Behavioral Research

Behavioral Research

Behavioral research is conducted by scientists in such fi elds as behavioral medicine, communication, criminology, human development, education, psychology, and sociology. The goal of behavioral research is to discover, among other things, how people perceive their world, how they think and feel, how they change over time, how they learn and make decisions, and how they interact with others. Behavioral scientists study behavior both because they want to understand it and also because they want to contribute to creating solutions to the everyday problems that face human beings. Of course, behavioral scientists aren’t the only people who are concerned with human behavior or the only ones who propose solutions to social problems. Philosophers, religious leaders, and politicians, for instance, also attempt to provide explanations for social behavior. But, what sets behavioral scientists apart from many other people who are concerned with human behavior is their belief that, just as dramatic technological advances have occurred through scientifi c research, personal and social behavior can be understood, and potentially improved, through the application of scientifi c research methods. In contrast to many statements made by philosophers, politicians, and religious leaders, which are based only on their own personal beliefs, faith, or intuition, the statements made by social scientists are empirical, which means that they are based on systematic collection and analysis of data, where data are information collected through formal observation or measurement.1 Behavioral scientists draw their conclusions about human behavior from systematic collection and analysis of data. Behavioral scientists believe that research is the best tool for understanding human beings and their relationships with others. For instance, rather than accepting the claim of a religious leader that the adoption of traditional religious beliefs will change behavior, a behavioral scientist would collect data to empirically test whether highly religious people are more helpful and less aggressive toward others than are less religious people. Rather than accepting a politician’s contention that creating (or abandoning) a welfare program will improve the condition of poor people, a behavioral scientist would attempt to empirically assess the effects of receiving welfare on the quality of life of welfare recipients. And, rather than relying on a school principal’s beliefs about which teaching methods are most effective, behavioral scientists would systematically test and compare the effectiveness of different methods. In short, behavioral scientists believe in the value of scientifi c research to answer questions about human behavior. The claim that human behavior is best known through the use of a scientifi c approach is not something that everyone believes or that is without controversy. Indeed, although I hope that you will become convinced of the utility of behavioral research for understanding people, I also hope that you will think critically about its value as you study this book. I hope that you will continually ask yourself what behavioral research methods offer in the way of understanding and improving our lives that other approaches do not. And, most important, I hope that you will learn how to evaluate behavioral research. Finally, although behavioral research is conducted in large part to provide information about important social problems and to further scientifi c understanding about the principles of human behavior, I also hope that you will fi nd it interesting in its own right—you might even discover that conducting research is fun! If you have ever wondered about how we learn and why we forget, what dreams are for and whether they infl uence us when we are awake, whether we can tell if others are lying to us, or even whether some people have extrasensory perception (ESP), you will find that behavioral research is the best way to provide answers to these interesting questions. Studying behavioral research and conducting it yourself is exciting, because it allows you to discover and understand new things. In sum, I hope you will enjoy this book, both because you like behavioral research, and also because you realize that it has a signifi cant impact on human behavior, scientifi c decisions, and public policy.