Goals and objectives in psychological research

Goals & Objectives 

Of

Psychological Research 

Every science has goals. In physics, the goals are concerned with learning how the physical world works. In astronomy, the goals are to chart the universe and understand both how it came to be and what it is becoming.

The goals of psychologist conducting basic research are to describe, explain, and predict, and control behaviour.

The applied psychologist has a fifth goal also, that is application of psychological techniques and principles to improve the quality of human life. Most applied psychologists are able to conduct their own basis research, scientifically studying particular problem in order to solve them. The process of accomplishing one goal and moving on to the next is ideally a natural, flowing experience energised by the psychologist's interest in the question being studied.

☆ DESCRIPTION: What is Happening?

The first step in understanding anything is to give it a name. Description involves observing a behaviour and noting everything about it; for example, what is happening, where it happens, to whom it happens, and under what circumstances it happens.

For example, a teacher might notice that a young girl in second grade classroom is not behaving properly. She is not turning in her homework, her grades are slipping badly, and she seems to have a very negative attitude towards school. The teacher here describes the student's behaviour, and this description of what she is doing gives a starting place for the next goal : why is she doing it?


☆ EXPLANATION: Why is Happening?

To find out why the girl is not behaving properly, the teacher would most likely ask the school counsellor to administer some tests. Her parents might be asked to take her to a paediatrician to make sure that there is no physical illness, such as allergy. They might also take here to a psychologist to be assessed. In other words, the teacher and others are looking for an explanation for the young girl's behaviour.

Finding explanation for behaviour is a very important step in the process of forming theories of behaviour. A theory is a general explanation of a set of observations or facts. The goal of description provides the observations, and the goal of explanation helps to build the theory.

If all the tests seem to indicate that the young girl has a learning problem, such as dyslexia  (an inability to read at expected levels for a particular age and degree of intelligence), the next step would be trying to predict what is likely to happen if the situation stays the same.


☆ PREDICTION: When Will It Happen Again?

Determining what will happen in the future is a prediction. In the example, the psychologist or counsellor would predict (based on previous research into similar situations), that this little girl will probably continue to do poorly in her schoolwork and may never to be able to reach her full learning potential.

Clearly, something needs to be done to change this prediction, and that is the point of the last of the four goals of psychology: changing or modifying behaviour.


☆ CONTROL: How Can It Be Changed?

Control, or the modification of some behaviour, has been somewhat controversial in the past. Some people hear the word control and think it is brainwashing, but that is not the focus of this goal. The goal is to change a behaviour from an undesirable one (such as failing in school) to a desirable one (such as academic success). Such efforts also include attempts at improving the quality of life.

In the example of the young girl, there are certain learning strategies that can be used to help a child (or an adult) who has dyslexia. She can be helped to improve her reading skills (Aylward etal, 2003; Shaywitz, 1996). The psychologist and educators would work together to find a training strategy that works best for this particular girl.


☆ APPLICATION: Improving The Quality of Life.

Psychological research are often conducted to solve various problems faced by the society at different levels such as individual, organization, or community. Psychological applications to solve problems in diverse settings, such as in a classroom in a school, or in an industry, or in a hospital, or even in a military establishment, demand professional help. Applications in the health sector are remarkable. Because of these efforts quality of life becomes a manor concern for psychologists.

Not all psychological investigations will try to meet all five of these goals. In some cases, the main focus might be on description and prediction, as it would be for a personality theorist who wants to know what people are like (description) and what they might do in certain situation (prediction).

Some psychologists are interested in both description and explanation, as in the case with experimental psychologists who design research to find explanations for observed (described) behaviour. Therapists, of course, would be more interested in control, although the other four goals would be important in getting to that goal.

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Attitude : Social Psychology

ATTITUDE

Social Psychology

      : ATTITUDE :

The study of attitudes has been core topic in social psychology since 80 years and above. Attitudes are involved in practically every other area of the discipline, including social perception, interpersonal attraction, prejudice and discrimination, conformity, compliance, and so on. The chief reason why the concept of attitude is so central to psychology because the aim of psychology is to study behaviour, and attitudes are supposed to influence behaviour.

