PSY1020: Foundation Psychology B
Research methods in Psychology
Characteristics of scientific psychological research
Research Methods:
Quantitative – statistical analysis of experiment//survey data to test the hypothesis
Qualitative – in-depth analysis of an interview, observational or case study to provide a deep
understanding of the research topic.
Mixed-methods – a combination of both quantitative and qualitative
Theory – systematic way of organising and explaining observations (provide the framework for a
hypothesis)
Hypothesis – proposed relations between variables & usually framed as a cause &effect relationship.
Variables – any phenomenon that can take on more than one value (free to vary along some
dimensions)
Continuous: varies continuously, the continuum of possible values & varies across this range.
(eg. Body weight, reaction time in secs ranging from ….)
Categorical: takes on fixed values (eg. Gender)
Generalisability:
Population – an entire group of people that a researcher is interested in (eg. All people who’ve been
diagnosed with anorexia)
Samples – smaller subsets of the population and estimates of the population, then make inferences
back to the entire population.
- To be valid the sampling must be representative (similar enough to other members of
the population so that conclusions drawn from the sample are likely to be true of the
population)
A study must meet two criteria:
Research methods in Psychology
Characteristics of scientific psychological research
Research Methods:
Quantitative – statistical analysis of experiment//survey data to test the hypothesis
Qualitative – in-depth analysis of an interview, observational or case study to provide a deep
understanding of the research topic.
Mixed-methods – a combination of both quantitative and qualitative
Theory – systematic way of organising and explaining observations (provide the framework for a
hypothesis)
Hypothesis – proposed relations between variables & usually framed as a cause &effect relationship.
Variables – any phenomenon that can take on more than one value (free to vary along some
dimensions)
Continuous: varies continuously, the continuum of possible values & varies across this range.
(eg. Body weight, reaction time in secs ranging from ….)
Categorical: takes on fixed values (eg. Gender)
Generalisability:
Population – an entire group of people that a researcher is interested in (eg. All people who’ve been
diagnosed with anorexia)
Samples – smaller subsets of the population and estimates of the population, then make inferences
back to the entire population.
- To be valid the sampling must be representative (similar enough to other members of
the population so that conclusions drawn from the sample are likely to be true of the
population)
A study must meet two criteria:
