Steps, Uses, and Key Terms
Verywell / Theresa Chiechi
How do researchers investigate psychological phenomena?
They utilize a process known as the scientific method to study different aspects of how people think and behave.
An additional step in the process can also include developing new research questions based on your findings.
Verywell / Theresa Chiechi
What Is the Scientific Method?
What is the scientific method and how is it used in psychology?
The scientific method consists of five steps.
The following are the scientific method steps:
Step 1.
Make an Observation
Before a researcher can begin, they must choose a topic to study.
Step 2.
You should also consider how you could investigate the causes.
Falsifiability is an important part of any valid hypothesis.
Step 3.
The exact methods used to investigate a hypothesis depend on exactly what is being studied.
There are two basic forms of research that a psychologist might utilize: descriptive research or experimental research.
Descriptive research is typically used when it would be difficult or even impossible to manipulate the variables in question.
Examples of descriptive research include case studies,naturalistic observation, and correlation studies.
Phone surveys that are often used by marketers are one example of descriptive research.
Correlational studiesare quite common in psychology research.
Experimental research is used to explore cause-and-effect relationships between two or more variables.
Step 4.
So how does a researcher decide what the results of a study mean?
Based on these observations, researchers must then determine what the results mean.
So what happens if the results of a psychology experiment do not support the researcher’s hypothesis?
Does this mean that the study was worthless?
Step 5.
Report the Results
The final step in a psychology study is to report the findings.
In these articles, researchers:
Why is such a detailed record of a psychological study so important?
By clearly explaining the steps and procedures used throughout the study, other researchers can thenreplicatethe results.
Once published, the study becomes another piece of the existing puzzle of our knowledge base on that topic.
so that do this, psychologists utilize the scientific method to conduct psychological research.
Psychologists and other social scientists regularly propose explanations for human behavior.
Say, for instance, that researchers set out to discover what the relationship is betweenpsychotherapyandanxiety.
Of course, there are many details that go into planning and executing a study such as this.
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University of Minnesota.Psychologists use the scientific method to guide their research.
Shaughnessy, JJ, Zechmeister, EB, & Zechmeister, JS.Research Methods In Psychology.
New York: McGraw Hill Education; 2015.
