Research Methods in Psychology: Types and Tips

24 Jan, 2025
Author : David Brown

Key Takeaways

  • Psychology is simply the study of the mental state of human and their behaviour.
  • Research methods help in the collection of data and analysis of the data for finding new results.
  • Different types of psychology cover different fields of study.
  • Tips for using research methods in psychology will help you get better results.

Psychology is simply, the study of the human mind and its behaviour. This also helps you to get an understanding of about human’s health and their mental state. Let, me get this straight buddy, you can be here for two reasons, one is that you are here in general as you might be thinking about what to do when bored in class so you came here to learn more about your subject or you have to write an assignment on Psychology.

Well no matter what you are here for we are here to provide all you need to know, we have a variety of information for you in this blog. You can go through the section of research methods that are mainly used in psychology, you can select any of these for your assignment. We even have covered 16 types of psychology, yes dude 16, there are indeed so many types of Psychology, and we have covered all of them for you. And in last to help a little more we provided tips to use while doing research in Psychology.

So go ahead and gain all the information that we have in this blog or wait, we remember one more thing, if you are here to collect the information for your assignment why can’t you simply seek help from a good assignment writing service? Well if you ask us that’s a better option.

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What We Study in Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behaviour of humans. This study comes from scientific research and it does not end on just one field of the human brain and their behavior. It further goes to multiple fields like healthcare, education, industry and commerce, climate change, and artificial intelligence.

Now, let’s know about the word psychology, it comes from the Greek word psyche (breath, soul, or mind and the word logos means science. It has its roots in ancient times, connected to medicine, biology, and philosophy and it is still left with many areas to research, if you are interested in such areas there is a whole list of Innovative psychology dissertation ideas, for students who are writing dissertations and researching the areas that are yet to be discovered. 

Research Methods Used in Psychology

Research Methods Used in Psychology

Many psychology research methods examine how people interpret their environment while coordinating data making judgments and showing behavioral responses to stimuli. To conclude population researchers apply statistical methods together with numerical data through quantitative research tactics. Research methods grounded in psychology make use of non-statistical evaluation techniques to gather knowledge about personal experiences within studied populations and communities. You can use all these below-mentioned research methods for your higher psychology assignment or any other research as well. 

Surveys: Surveys represent the primary methodology used by psychologists in their mental health disorders research to study prevalence patterns and disease foundations. Researchers employ random selection protocols for their patient survey work because survey research exists in quantitative and qualitative formats.

Case study: The major research method besides case study is the investigation of one complete group community or event through deep inspection. Case study research shares close characteristics with qualitative research methods. Case study investigations by psychologists generate enhanced comprehension of patients' mental states as well as behavioural patterns.

The extensive appraisal of patients’ mental disorders in case study research delivers better treatment outcomes by enabling psychologists to both conduct lengthy interviews and closely monitor patient behaviour during defined study periods. 

It is also important to know how to write a case study report, as you cannot follow the same format as another assignment. 

Experimental study: Experiments serve best to establish whether two variables exist in a causal relationship. Between mental health and patient behavioural variables exists a possible causal relationship. Experiment-based testing reveals how variations in individual independent variables shape dependent variable conditions. 

Content analysis: Through content analysis, researchers evaluate textual data to find recurrent patterns along with semantic meaning and conceptual elements in patients' written communication formats. Content analysis research exists both in quantitative and qualitative methods. However it is used more when secondary research is needed, so it's suggested that you learn about the advantages and disadvantages of secondary research before you select your sources. Clinical psychologists are able to select content analysis for any type of text which includes: 

  • Psychologists analyze medical consultations by accomplishing a complete recording of patient expressions during face-to-face meetings or by transcription.
  • Business emails 
  • Hand-written letters 

Through analyzing verbal communication patterns researchers can create superior psychological intervention methods for patients. 

Meta-analysis: Meta-analysis functions as a numerical research protocol that evaluates published research on a shared investigation and compiles diverse scholarly outcomes into one unified assessment.

Meta-analysts search databases for published studies on a specific subject and then review them together to create a cumulative overview of the research findings. Psychological studies benefit from a single-document synthesis of related inquiries to offer researchers a convenient resource for understanding previous and present research outcomes. In this primary research is used more, so make sure you know what benefits of primary research are there and how can they help them in meta-analysis. 

