Section 2: Research Methods
Table of Contents
This section covers the following topics
Requirements for a good experiment/study
The types of research
Statistical methods for combining research
Section Summary
Research forms the foundation of psychology; much of what we know about psychology today is because of research. There are specific requirements for research. A study or experiment must be both reliable and valid, and the procedure should be ethical according to the American Psychology Association’s standards. Within psychology, there are multiple types of research: case studies, naturalistic observation, experiments, surveys, and more. Once research is completed, descriptive and inferential statistics help researchers to make sense of all of the data.
Introduction
The Importance of Research
Psychology is based on research in its different forms and methods, and the way that a psychologist conducts research is important because it determines how trustworthy the conclusions of the research are.
There are two categories of research.
Applied research: Research that is done for a clear, practical purpose. For example, a study to determine whether breast-feeding is beneficial to children’s later intelligence is an example of applied research because it has an immediate practical use.
Basic research: This builds psychology’s general knowledge base but has no immediate applications. For example, a study determining whether identical twins’ personalities are nature- or nurture-oriented is an example of basic research.
Terminology
A theory (in psychology) is an idea that explains some aspect of human behavior and psychology. Theories give psychologists material for new, testable hypotheses. A theory may be supported or disproved through many research studies based on that theory.
A hypothesis is an idea that explains the relationship between two specific variables. A variable is an element that can vary, or... Sign up to continue reading Section 2: Research Methods >