Allport (1935) defined attitude as, "a mental and neural state of readiness, organised through experience, and exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual's response to all objects and situations with which it is related."

Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) defined attitude as, "a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favourable or unfavourable manner with respect to a given object."

Eagly and Chaiken (1993) proposed a definition of attitude, "Attitude is a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour."

Psychologists use specialized terms to describe certain classes of attitudes. For example, an attitude towards the self is called 'self-esteem', negative attitudes towards specific groups are called 'prejudice', attitude towards individuals are called 'interpersonal attraction', and attitude towards own job is called 'job satisfaction.'

However, we can simply define attitude in our own words, "Attitudes are generally positive or negative views of a person (including oneself), place, thing, or event."

There are two psychological constructs closely associated with attitudes: values and beliefs.

☆ Attitudes and Values :

Values constitute an important aspect of self-concept and serve as guiding principles for an individual. Rokeach (1973) defined value as "an ensuring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence."

Human values are strongly prescriptive in nature and form the core around which other less enduring beliefs are organised. As such they are important in a range of other processes, like attitudes. It is contended that the formation of specific attitudes is predicted upon more general values. Values indirectly influence behaviour through their influence on attitudes.

Although values can shape attitudes, it does not mean that values shape all attitudes. For example, your attitude towards love marriage versus arranged marriage is probably shaped by your values, but your preference for one brand of toothpaste over another is less likely to be influenced by important life goals. Some attitudes are formed through the influence of long-standing values internalized early in life. These are called 'symbolic attitudes', because the attitude object is a symbol of something else. In contrast, there are some attitudes that are based on utility, a direct benefits and costs of the attitude object. These are called 'instrumental attitudes', because they are instrumental to meet those needs. Interestingly the same attitude object could serve a symbolic or an instrumental need. For example, your decision to eat only vegetarian food could be based on utility or taste-instrumentally based attitude versus considerations of animal rights and right to live-symbolically based values.

☆ Attitudes and Beliefs :

Beliefs are cognitions about the probability that an object or event is associated with a given attitude. Some theories regard belief as one component of an attitude. However, there are differences between attitude and belief. attitudes can be considered as the sum of beliefs. a person can have many beliefs about a positive or negative phenomenon. This person will have an attitude towards that phenomenon based on the overall evaluation of his/her beliefs.

● Formation of Attitudes ●

Since our birth, we are exposed directly or indirectly to a variety of stimuli, which lead to our acquiring particular attitudes towards the attitudinal object. A number of theories have been used to identify what lead to formation and maintenance of attitudes.

1. Classical Conditioning : 

The process of classical conditioning was first described by Pavlov. In his experiments on dogs, he found that after repeating pairings of an unconditioned stimulus (e.g. food) with a conditioned stimulus (e.g. bell), the latter acquires the capacity to evoke the same response (e.g. salivation) only in the conditioned stimulus.

It has been suggested that in the same way that a bell can evoke a physiological response, classical conditioning can produce a positive/negative attitude towards a previously neutral object. Classical conditioning could play a role in establishing some of the emotional components of attitudes and prejudice. Further, through classical conditioning, people may come to have powerful attitudinal reactions to social objects even in the absence of first-hand experience.

2. Instrumental Conditioning :

We can see that following reward, a child's attitude is likely to be strengthened; whereas punishment would probably lead to weakening of the attitude. This is the process of instrumental conditioning, a basic form of learning studied by Thorndike (1911) and Skinner (1938). According to them, behaviours that are followed by positive outcomes tend to be strengthened, while those that are followed by negative outcomes are suppressed. The degree of which attitudes are verbally or nonverbally reinforced by others will affect the acquiring and maintenance of attitudes.

3.Observational Learning :

In both classical and instrumental conditioning approaches to attitude formation, the person has direct contact or experience with the attitudinal object. However, it is also true that people may acquire attitudes simply by observing the rewards and punishments that others get for their espousal of those attitudes. The phenomenon by which a person acquires new forms of behaviour or thought simply by observing others is called observational learning. For example, you might develop a negative attitude towards the college canteen if you saw your friend throwing up after having a meal there. Although your friend's newly formed dislike is due to instrumental conditioning, but your negative attitude is a result of observational learning.

