A Comprehensive Guide to the Rich and Rigorous Research Methods of Psychological Science

PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 57 (21) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan E. Kazdin
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Rigorous Research ◽  
The Rich

scholarly journals Available supports and resources for postsecondary students with traumatic brain injury: A systematic review of the literature

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Emily Tarconish ◽  
Allison Lombardi ◽  
Joseph Madaus ◽  
Ashley Taconet ◽  
Carl Coelho
Keyword(s):  
Postsecondary Education ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Brain Injuries ◽  
Disability Services ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Postsecondary Students ◽  
Education Professionals ◽  
Concussion Management ◽  
Rigorous Research

BACKGROUND: Postsecondary students with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are a rapidly growing population, encompassing those who sustained injuries prior to attending postsecondary education and those who endure injuries during their postsecondary studies. Not only do these individuals face a broad range of symptoms, all of which can affect academic achievement, but they also do not achieve comparable academic outcomes to their peers without disabilities. OBJECTIVE: There is a need to develop and examine the effectiveness of available supports and resources to meet the needs of these students. METHODS: Twenty-three articles were systematically reviewed to illustrate what supports are currently described in the literature for postsecondary students with TBI and what research methods were used to assess the effectiveness of these supports. RESULTS: Three categories of supports emerged, including concussion management protocols, typical study/learning strategies and accommodations, and interventions developed specifically for this population. Findings also indicated a lack of rigorous research methods used to assess these interventions’ effects. CONCLUSIONS: Implications for future research include a need for additional study of all supports and resources described in this review, and assessment of whether or not education professionals, including postsecondary disability services professionals, are aware of and using the tools and strategies addressed in this review.

scholarly journals Measurement Schmeasurement: Questionable Measurement Practices and How to Avoid Them

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Kay Flake ◽  
Eiko I Fried
Keyword(s):  
Construct Validity ◽  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Replication Studies ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Rigorous Research ◽  
Statistical Conclusion ◽  
Measurement Practices

In this paper, we define questionable measurement practices (QMPs) as decisions researchers make that raise doubts about the validity of the measures, and ultimately the validity of study conclusions. Doubts arise for a host of reasons including a lack of transparency, ignorance, negligence, or misrepresentation of the evidence. We describe the scope of the problem and focus on how transparency is a part of the solution. A lack of measurement transparency makes it impossible to evaluate potential threats to internal, external, statistical conclusion, and construct validity. We demonstrate that psychology is plagued by a measurement schmeasurement attitude: QMPs are common, hide a stunning source of researcher degrees of freedom, pose a serious threat to cumulative psychological science, but are largely ignored. We address these challenges by providing a set of questions that researchers and consumers of scientific research can consider to identify and avoid QMPs. Transparent answers to these measurement questions promote rigorous research, allow for thorough evaluations of a study’s inferences, and are necessary for meaningful replication studies.

How (and Whether) to Teach Undergraduates About the Replication Crisis in Psychological Science

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 158-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Chopik ◽  
Ryan H. Bremner ◽  
Andrew M. Defever ◽  
Victor N. Keller
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Pedagogical Tool ◽  
The Past ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Replication Crisis ◽  
Psychological Studies

Over the past 10 years, crises surrounding replication, fraud, and best practices in research methods have dominated discussions in the field of psychology. However, no research exists examining how to communicate these issues to undergraduates and what effect this has on their attitudes toward the field. We developed and validated a 1-hr lecture communicating issues surrounding the replication crisis and current recommendations to increase reproducibility. Pre- and post-lecture surveys suggest that the lecture serves as an excellent pedagogical tool. Following the lecture, students trusted psychological studies slightly less but saw greater similarities between psychology and natural science fields. We discuss challenges for instructors taking the initiative to communicate these issues to undergraduates in an evenhanded way.

Digital Traces: New Data, Resources, and Tools for Psychological-Science Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 560-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anat Rafaeli ◽  
Shelly Ashtar ◽  
Daniel Altman
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Human Psychology ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Large Scale Data ◽  
Scale Data

New technologies create and archive digital traces—records of people’s behavior—that can supplement and enrich psychological research. Digital traces offer psychological-science researchers novel, large-scale data (which reflect people’s actual behaviors), rapidly collected and analyzed by new tools. We promote the integration of digital-traces data into psychological science, suggesting that it can enrich and overcome limitations of current research. In this article, we review helpful data sources, tools, and resources and discuss challenges associated with using digital traces in psychological research. Our review positions digital-traces research as complementary to traditional psychological-research methods and as offering the potential to enrich insights on human psychology.

scholarly journals Measurement Schmeasurement: Questionable Measurement Practices and How to Avoid Them

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 456-465
Author(s):  
Jessica Kay Flake ◽  
Eiko I. Fried
Keyword(s):  
Construct Validity ◽  
Degrees Of Freedom ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Replication Studies ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Rigorous Research ◽  
Statistical Conclusion ◽  
Measurement Practices

