Research methods: Research methods in Psychology and Social science simply explained

Introduction

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n early antiquity, methods were indispensable means of gaining knowledge. They were used as instruments of all empirical sciences. They represent the tools of the trade for any researcher, just as a scalpel is one of the most used tools for a surgeon, a screwdriver for a mechanic, and a hammer and nail for a craftsman. Thus, it is not surprising that professionally competent results and the most reliable insights or the acquisition of new facts can only be achieved with the right methodology. It is the methods on which the research results are based, which at the same time, however, also means that without the correct execution of the methods, the correct research results cannot be obtained.

Nevertheless, it must be clearly stated that the individual methods differed greatly from each other, especially since not every empirical science can be equated with another. Especially psychology and social science stand out strongly from other empirical sciences. They cannot be equated with physics and chemistry, which are also based on observations, but are so incredibly different in structure. In the end, these sciences are indeed empirical sciences, but they can only rarely really offer something solid. Instead, these two sciences deal especially with the thoughts of people, with the psyche, which makes people act in very different ways. Psychology and social science can be seen as a neural science, but it cannot be compared to the work of a neurosurgeon, who actively intervenes in the physical existence of people. Psychology, on the other hand, is on a purely mental level and that is why it is so difficult, because no one can read another's thoughts just like that, and if the person could really read them, there is still a very small chance that the person will understand the thoughts the way they are meant to be understood. In addition, there is no textbook in the field of psychology. Of course, there is a physical textbook for students, however, this can no longer be applied in the actual work of a psychologist, psychiatrist or therapist. There is no problem, like a tumor, that can be removed in the brain just like that, there is no scalpel that can be used for that. Instead, the problem is invisible. It cannot be grasped and cannot be glimpsed just like that.

Therefore it can be considered as quite understandable that psychology became a recognized science only around 1920, because in the end there is no correct proof that there is just in the thinking of the people a problem. No computer tomography can be made and also no X-ray. For a long time the subject of psychology and social science remained misunderstood because of that. Before that, before 1920, any thoughts concerning psychology were pure philosophy and therefore in the eyes of people something that cannot be equated with facts. At the same time, since the beginning of time, philosophy describes people's thirst for knowledge, the urge for knowledge and the power behind this knowledge.

Due to various factors, however, it came about that philosophy, especially in modern times, was no longer as highly regarded as it was in early antiquity, when Socrates and his students invented the first, real methodology of information gathering. Nevertheless, philosophy belongs to an almost obsolete form of science, so it should not be surprising that there are significantly fewer methods of data collection within psychology and social science than within medicine or physics, for example. Nevertheless, the landscape of methods within psychology and social science can definitely be considered as differentiated and diverse. Thereby a quite traditional repertoire is used, which can be traced back to the traditions of the humanities, but there are also always very new, individual methods of today's youth, which is more and more concerned with the topic of neural sciences.

Then there are the methods of the Internet. Since everyone now has access to the world's largest, electronic library, many people are acquiring the knowledge of methodology and adapting it into entirely new forms. This means that there are about as many methods as there are people on our planet, probably many more, because who pretends that everyone has to stick to just one method? Most don't invent new methods at all, others come up with a new one every day.

Therefore, not to sink in this sea of methodology, especially in the field of research, is certainly not easy, especially since each person is superior to the freedom of opinion. Accordingly, it comes not only to individual methods, but also to group discussions and diagnostics, which involve the opinion of many people, and the issue of evaluation is still a much larger one. So who is supposed to keep track of it all?

Basically, methods are used to collect information. They serve the most different purposes. From the description over the explanation as well as the prediction of certain results and the insight over an examined situation, and/or within the psychology and the social science the insight over the behavior of the examined humans, up to the general knowledge production. It is always about the collection of data, which is then finally answered in the context of a certain research question. Only on the basis of methods can empirical hypotheses be answered, which ultimately serve the enlightenment and can thus change lives. The individual methods that serve exactly this purpose are incredibly versatile and range from the old-fashioned, non-experimental methods of pure observations or the measurement of certain objects to data evaluations with absolutely diverse interference statistical and descriptive procedures to hermeneutic interpretations and high-quality content analyses that serve the general type formation. Thus, the general field of research could not be more complicated, especially since so far there has been no mention of so-called mixed-methods designs, which are absolutely productive but difficult to combine.

Since the overview can quickly be lost in the sheer mass of methods, this book is intended to help present and understand some of the countless methods within the methodology in more detail. The aim is to provide a sound understanding in terms of logic and areas of application, which should ultimately serve as a guide and signpost.

Especially students often have a very difficult time finding a method with which they can really work actively. Especially since it is not done once the right method has been found. The general topic of research is an incredibly difficult one, and few people manage to get research off the ground in their lifetime that is groundbreaking and improves lives. Much more common, on the other hand, is research that goes on in the background and helps keep human life on this planet in some sort of order. While this may not sound as fantastic as you hear about some researchers who make it big and have entire articles devoted to them in science magazines or end up being known around the world, it is certainly no less difficult, if not actually more difficult than a single simple success.

Therefore, it is said that especially young people with the help of this book can be able to develop a mental map of the so-called method landscape, which should bring a quick overview of the special variants of the psychological method. That is exactly why this book contains many upper categories, all of which are to be explained in their own time.

This is usually not the case in scientific books and guidebooks. Instead, it would be normal to specialize in one or two methods or categories and then list all aspects of them, but this does not help students in particular, who quickly and effectively try to understand a certain subject area and thus, of course, the field of methodological research. For example, it is not exactly rare to deal with the integrative presentation of either quantitative or qualitative methods. It is then concentrated on the rather old-fashioned methods of the humanities or rather on the new ones, which are clearly more concerned