Scientific Method

Scientific Method

The Scientific Method is the approach used by psychologists to systematically acquire knowledge and understanding about behavior and other phenomena of interest (Ryan 2013). The four steps of the scientific method include: Identifying questions of interest, formulating an explanation, carrying out research designed to support or refute the explanation, and communicating the findings (Ryan 2013).

Selecting a topic is the starting point for researchers. After establishing a topic, the researcher will then begin reviewing information pertaining to the topic. Review of the topic provides pertinent information and solutions to the problems. All data retrieved is beneficial to researchers when getting started on step one of the scientific method, which is formulating a hypothesis.

Step one of research is identifying questions of interest and then formulates a hypothesis to be examined. This can be described as an educated guess about making a possible solution. In Monte Python, Mr. D points out the hypothesis, if the woman weighs as much as a duck she must be made of wood, therefore she is a witch. After establishing that if a woman weighs as much as a duck can be tested, we can now, formulate an explanation.

The second step is formulating an explanation (research/data collection), which is based on what topic is being studied. Descriptive and experimental are two types of research. Once the required data has been collected, the researcher can move into the third step of testing the data. Testing the data (hypothesis) is where the researcher comes up with a case study to produce evidence that the hypothesis was true or false. Mr. D shows us in Monte Python an example of utilizing experimental research to figure out if the woman was a witch or not. By placing the woman and the duck on the scale they would come to a conclusion that she is a witch, because their weight was equal.

Now that a conclusion has been drawn, researchers will communicate the findings (report results). The findings are often recorded and publicized in writing, which include details of the study. Even though the findings that the woman was a witch in Monte Python were never reported, researches can clearly see that this is a good example of scientific method experiment.