Chap 2:

Methods of Enquiry In
Psychology
GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ENQUIRY

Prediction : The second

Description : In a goal of scientific
psychological study, we enquiry is prediction of
attempt to describe a behaviour. If you are
behaviour or a able to understand and
phenomenon as accurately describe the behaviour
as possible. This accurately, you come to
helps in distinguishing a know the relationship
particular behaviour of a particular behaviour
from other behaviours. with other types of
behaviours, events, or
phenomena.
 Control refers to three
things: making a particular
behaviour happen,
Explanation : The third goal reducing it, or enhancing it.
of psychological For example, you
enquiry is to know the can allow the number of
causal factors or hours devoted to
determinants of behaviour study to be the same, or
you can reduce them
or there may be an
increase in the study hours.
Application : The final goal
of the scientific
enquiry is to bring out
positive changes in the
lives of people.
Psychological research is
conducted to solve
problems in various
settings.
 Steps in Conducting Scientific
Research

The objectivity refers to the fact that if two or more persons

independently study a particular event, both of them, to a great
extent, should arrive at the same conclusion

The second characteristic of scientific research is that it follows systematic

procedure or steps of investigation. It includes the following steps:
(1) Conceptualising a Problem : The process
of scientific research begins when a researcher selects a theme or
topic for study. Then s/he narrows down the focus and develops
specific research questions or problems for the study. This is
done on the basis of review of past research, observations, and
personal Experiences . In psychology we study a diverse range of
problems related to behaviour and experiences.
After identification of the problem, the researcher proceeds by
developing a tentative
answer of the problem, which is called hypothesis
2.Collecting Data : The second step in
scientific research is to collect data. Data
collection requires developing a research
design or a blueprint of the entire study. It
requires taking decisions about the following
four aspects: (a) participants in the study,
(b) methods of data collection, (c) tools to be
used in research, and (d) procedure for data
collection.
Drawing Conclusions : The next step is to
analyse data so collected through the use of
statistical procedures to understand what the
data mean

Revising Research Conclusions

 NATURE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL DATA

Physical Information : This

category
Demographic Information includes information about
: This information ecological
generally includes conditions (hilly/desert/forest),
personal information like mode of
name, age, gender, birth economy, housing conditions,
order, number of size of rooms,
siblings, education facilities available at home, in the
neighbourhood, in the school,
mode of
transportation, etc.
 Physiological Data : In some
Physiological Data : In studies
some studies physical, physiological and
physical, physiological and psychological
psychological data are collected about
data are collected about height, weight,
height, weight, heart rate, level of fatigue,
heart rate, level of fatigue, Galvanic Skin
Galvanic Skin Resistance (GSR), electrical
Resistance (GSR), electrical activity of the
activity of the brain measured by Electro-
brain measured by Electro- encephalograph
encephalograph (EEG), blood oxygen levels,
(EEG), blood oxygen levels, reaction time,
reaction time, duration of sleep
duration of sleep
OBSERVATION
Selection : Psychologists do not observe all the behaviour that they
encounter. Rather, they select a particular behaviour for observation.

Recording : While observing, a researcher records the selected behaviour

using different means, such as marking tallies for the already
identified behaviour whenever they occur, taking notes describing each
activity in greater detail using short hand or symbols, photographs, video
recording, etc.
Analysis of Data : After the observations
have been made, psychologists analyse
whatever they have recorded with a view to
derive some meaning out of it
 many a times you
When observations are
might need to control certain
done in a natural or factors that
real-life settings (in the determine behaviour as they
above example, it was are not the focus
a school in which of your study. For this reason,
observation was made), it many of thRe
is studies in psychology are
called naturalistic conducted in the
laboratory.
observation
CONTROLLED OBSERVATION
Non-Participant vs Participant Observation :
Observation can be done in two ways. One,
you may decide to observe the person or event
from a distance. Two, the observer may
become part of the group being observed
 Experimental Method

