An Essay On Scientific Principles And Research Methods In Two Yoga Studies.

Falsifiability

The purpose of the assignment is to continue and extend your scientific thinking about psychological issues. We will ask you to read another research scenario and:

Think about how the principles of scientific thinking apply to it, and critique the research methods used in the research description. For the first part of the written assignment, you should analyze the claims being made according to 2 of the 6 principles of scientific thinking . You should use the feedback provided for your Written Assignment  to help write this section. It is up to you to select the most relevant principles but in every case, if you think the scenario does a good job of following one of the principles, provide a detailed response as to why you think that. If you think the scenario does not do a good job of following one of the principles, provide a comprehensive answer and also say what would need to be done to make sure the scenario follows the principle. For the second part of the written assignment, analyze the research scenario and the claims it makes in relation to 2 different aspects of the research methods discussed in class or in Lilienfeld et al. (2016) in Chapter 2. In the lecture and textbook, a number of other issues related to research methods have been discussed. Below are some examples of things you might look for in the scenarios.

The Scientific Benefits of Yoga Yoga originated in Ancient India and yoga practitioners all over the world have been experiencing the benefits of regular yoga for the mind and body for centuries. Until recently modern Western science hadn’t paid much attention to the wisdom behind this ancient practice. However, in the last few years, scientists have finally begun to catch up! One of the most fundamental principles of yoga is that the quality of the breath reflects the quality of the mind. Yoga practices emphasize slow and steady breathing to help create a calm and focused mindset. In 2016, Swedish researchers demonstrated just this effect! They asked 10 Caucasian volunteers who regularly practiced yoga to wear devices that monitored their breathing throughout the day. Once they enrolled, the participants were committed to the study and push through challenges and pain. This is all part of the experience. In the study, they were also periodically asked to rate their current conscious experience on two scales, one from 1 (very calm) to 10 (very angry) and the other from 1 (very focused) to 10 (very distracted). The results showed that when the volunteers breathing rate was slow and steady, they were also very likely to indicate that their minds were calm and focused; on the other hand, when the volunteers’ breathing was fast and irregular, they were very likely to indicate they felt distracted or angry. The quality of the breath does indeed affect the quality of the mind! Neuroscience further illustrates the connection between yoga poses and calm and focused states. Studies using fMRI to examine the blood flow in the brain demonstrate that, during yoga poses, the brain produces alpha waves, which are brain waves associated with states of calm relaxation. Neuroscience has also helped to prove that certain yoga postures improve the communication between the brain and the body. Your brain is like a muscle that gets stronger when you use it. The area of your brain which helps you move your body the motor cortex is located in the frontal lobe of the brain, which is the same lobe involved in high-level thought. This makes our brains to be less co-dependent and we become more self-actualized and holistic through controlled movement! A 2018 study demonstrated the benefits of yoga for thinking. Two-hundred people responded to adverts for a study into the benefits of yoga for creative thought. They were then randomly assigned to two groups. One group engaged in yoga and meditation practices for 20 minutes, 3 times a week. The other group, who acted as controls, did not. After 4 weeks, all participants took a test of creativity called the Remote Associates Test (or RAT). In this test, participants are presented with three words (e.g. Gold, Stool and Tender) and must come up with the right word to link them all (e.g. Bar – Gold bar, Bar stool and Bartender). On this test of creativity, the yoga practicing group out performed the non-yoga group by a significant margin.

Marketing For each scientific principle and each aspect of the research methods that you choose to write about, give it a heading and write just a single paragraph about it. You should allocate to each of the 2 scientific principles you choose and another to each of the aspects of research methods.

Falsifiability

The principle of falsifiability states that, a theory or a preposition is presumed scientific if researchers can prove the likelihood of it being false (Lilienfeld et al., 2014). Therefore, the ability to disapprove specific claims makes them falsifiable. According to the case scenario, the Swedish researchers investigated to prove that Yoga calms and focuses the mind of an individual. Yoga practices make an individual to maintain a steady and a slow breathing rate which in-turn eases the mind (de Manincor, Bensoussan, Smith, Fahey, & Bourchier, 2015). However, there is no sufficient evidence to prove that the effects of Yoga distract the mindset of people. Therefore, the investigations by the Swedish researchers are not falsifiable. The 2018 study aimed to demonstrate that the practice of Yoga improves the thinking and creativity of individuals. The investigators compared the creativity of the experiment group (those practising Yoga) and the control (those not practising Yoga). The findings indicated that the individuals undergoing Yoga practices are more creative than those not practising Yoga. Like the 2016 study by the Swedish researchers, no data proves that the results are false. A show that some individuals who underwent Yoga did not experience improved creativity would have made the scientific claims falsifiable.

