Research Methods and Statistics

Students who are curious and who like solving puzzles are ideal candidates for a course in psychological research methods. We developed this book in order to meet the needs of students who are learning to think like psychologists. We assume that you have already completed at least one course in psychology and have developed an interest in the discipline, so you are ready to apply your knowledge to ask and answer questions about thought, attitude, and behavior.

We also think that you are probably uncertain about the prospect of learning about statistics and the methods of research. Throughout the book, we have tried to show how the content of this course involves tools for understanding people. What is most important is that these tools help us learn about people and other animals. So we worked to create a book that will not let you lose sight that psychologists focus on questions about what people do and why they do it.

To benefit from your course on asking and answering research questions about people, you only need to bring your sense of curiosity and a willingness to puzzle through the complexities of behavior. It is not always an easy task, but it is an interesting task. And at the end of a research project, you know something that nobody else in the world knows; you have created knowledge through your research that helps us advance, one step at a time, what we know about people.

Throughout the book, we have tried to make our writing as clear and accessible to you as possible. There are technical terms that you need to learn and understand, but we strove to minimize wording that would distract you from the points that we think you should know. As we progress through each chapter, our goal is to help you gradually build your skill set. First, we introduce basic tools for understanding research, then we show how you use those tools. At each step along the way, your knowledge will grow until, at the end of the course, you will understand the process of planning a research project, carrying it out, and then drawing conclusions about the question that interests you. And, as we mentioned before, at the end of your project, you will know something that nobody else in the world knows. You will have created a new nugget of knowledge.