Pre-Reading 2 Part 1: How do Social Psychologists Gain Knowledge?

The first thing to keep in mind is that ideas can be tested scientifically. It’s possible to imagine a Physicist carefully conducting an experiment on particle acceleration in a laboratory. They would set up their apparatus with very exact specifications in order to ensure that they are only measuring what they want to measure, and that they are controlling the influence of other extraneous influences. Social Psychologists conduct their experiments with the same goals in mind. The first step is to ask a question, called a hypothesis. The origin of a hypothesis can be based on a number of things, including previous personal experience or knowledge of existing theories. Whatever hypothesis the researcher develops, the next step is to choose an experimental method for testing that hypothesis. There are entire courses devoted to research methods, and to the statistics that are used to analyze the data from these various research designs. We will be covering this information only at an introductory level.