Research Methods in Psychology (9th Edition)

Author: Christopher
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: This book is an introductory reading on research methods in psychology, which clearly introduces the basic principles of psychological research through examples. It introduces basic scientific methods, discusses the characteristics and purposes of scientific methods; discusses the ethical norms involved in psychological research involving humans and animals; discusses the validity of experimental research; discusses control techniques to derive effective causal relationships from the data provided by experiments; introduces the design principles of experimental research, quasi-experimental research, and single-case research; introduces how to collect data, statistical analysis, and how to organize these analytical results in research reports. To facilitate the introduction of the basic principles of psychological research, I have organized the content of this book according to the steps of research. Chapter introduces basic scientific methods, discussing the characteristics and purposes of scientific methods. The purpose of this chapter is to guide students to understand science—letting them recognize the differences between the information obtained from scientific investigation and that from non-scientific investigation. Then, it discusses the nature of science to enable students to correctly evaluate the two different research processes of quantitative and qualitative research, recognizing the differences between experimental and non-experimental quantitative research processes. Next, it introduces how to confirm research questions, helping students find a good research idea, emphasizing the necessity of literature review and using databases to find relevant literature.