Research Methods
So whenever a psychologist has an idea that he or she wants to show the
world, there are a certain set of rules they must follow called the scientific
method. The Scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating and
acquiring new knowledge, as well as for correcting previous knowledge.
There are basically two types of research that can take place; applied and
basic. Applied research is when the scientist has clear and practical reasons and
applications for her study. If a psychologist was trying to come up with a new behavior therapy to stop
illegal drug use, it would be applied research.
Basic research explores questions that are really interesting to psychologists but have no
immediate, real-world application. Studying the differences between cultures and physical
beauty is an example of basic research.
Now before we go on to the various ways to conduct research it is important to know that all
research should be both valid and reliable. Research is valid when it measures what the
researcher sets out to measure; is it accurate. Research is reliable when it can be
replicated. This is an important idea. If I conduct a research study and discover that
psychology teachers are consistently the best looking teachers in high schools, would
everyone automatically believe me? I hope not. After I publish my results and how I
conducted the research, I hope that other scientists try to copy my experiment. If all the scientists
around the world replicate my study and come up with similar results, then the research is reliable and
we can start putting it in our text books. ALL TOO OFTEN we hear about some research (either a new
drug or fact about food etc...) and we take the information as fact. It usually has only been done
once!!!! You should not rely on any research until it has been replicated over and over again.
Now most research has an hypothesis. I know that in middle school you learned that a hypothesis was
"an educated guess", and that is not how we are going to use it. A hypothesis really is a way to express a
a prediction.
Descriptive Research
Descriptive research is any type of research that describes the "who, what, when, where" of a situation,
not what caused it. It describes a situation, but in the end, tells us nothing about how the universe
works.
A classic example of descriptive research is a case study. A case study is a
research method used to get a full, detailed picture of one subject or a small group
of subjects. For example, if I wanted to study anorexia and its link to drug use (not
that there is one) and I could chose to study Demi Lovato.
So I follow Demi around. I study her every move. I interview her. I talk to her
friends (maybe Miley, maybe not...). I research her childhood. I get a complete
picture of Demi Lovato. I learn all about her life. It would be a very interesting
story (a detailed version of those VH1 specials). This would be a case study.
BUT there are a few very big problems with the case study. FIRST, I may learn all about her anorexia
and drug use (the what, how, where and when) but her story would never truly tell me the reason
WHY. I would never be able to say with certainty that the link between anorexia and drugs is.......
The SECOND and maybe more significant weakness of a case study is that the results are not
generalizable to the rest of the population. What that means is that studying Demi would not give me
any idea why millions of people become anorexic and use drugs. Studying just ONE person is not going to
tell me anything about the many more out there. I must study a larger sample of people. Besides, is
Demi Lovato a typical anorexic? Studying Demi would tell me nothing about the average anorexic, drug
using girl.
Correlational Research
There are many types of correlational research. The commonality among all types of correlational
research is that they explore relationships between variables. Where descriptive research only
described what was going on, correlational research talks about the link between different things. It is
important to understand that correlational research does NOT tell us that variable A caused Variable B,
but rather that they are somehow related.
For example, if I told you that there was a correlation between domestic violence (violence between a
family members) and bowling you would look at me strangely. But there is a relationship between the
variables (variable 1- domestic violence, and variable 2- bowling). As more people bowl in the US, more
domestic violence occurs.
Does that mean that bowling causes domestic violence- like you had bad game and
take it out on a loved one. Or domestic violence causes bowling- like you
fight with a sibling and feel the need to take it out on some pins. As you
have already guessed- one does not cause the other to occur, but they
are related- for every time people bowl, I can predict that domestic
violence will go up, and every time domestic violence goes down I should
be able to find an empty lane at the local bowling alley. There is a
hidden variable that links both of them together. In this case it is winter time. In the
winter more people bowl and more people stay in their homes (which increases the chances of domestic
violence).
Direction of a Correlation
Before we examine the different types of correlational research methods,
understand that correlations can go in two directions; positive and
negative.
 Positive Correlation: when two variables go in the SAME
direction. For example, domestic violence and bowling. When bowling goes

up, so does domestic violence. When domestic violence decreases, so does bowling.
