Video:Applied Research and Basic Research

Transcript:Applied Research and Basic Research

My name is Robert Reiner from Behavioral Associates in New York and I am going to talk now about applied vs. basic research in psychology.

Difference Between Applied and Basic Research

When you're thinking basic research you're thinking more theoretical stuff. For example, we did some research here on the use of bio-feedback in a setting. On a treatment type to treat fear of flying called virtual reality. And it was our belief that using bio-feedback would enhance, or make the treatment more powerful in and attempt to manage or even cure fear of flying symptoms as quickly as possible.

So thinking basic research, we're doing more theoretical stuff. Applied reseach, we're doing more practical stuff.

Using Research in Psychology Experiments

So if I designed an experiment as I just described, actually using people at our facility to see if bio-feedback would help cure symptoms of fear of flying with our patients here, that would be applied research.

How Basic Research is Used

An example of basic research would be, say, is it possible for a human being to control the autonomic nervous system. That's the basis of all bio-feedback.

Back stepping a little bit: two older theories in psychology were that mammals, including human beings had two nervous systems. It was called an autonomic system and a central system. In those days it was the voluntary and the involuntary nervous systems.

The involuntaty nervous system was consideed out of our control: in other words, the theory then was that people could not possibly control heart rate, blood pressure, things like that.

When research started being done, that showed that wasn't true, that is basic research. Basically, it's a paradigm or a major shift in thinking. So once that basic research was put together, we were then able to utilize some practical solutions or design practical experiments which became applied research.

So, the idea that bio-feedback could even work in the first place as a theory came out of a basic research setting.

This has been Dr. Robert Reiner from Behavioral Associates in NewYork. If you need more information about differences of applied and basic resarch got to About.com.