Achieve the Goals of Psychology

The scientific method, shown on page 20, is a system for reduced bias and error in the measure of data. It is also a way researchers use to achieve the goals of psychology. There are 5 basic steps in reaching these goals. Step one, you need a question. Step two, you need to come up with a hypothesis, then do step three and test your hypothesis. Step four, a conclusion should be found. The last step is to report your results.

If I was to conduct my own study, I would first have to percieve the question. My question would be, when your children grow up seeing you smoking, does it cause them to smoke when they get older. Next, I would need to form a hypothesis. In this case, my hypothesis would be, children who grow up watching their parents smoke, will end up smoking in the future. After, I would need to test my hypothesis. The best method of doing so in this case would be to get a group on people, half who grew up watching their parents smoke and half who didn't, then find out if the people smoke or don't smoke in each group.

Then, I would need to draw conclusions. By finding out the results of my hypothesis testing, I find out whether or not my experiment worked. If it didn't work, then I would need to find another possible reason for my hypothesis. Another possible reason would be that their friends influenced them to smoke, or they might do it because they think it relieves stress. Finally, I would need to report my results. I would need to come up with some kind of conclusion about what I have investigated. Then, let other researchers know what I have found.