CHAPTER 2:

GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ENQUIRY

Psychological enquiry has the following goals:-

1. Description : To describe a behaviour or a phenomenon as accurately as

possible. This helps in distinguishing a particular behaviour from other
behaviours.

For example, the researcher may be interested in observing study habits

among students.

Study habits may consist of diverse range of behaviours, such as attending

all your classes regularly, submitting assignments on time, planning your
study schedule, studying according to the set schedule, revising your work on
a daily basis etc.

Within a particular category there may be further minute descriptions.

The researcher needs to describe her/his meaning of study habits.

2. Prediction : If you are able to understand and describe the behaviour

accurately, you come to know the relationship of a particular behaviour with
other types of behaviours, events, or phenomena. You can then forecast that
under certain conditions this particular behaviour may occur within a certain
margin of error.

For example, on the basis of study, a researcher is able to establish a positive

relationship between the amount of study time and achievement in different
subjects. Later, if you come to know that a particular child devotes more time
for study, you can predict that the child is likely to get good marks in the
examination.

3. Explanation : To know the causal factors or determinants of behaviour. Also,

what are the conditions under which a particular behaviour does not occur.

For example, what makes some children more attentive in the class? Why
some children devote less time for study as compared to others?

Thus, this goal is concerned with identifying the determinants or antecedent

conditions (i.e. conditions that led to the particular behaviour) of the
behaviour being studied so that cause-effect relationship between two
variables (objects) or events could be established.

4. Control : If you are able to explain why a particular behaviour occurs, you
can control that behaviour by making changes in its antecedent conditions.

Control refers to three things:

making a particular behaviour happen, reducing it, or enhancing it.

 For example, you can allow the number of hours devoted to study to be the
same, or you can reduce them or there may be an increase in the study hours.
The change brought about in behaviour by psychological treatment in terms
of therapy in persons, is a good example of control.

5. Application : The final goal of the scientific enquiry is to bring out positive
changes in the lives of people and to improve the quality of life. Psychological
research is conducted to solve problems in various settings.

For example - Applications of yoga and meditation help to reduce stress and
increase efficiency.

Scientific enquiry is also conducted to develop new theories or constructs,

which leads to further research.

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

• Characteristics of scientific research:

1. Objectivity - refers to the fact that if two or more persons independently study
a particular event, both of them, to a great extent, should arrive at the same
conclusion.

For instance, if you and your friend measure the length of a table using the
same measuring device, it is likely that both of you would arrive at the same
conclusion about its length.

2. Systematic – there is a systematic procedure or steps of investigation.

It includes the following steps: conceptualisation of a problem, collection of

data, drawing conclusions, and revising research conclusions and theory.

• Steps of conducting scientific/psychological research:

1. Conceptualising a problem:

Selects a topic or theme for the study

Develops specific research questions or problems for the study

Developing a tentative answer to the problem

The process of scientific research begins when a researcher selects a topic

or theme for study.

Then s/he narrows down the focus and develops specific research
questions or problems for the study. This is done on the basis of review of
past research, observations, and personal experiences.
 These problems may be related to:

(a) understanding our own behaviour (for example, how do I feel and behave
when I am in a state of joy or grief

(b) understanding other individual’s behaviour (for example, Why is someone

always not able to complete her or his work on time?)

(c) group influences on individual behaviour (for example, why does Rahim
spend more time meeting with people than doing his work?)

(d) group behaviour (for example, why does risk-taking behaviour increase
when people are in a group?)

(e) organisational level (for example, why are some organisations more
successful than others?).

After identification of the problem, the researcher proceeds by developing a

tentative answer of the problem, which is called hypothesis.

For example, based on the earlier evidence or your observation, you might
develop a hypothesis ‘greater is the amount of time spent by children in
viewing violence on television, higher is the degree of aggression
displayed by them’.

2. Collecting data:

Data collection requires developing a research design or a blueprint of the

entire study.

It requires taking decisions about the following four aspects:

(a) Participants in the study - The participants could be children,

adolescents, college students, teachers, managers, clinical patients, industrial
workers, or any group of individuals depending on the purpose of the
research.

(b) Methods of data collection - The second decision is related to the use of
methods of data collection, such as observation method, experimental
method, correlational method, case study, etc.

(c) Tools to be used in research - The researcher needs to decide about

appropriate tools (for example, interview schedule, observation schedule,
questionnaire, etc.) for data collection.

