The Nature of Theory and Research in Social Psychology

369 Pages·1972·5.928 MB·English

by  Clyde Hendrick and Russell A. Jones (Auth.)

IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
CLYDE HENDRICK and RUSSELL A. JONES
Kent State University University of Kentucky Medical Center
ACADEMIC PRESS New York and London
COPYRIGHT © 1972, BY ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
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PREFACE
The purpose of this book is twofold: to provide advanced under-
graduate and graduate students with a solid foundation in the logic of
theory construction and the experimental method and to teach students
how to read, critically evaluate, and appreciate professional literature
in the behavioral sciences. We believe the book is unique in this latter
respect and that it will serve a vital need in several different courses.
Basically, the book grew out of our personal experiences during the
course of our own education. Most undergraduates are exceedingly naive
concerning research reports, tending to accept them literally and un-
critically. In the process of becoming a professional, some difficult learn-
ing experiences are encountered. Somehow the student has to become
a skilled reader and evaluator of the relevant literature. Our observa-
tions have been that the acquisition of these skills is largely hit-or-miss.
Readings may be assigned and discussed for methodological purposes,
but the skill in handling such assignments varies widely. More com-
ix
X Preface
monly, the student is simply expected to "pick up" the necessary critical
abilities. This book should help take the "hit-or-miss" out of such learn-
ing, and put it on a systematic basis.
In writing the book we had psychology students primarily in mind.
Our own discipline is social psychology, and all the examples and case
studies are drawn from research in this area. However, we have tried
to keep the book general enough so that behavioral scientists from other
disciplines who have an experimental orientation might also find value
in it. It should be suitable for a variety of courses concerned with the
nature of research and theory construction in the behavioral sciences.
Because of the specific illustrations and examples, the book should, of
course, be relevant to most social psychology courses.
The book is organized into two major parts. Part I contains a detailed
exposition of the nature of theory and research. We discuss the nature
of formal theory, derivation of hypotheses, and the testing of hypotheses.
We explicate in great detail the experimental approach to hypothesis
testing. Both formal and informal aspects of a psychological experiment
are discussed. Throughout this discussion we make our points by ex-
amples, including many references to the experiments that follow in
Part II. What we try to do in Part I is to provide the student with a
basic understanding of the nature of theory and experimental method-
ology which can then be applied in some detail to the chapters in
Part II.
In each of the five chapters in Part II the student is provided with
an opportunity to put his analytical skills to use. We have selected five
substantive areas from social psychology. Each chapter includes three
reprinted journal articles, and the chapter may be considered a "case
study" in the analysis of experimental research in a given problem area.
Initially in each chapter we give a detailed overview of the problem area
or the relevant theoretical positions. We believe that theory and research
go hand-in-hand. Thus we present the theoretical concerns in some de-
tail. Following this introduction we present a specific implication of
the theoretical area. We then reprint an experimental report relevant
to the test of that implication.
The initial experiment is an important one, often generating con-
siderable interest and controversy. Typically there are conflicting or
alternative interpretations of the results. For our purposes, such possi-
bilities offer excellent opportunities for pointing out the flaws in the
experiment, discussing alternatives, and making various other method-
ological points. Our discussion leads into the second experiment which
tries to solve these problems. We show why and how it fails to do the
job completely, thus leading to the third experiment. At the end of each
Preface xi
chapter we provide a final summing-up of the research area and evalu-
ate its general progress.
Within each chapter of Part II our editorial comment precedes and
follows each article very closely. We believe that having the student
read the actual articles plus our editorial comments will result in a
rapid sharpening of the student's critical abilities. One value of each
of these chapters is that all the experiments are based on a common
experimental paradigm. In this way the student can literally see and
appreciate the continuity and progress of empirical research. We have
not reprinted all the relevant articles in a given area. Indeed, we have
carefully selected each article to make various methodological points
as well as to provide a sense of continuity in the research area. Thus
we hope the book will be a convenient and valuable tool in teaching
students how to evaluate professional literature.
The articles reprinted in the case studies generally use an analysis of
variance to analyze the data. For those students who have not yet had
a statistics course that includes this technique, we have included a brief
section on the analysis of variance in Chapter 2. This should be sufficient
to provide the student with an intuitive understanding of the reasons
for statistical analyses and to enable him to comprehend the summary
tables of an analysis of variance so that the Results Sections of the case
study reports may be meaningfully read and interpreted.
The final manuscript is a joint product of mutual suggestion and
criticism. However, the primary responsibility for writing the various
chapters is as follows: Hendrick wrote the five chapters in Part I and
Chapters 6 and 7 in Part II. Jones wrote Chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11.
We are indebted to many people who contributed to our efforts in
writing this book. Primarily we are indebted to some of our former
professors who made us sensitive to the issues involved in the articula-
tion of theory and to the values of the experimental method. We are
also grateful to our students for constructive comment and criticism of
various portions of the manuscript. A special note of thanks goes to the
many authors who allowed us to reprint and criticize their work. Finally,
thanks are due to Academic Press, The American Psychological Asso-
ciation, Duke University Press, Rand McNally & Company, The Amer-
ican Educational Research Association, Addison-Wesley Publishing
Company, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., for permission to use
material included in this book.
CLYDE HENDRICK
RUSSELL A. JONES
PROLOGUE
The advance of any science depends upon the quality of its research.
For those in a specific scientific discipline, learning to read, to evaluate,
and to contribute to the literature of that discipline constitutes a major
part of their training. These two aspects of scientific training are not
independent, and both must be learned. Highly complex skills, not to
say some measure of creativity, is involved. Learning to review research
