How to carryout good research
Psychological research enables us to find out more about human behaviour and the mental processes that underpin it. We also need to be sure that our answers are correct. Suppose we are interested in whether ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’. Is it enough simply to look around, make informal observations and come to a conclusion we feel comfortable with? In one sense it is, and, as naturally inquisitive people, we do this sort of thing all the time as a means of forming our own opinions. But this approach inevitably leads different people to different conclusions – because we each focus on different information and have different experiences, different agendas. So some people think absence makes the heart grow fonder while others think the very opposite, that ‘absence leads the heart to wander’. To know which is correct, when each is correct and, more importantly, why, we need to act as scientists, not lay-scientists. Using the scientific method (scientific method a procedure for acquiring and evaluating knowledge through systematic observation or experimentation) differentiates psychology from other disciplines that address similar questions. The scientific method is a set of procedures for acquiring and testing knowledge through systematic observation or experimentation.
Psychological research enables us to find out more about human behaviour and the mental processes that underpin it. We also need to be sure that our answers are correct. Suppose we are interested in whether ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’. Is it enough simply to look around, make informal observations and come to a conclusion we feel comfortable with? In one sense it is, and, as naturally inquisitive people, we do this sort of thing all the time as a means of forming our own opinions. But this approach inevitably leads different people to different conclusions – because we each focus on different information and have different experiences, different agendas. So some people think absence makes the heart grow fonder while others think the very opposite, that ‘absence leads the heart to wander’. To know which is correct, when each is correct and, more importantly, why, we need to act as scientists, not lay-scientists. Using the scientific method (scientific method a procedure for acquiring and evaluating knowledge through systematic observation or experimentation) differentiates psychology from other disciplines that address similar questions. The scientific method is a set of procedures for acquiring and testing knowledge through systematic observation or experimentation.
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