(d) Procedure for data collection - The researcher also decides about how
the tools need to be administered to collect data (i.e. individual or group).

This is followed by actual collection of data.

 3. Drawing Conclusion:

It involves analysing the data so collected through the use of statistical

procedures to understand what the data mean.

This can be achieved through graphical representations (such as

preparation of pie-chart, bar-diagram, cumulative frequencies, etc.) and by
the use of different statistical methods.

The purpose of analysis is to verify a hypothesis and draw conclusions

accordingly.

4. Revising Research Conclusions:

The researcher may have begun the study with a hypothesis that there exists
a relationship between viewing violence on television and aggression among
children.

S/he has to see whether the conclusions support this hypothesis.

If they do, the existing hypothesis/ theory is confirmed. If not, s/he will revise
or state an alternative hypothesis/theory and again test it based on new data
and draw conclusions.

Thus, research is a continuous process.

ALTERNATIVE PARADIGMS OF RESEARCH

In recent years, a different method known as interpretive has emerged.

It emphasises understanding over explanation and prediction.

In view of complex and variable nature of human behaviour and experience, its
method of investigation should be different from the method of investigation of the
physical world.

This viewpoint emphasises the importance of how human beings give meaning to
events and actions and interpret them as they occur in a particular context.

In certain situations, objective measurement is neither possible nor desirable.

For example - The experiences that may occur in some unique contexts, such as
persons experiencing suffering due to external factors (for example, people affected
by tsunami, earthquake, cyclone) or internal factors (for instance, prolonged illness,
etc.).

Everyone interprets reality in her/his own way based on past experiences and
contexts.
Therefore, we need to understand the subjective interpretation of the reality. The goal
here is to explore the different aspects of human experiences and behaviour without
attempting to disturb its natural flow.

NATURE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DATA

Psychologists collect a variety of information from different sources employing diverse

methods.

The information, also called data (singular = datum), relate to the individuals’ covert
or overt behaviour, their subjective experiences, and mental processes.

In psychology, different types of data or information are collected. Some of these

types are :

1. Demographic Information :

Includes personal information like name, age, gender, birth order, number of
siblings, education, occupation, marital status, number of children, locality of
residence, caste, religion, parental education, occupation, and family income, etc.

2. Physical Information :

Information about ecological conditions (hilly/desert/forest), mode of economy,

housing conditions, size of rooms, facilities available at home, in the neighbourhood,
in the school, mode of transportation, etc.

3. Physiological Data :

In some studies physical, physiological and psychological data are collected about
height, weight, heart rate, level of fatigue, Galvanic Skin Resistance (GSR), electrical
activity of the brain measured by Electro-encephalograph (EEG), blood oxygen levels,
reaction time, duration of sleep, blood pressure, pattern of dream, amount of
salivation, running and jumping rates (in case of animal studies), etc., are collected.

4. Psychological Information :

Psychological information collected, may relate to areas such as intelligence,

personality, interest, values, creativity, emotions, motivation, psychological
disorders, illusions, delusions, hallucinations, perceptual judgment, thought
processes, consciousness, subjective experiences, etc.

The data may be in the form of categories (such as high/ low, yes/no), ranks which
provide ordinal data, viz. first, second, third, fourth, etc., or scores (10, 12, 15, 18,
20, etc.) on scales.
IMPORTANT METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY

Psychologists use a variety of methods like Observation, Experimental, Correlational,

Survey, Psychological Testing, and Case Study to collect data.

OBSERVATIONAL METHOD

In our daily life, we remain busy with observing numerous things throughout the
day. Many times, we do not take notice of what we are seeing or what we have seen.
We see but we do not observe.

A scientific observation differs from day-to-day observation in many respects.

These are :

a) Selection:

Psychologists do not observe all the behaviour that they encounter. Rather, they
select a particular behaviour for observation.

For example, you may be interested to know how children studying in Class XI spend
their time in school.

Two things are possible at this stage:

You might prepare a list of activities and go to the school with a view to finding out
their occurrences.

Alternatively, you might think that you do not know what happens in the school
and, by your observation you would like to discover it.

b) Recording:

While observing, a researcher records the selected behaviour using different means,
such as marking tallies, taking notes describing each activity in detail using short
hand or symbols, photographs, video recording, etc.

c) Analysis of Data:

After the observations have been made, psychologists analyse whatever they have
recorded with a view to derive some meaning out of it.

