Scientific Research and Causal Relationships in Psychology

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Question 1
The statement where we say that "explain the causal relationships in nature and test
the effectiveness of the treatment," certainly gives us a lead towards a scientific way of
learning. Under the capacity of a psychological researcher, any individual would like to
explore the efficacy of treatment with the help of a "learning based on the example" model.
However, this model is only capable of giving us an incomplete knowledge (Reiss, 2014). The
addition of a scientific approach in the research can be obtained with the help of the model
that follows the procedures of “man and machine acquiring the knowledge and refining the
knowledge.”
The causal relationship between two events can give us a surface knowledge. Just like
any other science, psychology also demands the same path that other streams follow. The
standardized path for gaining knowledge with the help of scientific research goes asunder.
In the first step, we establish a causal relationship between the events; in the second
step, we try to establish a hypothesis based upon that. Let's assume that under the clinical
conditions when we administer Modafinil (an alertness promoter) to cure the jet-lag
syndrome. A causal relationship gives us the idea that it works. We further develop a
hypothesis where we say that Modafinil can be used in other conditions like dementia,
performance anxiety and others. This hypothesis may go wrong or sometimes a result can be
falsified because it is dependent upon a causal relationship (Sargeant, 2014).
Now let’s try the same research under a scientific method where we apply the
knowledge acquisition model of man, machine and scientific methods. Under this model, we
will administer Modafinil to a jet-lagged individual and apply a pre-test and post-test model
of research. In this case, we will go for a body scan to check its impact over the cognitive
function and other functions (Altman, 2014). Let’s assume that our finding says that
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Modafinil works well on a person suffering from a jet-lagged person. When we will apply the
same procedure over a person suffering from dementia then, we can match the results of the
body scan and figure out the factors behind the success or the failure of Modafinil.
While studying the causal relationship between the events we only check the impact
of the events it can move on both sides. On the other hand, while acquiring the empirical
results of the same research with a scientific method we always get an opportunity to explain
our findings and apply them as a base in the other researches as well (Fraser, 2010).
Just like every other stream of science, Psychology is always seeking for evidence-based
practices and this is where scientific research based on empirical findings score over the
methods causal relationship are applied (Chandler, 2016).
Question 2
Broadly we can define two types of intervention studies. The first type of studies is
based on the retrospective models where a researcher tries to take the support of some past
researches and findings to draw new conclusions after launching a fresh series of the tests.
The second type of studies is prospective studies (Klick, 2012). Under this kind of a research
pattern, a researcher can work under a loop and check the main hypothesize for the best
results. The prospective model is the best model because, by the time a researcher reaches
near the conclusion, he finds that he has already removed most of the biases. In the case of
retrospective research programs, sometimes the biases become a barrier in the path of the
researcher (Anderson, 2015).
We can understand it with the help of a research design to check the half-life of a
vaccine designed to prevent the attack of the Flu. Many medicine brands have already done
researches of this nature where they tried to figure out the half-life. A retrospective based
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