Cognitive Connie
Let's explore Research Methods
Master the tools psychologists use to investigate human behaviour — from experimental design and sampling to data analysis, statistics, and ethical practice.
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Variables & Operationalisation
Before a single participant enters a study, researchers face a fundamental challenge: psychology is full of rich, abstract concepts — "stress," "memory," "aggression," "intelligence" — that exist in the mind but cannot be directly measured. Turning these constructs into something a measuring instrument can actually record is the work of operationalisation, and it shapes everything that follows.
Experimental Design
Choosing how to assign participants to conditions is one of the most consequential decisions in experimental design. It affects how many participants you need, what threats to validity you face, and what statistical procedures are appropriate. No design is universally superior — each is a set of trade-offs between internal validity, ecological validity, and practical constraints.
Validity & Reliability
A study can be perfectly consistent and still measure the wrong thing entirely. These two pillars of psychological measurement — reliability and validity — are related but distinct, and conflating them is one of the most common errors in interpreting research.
Sampling & Ethics
No study can include everyone, and how researchers decide who to include shapes who the findings apply to. Sampling sits at the bridge between the study and the world: a strong sampling method means findings tell us something about people beyond the room where data was collected; a weak one produces results that describe only the specific individuals who happened to participate.
Data Analysis & Statistics
Collecting data is only half the work. The numbers and narratives researchers gather have no meaning until they are analysed, interpreted, and placed in context — and the conceptual tools used to do that analysis determine what conclusions can and cannot be drawn.
Questionnaires, Interviews & Observations
Experiments are the gold standard for establishing causation, but they are not the only — or even the primary — tool in psychological research. Many of the most important questions in psychology cannot be answered by assigning people to conditions in a laboratory: what is it like to live with psychosis? How do children actually negotiate conflict in playgrounds? What values drive political behaviour?
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