Types of Psychology 

Here is a brief explanation of all 16 types of Psychology, you can make

  1. Behavioural neuroscience: Behavioural neuroscience is the study of the nervous system, in which you study how the nervous system controls behaviour, thought, and emotions. Further, it studies psychology related to different fields which is related to neuroscience. Starting from Learning and memory, motivation, emotion, sensory processes, psychiatric illness, neurological illness, and so on. 
  2. Behavioural psychology: In this psychology, one can learn and understand the basic behaviour of human actions. Behavioral psychologists usually work in the educational field like universities, along with this one can also work in the medical field like hospitals or in their practice.
  3. Clinical psychology: In this type of psychology, one can study the abnormal and psychopaths who have serious behavioural issues. In this study, one can learn about treating the patient through therapies and treatments. This also incorporates psychological science to treat difficulties.
  4. Cognitive psychology: In this type of psychology, a person studies an individual's thinking how they think and perceive any situation, or how they react to different kinds of situations. If you are selecting this type of psychology for your assignment it is suggested that you seek guidance from a good assignment help before you carry on with that. 
  5. Community psychology: Community psychology studies health problems to spread awareness in society such as schools, communities, NGOs, charities, government associations, and other organizations. It aims to improve the mindset and the environment of the people who are living there.
  6. Comparative psychology: Comparative psychology studies the differences and similar effects of human and animal behaviour which counterparts. The persons who study in this field observe both animal and human behaviour, and how they react to different situations.
  7. Consumer psychology: In this field of study, the learner studies consumer behaviour, marketing, and other strategies that come into use to influence customers or consumers which directly impacts the consumer's decision.
  8. Development psychology: Development psychology is itself explaining the meaning of psychology that impacts on development.  This can be based on a few things like human lifespan, behaviour, languages, and incapacity that come with various life stages of humans. Here are some psychologies that specifically study some life stages like teenager, adolescence, childhood, and so on. 
  9. Educational psychology: Educational psychology itself says its meaning, it studies the human learning capacity and what things they adapt easily to how their learning works. Mostly educational psychologist works in multiple learning settings like elementary and secondary schools, and universities.  They learn how cognitive and societal elements can affect learning.
  10. Environment psychology: In this field, psychologists learn about how humans impact the environment or surroundings through their behaviour. They work in a setting of organization, government agency, environment, and pollution protection. If you select this type of psychology and do the research all by yourself get your research go through proofreading services so that it can be confirmed that there is no mistake in your your research. 
  11. Sport psychology: Sport psychology’s goal is to provide an athlete with strategies to elevate their performance, by surpassing hurdles and hitting their aim. The field stresses a few things like team building, impressive communication, decrement of anxiety, etc. Additionally, it works in the setting of Universities, for things like violence, stereotypes, and gender or racism biases. 
  12. Experimental psychology: Scientists in experimental psychology use precise experimental approaches to study human behaviours along with mental operations in controlled laboratory settings. Experimental psychology provides foundational insight into psychological mechanisms that explain basic aspects of both cognitive processes and perceptions of emotion and basic psychological capabilities. 
  13. Social psychology: Students learn social psychology fundamentals along with how people talk and behave and how their actions shape the broader society in this study section. Social psychology explores human thought processes aimed at directing relationships between people. The field focuses on understanding human social interaction. Understanding specific behavioral patterns within social contexts constitutes part of this field together with investigations of human tendencies toward aggression and prejudice and interpersonal attraction behaviors. 
  14. Forensic psychology: The field of forensic psychology uses psychological concepts to address legal matters across criminal subjects and courtroom procedures combined with police operational areas. As a unified discipline forensic psychology links psychological approaches to judicial structures which enables critical support during legal frameworks.
  15. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: The scientific discipline of industrial-organizational psychology (I/O psychology) examines human workplace and organizational behaviour through empirical methods. The field makes use of psychological research methods to address challenges in how individuals groups and organizations perform. I/O psychologists apply research-based psychological understanding to address human resource challenges including recruitment and training alongside performance assessment and motivation programs to enhance work quality and drive organizational performance.
  16. Personality psychology: Personality psychology studies human personality together with behavioural and emotional distinctiveness while focusing on traits and how they shape development throughout the lifespan. Studies within this field investigate the combination of genetic inheritance and life experience which produces distinct human personalities through time.

If you ask us, it would be a mistake if you go with any of these types of psychology for your dissertation without any guidance from a good dissertation helper you would be making a mistake. 

Tips to do Research in the Field of Psychology

  • Maintain research ethics: Psychological research requires teams and participants in studies to receive a complete understanding of research procedures along with all relevant policies and confidentiality terms.

  • Apply the scientific method: Your ability to accurately report results improves when you implement the scientific method to organize research data collection and analysis steps each time you investigate.

  • Report your findings: Doubling as the author of your scientific research enables both scholarly collaboration and professional networking opportunities and professional reputation and authority building in your field.

  • Editing: Get a good editing service to make the required changes in your research, as these editing services will make sure that you have everything properly in your research. 
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Conclusion

So, in summary, no matter what type of research method you choose or what type of psychology you are studying it is indeed a tough job researching. But I guess we have provided you with the information that may have made your burden a little less.

We started with explaining what is psychology and then moved to explaining different research methods used in psychology which have their patterns. No research method is even little same as other one, a case study focuses on cases, content analysis focuses on written text, and surveys, cover big target areas.

Then we moved to types of psychology which were 16, which has to be quite hectic we agree, but at least now you have all the information and to put that extra cherry on top we provided you tips on how can you use these research methods in psychology.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, qualitative and quantitative methods are the main categories for research methods in psychology and not just in psychology but everywhere these two are always the main categories. As every other method revolves around them there is a third one as well which is the mixed research method.

Getting research ideas in psychology is way too simple, all you need to do is go through previous research and find the gaps in that research, find the questions left unanswered in that research.

Survey has always been the most used research method as when you go through various articles you will find most of them used surveys in their articles. But we can not say that this is best in all cases, as which is the best research method depends on your research and the type of psychology.

Research methods are mainly techniques and strategies that psychologists use to scientifically find an answer to research questions. There are different research methods for doing these, using their different tools for collecting the data analysing the data, and finding new information.

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