Making good observations is a skill. A good observer knows what s/he is looking for,
whom s/he wants to observe, when and where the observation needs to be made, in
what form the observation will be recorded, and what methods will be used to analyse
the observed behaviour.
Types of Observation

a) Naturalistic vs Controlled Observation:

Naturalistic Observation Controlled Observation

1 Observations are done in a
Controlled observation is
natural or real-life settings.
conducted in a laboratory.
2 The observer makes no Many a times you might
effort to control or
need to control certain
manipulate the situation factors that determine
for making an observation.
behaviour as they are not
the focus of your study.
3 Conducted in hospitals, For example- In the
homes, schools, day care experiment conducted by
centers, etc. Latane and Darley, smoke
could only be introduced in
a controlled laboratory
situation.

b) Non-Participant vs Participant Observation:

Non-Participant Participant Observation

Observation
1 Observe the person or The observer may become
event from a distance by part of the group being
sitting in one corner or by observed.
installing cameras.
2 An outsider is sitting and The observer takes some
observing may bring a time to establish a rapport
change in the behaviour of with the group so that they
students and the teacher. start accepting her/him as
one of the group members.

Advantages of the observation method:

1. Enables the researcher to study people and their behaviour in a naturalistic

situation, as it occurs.

Disadvantages of the observation method:

1. It is labour intensive.
2. Time consuming.
3. Susceptible to the observer’s bias.

"We see things as we are and not as things are". Our observation is influenced
by our values and beliefs about the person or the event. Because of our biases
we may interpret things in a different way than what the participants may
actually mean.

Therefore, the observer should record the behaviour as it happens and should
not interpret the behaviour at the time of observation itself.
EXPERIMENTAL METHOD:

Experiments are conducted to establish cause-effect relationship between two

variables.

Changes are made in one factor and its effect is studied on another factor, while
keeping other related factors constant (Laboratory experiment).

Definition of Variable: Any stimulus or event which varies (or changes) or takes
on different values and can be measured is a variable.

Variables are of many types:

1. Independent variable (Refer to the table given)

2. Dependent variable (Refer to the table given)
3. Extraneous/Relevant variables (Organismic, environmental and sequential
variables)

Independent Variable Dependent Variable

1 Independent variable The variable on which
is that variable which is the effect of independent
manipulated or altered variable is observed is
by the researcher in the called dependent
experiment. variable.
2 Independent variable is Dependent variable is
the cause. the effect.
3 For example – In the For example – In the
experiment by Latane experiment by Latane
and Darley, the IV was and Darley, the DV was
the presence or absence the frequency of
of other persons in the reporting smoke.
room.

The independent and dependent variables are interdependent and neither of them
can be defined without the other.

Experimental Group Control Group

1 Members of the group The control group is a
are exposed to comparison group that
independent variable is treated in every way
manipulation. like the experimental
group except that the
manipulated variable
is absent in it.
2 For example – In the For example – In the
experiment done by experiment done by
Latane and Darley, Latane and Darley,
there were two there was one control
experimental groups where no one was
where the two persons present.
were already seated.
Extraneous/Relevant Variables:

There are many relevant or extraneous variables that influence the dependent
variable, but the researcher may not be interested in examining their effects.

These are of three major types:

1. Organismic variables (such as anxiety, intelligence, personality, etc.)

2. Situational or environmental variables operating at the time of conducting
the experiment (such as noise, temperature, humidity)
3. Sequential variables - The sequence related variables assume significance
when the participants in experiments are required to be tested in several
conditions.
Exposure to many conditions may result in experimental fatigue, or practice
effects.

These extraneous variables need to be controlled in an experiment so that a

researcher is able to pin-point the cause and effect relationship between independent
and dependent variables.

TECHNIQUES OF CONTROLLING/MINIMIZING EXTRANEOUS VARIABLES:

In order to control relevant variables, experimenters use several control techniques:

1. Elimination - The best way to handle this problem is to eliminate them from
the experimental setting.

For example, the experiment may be conducted in a sound-proof and air-

conditioned room to eliminate the effect of noise and temperature.

2. Holding constant - Elimination is not always possible. In such cases, effort

should be made to hold them constant so that their effect remains the same
throughout the experiment.

3. Matching - For controlling organismic (e.g., fear, motivation) and background

variables (such as rural/urban, caste, socio- economic status) matching is
also used.

In this procedure the relevant variables in the two groups are equated or are
held constant by taking matched pairs across conditions of the experiment.

4. Counterbalancing - Counter-balancing technique is used to minimise the

sequence effect.

Suppose there are two tasks to be given in an experiment. Rather than giving
the two tasks in the same sequence the experimenter may interchange the
order of the tasks.
Thus, half of the group may receive the tasks in the order of A and B while the
other half in order of B and A or the same individual may be given the task in
A, B, B, A order.

5. Random assignment - Random assignment of participants to different groups

eliminates any potential systematic differences between groups.
 For example - If in one group the experimenter had included only males and
in the other group females, the results obtained in the study, could be due to
the differences in gender rather than due to experimental manipulation.

Random assignment is a method which ensures that each person has an

equal chance of being included in any of the groups.

Advantages of laboratory experiments:

1. Provide evidence of a cause-effect relationship between two or more variables.

Disadvantages of laboratory experiments:

1. Since the experiments are often conducted in a controlled laboratory situation

they only simulate situations that exist in the outside world.
As a result, the experiments may produce results that do not generalise well,
or apply to real situations i.e. have low external validity.
2. It is not always feasible to study a particular problem experimentally.
For example, an experiment to study the effect of nutritional deficiency on
intelligence level of children cannot be conducted as it would be ethically
wrong to starve anyone.
3. Difficult to know and control all the relevant variables.

OTHER TYPES OF EXPERIMENTS ARE: Field and Quasi Experiments

Field Experiments:

A field experiment is an experiment which is conducted in the field or the natural

setting where the particular phenomenon actually exists.

For example, a researcher may want to know which method would lead to better
learning among students—lecture or demonstration method.

For this, a researcher may prefer to conduct an experiment in the school. The
researcher may select two groups of participants; teach one group by demonstration
method and another group by the normal teaching method for sometime. S/ he may
compare their performance at the end of the learning session.

Advantages of a field experiment:

1. Field experiments have high generalisability.

2. Provides the opportunity to conduct studies which are not possible in
laboratory settings.

Disadvantages of a field experiment:

1. The control over relevant variables is less than what we find in laboratory
experiments.
2. Time-consuming
3. Expensive
Quasi Experiments:

Many variables cannot be manipulated in the laboratory settings. In such situations,

the researcher adopts the method of quasi (the Latin word meaning “as if”)
experimentation.

In such types of experiments, the independent variable is selected rather than

varied or manipulated by the experimenter.

For example, if you want to study the effect of an earthquake on children who lost
their parents, you cannot create this condition artificially in the laboratory.

In the experimental group we can have children who lost their parents in the
earthquake and in the control group children who experienced the earthquake but
did not lose their parents.

Thus, a quasi experiment attempts to manipulate an independent variable in a

natural setting using naturally occurring groups to form experimental and
control groups.

CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH:

Correlation attempts to determine the relationship between two variables i.e. whether
they are associated or covary or not for prediction purposes.

The strength and direction of the relationship between the two variables is
represented by a number, known as correlation coefficient. Its value can range
from +1 through 0 to –1.

The coefficient of correlation is of three types: positive, negative, and zero.

a) Positive correlation:

Indicates that as the value of one variable (X) increases, the value of the other
variable (Y) will also increase. Similarly when variable X decreases, a decrease
in Y too takes place.

For example - more time the students spend on studying, the higher was their
achievement score. Also the less they studied, the lower was their achievement
score.

This type of association will be indicated by a positive number, and the

stronger the association between studying and achievement, the closer the
number would be to +1.0 i.e. +.85 indicates a strong positive association
between study time and achievement.

b) Negative correlation:

It tells us that as the value of one variable (X) increases, the value of the other
(Y) decreases.
 For example, as the hours of study time increase, the number of hours spent
in other activities will decrease i.e. the coefficient of correlation would range
between 0 and –1.0.

c) Zero correlation:

It is also possible that sometimes no correlation may exist between the two
variables.

Correlations found may be close to zero, e.g., -.02 or +.03. This indicates that
no significant relationship exists between two variables or the two variables
are unrelated.

SURVEY RESEARCH:

Survey research came into existence to study opinions, attitudes and social facts.

Their main concern initially was to find out the existing reality or baseline. So they were used to
find out facts such as the literacy rate at a particular time, religious affiliations, income level of a
particular group of people, etc.

