TYPES OF RESEARCH

1.Descriptive Research – to portray accurately the characteristics of particular individual, situation or a group.

·        it includes surveys and fact-finding enquiries of different kind.

·        major purpose – description of the state of affairs as it exists at present.

·        sometimes also called “ex post facto research”

·        main characteristics – the researcher has no control over the variables, only what is happening or what has happened can be reported.

·        the researcher attempts to discover causes even when they cannot control the variables.

·        methods used – survey methods of all kinds (including comparative and correlational methods).

2. Analytical Research – the researcher uses facts or information already available and analyse these to make a critical evaluation of the material.

3. Exploratory or Formulative Research – the research objective is to gain familiarity with a phenomenon or to achieve new insights into it.

4. Diagnostic Research – the objective is to determine the frequency with which something occurs or with which it is associated with something else.

5. Hypothesis-Testing Research – to objective is to test a hypothesis of a causal relationship between variables.

6. Applied Research – it aims at finding a solution for an immediate problem facing a society or an industrial/business organisation

examples – research to identify social, economic or political trends that may affect a particular institution,

marketing research,

evaluation research.

7. Fundamental Research – it is mainly concerned with generalizations and with the formulation of a theory.

examples – research concerning some natural phenomenon or relating to pure mathematics.

8. Quantitative Research – it is based on the quantitative measurements of some characteristics (it is applicable to phenomena that can be expressed in terms of quantities).

9. Qualitative research- it is concerned with qualitative phenomenon i.e., phenomena relating to or involving quality or kind (it is especially important in the behavioral sciences where the aim is to discover the underlying motives of human behavior)

10. Conceptual research- is related to some abstract idea or ideas or theory. It is generally used by philosophers and thinkers to develop new concepts or to reinterpret existing ones.

11. Empirical research- it relies on experience or observation alone, often without due regard for system and theory. It is data based research, coming up with conclusions which are capable of being verified by observation or experiment.

MORAL DEVELOPMENT

PIAGET’S STAGES IN MORAL DEVELOPMENT:

STAGE 1: “stage of moral realism” or “morality by constraint”

-Automatic obedience to rules without reasoning or judgment.

-Children judge right or wrong in terms of their consequences.

STAGE 2: “stage of autonomous morality” or “morality by co-operation or reciprocity”

-The rigid and inflexible notions of right and wrong, learned from parents, are gradually modified.

-This enables children to look at their problems from different points of view and to take many factors into consideration in solving them.

- “Lying is not always necessarily bad.”

KOHLBERG’S STAGE IN MORAL DEVELOPMENT:

LEVEL1: “PRECONVENTIONAL MORALITY”

1^st stage – the child is obedience and punishment oriented and the morality of an act is judged in terms of its physical consequences.

2^nd stage – children conform to social expectations to gain rewards.

LEVEL 2: “CONVENTIONAL MORALITY”

1^st stage – the child conforms to rules to win the approval of others and to maintain good relations with them.

2^nd stage – children believe that if the social group accepts rules as appropriate for all group members, they should conform to them to avoid social disapproval.

LEVEL 3: “POST CONVENTIONAL MORALITY “

1^st stage – the child believes that there should be flexibility in moral beliefs that make it possible to modify and change moral standards if this will prove to be advantageous to group members as a whole.

2^nd stage – people conform to social standards and to internalized ideals to avoid self -condemnation rather than to avoid social censure.

SIGMUND FREUD'S STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY

It’s the first comprehensive theory of personality.

The structure of personality:

Id-

·         the original system of personality

·         the matrix within which the ego and the superego become differentiated

·         consists of everything psychological that is inherited and present at birth

·         reservoir of psychic energy

·         it is in the close touch from bodily processes

·         Freud called the id the “true psychic reality” because it represents the inner world of subjective experience and has no knowledge of objective reality

·         It cannot tolerate increases of energy that are experienced as uncomfortable states of tension

·         Consequently, when tension increases through external or internal stimulation, the id functions to discharge the tension immediately- THIS IS CALLED PLEASURE PRINCIPLE

·         To accomplish its aim, id uses 2 processes:

1.   Reflex actions:  It is inborn

          They are automatic reactions

          They reduce tension immediately

2.   Primary processes:It forms an image of the object that will remove the tension

e.g.- nocturnal dream

note- the hallucinatory experience in which the desired object is present in the form of a memory image is called wish-fulfillment.

