we can jump into doing research, we have to know what we mean by our terms and ideas.

Take a minute and develop operational definitions for the hypothesis that you created above.

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