Psychology Research Methods

inquisitive, analytical

Almost automatice, quick, reflexive

slow, reflexive, effortful

A disproportionate weight in favor of or against something

a well-developed set of ideas that propose an
explanation for observed phenomena.
supported by a range of scientific data

a testable predication about how the
world will behave

moniters research on people to make sure experiements are conducted ethically

focused on describing the world around us

Studying one person or a small number of people for an
extended period of time

Watching behavior in real-world settings

asking people about their own experiences-

Self-report measures or questionnaires assess
characteristics such as personality or mental illness.
◦ Surveys ask about a person’s opinions or abilities.

Pros
◦ Easy to administer
◦ Direct (self) assessment of person’s state
◦ Can inquire about topics that are not easily observable

Cons
◦ Accuracy is skewed for certain groups (narcissists)
◦ Potential for dishonesty
◦ Response sets—tendencies of research subjects to
distort their responses
◦ Positive impression management
◦ Malingering
◦ Lack of insight by participants (limits of introspection)
◦ Who to ask? (e.g., parents, children)

People can also be asked to rate others on different
characteristics. (e.g., performance review, asking parents
about their children)
This can do away with some biases in self-report, but still
has problems.
Halo effect—tendency of ratings of one positive
characteristic to spill over to influence the ratings of
other characteristics

case study, observation, surveys

perception of a statistical association where none
exists

investigates relationships between two variables (or more) without the researcher controlling or manipulating any of them

average of all scores

middle score in the data set

frequent score in the data set

difference between the highest and lowest
scores

where both the experimenter AND the
participants are unaware of the experimental group status.

cues that participants pick up
allowing them to guess at the researcher’s hypotheses

Disguising the purpose of the study or using “filler” items
can help to decrease these.

—when researchers’
hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias a study
outcome

can be fixed by a double blind procedure