Research Methods

In psychology, as in other disciplines, there are procedures for determining what we know about a phenomenon, how something works, or what effect one thing has on another.  We refer to these collectively as research.  Research is not looking up what others have said and reproducing their conclusions.  Instead, it is a contribution to the knowledge base through the use of generally accepted procedures and protocols.

In psychological research we don't set out to "prove" a thing.  

No research is truly objective.  We all have biases that come to play in the execution of research, be it as an investigator, assistant, or participant.  The Hawthorne Effect and placebo effect  are instructive in this regard.  Thus, in the execution of research we engage in procedures designed to minimize outside influence.  This includes our own influence as researchers.

Terms you will need to understand:

Operational Definition - An operational definition ensures that understandings of terms are consistent among those engaged in a study.  It also allows for other researchers to be able to build on data from a study or attempt to replicate its results.

For example...

If we were to engage in a study that sought to determine of there was a relationship between a child's intelligence quotient (IQ) and childhood illness, we would want to define both IQ and what we were considering to be a childhood illness.  An operational definition for IQ might be IQ as measured by the WISC-V (The WISC is a commonly used intelligence scale for children - V refers to the fifth edition).

(VERY) Basic statistics

For our purposes you will need to know five things:  three measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode) and two measures of spread (range, standard deviation).

reliability and validity

correlational research

In correlational research we examine the extent to which two variables have a relationship with one another.  

case study research

experimental design

Experimental design is the research method we use to establish a causal link between two variables.  If we want to say that X causes Y, an experiment is the method we would use.

naturalistic observation

In order to evaluate the results of research, we must determine if the data is both vaild and reliable.  That is, did the study measure what it claims to have measured (validity) and could we expect the same results in multiple trials (reliability).

Case study research is an in-depth examination of one particular case.  This research is a common way of coming to understand a phenomenon in further depth, but lacks generalizibility for the most part.

Naturalistic observation is the observation of a phenomenon without interaction by the researcher.  As is suggested by this film trailer, there is a question as to whether a researcher can truly ever be separated from the phenomenon under study.