Science in the Modern World-After 37 years

I am re-reading Whitehead's Science in the Modern World. As I thumbed through my copy, bought for Dr. Bill Wagman's history of psychology course at the University of Baltimore, I came across an old bookmark. It was an IBM library punchcard (you know, the ones that said: "DO NOT FOLD, SPINDLE OR MUTILATE) I had taken from another library book. The due date was July 13, 1972.

That was probably the last time I had looked at Whitehead's book. I recall it being particularly dense reading back then. Thus far, I have only re-read the first two chapters. I was struck this time, however, by sentences like: "There is no reason to doubt the intrinsic capacity of individual Chinamen (emphasis added) for the pursuit of science." (p. 6).

A few years after I had graduated, I visited Wagman and we talked about the book. He said then that he had stopped using it in his history class. Students no longer had the ability to comprehend it, he said.

Now, I'm reading it again. In a few weeks I'll report back on how MY comprehension fares.

Breaking Down Research Designs

After a less-than-stellar set of test grades on chapters 7 and 8, I decided to re-explain the characteristics of research design. The test question was:

What is a design? What are its components?

In chapter 2, we state (p. 44): "The design of a research project includes the number of groups, how they are treated, and how the behavior is measured. The dependent variable, the independent variable, levels of the independent variable, and how extraneous variables are controlled are all aspects of research design."

In chapter 7, we introduce between-subjects designs and the extraneous variables of selection, differential attrition, and diffusion of treatment. In chapter 8, we introduce within-subjects designs and the extraneous variables of testing, instrument change, history, maturation, and regression (to the mean).

Let's break down design even further.

RESEARCH Type

• Experiment
• Quasi-experiment
• Field Study
• Naturalistic Observation
• Participant Observation
• Case Study
• Interview
• Focus Group
• Oral History
• Archival Study
• Small N Study
• Other
  

NUMBER of Groups (N)

• One
• Two
• Three
• Four
• More

GROUPS

• Between Subjects
• Within Subjects
• Mixed

VARIABLES

• Independent (number, levels)
• Dependent (number, quantitative or qualitative, continuous or discrete)
• Extraneous (how controlled or not)

EXPLORATORY DATA ANALYSIS & STATISTICS

• Graphs
• Descriptive Statistics
• Correlations
  
• Confidence Intervals
• NHST Tests and Significance (e.g., t-test, ANOVA, chi-square)
  
• Nonparametric Tests (e.g., Mann-Whitney, Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed Ranks, Spearman correlation coefficient)
  
• Effect Sizes

CONTROLLING EXTRANEOUS VARIABLES

• Via design
• Via procedures

ETHICS

As we note in chapter 3, any design that fails to properly follow the current ethical standards is, by definition, a bad design.

So, there are many aspects to research design. Careful researchers devote much time toward perfecting their design and then pilot testing it before collecting data for real.