4. Genetic Factors :

Some research indicates that our attitudes, at least a tendency to develop certain views about various topics or issues, are inherited. For instance, Arvey et al. (1989) studied the level of job satisfaction of 34 sets of identical twins separated from each other at an early age, and found that approximately 30% of job satisfaction appears to be explained by genetic factors.

●Functions of Attitudes●

The functional utility of attitude was pointed out by Allport(1935) in his classical discussion of attitudes. According to him, attitude is social psychology's most indispensable concept. He stated, "Without guiding attitudes the individual is confused an bluffed. Attitudes determine for each individual what he will see and hear, what he will think and what he will do."

According to Katz (1960), attitudes are determined by the functions they serve for us. People hold given attitudes because these attitudes help them achieve their basic goals. Katz distinguishes four types of psychological functions that attitudes meet. These functions are :-

☆ Utilitarian (instrumental) Function :

We develop certain attitudes towards objects that aid or reward us. We want to maximize rewards and minimize penalties. Katz says we develop positive attitudes towards those objects that are associated with rewards and develop negative attitudes towards those that are associated with punishment. We are more likely to change our attitudes if doing so allows us to fulfil our goals or avoid undesirable consequences.

☆ Knowledge Function :

We all have a need to attain some degree of meaningful, stable, clear, and organised view of the world. Attitudes satisfy this knowledge function by providing a frame of reference for organizing our world so that it makes sense. Using such a cognitive perspective, attitude serve as schemas that help us in organizing and interpreting social information.

☆ Ego-Defensive Function :

Some attitudes serve to protect us from acknowledging basic truths about ourselves or the harsh realities of life. These can help a person cope with emotional conflicts and protect self esteem.

☆ Value-Expressive Function :

Value expressive attitudes show who we are, and what we stand for. Hence they serve to demonstrate one's self-image to others and to express our basic values. This function comes from a humanistic perspective. It seems logical to assume that only important and strongly self-related attitudes should serve the value expressive function.

Other than the four basic functions served by attitudes suggested by Katz, Shavitt (1989) added another social identity function of attitudes.

☆ Social Identity Function :

This refers to the informativeness of attitudes for person impressions, or how much attitudes appear to convey about the people who hold them. Shavitt and Nelson (2000) suggested that products tend to engage a utilitarian function to the extent that they are seen as expressing identity and values, or the product is widely seen as symbolizing membership in a particular group.

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Introduction to Social Psychology

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

            : SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY:

The branch of psychology which studies the individual's behaviour in social context is called as social psychology. Social psychology is a very important branch of psychology, combining the elements from two strong discipline ---- sociology and psychology.

Psychology studies behaviour which is a result of individual's thoughts and feelings, but individual's thoughts and feelings are inferred from his e pressed or overt behaviour. Behaviours which include learning, problem solving, perceiving are the 'overt behaviour', on the other hand, behaviours like dreaming, imaging, memorising represent 'convert behaviour'.

There is another category of behaviour. Behaviour which is result or caused by or occurs because o other's presence or influence is called social behaviour. This social behaviour is of great significance to social psychology. Whenever our psychological processes of perceiving, learning, motivating, decision making etc. are influenced by or a result of or related to / or occur in a social context, these processes are called a social perception, social learning, social motivations, group conformity respectively. These behaviours which have a social context and occur in social environment and involve social stimuli are the main subject matter of social psychology.

● Social Behaviour :

This would make us understand social behaviour in terms of the significance of 'others' in our life, as most of our time of the day is spent in interacting with other members of our family or society. A careful look at these 'social interaction' would make it very clear that in many of these interactions, our behaviour is influenced by others and we influence other's behaviour. A major part of our behaviour occurs in a social context, as well as in an environment involving 'others'.