Negative Correlation: here the two variables go in DIFFERENT directions. For example,
consumption of garlic and dating (now I am making this one up). The less garlic you eat, the more
you date. The more garlic you eat, the less the date. One variable going in one direction can be
used to predict the other variable going in the opposite direction.
Correlational Coefficient
Scientists measure the strength of a correlation by using a number called a correlational coefficient
(r). Now you do not have to know how they get the number, but you should know what it means when you
see it. The number range from -1 to +1. If two variables (like studying and grades) have a correlation
above zero (like r=+.76) then you have a positive correlation and the more you study, the better grades
you have. The number is below zero (like r= -.42) then you have a negative correlation and when one
variable goes up the other goes down (like garlic and dating). If two variables have a correlation of zero
then they have NO relationship with each other.
Other than knowing the direction of the variables, you also need to understand the strength of the
variables relative to each other. In other words, how strongly does one variable impact the other. The
closer the numbers go to either +1 or -1, the stronger the correlation, in other words, the closer the
number is to zero, the weaker the relationship. The strength has nothing to do with whether the
number is positive of negative. A correlation of r=-.88 is stronger than one that is r= +.56. Remember
the positive or negative sign just tells you whether the variables are moving in the same direction (+) or
in opposite directions (-). See the images below to give you a visual of this idea.
Types of Correlational Studies
There are many different ways to show a correlation between two variables. Let's discuss some of the
more popular ways; the survey method and naturalistic observation.
The Survey Method
Perhaps the most common type of research around is survey research. Every time you receive an email
asking you to take a minute and answer a few questions, or get a receipt begging for ten minutes of your
time to answer questions about customer service etc., you are experiencing the survey method of
research. All surveys have one thing in common, they ask questions.
Now there are good and bad things about surveys in research. The good- no matter how you do it,
internet, mail, phone, in person- they are fairly cheap. You can cover large populations of people easily if
you use the phone or internet. The bad aspects of surveys is that 1. the response rate is REALLY low
(for every 100 mailing you send out, you will be lucky to get one back). Second, people can lie on the
survey so you can always question the validity of your data.
Let's break down the survey method as a tool of correlational study. Pretend our hypothesis was the
more garlic people eat, the less they date. First, we have to come up with some survey questions
(pretend they ask about the amount of garlic one has eaten in the past six months and how much they
have dated in the past six months). Hopefully, when people answer the survey, we will see that people
who have stated that they have eaten a lot of garlic have also answered that they have dated less (a
negative correlation).
Naturalistic Observation
Another correlational research method is called naturalistic observation (although you can also use it as
a descriptive research tool as well). Naturalistic observation is when a researcher attempts to observe
their subjects in their natural habitats without interacting with them at all. Pretend I had a hypothesis;
marijuana increases hunger. If I wanted to use naturalistic observation I would find a bunch of pot
users and watch them. I would follow them around to parties, watch them smoke, and then see if they
eat. I would never interact with them- but just watch. If I see that every time a pot user smokes they
eat, I could claim that smoking and eating are related, but I would NEVER know if the smoking caused
the eating (it could be one of a million other things). Once again, at most these types of studies show
correlation. Remember, the pinnacle of all science is to prove causation.
Random Sample/Random Assignment
But who are we going to give the survey to? As with ALL types of studies (except some case studies) we
must choose a sample of people to take the survey (a sample is just a group of subjects). We have to
first identify a population of people from which we are going to get the sample. The population includes
anyone who can possibly be chosen to be part of the sample. If we are studying anorexic women and
their dating habits we would choose a sample from a population of anorexic women (asking a chubby dude
would not make sense for an anorexic study so they would NOT be a part of the population). In the case
of garlic and dating, I am going to limit my population to single men and women between the ages of 1825 from the Kenosha area (if I do not limit my population, then I would have to start contacting people
from all around the world).
Now, how do I pick people to be a part of my sample. Do I call all my single buddies in the Kenosha area
and give them the survey? That would not be a very fair way of doing it. To make the survey valid I
MUST randomly select a sample from the population. Random selection means that every person in my
population has an equal chance of being selected for the survey. If I can do this, then my sample has a
greatly likelihood of actually representing the larger population I am studying. How do I randomly
sample my population- I can randomly pick names out of a phonebook (but in a way that is unfair to single
people in Kenosha who do not have phones)- in other words, finding a truly random sample is not easy.