Psychological Research

Research methodology includes experimental techniques designed to investigate cause-and-effect relationship and nonexperimental techniques that provide descriptions of behavior.

An experiment begins with a hypothesis or possible explanation for behavior. Independent variables are the factors the experimenters manipulates and dependent variables are measurable behaviors of the participants. Experimental control includes assigning participants to groups and holding extraneous variables constant.

Nonexperimental research techniques are used to obtain descriptions of behavior. Naturalistic observation is used to study behavior in its natural habitat. Surveys use interviews or questionnaires to obtain information on a sample participants. Individual case studies are in-depth studies of a participant.

Experiments enable us to determinate causes for behaviors, whereas correlational relationships only enable us to predict behaviors.

Psychologyst are use statistics to judge whether research findings are significant or due to chance.