Warm Welcome to this session!

Today, we will discuss the topic –

1.2 Methods of Psychology (with special emphasis on

experimentation)

Psychologists conduct research to gather data, verify facts and

understand more about various phenomena. Before going through the
methods, I will briefly explain the steps in scientific research, also
followed in Psychology. There are five steps that a researcher broadly
follows 1. Asking a question or experiencing a problem - you notice
something interesting happening in your surroundings for which you
would like to have an explanation. When stated in a well-defined
manner, it becomes a research question.

2. making an educated guess about the possible answers – also called

as forming a hypothesis- it involves making initial observations of
what is going on in your surroundings, and forming an educated guess
about the explanation for your observations, putting it into the form of
a statement that can be tested in some way.

3. testing the hypothesis by gathering data and information – using a

particular research method to gather data and analyse the information.

4. Interpreting data and drawing conclusions – using statistics or

qualitative methods to classify, analyze and understand data gathered

5. Fifth step is to report the results to the scientific community and

larger public in general. It is important to share our findings with
others because not only does this ensure transparency and honesty in
research, it also helps others to replicate your research, branch out to
find other topics of research and take knowledge of the field further.

It is the third step in scientific research, that of testing hypothesis that

I will now focus on. Psychologists use various methods to gather
information or data about their research question. They use different
methods as per their aims and goals to perform research. Some
methods are descriptive, where the main aim is to gather data or
record details of various events, processes etc. Others are correlational
methods and experimental methods.

Let’s go through some of these methods. Some of these methods are –

a. Observation – this is a descriptive method of studying

behaviour. Here, a purposeful, systematic, accurate and
error free record is made of selected parts of behaviour.

Observation can be done in naturalistic or laboratory settings.

Naturalistic Observation Laboratory

Observation
Naturalistic Observation allows the researcher to understand
behaviour of people in their normal, day-to-day surroundings. It is
important as we want to help people live a normal and functioning
life. So challenges in school, work place or other areas can be
resolved when the person’s behaviour in that particular setting is
observed.

Laboratory observation helps the researcher to observe certain types

of behaviour – behaviour that needs to be elicited or isolated to study
it more effectively. Certain types of behaviour may not always happen
often or need to be broken down in smaller acts to be studied or we
may need heavier equipment to study them that is available only in
the laboratory. Examples of laboratory observation – visual or
auditory sensation, attention, perception, problem solving and many
others. Laboratory observation also helps the researcher have greater
control over the situation and remove any unnecessary, unwanted
influences on the participants and their responses. However, the
researcher cannot be certain that the behaviour of the participant in
the laboratory situation is natural and that same behaviour will also
happen outside the laboratory.

Observation, whether in natural setting or in a laboratory, can be

participant or non-participant. This means that the researcher can be a
part of the group or observe from a distance, through a one-way
mirror.
 Participant Non- participant

The disadvantage of observation method is that it can be affected

because of observer effect and observer bias. Observer effect is the
tendency of people or animals to behave differently from usual when
they know that they are being observed. Observer bias is the tendency
of observers to see what they expect to see.

b. Case Study – in this descriptive method one individual or few

individuals are studied in great detail. A case study is an in-depth,
intensive investigation of an individual or a small group of
individuals. This person or group represents some unique
experiences or features that may help us to understand certain
issues better. The researcher studies the entire life of those under
study with the help of many interviews with the person, relatives,
friends, co-workers, teachers, doctors and any other connected,
relevant people. Examples of case study – Phineas Gage, Sigmund
Freud’s case studies in Psychoanalysis, Mentally Ill Patients,
Cancer Survivors etc.
 Image of Phineas Gage’s Skull with the rod

