Why psychologists need to understand research
From time to time I get asked by psychology students I lecture why they need to learn about research and statistics, as after all “I am studying psychology because I want to help people.”
The answer is threefold:
1. We need to legitimise Psychology as a proper profession. Maybe you have a friend who is the source of all knowledge, who can cite matching proverbs whenever you offer some insights you gained from your psychology classes. In fact, he might even be so cheeky and say “I could have told you that without studying psychology”. Proverbs are interesting as they often describe a situation rather accurately. But it is also interesting to note that proverbs are often contradicting each other, eg “The more, the merrier” vs “Two’s company; three’s a crowd”. In fact, a funny exercise is to ask him which of these two is the right one, and you would probably see him struggling. However, with the help of research we would learn when the first proverb applies and when its opposite is true, and this would separate you from your friend.
2. We need to replicate findings from other studies. Imagine that there are two competing Burger restaurants; Big Joe’s and Big Moe’s. Big Joe’s then publishes a study saying that their hamburgers are the best in the neighborhood. Now, I would hope that the owners of Big Moe’s would challenge that by asking for details on how the research was conducted. Once we know this the next step would actually be to copy the same steps to see if we would get the same results. This is called replication. One reason to do so is to verify that the results found in a particular study would be found again should we do the study again. This is a way of ensuring that the results really are trustworthy or genuine. This is especially important if you have research done in a different country or culture, as what goes or is found in for instance in USA might not be applicable in China.
3. Finally, a part of doing research is actually to communicate your findings. Researchers have to follow an agreed structure when it comes to how to write about their research and their findings. Since this structure is standardised, it is easier to communicate the findings to interested people all over the world, ensuring that those who would be interested in the study would get to know the results. New groundbreaking results on how to treat people with schizophrenia would for instance be shared across the world and not just known to those conducting the research. By sharing the results we would also avoid spending resources on reinventing the wheel over and over again.
As you can see, part of your success in psychology depends on your ability to understand and evaluate the research done in psychology. But the same can be said about any profession, especially in the business context – something I will get back to later.
What is Research
Knowledge and information have always been seen as resource that could change the course of a war, generate great fortunes, lead to important development in medicine and so on. It is easy to take for granted the access to information and knowledge we have today in the age of Internet and computers. But while we now have access to knowledge like never before, one thing still remains: this knowledge must come from somewhere – from research.
You may think of research as something alien and strict, something that only men and women wearing white lab coats would deal with. But soon you will realise that you yourself are an active researcher. You may surf on the Internet for that great recipe that will improve your reputation as a waffle maker, or maybe you are reading computer magazines on order to know which graphic card is the better one for the latest installment of World of Warcraft. In fact, never have information and knowledge been easier to access 24/7. In many ways we can literally say that research is everywhere around us, and that understanding research methods will help you understand how we came to know things we accept as facts.
We know that doing cardio (jogging, rowing etc) regularly reduces the chance of cardiovascular heart diseases. We also know that a proper diet is important for child development, and that alcohol reduces your ability to drive safely. We may also read in the newspaper that Big Joe’s hamburgers are better than the hamburgers from Big Moe’s. But how do we know these things?
We wouldn’t know, unless someone actually conducted a study and found these findings. But that does not necessarily mean that you agree with the stated “facts”. Most of us would probably agree with the statements about cardio and the value of proper nutrition, but maybe disagree when it comes to the hamburgers. We would like to know just how the researchers found this result. Maybe they had interviewed only people who just came out of Big Joe’s. The fact that the participants of the study already had gone to Big Joe’s in the first place, could mean that they had a preference for Big Joe’s. Thus this result can hardly be surprising or fair?
These types of questions put the light on the methods the researchers used when they investigated something. And I will later show that there are a variety of techniques that people use when studying a given phenomenon, and that good research methods don’t just happen. Rather great effort is needed in order to design research to give maximum accuracy.
Psychological testing and recruitment
I was once asked whether psychological testing (cognitive/aptitude/intelligence/personality tests) is of any use for recruitment purposes. Seeing the popularity of these measures, the easy answer is yes, psychological testing or evaluation has its merits. But it depends on the purpose behind its use.
In general I would say
- The more candidates the more cost effective it becomes to use psychometric measures.
- Measures of GMA (general mental ability) will indicate the ability to learn. This is very important in today’s rapid developing and changing world, where the abilities to change and relearn are one of the greatest assets for any employee and business. There are however other indicators of ability to learn, thus one could argue whether the precision of psychometric tools are cost effective
- There are functions where certain cognitive skills are very important, e.g. spatial reasoning, numerical skills etc… in these situations, the use of psychometric testing is very cost effective.
