AP Psychology Unit 1.2 Study Guide

1.2 RESEARCH IN PSYCHOLOGY

Methods of Research Ways to Do Research

• Surveys - Cross Sectional

• Naturalistic Observation - Longitudinal

• Case Study

• Experiments

Survey

Gathering data on what people think and have done. Data is raw and needs to be processed to make it into a useful info.

Strength: Can gather large amounts of data very quickly, easily. Allows for anonymity.

Weakness: Participants can lie, misunderstand. Wording effect, questions can effect answers.

Case Study

Kind-of the opposite of surveys. Deep data is gathered about a specific individual/group.

Strength: Full picture of what happened, chronological data, different views.

Weakness: Time consuming, focuses on one person in a detailed way, not generalizable.

Naturalistic Observation

Researchers need to go to people’s environments to observe them as they are.

Strengths: Authentic data, allows real treatment.

Weakness: Ethics of informed consent, lack of control, not explanations just descriptions.

Ways to do these methods:

Cross Sectional Studies

• compares different groups

• gathers data at one point in time

• doesn’t give history

Longitudinal Studies

• follows one group

• gathers data over a long time

• may not be generalized