This document discusses various methods used in psychology, including the scientific method, descriptive methods like observation and case studies, surveys, experiments, and correlations. It provides details on how each method works, such as the steps of the scientific method and experiments, and discusses advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches.

1. DR. SUSHMA RATHEE
ASSISTANT CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST
PGIMER, CHANDIGARH
EMAIL: sushmaratheecp@gmail.com
Methods
In
Psychology

2. SCIENTIFIC METHOD
 “a system for reducing bias and error in the
measurement of data”.
 The Five Steps of the Scientific Method
 1. Perceiving the Question
 2. Forming a Hypothesis
 3. Testing the Hypothesis
 4. Drawing Conclusions
 5. Report Your Results

3. DESCRIPTIVE METHODS

4. Observation
Naturalistic Observation Laboratory Observation
Participant
observation.
Non-participant
observation.
Participant
observation.
Non-participant
observation.

5. NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION
 Sometimes all a researcher needs to know is what
is happening to a group of animals or people. The
best way to look at the behavior of animals or
people is to watch them behave in their normal
environment.

6.  In many cases, animals or people who know they
are being watched will not behave normally—a
process called the observer effect.
 Observer bias. That happens when the person
doing the observing has a particular opinion about
what he or she expects to see.

7. LABORATORY OBSERVATION
 Sometimes observing behavior in animals or people is
just not practical in a natural setting.
 laboratory settings have the disadvantage of being an
artificial situation that might result in artificial
behavior—both animals and people often react
differently in the laboratory than they would in the real
world.
 The main advantage of this method is the degree of
control that it gives to the observer.

8. CASE STUDIES
 “One individual is studied in great detail.”
 In a case study, researchers try to learn everything they
can about that individual.
 Sigmund Freud based his entire theory of
psychoanalysis on case studies.
 The advantage of the case study is the tremendous
amount of detail it provides.
 The disadvantage of the case study is that researchers
can’t really apply the results to other similar people.

9. SURVEY
 In the survey method, researchers will ask a series of
questions about the topic they are studying. Surveys
can be conducted in person in the form of interviews or
on the telephone, the Internet, or with a questionnaire.
 That is the big advantage of surveys, aside from their
ability to get at private information. Researchers can get
a tremendous amount of data on a very large group of
people.
 Of course, there are disadvantages. For one,
researchers have to be very careful about the group of
people they survey.

10. THE EXPERIMENT
 The only method that will allow researchers to determine
the cause of a behavior is the experiment.
 In an experiment, researchers deliberately manipulate
(change in some purposeful way) the variable they think
is causing some behavior while holding all the other
variables that might interfere with the experiment’s
results constant and unchanging.

11. STEPS IN EXPERIMENT METHOD:
Selection: First, selection of the participant.
Variables: Second, decide on the variable the researchers
want to manipulate (Independent Variable) and the variable
they want to measure to see if there are any
changes.(Dependent Variable)
Groups: The group that is exposed to the independent
variable (Experimental group). The other group that gets
either no treatment or some kind of treatment that should have
no effect (Control group).
A variable is anything that can change or vary—scores on a test,
temperature in a room, gender, and so on.

12. EXPERIMENTAL HAZARDS:
 Confounding variables: Variables that interfere with
each other and their possible effects on some other
variable of interest.
 The improvement may have had more to do with
participants’ belief in the drug than the drug itself, a
phenomenon known as the placebo effect.
 Another way that expectations about the outcome of the
experiment can influence the results, even when the
participants are animals rather than people, is called the
experimenter effect.

13. CONTROL THESE EFFECTS
 Single-Blind: Even if the control group improves a little,
the drug group should improve significantly more if the
drug is working. Because the participants are “blind” to
the treatment they receive.
 Double-Blind Studies: neither the participants nor the
experimenter know who got what.

14. CORRELATIONS METHOD:
 “a measure of the relationship between two or more
variables.”
 The strength of the relationship between the
variables will be determined by the actual number
itself. That number will always range between +1.00
and −1.00.

15.  Positive Correlation Negative Correlation

16. 
 Zero/No Correlation