During elections surveys are conducted to find out if people would vote for a particular political
party, or favour a particular candidate. They were also used to find out the attitude of people
towards family planning, the attitude towards giving powers to the panchayati raj institutions
for running programmes related to health, education, sanitation, etc.

The survey research uses different techniques for collecting information. Included among these
techniques are: personal interviews, questionnaires, telephonic surveys, and controlled
observations.

Personal Interviews

An interview is a purposeful activity conducted to derive factual information, opinions and

attitudes, and reasons for particular behaviour, etc. from the respondents.

In an interview, two or more persons sit face-to-face with each other, in which one person
(generally called interviewer) asks the questions and the other person (called interviewee or
respondent) answers the questions related to a problem.

It is generally conducted face-to-face but sometimes it can also take place over the phone.

It is used by a doctor to obtain information from the patient, an employer when meeting a
prospective employee, a sales person interviewing a housewife to know why she uses a certain
brand of soap. On television, we often see media persons interviewing people on issues of national
and international importance.

There can be two broad types of interviews:

Structured or standardised, and unstructured or non-standardised.

A structured interview is one where the questions in the schedule are written clearly in a
particular sequence. The interviewer has little or no liberty to make changes in the wordings of
the questions or the order in which they are to be asked. The responses to these questions are
also, in some cases, specified in advance. These are called close-ended questions.

In an unstructured interview the interviewer has the flexibility to take decisions about the
questions to be asked, the wording of the questions, and the sequence in which questions are to
be asked. Since responses are not specified in such type of interviews, the respondent can answer
the questions in the way s/he chooses to. Such questions are called open-ended questions.

An interview may have the following combinations of participants in an interview situation:

• Individual to Individual: It is a situation where one interviewer interviews another

person.
• Individual to Group: In this situation, one interviewer interviews a group of persons.
For example – Focus Group Discussion
• Group to Individuals: It is a situation where one group of interviewers interview one
person. For example – a job interview.
• Group to Group: It is a situation where one group of interviewers interview another
group of interviewees.

Advantages of interviews:

1. The interview method helps in obtaining in-depth information.

2. It is flexible and adaptable to individual situations.
3. It can be used even with children, and non-literate persons.
4. An interviewer can know whether the respondent understands the questions, and can
repeat or paraphrase questions.

Disadvantages of interviews:

1. Interviews require time.

2. Often getting information from one person may take an hour or more which may not be
cost-effective.

Questionnaire Survey

It consists of a predetermined set of questions. The respondent has to read the questions and
mark the answers on paper rather than respond verbally to the interviewer.

Questionnaires can be distributed to a group of persons at a time who write down their answers
to the questions and return to the researcher or can be sent through mail.

Generally, two types of questions are used in the questionnaire: open-ended and closed- ended.

With open-ended questions, the respondent is free to write whatever answer s/he considers
appropriate.

In the closed- ended type, the questions and their probable answers are given and the respondent
is required to select the correct answer. Examples of closed-ended questions require responses
like: Yes/No, True/False, Multiple choice, or using a rating scale.

The questionnaire is used for collecting background and demographic information, information
about past behaviour, attitudes and opinions, knowledge about a particular topic, and
expectations and aspirations of the persons.
The questionnaire is the most common, simple and low-cost self-report method of collecting
information. Sometimes a survey is conducted by sending the questionnaire by mail. The main
problem of a mailed questionnaire is poor response from the respondents.

Telephone Survey

Surveys are also conducted through telephone, and now-a-days you must have seen
programmes asking you to send your views through mobile phones’ SMS.

The telephone survey helps in reducing time.

However, since the respondents do not know the interviewer, the technique is fraught with
uncooperativeness, reluctance, and superficial answers by the respondents.

There is also a possibility that those responding may differ from those not responding, e.g., on
age, gender, income levels, education levels, etc., besides their psychological characteristics. This
will lead to very biased kinds of results.

Advantages of survey method:

1. Information can be gathered quickly and efficiently from thousands of persons.

2. Since surveys can be conducted quickly, public opinions on new issues can be obtained
almost as soon as the issues arise.

Limitations of survey method:

1. People may give inaccurate information because of memory lapses or they may not want
to let the researcher know what they really believe about a particular issue.
2. People sometimes offer responses they think the researcher wants to hear.