Scientific Method - Assignment Example

Psychologists use the scientific method. Briefly describe why they do so and proceed to discuss what steps must be taken to ensure that resulting experiments are both valid and reliable. Explain why this is important in the world of business. Organizations or business organizations are structures with a ‘collage’ of humans doing their allocated work under the supervision of a leader, for the benefit of the organization as well as them. It is the duty of the organization and its leader to provide an optimal working environment for these workers. To provide an optimal environment, they can use number of aids including relevant theories. As the mental process of the workers have to be optimized for the better functioning of the organization, psychological theories formulated by psychologists will aid the organization maximally. Mental process centric theories have been conceptualized and theorized by many psychologists world over from early centuries. Biologically, it is mind of the worker, which will make the worker ‘work’. That is, only if the mind of the worker is filled with positive thought process, it will get motivated and make mental as well physical organs work for the benefit of the organization. The motivated mind will only ‘configure’ the mind as well as the physical body, to function in an optimum way to derive beneficial outputs for the workers themselves as well as the organization. Because of this aspect, psychological theories formulated by psychologists will play a crucial role. Among the many methods, the psychologists while formulating the theories will mainly use scientific methods to come up with optimum theories. So, this paper will briefly describe why the psychologists do so, and will also discuss the steps that must be taken to ensure that the resulting experiments as part of scientific methods are both valid and reliable. Psychologists and scientific method When psychologists come up with theories, they normally use scientific method to conduct their research. The scientific method is more like a logical method because the psychologists will use the principles and the procedures of scientific method, to first develop relevant questions, collect extensive data and importantly reach apt and long standing conclusions. They use scientific method mainly because it is a standardized method, which logically comes up with results without irregularity. “The scientific method is a standardized way of making observations, gathering data, forming theories, testing predictions, and interpreting results.” (sparknotes.com). We the humans will normally make judgments about the actions, intentions, etc of other humans in an informal way. Common people will do this as part of their daily life, without focusing on any systematic analysis or judgments. But, on the other hand, Psychologists and other social scientists will make the judgments about human actions or behaviors in a more systematic way, without informality. When the psychologists make this systematic form of judgments, it is termed as scientific method. “While the everyday judgments we make about human behavior are subjective and anecdotal, researchers use the scientific method to study psychology in an objective and systematic way.” (Wagner).The psychologists who follow scientific method will make the final systematic judgments after following a logical protocol. Firstly, the psychologists will watch or observe the human behaviors as part of groups or as individuals. After observing or watching the humans, Psychologists will make observations about those behaviors in order to describe and aptly measure those behaviors. Then, they will repeatedly observe certain events or behaviors, which will have a pattern or can be slotted under a specific behavior. By focusing on those behaviors with patterns, psychologists will formulate a theory that will explain those observations in a systematic way. So, a theory formulated by psychologists in a scientific method can be explained as one which organizes separate pieces of information in a coherent or systematic way. An important aspect psychologists will consider, when they use the scientific method is, they will develop a theory only after they have collected a lot of evidences. This collection of evidences including scientific evidences will be mostly done by psychologists, while other professional researchers will tend to avoid this part of the research. “Most Psychologists, to a certain extent, use a scientific method as they all try to gather evidence which will support their theories; this is unlike philosophers or theorists who purely develop theories.” (Emily). The other application of collecting maximum evidences is that, it will aid other researchers to reproduce or replicate the research results. Reproduction or replication by others is a key criterion because a theory formulated through scientific method has to be recreated by others in whatever relevant circumstances, for it to be standardized or considered a foolproof one. The other aspect of scientific method is that, psychologists using that method will conduct research and formulate theories which have a long standing effect. That is, their research and theories could change human behaviors. “Researchers seek not only to describe behaviors and explain why these behaviors occur; they also strive to create research that can be used to predict and even change human behavior.” (Wagner). So, it is clear that psychologists use scientific method, when they adopt systematic way of research, with evidences having multiple applications. Steps that must be taken to ensure that the resulting experiments are both valid and reliable The scientific method