qualitative research - exploratory, used to gain insight into psychological phenomena of interest

case studies - detailed analysis over time of a case, in-depth study of an individual

naturalistic observation - observations of naturally occurring behavior in a natural setting; field notes are typically used, observations may be participant or non-participant observations, ethical implications of covert observation need to be justified

experiments - designed with one clear independent and dependent variables (all other variables that could affect the dependent are typically controlled)

field experiments - the researcher manipulates the independent variable but the experiment is conducted in a real-life environment

quasi-experiments - the participants are grouped based on characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, or scores on a depression scale, for example

natural experiments - researchers find naturally occurring variables and study them

correlational research - has a focus on two variables but they are not called independent and dependent because correlational research cannot prove cause and effect

qualitative interviews - unstructured, semi-structured, and group interviews used to gain insight into peoples thoughts opinions, and feelings from their point of view

quantitative interviews - may be followed by surveys to collect data from a representative sample so that findings can be generalized to a larger population

matched pair designs - randomly assign one pair to either the control of experimental group

independent measures - using two separate groups of participants , one assigned to control and the other assigned to experimental

repeated measures design - exposes participants to each condition making up the independent variables

random sampling - process where every member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected

opportunity/ convenience sampling - selecting people who are able to participant/ available

volunteer sampling - individuals choose to participate in the study

purposive sampling - participants are chosen because they have useful characteristics to the study

snowball sampling - participants who are already in a study help the researcher to recruit more through their social network

hypotheses - a statement that is testable and falsifiable based on the results of an experiment/ observation, the null hypothesis is a statement that the treatment that has no effect, while the alternate hypothesis is that the statement that the treatment will have an effect on the dependent variable (one is rejected and the other is accepted depending on the outcome of the investigation)

independent variable - the factor that the experiment manipulates

dependent variable - the factor that is measured which changes according to the independent variable

standardization/ control - eliminating/ controlling factors that could affect the dependent variable