Research Methods in Psychology
How Psychologists Find Out
Items in this lesson
How Psychologists Find Out
Central question underpinning the lesson: how do psychologists build trustworthy knowledge about behaviour and mental processes? Keep the opening focused on psychology as an evidence-based subject rather than opinion or common sense.
Learning goal
I can explain why research matters in psychology and describe commonly used research methods.
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What words do you connect with psychological research?
Use this to surface prior ideas such as experiments, evidence, behaviour, questionnaires, bias, observation or data. Briefly contrast everyday opinion with research-based psychology.
Why psychology needs research
Psychology studies behaviour and mental processes
Everyday beliefs can be misleading
Research gives evidence instead of guesswork
It helps psychologists test whether an idea is actually true
Useful contrast: people often feel confident about 'common sense' explanations, but psychology requires systematic evidence because intuition can be biased or incomplete.
What research does
Research allows psychologists to describe, explain, predict and sometimes influence behaviour. A claim becomes stronger when it is investigated in a careful, repeatable way rather than based on one person's experience.
You can mention that psychology aims to build patterns from evidence, not just collect interesting stories about individuals.
Why evidence matters
Supports treatments and therapies
Improves understanding of learning and memory
Helps schools, workplaces and health services make decisions
Allows ideas to be checked by other researchers
Keep examples general and clearly psychological: therapy effectiveness, learning strategies, or understanding social behaviour. Avoid drifting into medicine or sociology beyond their psychological use.
No single method is enough
Different questions need different methods
Some methods measure patterns
Others explore experience in detail
Strength comes from choosing the right approach
This slide bridges significance to methods. Emphasise that method choice affects what kind of conclusion can be drawn.
Why is research important in psychology?
It proves every idea
It replaces behaviour
It gives evidence
It avoids all bias
Checks the core idea from slides 2 to 5: research strengthens psychology by providing evidence rather than guesswork. Distractors reflect overclaims students may make.
Research in psychology
Psychology studies behaviour and mental processes. Research gives evidence instead of guesswork and helps psychologists test whether an idea is actually true. It also allows claims to be checked in a careful, repeatable way.
Echoes the wording of slides 2 and 3. The load-bearing terms are processes, evidence, idea and repeatable.
Experiments
Used to test cause and effect
One variable is changed to see its effect on another
Researchers try to control other influences
Common in studies of memory, perception and behaviour
You may name the changed factor as the independent variable and the measured outcome as the dependent variable, but keep the main focus on the method's purpose.
Why experiments are useful
Because psychologists control conditions, experiments are strong for testing whether one factor may cause another. However, tightly controlled settings may not always reflect real life perfectly.
This is the key trade-off slide for experiments: control versus realism. Keep the wording accessible and avoid overloading with technical evaluation language.
Which method is strongest for testing cause and effect?
Observation
Interview
Experiment
Case study
Targets the key distinction in slides 6 and 7: experiments are strongest for causal testing because conditions can be controlled.
Why can experiments test cause better than observations?
Expected answer elements: experiments control other influences and change one variable to measure its effect on another. A strong answer may also mention the trade-off that lab settings may be less realistic than real life.
Surveys and questionnaires
Gather information from many people
Often use set questions or rating scales
Useful for attitudes, opinions and self-reported behaviour
Results can be compared across a large sample
Clarify that self-report means people report on themselves, which is efficient but depends on honesty and self-awareness.
Limits of self-report methods
Answers may be inaccurate
People may forget, misunderstand or present themselves positively
Good for broad patterns
Less strong for proving cause and effect
Useful phrase to add orally: surveys are good at finding out what people say, but not always what they actually do.
Observations
Behaviour is watched and recorded
Can happen in natural settings or controlled settings
Useful when real behaviour matters more than self-report
Often used in child development or social behaviour research
A helpful distinction is naturalistic observation versus controlled observation, but keep the emphasis on directly recording behaviour.
What observation can and cannot show
Observation can capture behaviour as it happens, which may make findings more realistic. Yet researchers may not know exactly why the behaviour occurred, so observation alone is usually limited for explaining causes.
Make the contrast explicit: observations can be rich in realism, but weaker for causal explanation than experiments.
What is a main limit of surveys and questionnaires?
Few participants
Low realism
Inaccurate answers
No comparison
Based on slides 8 and 9: self-report can gather large samples, but answers may be inaccurate because people forget, misunderstand or present themselves positively.
Self-report and observation
Surveys often collect self-reported information from many people. Observation records real behaviour as it happens. Both methods can show useful patterns, but neither is usually strongest for proving cause and effect.
Brings together slides 8 to 11 by comparing what self-report and observation are good at, and what they are less strong at showing.
Interviews
Ask participants questions in depth
Can explore thoughts, feelings and personal experiences
Allow follow-up questions
Produce detailed qualitative information
If helpful, explain qualitative as descriptive data in words rather than numbers.
Why interviews are valuable
Interviews are useful when psychologists want depth and meaning rather than quick numerical results. They can reveal how people interpret their experiences, but they usually involve fewer participants and take longer to analyse.
This is the key role of interviews in the arc: methods that give depth rather than breadth.
Case studies
A detailed study of one person, group or event
Often used when a case is unusual or rare
Brings together different kinds of evidence
Can generate new ideas for psychology
Avoid naming specific classic cases unless needed; the deck only needs the method and its role. Stress that case studies can be especially useful where large samples are impossible.
The trade-off in case studies
Very rich detail
Helpful for rare conditions or unusual behaviour
Findings may not apply widely
Best seen as insight, not proof for everyone
This is a good point to reinforce the idea of generalisation in simple terms: one case may teach us a lot, but it may not represent most people.
Choosing the right method
Psychologists match the method to the question. If the aim is to test cause, an experiment may fit best. If the aim is to understand experience, interviews or case studies may be more suitable. If the aim is to find patterns in many people, surveys are often useful.
This slide resolves the methods section by comparing purpose to method choice. It should feel like a synthesis, not a new topic.
Which method is best for understanding personal experience in depth?
Survey
Interview
Experiment
Observation
Checks the core purpose of interviews from slides 12 and 13: depth, meaning and follow-up questions.
Which method best fits finding patterns in many people?
Experiment
Survey
Interview
Case study
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Which method would you choose to study exam stress, and why?
Expected answer elements: experiments for cause; interviews or case studies for experience and depth; surveys for patterns in large samples; observations for real behaviour as it happens. Students should justify the match between question and method.
What is one thing you learned in this lesson?
Reflection only. Invite students to name one clear takeaway about why research matters or how methods differ.
Which part helped you understand the topic best?
Reflection only. Encourage metacognition about the learning process, such as diagrams, comparisons, examples or method trade-offs.
Glossary
research - systematic investigation used to build evidence
experiment - a method used to test cause and effect by changing one variable
survey - a way of collecting information from many people, often through set questions
questionnaire - a written set of questions completed by participants
observation - watching and recording behaviour
interview - a method that gathers detailed spoken responses from participants
case study - an in-depth investigation of one person, group or event
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Glossary
self-report - information participants give about themselves
variable - a factor that can change in a study
qualitative information - descriptive information expressed in words
sample - the group of people taking part in a study
cause and effect - a relationship in which one factor produces change in another
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