In this article, we define questionable measurement practices (QMPs) as decisions researchers make that raise doubts about the validity of the measures, and ultimately the validity of study conclusions. Doubts arise for a host of reasons, including a lack of transparency, ignorance, negligence, or misrepresentation of the evidence. We describe the scope of the problem and focus on how transparency is a part of the solution. A lack of measurement transparency makes it impossible to evaluate potential threats to internal, external, statistical-conclusion, and construct validity. We demonstrate that psychology is plagued by a measurement schmeasurement attitude: QMPs are common, hide a stunning source of researcher degrees of freedom, and pose a serious threat to cumulative psychological science, but are largely ignored. We address these challenges by providing a set of questions that researchers and consumers of scientific research can consider to identify and avoid QMPs. Transparent answers to these measurement questions promote rigorous research, allow for thorough evaluations of a study’s inferences, and are necessary for meaningful replication studies.

scholarly journals Feminisms and decolonising psychology: Possibilities and challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-305
Author(s):  
Catriona Ida Macleod ◽  
Sunil Bhatia ◽  
Wen Liu
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
The Other ◽  
Liberation Psychology ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Emancipatory Politics ◽  
Guiding Principles ◽  
Gendered Power

In this special issue, we bring together papers that speak to feminisms in relation to decolonisation in the discipline of psychology. The six articles and two book reviews address a range of issues: race, citizenship, emancipatory politics, practising decolonial refusal, normalising slippery subjectivity, Islamic anti-patriarchal liberation psychology, and decolonisation of the hijab. In this editorial we outline the papers’ contributions to discussions on understanding decolonisation, how feminisms and decolonisation speak to each other, and the implications of the papers for feminist decolonising psychology. Together the papers highlight the importance of undermining the gendered coloniality of power, knowledge and being. The interweaving of feminisms and decolonising efforts can be achieved through: each mutually informing and shaping the other, conducting intersectional analyses, and drawing on transnational feminisms. Guiding principles for feminist decolonising psychology include: undermining the patriarchal colonialist legacy of mainstream psychological science; connecting gendered coloniality with other systems of power such as globalisation; investigating topics that surface the intertwining of colonialist and gendered power relations; using research methods that dovetail with feminist decolonising psychology; and focussing praxis on issues that enable decolonisation. Given the complexities of the coloniality and patriarchy of power-knowledge-being, feminist decolonising psychology may fail. The issues raised in this special issue point to why it mustn’t.

Introduction to the special section on developmental approaches to prevention science

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Charlie Rioux ◽  
Todd D. Little
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Behavioral Development ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
Prevention Science ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Rigorous Research

We provide an overview of the topics covered in the special section of the International Journal of Behavioral Development devoted to the topic “Developmental approaches to prevention science.” The use of carefully chosen, rigorous research methods is paramount to obtain accurate, reliable results to inform policy and practice. This special issue contributes to the development of cutting-edge methods and provides guidance to prevention researchers looking to implement the best methods.

scholarly journals Calibrate your confidence in research findings: A tutorial on improving research methods and practices

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aline da Silva Frost ◽  
Alison Ledgerwood
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Statistical Power ◽  
Type I Error ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Type I ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Research Findings

Abstract This article provides an accessible tutorial with concrete guidance for how to start improving research methods and practices in your lab. Following recent calls to improve research methods and practices within and beyond the borders of psychological science, resources have proliferated across book chapters, journal articles, and online media. Many researchers are interested in learning more about cutting-edge methods and practices but are unsure where to begin. In this tutorial, we describe specific tools that help researchers calibrate their confidence in a given set of findings. In Part I, we describe strategies for assessing the likely statistical power of a study, including when and how to conduct different types of power calculations, how to estimate effect sizes, and how to think about power for detecting interactions. In Part II, we provide strategies for assessing the likely type I error rate of a study, including distinguishing clearly between data-independent (“confirmatory”) and data-dependent (“exploratory”) analyses and thinking carefully about different forms and functions of preregistration.

scholarly journals THE METHOD PROBLEM IN THE CONTEXT OF PSYCHOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE INTEGRATION

2020 ◽  
Vol 116 (5) ◽  
pp. 100-109
Author(s):  
Vladislav A. Medintsev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Knowledge Integration ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Universal Method ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Method Integration ◽  
Integration Problem ◽  
Psychological Knowledge ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

In psychological science, the «method problem» remains one of the most fundamental and relevant, and a new content shade of this problem is associated with the activation of discussion on the psychological knowledge integration. In this context, the problem acquires an updated content as a problem of a universal method in psychology. There is a reason to believe that the «method problem» is transformed into the «universal method problem» and then into the «universal method integration problem». The efforts to solve these problems are often depreciated due to the ignorance of experimenting and practicing psychologists by methodological knowledge. The possible way to build a universal method for theoretical research in psychology is to use for this purpose a procedural interpretation of theorizing based on set-theoretic process description method. In the article components of theoretical research are considered as the purpose, object, subject, hypothesis of the research, as well as the considered empiricism, theoretical foundations, method of theorizing and research tasks. Two methodological «poles» of theoretical research are identified – the «normative» method and modern research methods, and a variant of analyzing their structures is proposed. To create a universal method suitable for psychological knowledge integration is associated with obstacles, which can be overcome by their systematic analysis. The article outlines a variant of this analysis, in which the causes and sources of these obstacles are differentiated based on the system of concepts used for describing processes. The sources of integration obstacles include components of prototype modi, and the causes are properties of modi functions in the recording of processes as maps of sets. The examples describe the integration obstacles at the two levels of interactions.

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