Research Methods

Psychologists use many different methods for conducting research. Each method has

advantages and disadvantages that make it suitable for certain situations and

unsuitable for others.

Quantitative and Qualitative • Qualitative research gathers information that is

not in numerical form.  For example, diary accounts, open-ended questionnaires, unstructured interviews and unstructured observations. Qualitative data is typically descriptive data and as such is harder to analyze than quantitative data.

• Quantitative research gathers data in numerical form which can be put into categories, or in rank order, or measured in units of measurement.  This type of data can be used to construct graphs and tables of raw data.

Experimental Psychology

• Experimental psychology is an area of psychology that utilizes scientific methods to research the mind and behavior.

• It can also be known as a situation where the independent variable is deliberately manipulated by the experimenters.

There are 3 different types of experimental methods:-• Laboratory Experiments: An experiment that

occurs in a carefully controlled environment, usually a laboratory.

• Field Experiments: An experiment that takes place in the real world as opposed to a laboratory. The IV is still manipulated by the experimenters.

• Natural Experiments: An experiment that takes place in the real world and where the IV occurs naturally. There is no manipulation of the IV.

Investigations using the correlational analysis

• A method of data analysis which allows the strength of the relationship between two (or more) co-variables to be measured.

• Correlation means association - more precisely it is a measure of the extent to which two variables are related. If an increase in one variable tends to be associated with an increase in the other then this is known as a positive correlation. If an increase in one variable tends to be associated with a decrease in the other then this is known as a negative correlation. A zero correlation occurs when there is no relationship between variables.

Naturalistic Observations

• A study where the observer objectively records the behavior of a participants in their natural environment.

• Natural: Here spontaneous behavior is recorded in a natural setting.

• Controlled: behavior is observed under controlled laboratory conditions.

• Participant: Here the observer has direct contact with the group of people they are observing.

• Non-participant: The researcher does not have direct contact with the people being observed.

Questionnaires• Written methods of data collection. They can

involve open or closed questions. Surveys tend to involve a large sample of participants.

• Questionnaires can be thought of as a kind of written interview. They can be carried out face to face, by telephone or post.

• The questions asked can be open ended, allowing flexibility in the respondent's answers, or they can be more tightly structured requiring short answers or a choice of answers from given alternatives.

• The choice of questions is important because of the need to avoid bias or ambiguity in the questions, ‘leading’ the respondent, or causing offence.

Interviews• A verbal method of data collection that involves the

researcher asking questions in a face-to-face way. They can vary from very structured (formal) to unstructured(informal).

• Unstructured (informal) interviews are like a casual conversation. There are no set questions and the participant is given the opportunity to raise whatever topics he/she feels are relevant and ask them in their own way. In this kind of interview much qualitative data is likely to be collected. 

• Structured (formal) interviews are like a job interview. There is a fixed, predetermined set of questions that are put to every participant in the same order and in the same way. The interviewer stays within their role and maintains social distance from the interviewee.

Advantages and DisadvantagesResearch method Advantages Disadvantages

Survey

Yields a lot of information

Provides a good way to generate hypotheses.

Can provide info about many people since it’s cheap and easy to do

Provides information about behavior that can’t be observed directly

Relies on self-report data, which can be misleading

Doesn’t allow conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships

Experiment

Identifies cause-and-effect relationships

Distinguishes between placebo effects and real effects of a treatment or drug

Can be artificial, so results may not generalize to real-world situations

Advantages and DisadvantagesResearch method Advantages Disadvantages

Naturalistic observation

Can be useful for generating hypotheses

Provides information about behavior in the natural environment

Sometimes yields biased results

May be difficult to do unobtrusively

Doesn’t allow conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships

Laboratory observation

Enables use of sophisticated equipment for measuring and recording behavior

Can be useful for generating hypotheses

Sometimes yields biased results

Carries the risk that observed behavior is different from natural behavior

Doesn’t allow conclusions about cause-and-effect relationships