Let us take the case of Phineas Gage in detail, In 1848, after a

gunpowder explosion, Phineas Gage ended up with a steel rod in his
head. This is a rare event of a man surviving extensive brain damage.
It is of great interest to not only the medical profession but also to
Psychologists since there were reports of personality changes in Gage
in the immediate period after the accident. Also, how Gage adapted to
the challenges posed to him after in adjusting to reduced functioning
etc. were studied. This helps us to understand brain, its role in
behaviour and thinking and human adaptation to severe challenges.
Sometimes case studies lead to the building of theories, as in the case
of Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud based his entire theory of
psychoanalysis on case studies of his patients in which he gathered
information about their childhoods and relationships with others from
the very beginning of their lives to the present.
One advantage of case study is that you can study those issues that
cannot be studied with naturalistic observation or experiments. The
focus is on rare events. Another advantage is that the information
emerging from case studies is rich in details, giving understanding of
the experiences of people and meaning they derive from those
experiences. Information generated from case studies can be used to
further the understanding of the field, for example, we may know
more about the symptoms, causes and treatment path of individuals
suffering from disease or hiring, recruitment, decision making and
problem- solving processes undertaken by highly successful
individuals or companies. This could provide insight for others
struggling with own diseases or work-related challenges.
Disadvantage of using case study method is that the information
generated may be so unique that it may not always be possible to
apply this information to help other people. It may also be difficult to
get a clear, concise picture out of the complex and large amount of
information. Also, confidentiality of the individual may be hard to
maintain.
Moving on, the next method is

c. Survey – This is another descriptive method. The most

straightforward and simple method to study people is to
ask the people directly about their thoughts, feelings,
choices or attitudes. Surveys are one such method. Here,
several questions are asked to a group of people about
their thoughts, feelings, choices or attitudes. This group of
people should represent the overall population if we want
an accurate picture of the situation. Surveys give quick and
specific information about current issue of interest. The
questions asked in surveys are structured, simple and
posed as assertions or questions. The answers are close
ended, in yes/no or agree/disagree format. The data
collected from surveys is easy to quantify and analyze.
This information can be then used to make timely
decisions and make changes in policies if needed. Surveys
are extensively used by marketing professionals,
politicians, policy makers, educators etc. Satisfaction
surveys, information about brand choices, opinion polls,
election exit polls are some examples of surveys. Since it
is not possible to reach out to each and every individual of
interest, surveyors choose a smaller group of people to
take the survey, of course, even this smaller group may be
made up of hundreds of people. It is important to select
those people who are representative of the larger group.
Otherwise, the information may not be about how the
larger group is and can lead to errors. Another issue with
surveys is that people may not always give accurate
answers – they may misremember, want to appear in a
positive light or give misleading information. Moreover,
the wording of the questions in the survey is also
important, it has to be simple, straight forward and should
have the same meaning to all respondents. Sometimes,
questions give hints to the expected answers – for
example, do you agree that this lecture is very helpful?
Here, I am obviously looking for an affirmative answer! I
might say what is your opinion about the present lecture? –
 if I want a variety of answers. Lastly, Surveys give
superficial information about any issue, usually missing
out on deeper meaning behind the answers people give and
thus, can be misleading.
Of course, there are many ways of making up for these
limitations and surveys are used extensively in the present
world.

The goal of research is not always to describe, sometimes the

researcher wants a deeper analysis of the situation.

d. Correlational Method – The correlation method helps us to do that.

This method helps us to find relationships among variables.
Variables are ‘change-ables’ – anything that can take different
values or properties is called a variable. For example, marks on a
test, motivation, intelligence, age, weight, height, temperature,
time etc. Coming back to correlation, it is a number or
‘coefficient’ that describes the relationship among a set of
numbers. Let us take an example – the amount of time one spends
in studying for a test and the marks a student gets on the test. We
can get this information from many students, make two sets and
use a mathematical formula the correlation coefficient - a number
that represents the strength and direction of a relationship existing
between two variables. It ranges form +1 to -1. For example, if the
number is plus one, it means that the more the number of study
hours, the more the marks, in fact, there’s a perfect match in the
two scores. On the other hand if the result, of course not possible
 in real life, if the coefficient was minus one, it would mean that the
more hours of study, the les would the marks be. An example of
negative correlation in this case would, more study, less chance of
failure. Thus, in the case of positive correlation, the higher one set
of values goes, the other set would be high too. Example, the more
cigarettes one smokes, more chance of lung cancer. Reverse, in
negative correlation, the higher one value set of one variable goes,
the lesser would be the value of the second variable set. The more
cigarettes smoked, less life expectancy. In real life, coefficient are
often in decimals because so many other factors are involved,
perfect match rarely happens. Please remember, correlation only
helps us to understand associations or links between variables,
they just indicate that when one variable is present, the other will
also be present. It does not help us to understand if one is causing
the other variable.

