Rose M. Spielman; William J. Jenkins; and Marilyn D. Lovett

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

  • Explain how scientific research addresses questions about behavior
  • Appreciate how scientific research can be important in making personal decisions
  • Describe the different research methods used by psychologists
  • Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of case studies, naturalistic observation, surveys, and archival research
  • Compare longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches to research
  • Compare and contrast correlation and causation
  • Explain what a correlation coefficient tells us about the relationship between variables
  • Recognize that correlation does not indicate a cause-and-effect relationship between variables
  • Discuss our tendency to look for relationships between variables that do not really exist
  • Explain random sampling and assignment of participants into experimental and control groups
  • Discuss how experimenter or participant bias could affect the results of an experiment
  • Identify independent and dependent variables

 

This section contains material from 2.1 Why is Research Important, 2.2 Approaches to Research, and 2.3 Analyzing Findings (on OpenStax) by Rose M. Spielman, William J. Jenkins, and Marilyn D. Lovett and is used under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.

License

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Introduction to the Psychology Major by Rose M. Spielman; William J. Jenkins; and Marilyn D. Lovett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.