How psychologists study behaviour

Without research there would be no psychology, only guesses. Research is why we now know that a child who cannot tell 'b' from 'd' may have a learning difficulty rather than being lazy, and that depression is an illness to treat, not 'attention-seeking'.

Goals of psychological enquiry. Take a question: why are many students very anxious before board exams?

• Description: state exactly what you are studying and how it differs from similar behaviour (exam anxiety, not general dislike of studying).
• Prediction: say what is likely to happen if conditions stay the same, within some margin of error (very anxious students may score lower than they could).
• Explanation: find the causes (pressure from family, fear of being judged, the frightening picture painted by others).
• Control: change the conditions to make good behaviour happen, reduce harmful behaviour, or strengthen what is already good (teach stress-management skills; talk to parents about pressure).
• Application: use the findings to improve people's lives in the real world.

(Some advanced books put explanation before prediction; for your NCERT answers, follow the order above.)

Research is systematic, done step by step, and objective: two researchers studying the same people the same way should reach similar conclusions, whatever their personal views.

Steps in scientific research:

• Conceptualising a problem: choose what to study, then form a hypothesis, a tentative answer that can be tested. For example: 'Teenagers who watch more violent videos behave more aggressively.'
• Collecting data: decide on the participants, the method (observation, experiment, survey and so on), the tools (questionnaires, tests) and the procedure.
• Drawing conclusions: analyse the data, often with statistics, and see whether they support the hypothesis.
• Revising: if they do not, form a new hypothesis and test again. Research is an ongoing cycle.

Two paradigms. The scientific paradigm stresses objectivity, measurement and prediction. The interpretive paradigm stresses understanding how people give meaning to their own experiences in their own context. Some things, such as the grief of a child who has lost a parent, cannot be recreated in a laboratory, so both approaches are needed. A researcher may also reflect on their own experience.

Psychological data is information about people's behaviour, experiences and mental processes. It is tied to its context (young men in India and in another country may differ), it depends on who gave it and how it was collected, and it does not speak for itself: the researcher must interpret it.

Four kinds of data are collected:

• Demographic: name, age, gender, birth order, family size, education.
• Physical: the surroundings, such as city or village, hills or plains, facilities available.
• Physiological: bodily measures such as heart rate, blood pressure, sleep, fatigue.
• Psychological: intelligence, personality, interests, emotions, motivation.