Pseudoscience refers to practices, beliefs, or statements that individuals perceive to be factual and scientific but do not follow scientific methods (Lee, & Hunsley, 2015). The scientific principle of overreliance on anecdotes requires investigators to prefer statements that have a data proof to those that lack proof (Bedi, 2016). Comments by single individuals can be biased and lack concrete evidence like data. In the case scenario, the Swedish researchers present data to prove that the practice of Yoga focuses the mindset of an individual. The ten volunteers stated that a calm mindset was due to steady and slow breathing whereas irregular and fast breathing begets anger and distraction. The data by the researchers prove that their study is scientific as it adhered to scientific methods. The research on the relationship between Yoga and creativity by the 2018 investigators is also scientific as it has sufficient data to prove the claims. The investigators recruited two-hundred volunteers for the creativity study. The researchers further divided the groups into n experiment and a control team. Those that practised Yoga indicated enhanced creativity and thinking in comparison to the control group. Therefore, the readers of the 2018 study can conclude that it is scientific due to the available data to prove the claims.

A biased or unrepresentative sample is one that the number of participants in a study does not indicate a logical representation of the total population (Gosling, & Mason, 2015). The sample size can be biased or small to represent the target population. In the 2016 research by the Swedish investigators on the benefits of Practicing Yoga, the researchers recruited ten participants. The sample size of ten individuals is small and does not depict a realistic representation of people. Therefore, the researchers should increase the sample size to enhance the credibility of their research. Unlike the 2016 investigation, the 2018 investigators recruited two-hundred individuals to investigate the correlation between Yoga and creativity. Two-hundred is an improvement of the ten individuals hired by the Swedish investigators. Therefore, the 2018 research is more credible than the 2016 study. The 2018 researchers recruited an adequate sample size thereby eliminating the fears of improper representation and biases. Small sample size makes a study to be biased while a significant number of participants lead to unbiased results. Researchers should strive to use sufficient sample sizes to improve the applicability and the credibility of their various experiments.

A practical experiment should have both the research and a control group. A control group is one that lacks the parameter that the experimenters are testing (Mertens, 2014). The control is a benchmark for measuring the findings of the experiment group. The control group helps investigators to monitor the impact of a given variable on the experiment group. In the case scenario, the Swedish researchers only recruited an experiment group consisting of ten people but did not draft a control group. The omission of the control group makes their experiment to lack the verifiability factor thereby rendering it inadequate. Unlike the 2016 study by the Swedish researchers, the 2018 investigation on the relationship between Yoga and creativity has a control group. The investigators recruited two-hundred individuals to prove the fact that practising Yoga improves the thinking and creativity of an individual. Out of the recruited individuals, half practised Yoga while the remaining half did not undergo the Yoga exercise. The experiment group indicated increased thinking and creativity after the exercise while the control showed limited creativity. The 2018 research is more credible than the 2016 study due to the inclusion of the control group for verifiability.  

References

Bedi, R. P. (2016). A detailed examination of Canadian counselling psychology doctoral programs. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 57(2), 83.

de Manincor, M., Bensoussan, A., Smith, C., Fahey, P., & Bourchier, S. (2015). Establishing critical components of yoga interventions for reducing depression and anxiety, and improving well-being: a Delphi method study. BMC complementary and alternative medicine, 15(1), 85.

Gosling, S. D., & Mason, W. (2015). Internet research in psychology. Annual review of psychology, 66.

Lee, C. M., & Hunsley, J. (2015). Evidence-based practice: separating science from pseudoscience. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 60(12), 534-540.

Lilienfeld, S. O., Lynn, S. J., Namy, L. L., Woolf, N. J., Cramer, K. M., & Schmaltz, R. (2014). Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding, Second Canadian Edition, DSM-5 Update Edition. Pearson Education Canada.

Mertens, D. M. (2014). Research and evaluation in education and psychology: Integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Sage publications.