RESEARCH METHODS
Psychology
Chapter 2
NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION
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Description
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Advantages
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Psychologist observes the subject in a
natural setting without interfering.
See how people or animals behave in their natural setting
while not being watched.
Disadvantages
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If they know someone is observing, they might put on a
performance.
CASE STUDY
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Description
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Advantages
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Intensive study of a person or a group
Provides a wealth of descriptive materials that may
generate a new hypothesis.
Disadvantages
Does not prove or disprove anything.
 Results cannot be generalized.
 Researcher’s conclusions may not be right.
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SURVEY
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Description
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Information is obtained by asking individuals
a fixed set of questions.
Advantages
Can observe participant and modify questions.
 Takes less time to administer.
 Reduces possibility that researcher will influence
participant.
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Disadvantages
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Danger that participants will give misleading answers in
order to help themselves gain approval.
LONGITUDINAL STUDY
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Description
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Advantages
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Data is collected on a group over a number
of years to assess if characteristics
Ideal way to examine consistencies and inconsistencies in
behavior over time.
Disadvantages
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Time-consuming and precarious
(participants may disappear in
mid-study).
CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY
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Description
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Advantages
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Data is collected from groups of different ages and
conclusions drawn about differences due to age.
Less expensive than longitudinal and
reduces the amount of time necessary
for the study.
Disadvantages
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May lead to false interpretations due to other factors (such
as different ages grew up in different eras.
CORRELATION
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Description
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Measure of a relationship between two variables or sets of
data. Does not mean that one thing causes another.
Advantages
Helps us predict.
 Helps prevent illusory correlations.
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Disadvantages
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Cannot control for all possible factors.
EXPERIMENT
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Description
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Advantages
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Form a hypothesis, determine variables, test, compare,
and interpret.
Enables the researcher to control the situation and to
decrease the possibility that unnoticed, outside variables
will influence the results.
Disadvantages
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There are ethical issues involved.
SINGLE-BLIND EXPERIMENT
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Experiment or clinical trial in which the
researchers but not the subjects know which
subjects are receiving the active medication or
treatment and which are not: a technique for
eliminating subjective bias, as the placebo effect,
from the test results.
Example: Milgram Experiment
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Stanley Milgram conducted a controversial
experiment to determine the influence of authority.
MILGRAM EXPERIMENT
 Milgram’s
experiment is considered
a single-blind study because
participants were unaware of the
fact that they were not actually
administering shocks.
DOUBLE -BLIND EXPERIMENT
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A double blind experiment is an experimental
method used to ensure impartiality, and avoid
errors arising from bias.
Neither the participants nor the researchers
know which participants belong to the control
group, nor the test group.
WHAT TO AVOID IN AN EXPERIMENT
You want to avoid several things with experimentation.
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Unethical actions/experiments
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Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
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1992: American Psychological Association published a set
of ethical principals regarding collection, storage and use of
data. It was amended once more in 2010.
A situation in which the researcher’s expectations
influence their behavior and the participants behavior.
Placebo effects
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A change in a participants physical state as a result from a
belief that the treatment will have an effect rather than
from actual treatment.
CLEVER HANS – SELF FULFILLING PROPHECY
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Clever Hans was a horse known around the world for
his inexplicable abilities. William von Osten put his
amazing horse on display in 1891, and together he
and Hans treated crowds to sights never before seen.
Not only could Hans count — something no other
animals were said to do — but he could also tell time,
read and spell (in German, of course).
Since the horse couldn't speak (that would have been
a remarkable feat indeed), he communicated mainly
by stamping one foot on the ground. If Hans was
asked what five and two added up to, he would tap
seven times; if he was asked what day came after
Monday, he would be told to tap once for Tuesday,
twice for Wednesday, and so on.
CLEVER HANS – SELF FULFILLING PROPHECY
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Clever Hans was examined by a group of
researchers led by a philosophy professor named
Carl Stumpf.
In 1904 the group issued a statement saying that
they could find no evidence of trickery. However,
professor Stumpf and one of his students, Oskar
Pfungst, would finally solve the mystery. They
noticed that Hans could rarely answer questions
that von Osten did not know the answer to,
suggesting that there must be some link between
the two.
CLEVER HANS – SELF FULFILLING PROPHECY
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Through careful testing and observation, they realized that
Hans was responding to unconscious cues from his trainer.
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Ex: when Hans was asked to add two and three, von Osten or
another questioner (standing right in front of Hans watching
him closely) would lean forward slightly after Hans had
tapped the fifth time but before he could tap a sixth.
Von Osten had been watching Hans, but Hans had been
watching von Osten just as closely. Each time the horse
would reach the correct number of taps to provide humanlike knowledge about the day of the week, what a word
meant or a mathematical answer, his trainer would make
subtle movements (sometimes merely a change in facial
expression or a shift of stance) that would cue Hans to stop.
The horse was of course rewarded for correct answers,
which reinforced this behavior. Clever Hans was indeed
clever — but much less so than von Osten and the public
believed.