Research In Psychology: Methods and Design

How do experimental psychologists think?

How do they acquire psychological knowledge?

What methods do they use in their efforts to understand behavior?

You’ll find a clear, lucid source of answers to these questions in C. James Goodwin’s Research in Psychology: Methods and Design, Fifth Edition. In lively prose that conveys the joys and excitement of the science, this book gives you insight into the essential nature of experimental psychology and a solid grounding in its methods and practices.

Maintaining the reader-friendly accessibility of the book’s popular previous editions, Goodwin shows you how to look at the world like an experimental psychologist, develop research ideas and hypotheses, design studies and carry them out, and analyze results and draw reasoned conclusions from them. Thoroughly updating his text with the important new developments in research methodologies and fascinating examples from recent studies, Goodwin introduces you to:

• The history of experimental psychology

• The various methods in the psychologist’s toolkit, including non-experimental ones such as correlational research, quasi-experimental designs, applied research, and program evaluation

• The ethical dimensions of research

• Using psychology’s most important electronic database—PsycINFO

• Preparing an APA-style research report

A step-by-step approach and an array of study aids—including self-tests, review questions, applications exercises, and detailed examples of actual research studies — help you hone your grasp of the material. Best of all, while the text puts experimental methods first, its modular organization allows for flexible arrangement to suit the reader or instructor. 

Booknews

Presents a lively examination of ethics and correlational research in addition to experimental methods. Coverage includes developing ideas for research in psychology, problems in experimental research, experimental design, and descriptive research methods. Includes chapter quizes and application problems. This second edition offers new examples, improved reviews, and additional case studies, plus new boxes on topics designed to spark student interest. Also new to this edition are appendices on several new statistical routines. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

C. James Goodwin is a Professor at Western Carolina University.