Book Link 12 Approaches to Research
<back next> — index
By the end of this section, you will be able to:
- Describe the different research methods used by psychologists
- Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of case studies, observation, surveys, and archival research
- Compare longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches to research
Psychologists have different ways to study behavior and thoughts. They can watch people, talk to them, or do experiments. Each way has good and not-so-good parts. For example, watching people can give great info, but it might not apply to everyone.
Doing surveys can get info from lots of people, but the info might not be super detailed. Some psychologists also look at old records to learn things. All these ways can help find connections between things, but they can’t prove that one thing causes another. To do that, they need to do experiments, but that can be tricky because it’s not always ethical or real-world.
Quantitative Research
There are four main ways that psychologists do quantitative research using numbers.
Survey: The first is survey research, where they ask a lot of people questions to learn about their thoughts and actions.
Experimental: The second is experimental research, where they change things to see how it affects behavior.
Correlational: The third is correlational research, where they look at how different things are connected.
Archival: The fourth is archival research, where they study old records to learn about the past.
These methods help psychologists gather information, find connections between things, and make conclusions about how people think and act. Each method has good things about it and things that are not so good, and psychologists pick the one that works best for their study.
Qualitative
There are five ways that psychologists do qualitative research.
Ethnography: Ethnography is when researchers study and describe a culture or social group by taking part in their activities and watching how they interact.
Narrative Analysis: Narrative analysis is about understanding and interpreting people’s stories and personal accounts to find deeper meanings and themes.
Grounded Theory: Grounded theory is a way of developing new theories by collecting and analyzing data to understand social phenomena.
Phenomenology: Phenomenology is all about exploring and understanding how individuals experience and see things to discover the essence and meaning of those experiences.
Case Study: Case study research involves a detailed and thorough analysis of a specific person, group, or situation to learn about their unique qualities and characteristics.
Strengths and Weaknesses
– Quantitative research: large data, statistical analysis, objectivity
– Limitations: oversimplification, standardized measures, ethical considerations
– Qualitative research: deep exploration, nuanced insights, subjective analysis
– Limitations: less generalizability, subjective interpretation, time/resource intensive
Quantitative research has advantages like collecting lots of data and using statistics to find patterns. It can help make predictions and draw conclusions. But it may oversimplify complex human experiences and emotions. It also relies on standardized measures and may raise ethical concerns.
Qualitative research allows for deep exploration of human experiences and emotions. It can uncover detailed insights using interviews and observations. However, its findings may not apply to larger groups, and the analysis can be subjective. Also, it requires a lot of time and resources.
Looking Deeper
Quantitative psychology research has several advantages. One of the main benefits is that it allows for collecting large amounts of data, which can be analyzed using statistical methods to identify patterns and relationships. This helps in drawing generalizable conclusions and making predictions. Additionally, quantitative research often provides a clear and objective framework for testing hypotheses and evaluating the effectiveness of interventions or treatments. It also allows for replication and verification of findings, enhancing the research’s credibility.
However, there are also limitations to quantitative research. One major drawback is that it may need to be more accurate in explaining complex human experiences and behaviors by reducing them to numerical data points. This approach may overlook critical contextual factors and nuances crucial to understanding psychological phenomena comprehensively.
Moreover, quantitative research may rely on standardized measures that do not capture the full range of human experiences and emotions, limiting the depth of insights obtained from the data. Finally, ethical considerations in quantitative research, such as informed consent and privacy issues, must be carefully managed to ensure the well-being of research participants.
On the other hand, qualitative psychology research offers distinct advantages. It allows researchers to deeply explore and understand the richness and complexity of human experiences. Qualitative research can uncover nuanced insights and perspectives that quantitative methods might miss using interviews, observations, and open-ended surveys. This approach is precious when studying subjective experiences, cultural differences, and social contexts that cannot be easily quantified.
However, qualitative research also has its challenges. One limitation is that the findings may be more difficult to generalize to larger populations, as qualitative studies often focus on specific contexts or individuals. Additionally, qualitative data analysis can be more subjective and open to interpretation, which may raise concerns about the reliability and validity of the findings. Furthermore, the time and resources required for qualitative research, including transcription and analysis, can be substantial, which may limit the scale of the study.
Key Words
1. Psychologists: Professionals who study behavior and mental processes.
2. Research methods: Various techniques used to gather data and information for scientific study.
3. Case studies: In-depth analysis of a person, group, or situation, often used in psychological research.
4. Surveys: Data collection method involving asking questions to gather information from a large number of people.
5. Archival research: Studying historical records and documents to understand past events and behaviors.
6. Longitudinal research: Studying the same group of individuals over an extended period to observe changes and development.
7. Cross-sectional research: Studying different groups of individuals at the same time to compare differences across age groups.
8. Quantitative research: Research methods focused on gathering and analyzing numerical data for statistical analysis.
9. Qualitative research: Research methods focused on gathering non-numerical data to understand human experiences and behaviors.
10. Ethnography: Research method involving the study and description of a culture or social group by participating in their activities and observing interactions.