Ego-

·         Comes into existence because the needs of the organism require appropriate transactions within the objective world of reality

·         The basic distinction between the id and the ego is that the id knows only the subjective reality of the mind whereas the ego distinguishes between things in the mind and things in the external world.

·         Obeys the reality principle, the aim of reality principle is to prevent the discharge of tension until an object that is appropriate for the satisfaction of the need has been discovered.

·         Operates by the means of secondary process, the ego formulates a plan for the satisfaction of the need and then tests the plan, usually by some kind of action, to see whether or not it will work.

Superego-

·         It is the internal representative of the traditional values and ideals of society as interpreted to the child by its parents and enforced by means of a system of rewards and punishments imposed upon the child.

·         The moral arm of personality

·         Represents the ideal rather than the real or the desire

·         There are 2 subsystems of superego:

1.   Conscience- whatever parents say is improper and punish the child for doing tends to become incorporated into conscience. It punishes the person by making him feel guilty.

2.   Ego-ideal- whatever parents approve of and reward the child for doing tends to become incorporated into its ego-ideal. It reward the person by making him or her feel proud.

This incorporation happens through introjection.

On the development of superego the self-control is substituted for parental-control.

SUBSTANCE ABUSE EXPLAINED

Any abused substance produce some form of intoxication that alters –

·         Judgment

·         Perception

·          Attention or

·         Physical control.

Many substances may bring on withdrawal- an effect caused by cessation or reduction in the amount of the substance used. Withdrawal can range from mild anxiety to seizures and hallucinations.

Drug overuse may cause death.

Tolerance- increasingly larger amount of the drug is required to produce the same level of intoxication.

TOBACCO

According to WHO, tobacco use is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced.

Reasons for using tobacco: a. pleasure

      b. improved performance

      c. vigilance

     d. relief of depression

      e. curbing hunger

      f. weight control

The addicting substance in cigarettes is nicotine:

It changes how the brain and body function.

It can both invigorate and relax a smoker, depending on how much and how often they smoke.

It causes a rapid release of adrenaline which causes:  

·         rapid heartbeat

·         increased blood pressure

·         rapid and shallow breathing

v  Adrenaline causes the release of glucose in blood and nicotine blocks the release of insulin therefore making people hyperglycemic (having more sugar than usual in their blood). Therefore, people eat less (they think it curbs their appetite)

v  Nicotine increases the basal metabolic rate slightly (therefore weight lose takes place but it is not as healthy as exercising)

v  Overtime nicotine can increase the level of LDL cholesterol that damages the arteries and causes a heart attack or stroke.

Cigarette smoke- contains thousands of other chemicals that also damage health.

Health hazards- heart disease, lung cancer and emphysema, peptide ulcer and stroke.

Withdrawal symptoms of smoking-

·         anxiety

·         hunger

·         sleep deprivation

·         depression

Research Design

What is the need for research?

 It is a task to conduct research in order to inform a case involves carrying out experimental tests in order to  :  1. Illustrate a point 2. provide further information.

And aims to

·         Discover

·         Interpret

·         Revise existing knowledge.

What is a research design?

·         It is a tool which assists in defining the topic under investigation.

·         Describes the method by which the topic will be explored

·         Analyses the sources which will be utilized

·         Often necessary to revise and enhance design when more is known about the topic under investigation

·         Initial research design is a brief general statement of topic under investigation( consists of the methods and the sources)

What to consider while writing an initial research design?

·         Topic under investigation? What is the hypothesis? Define as exactly as possible what it is that is being investigated.

·         Reason of particular investigation being conducted

·         Literature review

·         Is the research different and original?

·         Merits and shortcomings of the existing state of knowledge

·         Importance and significance of the chosen research topic.

The Simplest Learning Theory So Far

Edwin Ray Guthrie was a professor of psychology at the university of Washington from 1914-1956 till his retirement. He is known for his simple approach to theory. He believed that theories for Thorndike, Pavlov and Watson were unnecessarily complex and too subjective. His principles match with Aristotle’s law of association.

His Learning Theory-

1.       The unique point of Guthrie’s learning theory was: the law of contiguity-> which he states as follows (1952) “a combination of stimuli which has accompanied a movement will on its recurrence tend to be followed by that movement. Note that nothing is here said about “conformity waves” or reinforcement or pleasant effects” .In other word what is being noticed becomes a signal for what is being done.

2.       Guthrie said that learning between a stimulus and its response gains its ultimate strength only in 1 trial. In totally it can be explained that what was done last in the presence of a set of stimulus tends to be repeated when the same set of stimuli recurs. This is called the Recency principle.

3.       Movement-produced stimuli- according to Guthrie a stimulus gives rise to a very small psychological response which in turn acts as a stimulus for the next response. Hence the stimuli-response is an extremely broken down set which integrate to form a whole act. It is diagrammatically explained below:                                                                                                                                        External Stimulation (knocking at the door) -> overt response (looking at it) -> movement-produced stimuli -> overt response(raising up to walk) -> movement-produced stimuli -> overt response (walking to the door) -> movement produced stimuli-> overt response(opening it).

4.       Guthrie rejected the notion of practice or reinforcement as they appear after the response.

5.       He believed forgetting was due to passage of time.

6.       Now Guthrie believed that learning to do a particular work does not need practice or reinforcement but breaking of habits to acquire a new one. He explained habit as a response that is associated with a large number of stimuli. There are three ways of breaking habits: 1. Threshold method. 2. Fatigue method. 3. Incompatible response method

7.       Punishment- the effectiveness of punishment is determined by what it causes the punished organism to do.

8.       Experiment conducted- Guthrie along with Houston observed escape of cats from a puzzle box. They used a large number of cats and noted that each cat learned the escape route in its own particular way. Every time the cat escaped, next time the cat produced the same responses that were produced the last time. This was referred to stereotyped behavior then.

9.       Application- Guthrie’s advice is to always practice the exact behaviors that are going to be demanded of us in addition to the exact conditions.

10.   Criticism- according to Guthrie very little transfer of learning takes place which is not true.

ATTENTION PLEASE!

William James (1890): “everyone knows what attention is. It is the possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seems several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thoughts. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from something in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition called “distraction” in French and “zerstreuhiet” in German.”

This definition of attention given 124 years earlier might apparently seem to clearly and distinctly define attention. It was until cognitive revolution during 1950s that the definition started to seem incompetent to the aspects and approaches of attention. After which different psychologists started to work on attention experimentally and to define it. Solso defined it as, “ the concentration of mental effort on sensory or mental efforts”. Here, Solso does not forget the mental focusing on stimuli. Titchner was the first to start experiment on attention. He rather used the term “ attensity” to explain an attribute of sensory experience comparable to hue or loudness. He realized the importance when he says that the doctrine of attention is the nerve of the whole psychological system. Although many scientists have made effort to define attention, there has been a reluctancy in defining due to a bunch of reasons. Primary reason is that visual attention is different to auditory which is different from tactual or olfactory attention. Immense work has been done on the former two than the latter two. The other reasons are the conflict in nature of attention. Lets take a look on the nature of attention now.

Lets take an example, at a party I ask everyone to pay attention to the stage where a cake is about to be brought by the hostess. While you are looking at the stage you are expecting a cake, with our past experience we know what a cake looks like, how it tastes. Here. Our attention is space based as we are looking at the stage. Suddenly then a chandelier falls from the ceiling, now your attention is no more towards the stage but rather on the chandelier. This is object based attention. By the same example, we also learn two approaches of attention. When we were paying attention to the stage it was a top-down process, we had expectations to what we are going to attend. Whereas when the chandelier fell our attention was bottom-up as we were not expecting it and was rather sudden.(top-down and bottom-up processes will be discussed in the next post)

If we start thinking about the nature of attention then preliminarily we might be satisfied by thinking it as a resource. Attention is something that helps us focus on a few (often important) stimuli from among the myriad of stimuli that surrounds us at any given time. Attention is the gateway to higher cognitive processes. In his book, Perception and Communication, Broadbent said that attention is the result of a limited capacity information processing system. Another notable aspect of attention that also proves it being resource is that with practice less attention or mental effort is required to do the same act. I also believe that this nature of attention has evolutionary traces of human being. We must always be able enough to select important stimuli to attend to from the unwanted once. The top-down approach of attention would have helped our ancestors to detect unusual and primarily harmful stimuli and survive in the environment.