critically requires considerable practice. Development of this skill might
be compared to learning to evaluate critically a work of art such as a
painting. When an individual is naive regarding art, he is likely to give
only an overall global evaluation. With training, his perception of a
painting gradually becomes more sophisticated and differentiated. He
notices the symmetry of the figures, the balance, the use of shades and
tints, the perspective, and other techniques. In a similar fashion a stu-
dent gradually becomes more discriminating in his evaluation of re-
search. We can remember from our own undergraduate and early
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xiv Prologue
graduate days our relatively unsophisticated appreciation of research.
There was a strong tendency to accept literally everything an author
said simply because it was in print. Gradually the realization dawned
that some works of research are better than others and that, in fact,
some published research is terrible.
It is difficult to point out the specific learning steps involved in be-
coming a connoisseur of research. One thing that is certain, however,
is that a lot of hard work is involved along with a substantial amount
of trial-and-error learning. It is our hope that the introduction to the
methodology of social research in Part I and the critical evaluation of
several areas of research in Part II will provide some insights into how
we can reduce the amount of trial-and-error labor involved in becoming
proficient in evaluating research.
There are a tremendous number of details one must be concerned
with when evaluating a research study. For example, one must ask
whether the research really provides a sensitive test of the hypothesis or
theory that it purports to test. Indeed, one has to ask the more general
question of whether the hypothesis or theory is actually testable. Asking
these questions presupposes that one has a good idea of what a hy-
pothesis and a theory are and that one knows the criteria for adequately
testing them. These are some of the problems discussed in Part I.
There are many other problems to be considered in evaluating a re-
search study. What kind of subjects were used? How were they used?
What specific procedures did the investigator employ? What effects other
than those intended might these procedures have had on the subjects?
What did the researcher do while he was collecting his data? How might
his behavior have influenced the subject in ways, perhaps, that he did
not foresee?
Still other considerations are involved. One must always be concerned
with the adequacy of a research design. There are usually many ways
in which answers to a specific research question can be obtained. The
reader will note that all the studies reported in this book are laboratory
experiments. Why experiments rather than some other kind of research
is certainly a legitimate question. As will be seen, the majority of
scientists feel that the experimental method is the most reliable and
efficient one for obtaining knowledge. At the same time, the method
has its limitations, and these must be borne in mind when evaluat-
ing an experiment. One of its major problems is the applicability of its
results to everyday life. Also, many important and interesting aspects
of social life cannot be studied in the laboratory. It would be difficult
to create a carefully controlled mob in the laboratory, and no ethical
researcher would attempt to manipulate laboratory variables that might
Prologue XV
lead to an increase or decrease in suicide attempts. Thus the social re-
lationships created in a laboratory experiment and the ethical consider-
ations stemming from those relationships must be considered when eval-
uating a research study.
Most of these considerations become second nature to the experienced
researcher. He may not consciously think of each and every possibility,
but the evaluation is made nevertheless. In the chapters in Part I we
try to make explicit as many considerations in evaluating research as
we can. In Chapter 1 we consider several aspects of theory and hy-
pothesis testing. These considerations are rather formal although we
do not deal with the statistical aspect of experimental designs in any
depth because such design problems are thoroughly discussed in most
statistics textbooks. Rather, we are concerned with basic problems in
science such as the nature of theory and the deduction of hypotheses and
how these hypotheses are tested. Chapter 2 is concerned with the inter-
pretation of experimental results. We discuss topics such as alternative
interpretations of a hypothesis, null hypothesis results, multiple inde-
pendent variables, and interactions between variables. Some consider-
ation is given to statistical analysis, primarily the analysis of variance.
Most of the experiments reprinted in Part II use this technique for
data analysis.
In Chapter 3 we explicitly consider the social nature of a social psy-
chology experiment. Topics such as experimenter-subject role relations,
demand characteristics, and experimenter bias are discussed in detail.
Chapter 4 is concerned with a variety of practical problems involved
in conducting an actual experiment. Problems involved in pretesting,
selecting the specific operations and measures to be used, and alternative
experimental techniques are discussed. Chapter 5 is concerned with some
limitations of the experimental method, particularly the problem of
generalizing the experimental results. Sampling problems, internal and
external validity, chronic versus acute manipulations of variables, and
nonrandom assignment of subjects are some of the problems discussed.
We have not discussed every conceivable issue of theory construction
and research in Part I, but we have discussed a great many of them.
Clearly our own values determined the positions taken on specific issues.
Perhaps our most basic assumption is that the experimental method is
preferable to other research strategies and should be used wherever it
can be applied. Not everyone would agree with us, and would pursue
other viewpoints of the nature of theory and research. As one example,
the general research method of participant observation differs consider-
ably from the approach presented in this book. The difference is in
terms of the philosophy of scientific procedure as well as of specific re-
xvi Prologue
search methods (see Bruyn, 1966). Whether the value orientation toward
science developed in this book is ultimately accepted, if a better under-
standing of the experimental approach is gained and can be used in
evaluating experimental research, our purpose in writing this book will
be well served.
Chapter 1
FORMAL ASPECTS OF THEORY AND
HYPOTHESIS TESTING
Our discussion begins with a few remarks concerning the nature of
science. Scientific objectives or goals have been variously described, but
there are three themes that recur repeatedly: prediction, understanding,
and control of phenomena. We will look at each of these important con-
cepts in turn. In explaining them we will, in fact, examine the basic
nature of theory and hypothesis testing.
Prediction
Intuitively, everyone has a notion of the meaning of prediction; psy-
chologically, it is the anticipation of an event before it occurs. Being able
to predict events in advance is, of course, quite useful in daily life, and
is very important in science. However, the accurate prediction of events
3