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Based on the concept of modifying a scientific theory, explain what specific strategy the research team is utilizing to adapt their framework to account for these new observations.
Case context: A research team hypothesizes that providing a financial reward will improve performance on a puzzle task, based on a broad theory of motivation. Their study, however, shows that participants given a financial reward actually perform worse than those given no reward. Instead of abandoning the motivation theory entirely, the team re-examines the study and realizes the puzzle task was highly complex, requiring deep cognitive focus, whereas the theory's original experiments only involved simple, routine tasks.
Question: Based on the concept of modifying a scientific theory, explain what specific strategy the research team is utilizing to adapt their framework to account for these new observations.
Sample answer: The research team modified their theory by addressing unmet assumptions, specifically the assumption that the task would be simple and routine, rather than complex.
Key points:
- Researchers often use contradictory evidence to modify a theory rather than discarding it.
- The researchers addressed unmet assumptions in their study.
- This adaptation allows the theoretical framework to successfully account for the new observations.
Rubric: A correct response must identify that the researchers modified the theory by addressing an unmet assumption, allowing the framework to successfully account for the new observations.
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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU
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Abandoning a Scientific Theory
Example of Modifying a Theory
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According to the provided text, what are the two specific methods scientists use to modify and adapt a theoretical framework when they are faced with a disconfirmed hypothesis?
Based on the concept of modifying a scientific theory, explain what specific strategy the research team is utilizing to adapt their framework to account for these new observations.
If a developmental psychologist discovers that a well-established theory of language acquisition does not apply to a newly studied demographic group, how might they adjust the theory's parameters without entirely discarding the framework?