Understanding causality falls in the realm of experimental method

e. Experimental Method – It is this method that marks the field of

Psychology as a scientific discipline. This method is used when a
researcher wants to establish cause and effect relationships among
variables under controlled conditions. Let us take an example – If
we want to find out if teaching methods are helping students to get
more marks. The teaching method is the cause and students’ marks
are the effect. We can take different teaching methods – like the
classroom lecture method, online teaching, students focused
group-discussion method etc. We assess the students on a topic
before we begin the teaching method, to set a baseline of how
much the students know about the topic. After teaching the topic
with these methods, we assess the students again. If the teaching
method is effective, the marks of the students in the second test
will have increased. Let’s discuss this further – The teaching
method is the cause, student’s marks are the effect. The researcher
systematically changes or manipulates one variable and observes
whether any changes happen in another variable. Of course, this
process has to happen under controlled conditions if we want to be
perfectly sure if the first variable alone is causing the changes in
the second one. Thus we want the variables of student motivation,
interest, intelligence etc. to be kept constant, otherwise they will
cause confusion, that is, ‘confound’ the results. Each of these
variables have a special term.

In an experiment, that variable considered to be the ‘cause’ is

called an Independent Variable or IV. The variable considered to
be the ‘effect’ is called the Dependent Variable or DV. The
variable which can influence the Dependent variable but the
experimenter does not want to study it, is called the confounding
variable or relevant variable.

Now this is important – the experimenter makes systematic

changes in the Independent Variable or manipulates it. If the IV is
truly the cause, these changes will automatically bring in changes
in the dependent variable. The experimenter measures these
changes in the DV. The experimenter controls the confounding or
relevant variables.

Let us view the earlier example in this light now, the teaching
method is the independent variable, it is manipulated by using
different methods for different topics or groups of students. The
marks of the students is the dependent variable. We ensure that the
difficult level of the topics taught is the same or each group of
students is similar to the other on interest, motivation, intelligence,
writing skills, age, gender, academic level (class) etc. or any other
factor you can think that will affect the teaching-learning process
but we are not currently investigating.

Experimenters usually have one group, called the experimental

group – it is in this group that the IV is introduced, changed or
manipulated. There is another group, called the control group, who
are similar to the experimental group in every way, except the IV
is not introduced, changed or manipulated. Only the DVs of both
groups are measured. Thus, if the IV is truly the cause, the DV of
the experimental group will change while that of the control group
will remain the same.

Having a control group helps with one very special issue,

sometimes the very awareness that a person is part of a study
brings changes in the person’s behaviour. So the marks of a
student may increase because they become more conscious of the
fact and become more attentive, sometimes natural changes might
 occur that lead to a difference. The changes in a participant only
because they know they are being studied and form some own
expectations of their own, is called as the Placebo Effect. The
control group helps us to measure the degree of changes being
brought by the placebo effect. These people know that they are a
part of the study, may have expectations but the IV is not induced
here, so any changes occurring can be measured and compared to
those in the experimental group. The IV is truly effective only
when the performance of the experimental group is different (more
or in some cases, less) than that of the control group.

It is extremely important that the experimenter know that only the IV

is causing the DV, therefore great care is taken in choosing the
participants, randomly assigning them to each group and to control
the confounding variables.

The Placebo effect can also be controlled by conducting a single-blind

study – the participants do not know whether they are in the
experimental group or control group.

Another important care to be taken while doing experiments is to limit

the experimenter effect - tendency of the experimenter’s expectations
about the outcomes of the study to unintentionally influence the
results of the study. This can be controlled by doing a double-blind
study – a study in which neither the experimenter nor the subjects
know if the subjects are in the experimental or the control group.
The experimental method has an advantage of helping us to get a
clear understanding of the cause behind many actions and reactions of
people with a high degree of confidence.

This is a brief overview of the various methods and I hope you have
been able to follow my explanation. Thank you

Reflection point – if you have to find out if screen time (use of

phones, computers or watching television) is affecting the attention
span of children, which research method will you use? (Go to
experimental method – here we will try to find out if more screen time
is causing a change in attention span, so we can design an experiment
accordingly)

Reflection Point – If you want to find out how team members interact
with each other while making decisions, which research method will
you use? (Go to observation method, here we will try to observe how
communication happens in a group so we can naturalistic
observation).

Reflection Point – You want to go for a trip, so you take a quick

feedback from your friends about the places that they have visited
recently. Which research method are you using? (Go to Survey
method – here you take a survey, ask close ended questions to gather
specific information.)

Reflection Point – You find out that a person you know has a very
special talent and you interview her to know all about her journey
began from childhood onwards, who helped her develop the talent,
what special efforts she puts in, future plans etc. Which research
method are you using? (Go to Case Study method – finding out rich in
detail information about rare or special issues)