● Social Interaction :

Human being live, grow and strive within the close interpersonal relationship. Many of our needs are satisfied in this social context. In satisfying the neds one establishes contacts, co-operates with other people and adjusts with other members of the society. Actions that are performed by the individual in relation to the members of the society are called 'Social Actions and Interaction' as these actions affect two or more individuals.  This results in action, social actions and interaction. This interaction with others is called 'Social Interaction' and this social interaction is the basis of establishing lasting relationship in life. Two mechanisms underlie every social interaction, these are:

1. Social interaction requires a social contact or social relationship: Every social situation involves social contact at least between two people without which no interaction can take place. This contact may be direct or indirect and can have negative and positive impact. Positive social contact gives rise to pro-social behaviour like co-operation, organisation as simulation, adjustment, adaptation and accommodation. Negative social contact may retract a person away from entering into social interaction and even if he/she 'has to', it results in unhelpful social behaviours like unhealthy competition, aggression etc.
2. Social interaction involves communication: Social interaction between any two individuals involves some form of communication that is verbal or non-verbal without which the social interaction cannot take place. As is known, social interaction takes place at three levels, (i) Individual to individual, (ii) Individual to groups, and (iii) Group to group level.

● Social Influence :

Each one of us depends on others to satisfy , many of our day to day needs --- food, clothing, housing, love, security. This interdependence produces interaction between persons. In the course of this interaction an individual is influenced by parents, friends, teachers and they are also in turn influenced by the person. Thus other people affect and influence our outlook, our belief, our values and so on. Such influence are exerted directly and deliberately, subtly and implied.

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Memory: Information-Prossessing Theory: Atkinson and Shiffrin

Memory

Information-Prossessing Theory

Cognition refers to the processes through information coming from the senses is transformed, reduced, elaborated, recovered, and used. The term 'information' refers simply to sensory input from the environment that informs us about something that is happening there. Cognitive processes are thus the mental processes involved in knowing about the world; as such they are important in perception, attention, thinking, problem solving, and memory.

The branch of psychology that deals with cognitive processes is known as cognitive psychology, and the modern-day study of memory, since it emphasizes the mental processes involved in storing information and retrieving it from memory, is a part of cognitive psychology.

Three distinct processes of memory have been identified. Those are (i) an encoding process, (ii) a storage process, and (iii) a retrieval process.

(i) Encoding is the process of receiving sensory input and transforming it into a form or code which can be stored.

(ii) Storage is the process of actually putting codded information into memory.

(ii) Retrieval is the process of gaining access to stored, codded information when it is needed.

☆INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY☆

A computer takes items of information in; processes them in steps or stages; then produces an output. Models of memory based on this idea are called "Information- Processing theories". A number of such models of memory have been proposed. One of the most prominent and influential of these models is "The Information Processing Theory" developed by Richard Atkinson and Richard  Shiffrin  (1968).

In the Atkinson- Shiffrin theory, memory starts with a sensory input from the environment. This input is held for a very brief time --- several seconds at most --- in a sensory register associated with the sensory channels like vision, hearing, touch, and so forth. Information that is attended to and recognized in the sensory register may be passed on to short-term memory (STM), where it is held for perhaps 20 or 30 seconds. Some of the information reaching STM is processed by being rehearsed --- that is having attention focused on it, perhaps by being repeated over and over, or perhaps by being processed in some other way that will link it up with other information already stored in memory. Information that is rehearsed may then be passed along to ling-term memory (LTM). Information not so processed is lost. When items of information are placed in LTM, they are organized into categories, where they may reside for days, months, years, or for a lifetime.  When we remember something, a representation of the item is withdrawn, or retrieved from LTM.

● The Sensory Register :- Information can be held for a very brief time in the sensory channels themselves. This storage function of the sensory channels are called 'sensory register'. Most of the information briefly held in the sensory register, is lost; what has been briefly stored simply decays from the register. However, we pay attention to and recognize some of the information in the sensory register; when we do this, the attended-to information is passed on to STM for further processes.

● Short Term Memory (STM) :- A number of experiments have shown that short-term memory can be distinguished from long-term memory. STM is memory that holds information received from the sensory register for up to about 30 seconds, although the length of the retention depends on a number of factors.

