Research methods

Types of research questions

Why do we do what we do?

Why do we think what we think?
Why do we feel what we feel?
 Research
• Defined research as ‘any honest attempt to study a
problem systematically or to add to man’s knowledge
of a problem.’
• Careful, systematic, patient study and investigation in
some field of knowledge, undertaken to discover or
establish facts or principles.
• The scientific method is a set of principles and
procedures that are used by researchers to develop
questions, collect data, and reach conclusions .
 Research Process
• Identifying and clearly stating the problem;
• Generating hypothesis;
• Deciding the research procedure;
• Decide the type of data;
• Gather the Data;
• Analyze the data by means of statistical techniques.
• Conclusion and recommendations.
Basic Terms and Concepts related to
Research
• Theory: is a general idea or framework that helps to organize
what we know and want to know about a topic.
• Basic research: is a research designed to test theory to
expand the borders of knowledge.
• Applied research: is a research designed to address a
practical problem. A researcher might try to discover a good
way to reduce smoking, or increase literacy, or reduce violent
crime.
• Hypothesis: is a testable idea derived from a theory. It is
predictable statement between two variables.
Con’t.……
• Population: is the group of people that one is interested in studying.
• Sample: is of a group of people, the subset that participates in one’s
study.
• A variable: is something that undergoes changes. If the variable in
the research is, for example, intensity of a tone, intensity is the
variable. There are two major types of variables.
• Independent: Variable is any factor whose change is expected to
affect the event that is being studied.
• Dependent Variable: is the event that is expected to change when the
independent
Example of Dependent and Independent
Variable
• Suppose a doctor wants to investigate the effect on tooth decay of the
addition of fluoride to drinking water.
• The independent variable in this research design is addition of
fluoride.
• Tooth decay is the dependent variable
Types of Research Methods
• Research methods fall into two “design”
categories in psychology.
• Research methods that are experimental in
design include the laboratory, field and quasi-
experiment.
• Non-experimental methods include the
observational, survey, interview and case study
methods.
Methods of Data Collection
Naturalistic Observation
 Naturalistic Observation
• Perhaps the simplest form of research is (Naturalistic)
Observation.
• Naturalistic observation is research that involves
observing behavior in its natural setting.
• Suppose you want to know how marriage ceremonies are
conducted in Ethiopia
• It means, observing behavior in their natural
environment. It often involves counting behaviors, such
as number of aggressive acts, number of smiles, etc.
2. Case Study ( Clinical Method)

• Case study is an in-depth investigation of a

single person or small group of people.
• A case study research design usually
involves qualitative methods,
• but quantitative methods are sometimes also
used
 Cont.…
• Case studies are typically conducted because there is
something distinctive and potentially informative
about the or group.
• For example, The unit of study can be Single Person,
a family, a group of delinquents, dropouts and
teenagers.
 3. The Survey Method

• it is a method of getting information regarding

peoples’ characteristics attitudes, opinions or
behavior by asking them all the same question.
• Example: the central statistical office (CSO)
conducts a large-scale survey. It enables to
establish the size, distribution and characteristics
of the population.
 Con’t….
• Survey research tells us a great deal about people.
Questioning every household produces accurate
information.
• People sometimes give misleading answers either
deliberately or accidentally; particularly if the
concern is a touching area, such as sex, money or
race relations.
 Correlational Research
• Correlational research seeks to discover if two variables
are correlated, that is, related or associated in some way.
• One reason to conduct correlational research is that
correlations help us to predict one variable from
another.
• For example, people who work in university admissions
might be interested to know whether GSLE scores are
correlated with college performance.
 Cont.……

Correlations can range from -1 to 1.

If a correlation is a positive number, this indicates
that the two variables rise and fall together.
For example, we might expect time spent studying
and grades to be positively correlated.
As studying goes up, grades go up. As studying goes
down, grades go down.
 Cont.….
• If two variables are correlated zero, then they are
uncorrelated or unrelated, so knowing one tells
nothing at all about the other.
• Correlation does not imply causation.
• If we know two variables are correlated, this does
not indicate that one of them causes the other.
Cont.……
• Correlation means relationship, so the purpose of
a correlational study is to determine if a
relationship exists, what direction the
relationship is, and how strong it is. It can not
make any assumptions of cause and effect (no
causation).
5. Experimental method

• Experimental research seeks to discover if one

variable causes another.
• We often want to know this. For example, does
violent TV increase aggression?
• Unlike correlational research methods or
psychological tests, experiments can provide
information about cause-and-effect relationships
between variables.
 Cont
• In an experiment, a researcher manipulates or changes a particular
variable under controlled conditions while observing resulting
changes in another variable or variables.
• Variable: A factor or element that can change in observable and
measurable ways.
• Independent Variable (IV) – the variable that is manipulated by
the experimenter (input variable)-effects the experimenter wishes
to examine.
• Dependent Variable (DV) – the outcome variable (results of the
experiment)-experimenter wants to find out if this variable
depends on some other factor.
 Cont
• Extraneous variables that can affect the result of the experiment can
be controlled.
• In experimental research method there are two groups.
• Experimental group: are the participants who receive the factor (e.g., a
drug, a violent film) that the researcher is investigating.
• Control group: are the participants who do not receive the factor (e.g.,
a drug, a violent film) that the researcher is investigating.
• The control group is used as a standard or baseline against which the
experimental group is compared.
APA Ethical Guidelines
1. No coercion: Participation should be voluntary.
2. Informed consent: Participants must know that
they are involved in research and give their
consent.
3. Anonymity or confidentiality: Participants’
privacy must be protected. Their identities and
actions must not be revealed by the researcher.
Cont…
4. Risk: Participants cannot be placed at significant
mental or physical risk.
Research that might cause someone long-term mental or
physical harm must be avoided.
5. Debriefing: After the study, participants should be
told the purpose of the study and provided with ways to
contact the researchers about the results.