List of psychological research methods - wikipedia List of psychological research methods Psychology Outline History Subfields Basic types Abnormal Behavioral genetics Biological Cognitive Comparative Cross-cultural Cultural Differential Developmental Evolutionary Experimental Mathematical Neuropsychology Personality Positive Quantitative Social Applied psychology Applied behavior analysis Clinical Community Consumer Counseling Critical Educational Environmental Ergonomics Forensic Health Humanistic Industrial and organizational Interpretive Legal Medical Military Music Occupational health Political Religion School Sport Traffic Lists Disciplines Organizations Psychologists Psychotherapies Publications Research methods Theories Timeline Topics Psychology portal A wide range of research methods are used in psychology. These methods vary by the sources of information that are drawn on, how that information is sampled, and the types of instruments that are used in data collection. Methods also vary by whether they collect qualitative data, quantitative data or both. Qualitative psychological research is where the research findings are not arrived at by statistical or other quantitative procedures. Quantitative psychological research is where the research findings result from mathematical modeling and statistical estimation or statistical inference. Since qualitative information can be handled as such statistically, the distinction relates to method, rather than the topic studied. There are three main types of psychological research : Correlational research Descriptive research Experimental research The following are common research designs and data collection methods : Archival research Case study Computer simulation ( modeling ) Content analysis Event sampling methodology, also referred to as experience sampling methodology ( ESM ), diary study, or ecological momentary assessment ( EMA ) Experiment, often with separate treatment and control groups ( see scientific control and design of experiments ). See Experimental psychology for many details. Field experiment Interview, can be structured or unstructured. Meta - analysis Neuroimaging and other psychophysiological methods Observational study, can be naturalistic ( see natural experiment ), participant or controlled. Quasi-experiment Self - report inventory Survey, often with a random sample ( see survey sampling ) Twin study Research designs vary according to the period ( s ) of time over which data are collected : Retrospective cohort study : Subjects are chosen, then data are collected on their past experiences. Prospective cohort study : Subjects are recruited prior to the proposed independent effects being administered or occurring. Cross-sectional study, in which a population are sampled on all proposed measures at one point in time. Longitudinal study : Subjects are studied at multiple time points : May address the cohort effect and indicate causal directions of effects. Research in psychology has been conducted with both animals and human subjects : Animal study Human subject research References Stangor, Charles. ( 2007 ). Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences. 3rd ed. Boston, MA : Houghton Mifflin Company. Weathington, B.L., Cunningham, C.J.L., & Pittenger, D.P. ( 2010 ). Research Methods for the Behavioral and Social Sciences. Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Psychology History Philosophy Portal Psychologist Basic psychology Abnormal Affective science Affective neuroscience Behavioral genetics Behavioral neuroscience Behaviorism Cognitive Cognitive neuroscience Comparative Cross-cultural Cultural Developmental Differential Ecological Evolutionary Experimental Gestalt Intelligence Mathematical Neuropsychology Personality Positive Psycholinguistics Psychophysics Psychophysiology Quantitative Social Theoretical Applied psychology Anomalistic Applied behavior analysis Assessment Clinical Community Consumer Counseling Critical Educational Ergonomics Feminist Forensic Health Industrial and organizational Legal Media Military Music Occupational health Pastoral Political Psychometrics Psychotherapy Religion School Sport and exercise Suicidology Systems Traffic Methodologies Animal testing Archival research Behavior epigenetics Case study Content analysis Experiments Human subject research Interviews Neuroimaging Observation Qualitative research Quantitative research Self - report inventory Statistical surveys Psychologists William James ( 1842 -- 1910 ) Ivan Pavlov ( 1849 -- 1936 ) Sigmund Freud ( 1856 -- 1939 ) Edward Thorndike ( 1874 -- 1949 ) Carl Jung ( 1875 -- 1961 ) John B. Watson ( 1878 -- 1958 ) Clark L. Hull ( 1884 -- 1952 ) Kurt Lewin ( 1890 -- 1947 ) Jean Piaget ( 1896 -- 1980 ) Gordon Allport ( 1897 -- 1967 ) J.P. Guilford ( 1897 -- 1987 ) Carl Rogers ( 1902 -- 1987 ) Erik Erikson ( 1902 -- 1994 ) B.F. Skinner ( 1904 -- 1990 ) Donald O. Hebb ( 1904 -- 1985 ) Ernest Hilgard ( 1904 -- 2001 ) Harry Harlow ( 1905 -- 1981 ) Raymond Cattell ( 1905 -- 1998 ) Abraham Maslow ( 1908 -- 1970 ) Neal E. Miller ( 1909 -- 2002 ) Jerome Bruner ( 1915 -- 2016 ) Donald T. Campbell ( 1916 -- 1996 ) Hans Eysenck ( 1916 -- 1997 ) Herbert A. Simon ( 1916 -- 2001 ) David McClelland ( 1917 -- 1998 ) Leon Festinger ( 1919 -- 1989 ) George Armitage Miller ( 1920 -- 2012 ) Richard Lazarus ( 1922 -- 2002 ) Stanley Schachter ( 1922 -- 1997 ) Robert Zajonc ( 1923 -- 2008 ) Albert Bandura ( b. 1925 ) Roger Brown ( 1925 -- 1997 ) Endel Tulving ( b. 1927 ) Lawrence Kohlberg ( 1927 -- 1987 ) Noam Chomsky ( b. 1928 ) Ulric Neisser ( 1928 -- 2012 ) Jerome Kagan ( b. 1929 ) Walter Mischel ( b. 1930 ) Elliot Aronson ( b. 1932 ) Daniel Kahneman ( b. 1934 ) Paul Ekman ( b. 1934 ) Michael Posner ( b. 1936 ) Amos Tversky ( 1937 -- 1996 ) Bruce McEwen ( b. 1938 ) Larry Squire ( b. 1941 ) Richard E. Nisbett ( b. 1941 ) Martin Seligman ( b. 1942 ) Ed Diener ( b. 1946 ) Shelley E. Taylor ( b. 1946 ) John Anderson ( b. 1947 ) Ronald C. Kessler ( b. 1947 ) Joseph E. LeDoux ( b. 1949 ) Richard Davidson ( b. 1951 ) Susan Fiske ( b. 1952 ) Roy Baumeister ( b. 1953 ) Lists Counseling topics Disciplines Important publications Organizations Outline Psychologists Psychotherapies Research methods Schools of thought Timeline Topics Wiktionary definition Wiktionary category Wikisource Wikiquote Wikinews Wikibooks ( ( Category : Research ) MKJGKM, ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_psychological_research_methods&oldid=803646726 '' Categories : Experimental psychology Psychology lists Cognitive science lists Talk About Wikipedia Български Čeština Հայերեն Edit links This page was last edited on 3 October 2017, at 19 : 47. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: two main types of research methods used in psychology
Answer: Correlational research; Qualitative psychological research; qualitative data; qualitative