Types of Research

There are three types...

1. Descriptive

2. Correlational

3. Experimental

Descriptive: any research that observes and records

• does not talk about relationships; it just describes
  

Types of Descriptive Research....

1. Case Study: 1 type of observational data collection technique in which individuals are studied in-depth in order to identify behavioral, emotional, and/or cognitive qualities that are universally true, on average of others.
2. Survey Method: most common type of study used in psychology which measures correlation, it's cheap and fast, and some ways to do surveys are by interview, over the phone, email, mail, etc.
• Random Sampling: identifying the populations you want to study while letting the sample be a representative of the population of what you want to study.

Why do we sample?

• False Consensus Effect: the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors.

Why are some bad?

• Low response rate
• People lie or just misinterpret themselves
• Wording effects

  3. Naturalistic Observation: watching subjects in their naturals environments without interfering with their habitat.

Hawthorne Effect: just the fact that you know you're an experiment can cause change in the experiment

Correlational Method: Correlation expresses a relationship between two variables

• Does not show causation

Correlation Coefficient: used to measure correlation

• ranges from +1 to -1
• the relationship gets weaker the closest you get to zero

2 Types...

Positive: variables go in SAME direction

Negative: variables go in OPPOSITE direction

Experimental Research: must show relationship that shows cause and effect

Experimental Group: doesn't know they're receiving treatment

Control Study: knows they're receiving treatment.

Blind Study: subjects are unaware if assigned to experimental or control group

Double-Blind Study: neither subjects nor experimenters know which group is controlled nor experimented

Inferential Statistics: used to make a inference or draw a conclusion beyond the inference or draw a conclusion beyond the raw data

Measure of Variation: 

• Mean: the average
• Mode: most often
• Range: subtract the smallest from the largest
• Median: middle number when lined up from greatest to least or least to greatest
• Standard Deviation: a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean

*High standard deviation means scores are spread out, and low standard deviation means scores are clustered together*