Practicing the Methods of Psychology

Over the years, when working with students about the methods of psychology, there is way too much confusion.  As a result, I made this sheet to make the ideas more basic and created this first practice before I get into actual descriptions of case studies that describe real research.
The original Word version can be found here. By all means, let me know if I have made an error on the key or in an explanation.

Practicing the Methods of Psychology

1.      Case Study

2.     Interview

3.     Naturalistic Observation

4.     Laboratory Observation

5.     Survey

6.     Ψ’l Tests (psychological tests-I encourage my kids to learn "notehand" with their own abbreviations)

7.     Correlation Studies

8.    Experiment

Scenarios	Best Method
1.      I seek lots of data in order to make predictions	correlation
2.      I am used best when combined with other methods since all I can do is offer insights based upon perceptions	interview
3.      I find out cause and effect	experiment
4.      I may be the most famous since you take fake versions of me on social media	Psych tests
5.      I get to ask lots of people the same questions and gather the data to reach general conclusions	survey
6.      I find one individual and do intensive work on them	case study
7.      I like to people watch and take notes—but I do this in the habitat of my subjects where they cannot see me	naturalistic observation
8.      I examine people in situations that I get to manipulate, but I cannot determine cause and effect	laboratory observation
9.      My goal is to obtain as much information on one person in order to gain insights that I can use to better understand the person	case study
10.  An example of me is when I put people in a room and make it look like there is a fire so I can see how they react	laboratory observation
11.  Sometimes when I use this method, people may think of me as a nosy reporter	interview
12.  Every semester, students ask their psych teachers if they can give an IQ test to see how “smart” they are.  Little do they know is that IQ is only the beginning of me	psych tests
13.  I have the greatest level of control in my method—my method is the toughest to do, but is very important	experiment
14.  I am all about how strong relationships are—but I am never outside of negative one to positive one	correlation
15.  Once you know how to use my method, you will probably not get bored waiting in line at the grocery store or any other public place	naturalistic observation
16.  I am the method used when studying little children in developmental psychology—I can set up situations to see how the kids react—ask the teacher about the marshmallow study	laboratory observation
17.  I am the King of research methods, but because people are so complex, it is often difficult to use me	experiment
18.  When I say “there is a link” between two ideas, people often misunderstand and assume the link is causal—it’s not	correlation

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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