Industrial / Organizational Psycholoy Research Meaning

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Baluyot, Brenna Liana D.

January 2021

201P I/O Psychology

1. How are theories and hypotheses different?

A hypothesis is an explanation or an educated guess for a phenomenon, while a


theory is also an explanation for a phenomenon but supported by data. (MasterClass,
2020) Theories originate from hypotheses. After a hypothesis is found to be valid, it is
generalized and formulated into principles and equations that can then be applied to
solve problems. At this point, we call them theories, not hypotheses, and pass them
around. We look them up if we have to. We put them in textbooks so young scientists
know what problems we can already solve.

What is confusing is "theory" is often used to mean "hypothesis" in everyday


language. For a non-scientist, the distinction is easy to mute because they are not in the
business of building theories and sharing them. To a non-scientist, both theories and
hypotheses are subjective, and there is no objective distinction. Scientists who value this
distinction don't use the word "theory" to denote their guesswork. A hypothesis is how
they refer to their work in progress

.2. Is a random sample really better than a convenience sample? Why or why not?

A random sample compared with a convenience sample is better because the risk
of bias is lower. But convenience sample is easier to implement and this reflects and
time, cost, and resources involved. The real problem with non-random designs always
comes after you collect the data and you find that your validities are insecure -
especially construct and content, and the reliability of your estimates is poor - the
accuracy and the precision of your estimates. This goes for whether the study is
quantitative or qualitative. It’s mainly a problem of inference.

3. When would you use a quasi-experiment rather than an experiment?


In quasi-experiments, the groups are not randomly assigned, even if all other
possible factors are properly controlled. If testing teaching efficacy, for example, the
researchers can observe two teachers teaching different sections of the same class in
classrooms of the same size, held at the same time. However, the school has likely
assigned students a specific teacher beforehand, and the researchers' attempt at random
assignment would mix up a predetermined arrangement.

In experiments, the control is controlled by researchers, who assign subjects to


experimental groups via random assignment. A natural experiment occurs when
neither the experimental or control group is directed by researchers, but subjects still
end up in randomly assigned groups due to nature’s influence. For instance, infecting a
population with a deadly, contagious disease to run a traditional experiment is
unethical, but collecting data from a disease outbreak is a natural experiment.

4. Why don’t correlations between two variables indicate that one caused the other?

Causation would be direct cause and effect. Most causes are known and there are
still new causes being discovered and verified fairly often. The cause is not called a
cause until it is described and verified. A correlation is when two things happen at the
same time, in the same sequence, or under the same conditions, yet have not been
verified as being directly related as cause and effect.

An example of this is the famous ice cream sales and street crime are correlated -
both go up at the same time during summer. People buy more ice cream, and people
tend to spend more time in public when it’s hot, hence more likely to be mugged, etc.
but as we can see ice cream doesn’t directly cause street crimes.

Reference/s:
DePersio, G. (2018, February 13). The Advantages of Using Simple Random Sample to Study
Larger Populations. Investopedia.
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/042915/what-are-advantages-using-simple-
random-sample-study-larger-population.asp.

EXPERIMENTS AND QUASI-EXPERIMENTS. Research Connections. (2019).


https://www.researchconnections.org/childcare/datamethods/experimentsquasi.jsp.

Feibleman, C. F., Busch, M., & Fullerton, A. (2019, September 20). Correlation vs Causation:
Understand the Difference for Your Product. Amplitude.
https://blog.amplitude.com/causation-correlation.

MasterClass. (2020, November 8). Theory vs. Hypothesis: Basics of the Scientific Method. MasterClass.
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/theory-vs-hypothesis-basics-of-the-scientific-
method#what-is-a-hypothesis.

McCombes, S. (2019, September 19). Sampling Methods: Types and Techniques Explained.
Scribbr. https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/sampling-methods/.

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