Lecture
The methods of psychological research presuppose forms of collecting empirical data that make it possible to test hypotheses of a particular type. A method is a way of organizing a study in order to test the hypothesis that has been advanced.
Two main groups of research methods can be distinguished:
Passively observing (the observation method, the correlational approach)
Active experiment (experiment, quasi-experiment, longitudinal study, cross-cultural studies, psychogenetic studies)
|
Method |
Hypothesis |
|
Observation |
Descriptive |
|
Correlational approach |
About relationships between variables |
|
Experiment |
Causal hypotheses |
|
Quasi-experiment |
Causal hypotheses, limitation of the forms of control |
|
Longitudinal study |
About changes or about development |
|
Psychogenetic methods |
Quantitative psychogenetic models (about the influence on phenotypic variability of genetic and environmental factors and genotype-environment interactions. |
|
Experimental-genetic (Vygotsky) |
About the formation of mental functions |
|
Method of stage-by-stage formation
Cross-cultural |
The modeling approach; hypotheses about the structural-functional characteristics of the processes under study.
Hypotheses about cultural and social relations |
The survey method and the interview method are procedures that serve as ways of collecting data but not as ways of organizing a study. The psychodiagnostic method is the subject matter of psychodiagnostics, whose tasks are solved on the basis of various approaches, methods, and techniques. Psychological measurement is likewise the subject matter of a related discipline that includes experimental procedures as means of establishing functional quantitative relationships.
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