Experiments are generally conducted to

establish cause-effect relationship between
two sets of events or variables in a controlled
setting.
Independent variable is that
variable which is manipulated or altered or
its strength varied by the researcher in the
experiment. It is the effect of this change in
the variable which the researcher wants to
observe or note in the study.
The variables on which the effect of
independent variable is observed is
called
dependent variable. Dependent
variable
represents the phenomenon the
researcher
desires to explain
Experimental and Control Groups
Experiments generally involve one or more
experimental groups and one or more control
groups. An experimental group is a group in
which members of the group are exposed to
independent variable manipulation. The
control group is a comparison group that is
treated in every way like the experimental
group except that the manipulated variable is
absent in it.
All relevant variables in experimental studies that might
influence the dependent variable need to be controlled.
These are of three major types:
organismic variables (such as anxiety,
intelligence, personality, etc.),
situational or environmental variables operating at the
time of conducting the experiment (such as noise,
temperature, humidity), and sequential
variables.
 In order to control relevant variables,
experimenters use several control techniques

Elimination is not For controlling

Since the goal of an
experiment is to always possible. In such organismic (e.g., fear,
cases, effort should be motivation) and
minimise extraneous
made to hold them background variables
variables, the best
constant so that their (such as rural/urban,
way to handle this
effect remains the caste, socioeconomic
problem is to eliminate
them from the same throughout the status) matching is also
experiment. used
experimental setting.
Counter-balancing technique is used to
minimise the sequence effect. Suppose
there are two tasks to be given in an
experiment. Rather than giving the two Random assignment of
tasks in the same sequence the participants to
experimenter may interchange the different groups eliminates any
order of the tasks. Thus, half of the potential
group may receive the tasks in the systematic differences between
order of A andB groups
while the other half in order of B and A
or the same individual may be given
the task in A, B, B, A order.
ADVANTAGES :

The strength of a well-designed experiment is that it can provide,

relatively speaking, a convincing evidence of a cause-effect relationship
between two or more variables.

DIASDVANATGES :
1. experiments are often conducted in a highly controlled laboratory
situation. In this sense, they only simulate situations that exist in the
outside world. The experiments may produce results that do not
generalise well, or apply to real situations. In other words, they have
low external validity

2. it is not always feasible to study a particular problem Experimentally

3. The third problem is that it is difficult to know and control all the
relevant variables.
Field Experiments
If a researcher wants to have high
generalisability or to conduct studies which
are not possible in laboratory settings, s/he
may go to the field or the natural setting where
the particular phenomenon actually exists. In
other words, s/he may conduct a field
experiment. For example, a researcher may
want to know which method would lead to
better learning among students—lecture or
demonstration method. For this, a researcher
may prefer to conduct an experiment in the
school. The researcher may select two groups
of participants; teach one group by
demonstration method and another group by
the normal teaching method for sometime. S/
he may compare their performance at the end
of the learning session
Quasi experiment
Many variables cannot be manipulated in
the laboratory settings. For example, if you
want to study the effect of an earthquake on
children who lost their parents, you cannot
create this condition artificially in the
laboratory. In such situations, the researcher
adopts the method of quasi (the Latin word
meaning “as if”) experimentation. In such
types of experiments, the independent
variable is selected rather than varied or
manipulated by the experimenter.
 Correlational Research:

The strength and direction of

the relationship between the two variables is
represented by a number, known as
correlation coefficient. Its value can range from
+1.0 through 0.0 to –1.0.
A positive correlation indicates that
as the value of one variable (X) increases, the
value of the other variable (Y) will also increase.
Similarly when variable X decreases, a
decrease in Y too takes place.
a negative correlation tells us that as the value of one
variable (X) increases, the value of the other
(Y) decreases.

It is also possible that sometimes no

correlation may exist between the two
variables. This is called zero correlation.
Generally, it is difficult to find zero correlation
but the correlations found may be close to
zero, e.g., -.02 or +.03.
 Survey Research

Survey research came

into existence to study opinions, attitudes and
social facts. Their main concern initially was
to find out the existing reality or baseline

The survey research uses different

techniques for collecting information. Included
among these techniques are: personal
interviews, questionnaires, telephonic surveys,
and controlled observations. These techniques
are discussed here in some detail.
 Perosonal Interview:

An interview is a purposeful activity conducted

to derive factual information, opinions and
attitudes, and reasons for particular
behaviour, etc. from the respondents. It is
generally conducted face-to-face but sometimes
it can also take place over the phone.
There can be two broad types of interviews:
structured or standardised, and
unstructured or non-standardised.

Individual to Individual : It is a situation

where one interviewer interviews another person.
Individual to Group : In this situation, one
interviewer interviews a group of persons. One variant of it is
called a Focus Group Discussion (FGD).
 Psychological Testing
Psychologists have constructed different types of tests for
assessment of various human characteristics, such as
intelligence, aptitude, personality, interest, attitudes, values,
educational achievement, etc.

A psychological test is a standardised and objective instrument

Objectivity refers to the fact that if two or more researchers

administer a psychological test on the same group of people,
both of them would come up with more or less the same values
for each person in the group
Reliability of the test refers to the consistency of scores obtained
by an individual
on the same test on two different occasions.

For example, you administer the test to a group of students today

and re-administer it
on the same set of students after some time, let us say 20 days.
If the test is reliable, there should not be any variation in the scores
obtained by the students on the two occasions.

Types :
test-retest reliability, which indicates the temporal stability (or stability of
the test scores over time). It is computed by finding out co-efficient of
correlation between the two sets of scores on the same set of persons.

split-half reliability. It gives an indication about the degree of internal

consistency of the test. This is based on the assumption that items of a test
if they are from the same domain should correlate with each other. If they
are from different domains, e.g., are apples and oranges, then they would
not.
For finding out internal consistency, the test is divided into two equal halves
employing oddeven method (items 1,3,5,— in one group and items 2,4,6,—
in another group) and correlation is computed between the scores of odd
and even items.
Validity refers to the question : “Does the test measure
what it claims to measure”? For example, if you have
constructed a test of
mathematics achievement, whether the test Is measuring
mathematical achievement or for example, language
proficiency

Finally, a test becomes a standardised test when norms are

developed for the test. Norm is the normal or average
performance of the group. The test is
administered on a large number of students. Their average
performance standards are set based on their age, sex, place
of residence,
etc.
 TYPES OF TESTS

VERBAL ,
INDIVIDUAL NON SPEED VS
VS GROUP VERBAL AND POWER
PERFORMA TEST
NCE TESTS
Depending upon the language,
we have verbal, non-verbal, and performance
tests. Literacy is required for taking verbal
tests as the items have to be written in some
language. In non-verbal tests, items are made
of symbols or pictures. Performance tests
require movement of objects from their
respective places in a particular order
INDIVIDUAL VS POWER TEST :psychological tests are divided
into individual or group tests. An individual
test is administered by the researcher to one
person at a time, while group tests can be
administered to large number of persons at
the same time. In individual tests, the
researcher administers the test face to face
and remains seated before the test taker and
notes down the responses. In the group test,
the instructions about answering the items,
etc., are written on the test, which the test taker reads and
answers the questions
accordingly
Psychological tests are also classified into
speed and power tests. In a speed test, there
is a time limit within which the test taker is
required to answer all the items. Such a test
evaluates the individual on the basis of time
taken to answer the items accurately. In a
speed test, all the items are of the same degree
of difficulty. On the other hand, power test
assesses the underlying ability (or power) of
the individuals by allowing them sufficient
time, i.e. these tests do not have any time limit.
In a power test, the items are generally
arranged in an increasing order of difficulty.
If a person, for example, is unable to solve the
6th item, s/he will have difficulty in answering
the subsequent items
 Case Study

Case studies provide detailed in-depth depictions of people’s lives. However, while
generalising on the basis of individual cases one needs to be very cautious. The
problem of validity in a single case study is quite
challenging. It is recommended that the information should be collected using
multiple strategies from different sources of information
by a number of investigators.
 ANALYSIS OF DATA

QUANTITATIVE QUALITATIVE
METHOD METHOD
 LIMITATIONS OF
PSYCHOLOGICAL ENQUIRY

SUBJECTIVITY
INTERPRETATION OF
LACK OF TRUE ZERO RELATIVE NATURE QUALITATIVE DATA
POINT :scores we OF :Data from
TOOLS:Psychological qualitative studies
get in
tests are developed are
psychological largely subjective
studies, are not keeping
in view the salient since they involve
absolute in interpretation on
features of a
nature; rather, particular the part of the
they have context researcher
relative value. as well as the person
providing data
 ETHICAL ISSUES

VOLUNTARY CONFIDENTI
PARTICIPATI ALITY
ON BRIEFING

INFORMED SHARING OF
CONSENT THE
RESULTS
 VOLUNTARY DEBRIEFING :
PARTICIPATION : Informed Once the study is over,
Consent the
participants are
This principle : It is essential that provided with
states that the persons the necessary
on whom you want participants in a information to
to conduct the study complete their
should have the
study should
understand understanding of
choice to decide research. This is
whether to participate what will happen to particularly important if
or them during the deception has
not to participate in the study been used in the study
study
Sharing the
Results of the
Study : In
psychological research,
after collecting
Confidentiality of
information from the Data Source :
participants, we come
back to our places of work, The
analyse the participants in a study have
data and draw conclusions. the right to
It is obligatory privacy
for the researcher to go
back to the
participants and share the
results of the
study with them
Alternative Paradigms of Research
Psychologists suggest that human behaviour can and should be studied following the
methods adopted by sciences like physics, chemistry, and biology. The key assumption
of this view is that human behaviour is predictable, caused by internal and external
forces, and can be observed, measured, and controlled. In order to achieve these
goals, the discipline of psychology, for larger part of the twentieth century, restricted
itself to the study of overt behaviour, i.e. the behaviour that could be observed and
measured. It did not focus on personal feelings, experiences, meanings, etc.

In recent years, a different method known as interpretive has emerged. It emphasises

understanding over explanation and prediction. It takes the stand that, in view of
complex and variable nature of human behaviour and experience, its method of
investigation should be different from the method of investigation of the
physical world. This viewpoint emphasises the importance of how human beings give
meaning to events and actions and interpret them as they occur in a particular
context.
Let us take the experiences that may occur in some unique contexts, such as persons
experiencing suffering due to external factors (for example, people affected by
tsunami, earthquake, cyclone) or internal factors (for instance, prolonged illness, etc.).
In such types of situations, objective measurement is neither possible nor desirable.
Everyone interprets reality in her/his own way based on past experiences and
contexts. Therefore, we need to understand the subjective interpretation of the
reality. The goal here is to explore the different aspects of human experiences and
behaviour without attempting to disturb its natural flow. For example, an explorer
does not know what s/ he is looking for, how to look for it, and what to expect. Rather,
s/he tries to map an uncharted wilderness, with little or no prior knowledge of the
area, and her/his main task is to record detailed descriptions of what is found in a
particular context
Both scientific and interpretive traditions are concerned with studying behaviour and
experiences of others. What about our own personal experiences and behaviour? As a
student of psychology, you may ask yourself the question: why am I feeling sad? Many
times you take a pledge that you will control your diet or devote more time to studies.
But when it actually comes to eating or studying you forget this. You might be
wondering why one does not have control over one’s behaviour. Should psychology
not help you in analysing your own experiences, thought processes, and behaviour? It
certainly should. The psychological enquiry does aim at understanding the self by
reflecting on one’s own experiences and insights.