PSY 801 – Program Evaluation in Clinical Psychology

PSY 801 – Program Evaluation in Clinical Psychology

PSY 801 – Program Evaluation in Clinical Psychology

At Grand Canyon University, Doctoral Learners:

• Are committed Practitioner-Scholars, passionate about their field, who become leaders in the disciplines and communities they serve.
• Are self-directed learners, able to self-motivate toward their continued pursuit of knowledge.
• Value critical thinking and feedback, possessing an openness to new ideas, ready to challenge assumptions and consider other viewpoints.
• Are committed to reflective practice, asking questions of both self and others.
• Understand and know how to communicate effectively.
• Are committed to producing scholarly research that is ethical and academically honest through asking questions, solving problems, and enhancing performance in their professional roles in order to contribute locally and globally to their field of study.

Week 1 assignment solution

Social psychology research is based on developing answers to questions. What are some the processes social psychologists use to answer questions? Should the results of research be considered as the cause and proof of behavior?

Social psychology research is considered a creative endeavor. The process includes the researcher seeks and chooses an interesting topic, then takes the topic and turns it into a research question/hypothesis, and creates a study testing the chosen research question. The question, research, and data should all contribute to the knowledge of human behavior. The questions are answered through questionnaires, controlled environments, or even experimental conditions.

One of the basic messages of social psychology is that the situation is a powerful determinant of behavior and that its influence usually is not salient to the perceiver. Like the ordinary perceiver who commits the fundamental attribution error (Ross, 1977) by not giving sufficient weight to situational factors, the researcher who holds the method constant will not be in a position to give sufficient weight to method.

By using multiple methods, an investigator can detect these ‘situational’ factors and hopefully develop a deeper understanding of the phenomenon under investigation. Social psychologists tend to favor experiments because of their potential for high internal validity (that is, their capacity to determine cause–effect relations); however, internal validity is only one of many criteria that research should satisfy.

Even if internal validity were the only desideratum of research, the example of the objects in free fall shows that the use of a single paradigm, no matter how ‘clean’ from an experimental view, precludes complete understanding of a phenomenon.

References:

Hogg, M. A., & Cooper, J. (Eds.). (2007). The Sage handbook of social psychology: Concise student edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. ISBN-13: 9781412945356.