STM also has a very limited storage capacity. This capacity is estimated to be about 7 items, plus or minus 2 (Miller, 1956). The storage capacity of STM can be increased, however, by a process known as 'chunking'. Most of us have learned to combine several items into a 'chunk' as we receive them; then we can retain several (7 +/- 2) of those 'chunks' of information in our STM.

Since the capacity of this memory storage is so small, much information stored here is lost because it is displaced by incoming of information.  Before it is lost, however, some of the information can be retrieved and used. Studies of retrieval from STM show that we rapidly scan through STM when searching for an item of information.  A surprising feature of this scanning process is that we examine everything in STM when we are trying to retrieve an item from it; the scanning has been found to be exhaustive. Instead of stopping when the search-for item is located, the scanning process continues until all of STM has been examined. Then, if the item was found during the exhaustive scan, it is retrieved. Some of the information in STM is neither lost nor retrieved but passed along to the next memory storage --- LTM, through rehearsal.

● Rehearsal: - The process of rehearsal consists of keeping items of information in the centre of attention, perhaps repeating them silently or aloud. The amount of rehearsal given to items is important in the transfer of information from STM to LTM. In general, the more and item is rehearsed, the more likely it is to become part of LTM. However, in the last few years, other experiments have indicated that the sheer amount of rehearsal may be less important than the ways in which the information is rehearsed. Just going over and over what is to be remembered (called 'maintenance rehearsal') does not necessarily succeed in transferring it to LTM. What is known as 'elaborative rehearsal' is more likely to succeed. Elaborative rehearsal involves giving the material organization and meaning as it is being rehearsed; it is an active rehearsal process, not just the passive process of repetition. In elaborative rehearsal, people use strategies that give meaning and organization to the material so that it can be fitted in with existing organized long term memories. Elaborative rehearsal is a part of an alternative conception of memory called the 'levels-of-processing theory'; it also relates to the organization of memory and to what is called 'semantic memory'.

● Long - Term Memory (LTM) :- The time span over which information can be stored in LTM cannot be stated very precisely. Long -term memories may last for days, months, years, or even a lifetime. Also unlike STM, the storage capacity of LTM has no known limit.

Some theorists believe that there is no true forgetting from LTM. According to this view, once information is stored in LTM, it is there for good; when we seem to forget, it is because we have trouble retrieving, or getting access to, what has been stored. In other words, the information is still there; we just cannot get it because it has not been stored in an organized fashion or because we are not searching for it in the right part of the memory storehouse.

LTM contains words, sentences, ideas, concepts, and the life experiences we have had. Two different but related LTM stores are said to exist. One called "semantic memory" ('semantic' refers to 'meaning'), contains the meanings of words and concepts and the rules for using them in language; it is a vast network of meaningfully organized items of information. The other, containing memories of specific things that have happened to a person, is called "episodic memory".

■ THE LEVELS-OF-PROCESSING THEORY:-

Information is transferred from stage to stage until some of it is finally lodged in LTM. A contrasting model of memory involves what are called "levels of processing" (Craik & Lockhart, 1972), with more recently, the idea of elaboration added to the "levels-of-processing framework" (Craik & Tulving, 197t).

According to the levels-of-processing idea, incoming information can be worked on at different levels of analysis; the deeper the analysis goes, the better the memory. The first level is simply 'perception', which gives us our immediate awareness of the environment. At a somewhere deeper level, the structural features of the input (what it sounds like or looks like, for example) are analysed; and finally, at the deepest level of processing, the meaning of the input is analysed. Analysis to the deep level of meaning gives the best memory.

Rehearsal plays a role in the deeper processing of information. According to the levels-of-processing view, simply repeating the information  (maintenance rehearsal) is not enough for good memory. All this does is maintain the information at a given level of depth; for deeper levels to be reached, the rehearsal must be elaborative. In other words, rehearsal must process the information to the meaning level if the information is to be well retained. Rehearsal thus seen as a process which gives meaning to information.

The idea of elaboration has been added to the levels-of-processing theory. Elaboration refers to the degree to which incoming information is processed so that it can be tied to, or integrated with existing memories. The greater the degree o elaboration given to an item of incoming information, the more likely it is that it will be remembered.

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