used by the psychologists will or should be a step-by-step procedure. That is, psychologists while conducting the researches and collecting the evidence will follow a step-step procedure to come up with effective formulation or theories. The important motive for using this step-by-procedure while coming up with the theories is that, the psychologists want to collect foolproof evidences or variables, which cannot be disputed or cannot be considered as weak. “By following these specific steps, psychologists seek cause and effect relationships which means that they can be certain (at least have a high level of confidence) that one variable causes an effect on another variable and that the results of the study are caused by the variable being studied and not some other, outside (extraneous) variables.” (alleydog.com). So, each step in the step-by-step procedure is crucial in helping the psychologists come up with effective researches, along with valid judgments and theories. The first step that will or should be used by psychologists as part of the scientific study is to focus on a topic of interest and thereby develop a hypothesis, which can be tested through research. “While a hypothesis is often described as a hunch or a guess, it is actually much more specific. A hypothesis can be defined as an educated guess about the relationship between two or more variables” (Wagner). Only if the hypothesis is formed aptly in the initial stages, the research will go in the right track. If an irrelevant and complicated hypothesis is formed, the resulting experiment will not be reliable as the results will border on unreliable nature and could be complicated. Then, as the second step, the psychologists have to select the research methods that have to be used to collect the needed data. Descriptive research and Experimental research are the two basic types of research methods that can be used by the psychologists to collect the relevant data. “Descriptive research such as case studies, naturalistic observations, and surveys are often used when it would be impossible or difficult to conduct an experiment …Experimental methods are used to demonstrate causal relationships between variables.” (Wagner). These two methods are important in this step because collection of relevant data is of utmost importance to do the research, as it will aid in reaching the logical end. Without apt data collection, the psychologists cannot proceed in the research and could even drop the research. After these two procedures, the psychologists should examine and analyze the collected data and draw up conclusions, using various options like statistics, software testing, etc. This is crucial for the resulting experiments because without proper analysis, correct results cannot be expected. That is, this step only provides the psychologists to make a correct conclusion and thereby a correct theory. The final step of reporting the findings of the study is crucial because, only if the research and the conclusion are written as a form of report and published in an academic or professional journal, it will earn visibility, respect or even criticism. So, all the steps are necessary and crucial, to ensure that the research, collection of data and the resulting experiments are both valid and reliable. Conclusion The cause of any human actions and reactions is due to their mental framework. The mental part of the body only through experience, knowledge, exposure, etc, etc…initiates the action of the humans. And this applies to the employees of the organization as well. If theirs’ mind is analyzed by certain tests before recruitment and if their mind is optimized using various psychological theories during the working period, it will help provide the organizations with fully equipped and apt individuals. Psychological tests at the time of recruitment will normally give a fair idea of how the worker will behave in the course of his/her employment. The organization can find whether the candidates have high mental qualities, through many processes including personality tests, which asses the unique blend of characteristics that define an individual (Jackson and Schuler, 280). Then, importantly, when the employees are working in the organization, their mental thought process could waver according to the situations and actions that happen inside the organization. And when the employees’ mindset and specifically motivation deteriorates, certain positive measures based on the psychological theories or psychological study done in other organizations or the study done with a small target group, is implemented, it would do a world of good for the workers as well as organizations. So, the bottom line is, if the organization and its leader implement motivational measures based on psychological theories, formulated by psychologists through scientific methods, the productivity of the employees can be optimized with the profits and market share also optimizing. References alleydog.com. Scientific Method. Retrieved November 20, 2008 http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.cfm?term=Scientific%20Method Emily, J. Is Psychology a science? Retrieved November 21, 2008 http://emily.im/2008/05/15/is-psychology-a-science/ Jackson, S. E. and Schuler, R. S. Managing Human Resources for Strategic Partnership. Thomson South Western. 2003 sparknotes.com. Psychology: Research Methods in Psychology. Retrieved November 21, 2008 http://www.sparknotes.com/101/psychology/research_methods_in_psychology/the_scientific_method.html Wagner, K. V. Steps in Psychology Research: The Process of Conducting a Psychology Study. Retrieved November 20, 2008 http://psychology.about.com/od/researchmethods/a/research_steps.htm Read More