Research, Statistics, and Psychology Paper

Research, Statistics, and Psychology Paper

Defining statistics is a scientific method for psychology is through a form of critical thinking, which is the foundation through research such as data, controlled observation, and measurement (Aron, Aron, & Coups, 2009). Defining the research process by observing, interpreting, and seeking the understanding the thought, behavior, emotion, and feelings (Kowalski & Weston, 2009). According to Aron, Aron, and Coups (2009), psychologists will provide brief explanations of comparing and contrasting characteristics of primary and secondary data and an explanation of the role of statistics in research in psychology.

Primary versus Secondary Data

To compare and contrast primary and secondary date, primary data is original information that has not been taken into meaning by other individual(s) other than the author or authors of the original data. Secondary data is the process of a researcher using the creator's data of the creator's past information to explore the meaning and make comments or updates on the information. For an example of both primary and secondary data, a speaker is psychology gives a speech (primary data) on May 10, 2009; in the future three doctoral students from a psychology class use different parts of the speech in their team paper (secondary data) and made comments on the primary data.

The Role of Statistics in Research

Psychologists use statistics to help describe and summarize a group of numbers from research data (Aron, et al, 2009). According to Carpi and Egger (2008), statistics has developed into "a field of study that engages the development of methods and tests" (Carpi & Egger, 2009. par. 5) to provide a measure of the likelihood of observing a certain result. In addition, statistics is a scientific process formed through research questions used to form the final data analysis (Carpi & Egger, 2009). Furthermore, without the help from research and statistics the father of psychology, Wilhelm Wundt, his thought of using questions to form his research from his laboratory, research to form data, and give the statistics to have students and other researchers to read and analysis to either improve or make comments (Kowalski & Westen, 2009, p. 7). In addition, Sir Francis Galton was given credit for the first systematic effort to measure intelligence (Kowalski & Westen, 2009, p. 266). Sir Francis Galton research given through a series of theories and his laboratory of tests in London of 10,000 people, which that to his surprise the tests did not correlate with anything including social class (Kowalski & Westen, 2009, p. 266).

Conclusion

Searchers of knowledge use research and statistics within a setting such as a laboratory by giving an understanding