Method And Theory In Experimental Psychology

This text focuses on the experimental methods and the associated terminology encountered in the research literature of psychology. Initially, the content is kept simple, so as not to distract from the information on research technique and philosophy. Interesting psychological questions from well researched areas are then examined in detail, permitting a fuller discussion of the problems encountered in specific paradigms. It is in this fashion that the book offers both methods and content. Unique features of this text include: * a detailed discussion of the process of theorizing, coupled with a close examination of psychological constructs, offers the reader an opportunity to see how psychologists think about, develop, and modify their theories, and the part played by research in changing explanations of behavior. * Although it is common for psychologists to be self-conscious in their reasoning, it is uncommon to see an analysis of the logic that they use to draw conclusions. Presenting material that is rarely verbalized but readily acknowledged by experienced researchers, the text contains an overt analysis of the logic of drawing conclusions from research. * Instructors are given a choice among 15 chapters to focus on or combine to suit the course's concentration. For example, instructors have the option of focusing on experimental psychology or a broad-based course including material on research methods in experimental, social, clinical, and applied psychology. * Courses in experimental psychology or research methods are required for every psychology major. Statistical understanding is vital for this curriculum, and this text contains a comprehensive chapter on statistics making it ideal for courses that combine statistics and experimental methods. Other important coverage includes: * an all-inclusive summary of the material found in an introductory statistics class. Although courses in research methods and experimental psychology usually have a statistics prerequisite, the students rarely remember the material when entering the research course. This text provides the instructor with the option of simply assigning the statistics information as a review, rather than repeating the lectures. If the course requirements are such as to necessitate a joint statistics and research methods course -- with the instructor lecturing on both topics -- this text could serve as the single text for the course. A helpful discussion -- accompanied by a valuable table -- demonstrates how to choose an appropriate statistic. All necessary formulas and other familiar statistical procedures -- illustrating computational steps -- are also featured. * a detailed discussion of how to develop tests for use in research. Aside from the value of this information for any researcher, it can be particularly helpful to students who are required to develop original experiments. * an elaborate discussion of methodological issues in outcome research, using smoking cessation and weight reduction programs as examples. Test bank disks for Experimental Methods in Psychology, -- free to adopters -- consist of an average of six short-answer, 11 fill-in-the-blank, and 11 multiple-choice questions for each chapter. The files are in both ASCII and Word-for-Windows formats.

The Handbook of Research Methods in Experimental Psychology presents a comprehensive and contemporary treatment of research methodologies used in experimental psychology. Places experimental psychology in historical context, investigates the changing nature of research methodology, experimental design, and analytic procedures, and features research in selected content areas. Provides an excellent source of potential research ideas for advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students. Illustrates the range of research methodologies used in experimental psychology. Contains contributions written by leading researchers. Now available in full text online via xreferplus, the award-winning reference library on the web from xrefer. For more information, visit www.xreferplus.com

This textbook provides an introduction to experimental methods covering methods by disciplines of psychology such as social and clinical. The information presents general principles with context-specific examples.

First published in English 1968, in this volume Paul Fraisse begins with history, looking at the evolution of experimental psychology, starting with its origins. He then moves on to the establishment of experimental psychology around the world. In the second chapter he discusses the experimental method. In the third chapter Jean Piaget tackles the questions of explanation and parallelism and their problems within experimental psychology. The final chapter by Maurice Reuchlin goes on to discuss measurement in psychology looking at various scales with their experimental conditions and numerical properties.

This book has been written to meet several needs. Firstly there is a need for a book which integrates statistics, research design, ex periments and report writing so that none is learned in a vacuum, as commonly is the case, isolated from the others. The aim is to make the student an active learner encouraged to carry out experiments, so ex periencing and understanding the design problems and statistical analyses in the practical context where he can see exactly what he is doing and why. The aim is that by the end of the book, the student should be able to evaluate the research of others, to define a problem, formulate a hypothesis about it, design and carry out the experiment, apply the correct statistics, discuss the results and implications, and write it all up in a logical and sensible fashion. The principle is that old pedagogic one of learning by doing. Secondly, there is a need for an introductory text on statistics, research design and experimental work for the many students who meet psychology and social science for the first time. The initiate in behavioural science needs to gain a conceptual understanding of statistical procedures and design techniques in order to carry out his own investigations and to understand and evaluate constructively the investigations of others. However, experience has shown us that many students (and even some fellow teachers) are somewhat reluctant to study this area as they believe it is difficult and involves mathematics.