- Measures of personality will give you a good indication of typical behaviours. That is, it will give you a good indication of how the person typically would react in different situations. However, you could argue that there not just one ideal personality profile, and therefore start questioning the cost effectiveness of using these.
- The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour. This is not so easily captured in psychometric tools.
Thus I would argue that psychometric tools certainly add precision to any recruitment process, but that there are questions regarding their cost effectiveness, which is higher the more candidates you have. I certainly would not rely on them alone. That being said, if used properly they add value in other areas as well – they can help a persons development, becoming an even better employee…
Topics of this blog
My background as an organizational psychologist and the title of this blog, business psychology, should give a good clue as to what this blog will be about. However, it won’t necessarily be about the concept business psychology alone. Let’s have a closer look at the title Business Psychology. It actually consists of two independent concepts; business and psychology. I am making this a point for a reason – with business we think of something applied, something that is taking place in the real world, something that works and (hopefully) adds values to businesses. Psychology, on the other hand, is often seen as the study of human behaviour, seeking to understand, explain and predict how we act and interact with our environment. Together these concepts sum my interests – a wide spectre of topics ranging from hands on business processes and HR to the more theoretical and bordering philosophical reflection on human behaviour, from the sphere of IGaming to the realm of research. This might sound overly ambitious, but if you think about it, you can probably seek to understand every single event taking place in our environment in terms of human behaviour and actions. Thus I dare to say that everything I will be talking about is in the end psychology – or as a famous businesses psychology firm in England is saying “Business is Psychology”.
Welcome to the Business Psychology blog
Hi and thank you for finding time to visit this blog of mine. In this first blog entry I will try to answer maybe the two most fundamental questions asked of any blog:
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Who are you (well in this case, me)
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What will you be blogging about
Without much ado, let’s answer the questions at once.
My name is Omar Mounir Bitar, and I am an Organizational Psychologist, obtaining my degree from the Institute of Work Psychology – University of Sheffield. A question I often get once the cat is out of the bag (apart from if I just read that person’s mind – think all psychologists get this one from time to time) is what does an organizational psychologist actually do? I am not going to bore my readers (hopefully plural) with a long essay about my profession, but rather mention very briefly some of the things I do and that interest me. I am currently working full time in the somewhat controversial sphere of Igaming, or online gambling as it is also known as. No, I can reassure you that by working I do not refer to being a professional poker player online (I am not really good at all), but rather operating as an organization development manager with one of the more successful European betting companies. It’s rather interesting and challenging working with a business that is so dependent on knowledge and exists solely on the internet, especially from a strategic Human Resources point of view.
I also lecture at a university, trying to fit in as much as possible, but that isn’t easy with an already full schedule. The topics I lecture are mostly psychology related areas such as social psychology, organizational psychology, Organization Development and Change, Human Resources, Statistics, Research Methods to mention a few. I am rather fortunate with my students thus far, all being enthusiastic and engaging. I suppose that’s why I enjoy lecturing as it is a rewarding experience, as you certainly don’t lecture for the money.
From time to time I participate in research projects of both academic and applied nature, something I really appreciate. Unfortunately, somehow I am stuck with only 24 hours in a single day, and more often than not I simply do not have the opportunity to act on this interest of mine. Well, unless they are of applied nature and used in the sphere of business that is. This is certainly an area I need to work on, finding time and opportunity to do more research.
And then there is the book I am working on… for some time now. As amazing as it sounds, despite the advent of amazon.com and all its catalogues of research and statsbooks, there is still the need of a well written and easily accessible book that deals with both quantitative and qualitative research methods and analyses (e.g. statistics). There are many excellent books on the market, but very few that actually covers research methods of both quantitative and qualitative approaches, and the same when it comes to quantitative and qualitative analyses. And even fewer books that cover all these areas together. And even fewer that are written in a way that makes it understandable for normal persons introduced to these topics for the first time….. phew, what an undertaking I have started. Rest assured, though, that I have made some serious progress on this particular project, and could be sharing some of the writings here, in this blog. Always important to gather feedback.
So these are the things I do, well at least some of the more relevant ones. I suppose it follows that I am a very curious person, who likes to learn about and understand human behaviour in different contexts, especially the so called web 2.0 and how it affects the way we work and interact – psy 2.0 as I conveniently call it.
So, this was my attempt to briefly answer the first question “who are you”, and I get the feeling that I better stop here and rather make another entry where I answer the second question “what will you be blogging about”
