CONCEPTIONS OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL-RESEARCH PROCESS - SCRIPT VARIATION AS A FUNCTION OF TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE

Individuals' mental representations of the psychological research proc ess were investigated. One-hundred eight subjects, representing four d ifferent levels of prior training in psychology (undergraduate student s to full professors), individually generated a list of events involve d in the psychological research process. Content analyses of the lists revealed high levels of consensus for specific events that are centra l to the research process (e.g., design experiment, collect data). Des criptive analyses of group differences identified developmental trends in both the number and types of events that were generated. The data support the notion that individuals in all four groups possessed scrip ts of the psychological research process. An expert script of the rese arch process is also presented. Findings are discussed in terms of the ir implications toward a psychology of science.