Basic methods of psychology. Methods of psychological research 1 research methods in psychology

Psychology uses a whole complex for the accumulation of scientific data. For this science, it is extremely important in what way knowledge is obtained. L. Vygotsky believed that the facts obtained with the help of different cognitive principles are completely different facts.

These are ways of researching and studying the mental characteristics of different people, analyzing and processing the collected psychological information, as well as obtaining scientific conclusions based on research facts. Methods are used to solve specific research problems in the field of psychology.

Basic methods of psychological research It's an experiment and an observation. Each of these methods appears in specific forms and is characterized by various subspecies and features.

Methods of psychological research aimed at revealing the features, patterns, mechanisms of the psyche of individuals and social groups, as well as for a similar study of mental processes and phenomena. Each method has its own capabilities, but also has certain limitations. These features must be taken into account in practice, professional and other activities.

Research in the field of psychology is aimed at obtaining an objective result, about certain possibilities of the psyche. For this, it is necessary to master individual methods of psychology and methods of professional psychological research and study of a person.

Methods of psychological research can be classified. There are different approaches to this issue. For example, B. Ananiev distinguishes the following groups of research methods in psychology.

Organizational - include (comparison of subjects according to a certain criterion: occupation, age, etc.), longitudinal method (long-term study of one phenomenon), complex (representatives of different sciences, different means of study are involved in the study).

Empirical is the collection of primary information. They distinguish observational methods (by which they understand observation and self-observation.

Experiments - methods that include field, laboratory, natural, formative and ascertaining research.

Psychodiagnostic - test methods, which are divided into projective, standardized tests, conversation, interviews, questionnaires, sociometry, surveys, etc.

Praximetric - methods for analyzing phenomena, products of the activity of the psyche, such as chronometry, the biographical method; professiogram, cyclography, evaluation of activity products; modeling.

Data processing methods, which include quantitative (statistical) and qualitative (analysis and differentiation of materials by groups), they allow you to establish patterns that are hidden from direct perception.

Interpretation methods involve separate techniques for explaining the dependencies and patterns that are revealed during statistical data processing and comparing them with already known facts. This includes typological classification, genetic method, structural, psychography, psychological profile.

Principles of psychological research: no harm to the subject, competence, impartiality, confidentiality, informed consent.

Methods of psychology - A set of methods and techniques for studying mental phenomena.

There are various classifications of methods of psychology. One of the most popular is the classification of B. G. Ananiev. In accordance with it, 4 groups of methods of psychology are distinguished.

1 group – Organizational Methods- a group of methods of psychology that determine the general way of organizing psychological research.

These include comparative, longitudinal and complex methods. The comparative method of organizing the study is based on a comparison of data from different age groups. Longitudinal research involves a long-term study of the phenomenon of interest. The complex method involves an interdisciplinary study of the subject.

2 group – empirical methods- a group of methods of psychology, allowing to obtain primary data on the phenomenon under study. Therefore, these methods are also known as "methods of collecting primary information." Empirical methods include observation and experiment.

3 group – Data processing methods- imply a quantitative (statistical) and qualitative analysis of primary data (differentiation of material into groups, comparison, comparison, etc.).

4 group – Interpretive methods- various methods of explaining the regularities revealed as a result of data processing and their comparison with previously established facts. There is a genetic method of interpretation (analysis of the material in terms of development with the allocation of individual phases, stages, critical moments, etc.) and a structural method (establishment of a structural connection between all personality characteristics).

The main methods of obtaining psychological information are observation and experiment.

Observation- one of the main methods of collecting primary information, consisting in the systematic and purposeful perception and fixation of mental phenomena in certain conditions.

Required Conditions to use the method: a clear plan of observation, fixing the results of the observation, building a hypothesis that explains the observed phenomena, and testing the hypothesis in subsequent observations.

Experiment(from Latin experimentum - test, experience) - one of the main methods of collecting primary information, characterized by the fact that the researcher systematically manipulates one or more variables (or factors) and fixes the accompanying changes in the manifestation of the phenomenon under study.

A laboratory experiment is carried out under special conditions, the actions of the subject are determined by the instructions, the subject knows that the experiment is being carried out, although he may not know the true meaning of the experiment until the end.

General information

Now experimental psychology is considered in practice as a discipline responsible for setting up correct experiments in many areas of applied psychology, for example, to determine the appropriateness, effectiveness of a change, innovation (for example, in labor psychology). Great successes in the use of its methods have been achieved in the study of psychophysiology and the psychology of sensations and perception. However, the achievements of experimental psychology in promoting fundamental psychology are currently less significant and are in question. The limits of applicability of experimental methods in psychology are a subject of discussion among psychologists to this day.

Main principles of methodology

The methodology of experimental psychology is based on the following principles:

General scientific methodological principles:
1. The principle of determinism. Experimental psychology proceeds from the fact that human behavior and mental phenomena are the result of any causes, that is, they are fundamentally explicable.
2. The principle of objectivity. Experimental psychology considers that the object of cognition is independent of the cognizing subject; the object is fundamentally cognizable through action.
3. The principle of falsifiability is the requirement proposed by K. Popper to have a methodological possibility of refuting a theory that claims to be scientific by staging one or another fundamentally possible real experiment.
Principles Specific to Psychology
1. The principle of the unity of the physiological and mental. The nervous system ensures the emergence and flow of mental processes, but the reduction of mental phenomena to physiological processes is impossible.
2. The principle of the unity of consciousness and activity. Consciousness is active, and activity is conscious. An experimental psychologist studies the behavior that is formed in the close interaction of the individual with the situation. Expressed by the following function: R=f( P,S), where R- behavior, P- personality and S- situation.
3. development principle. Also known as the historicism principle and the genetic principle. According to this principle, the subject's psyche is the result of a long development in phylogenesis and ontogenesis.
4. System-structural principle. Any mental phenomena should be considered as integral processes. (The impact is always made on the psyche as a whole, and not on some isolated part of it.)

Ontological and epistemological principles of psychological research

VI Mamsik considers psychological research as a system.

As elements of the research system, he singles out: object (S), subject (Psi), method (M), conditions (otherwise - environment E) and result (R - behavior, or product of activity). The method can be defined as a system of temporal relations on the previously selected set of elements, or otherwise: as the interaction of the researcher with the elements identified in the course of the previous analysis.

The relations of the elements of psychological research form a system. At the same time, the principles and rules of psychological research constitute the structure of the system. They are the implementation of the main methodological principle - result invariance principle.

Basic ontological principles of psychological research:

The principle of representativeness defines the relationship of the object with the subject, conditions, method and result. The object must be selected in accordance with the research task.
Principle of validity characterizes the relationship of the subject with the elements of the research system. The subject of the study should not be changed during the course of the study.
Reliability principle characterizes the relationship of the method with other elements of the system and ensures the invariance of the result obtained by this method.
The principle of standardization of conditions: the correspondence of the actual conditions of the study to the ideally assumed ones should be characterized as the ecological validity of the study. … In relation to observation, standardization is replaced by the choice of an observation situation that corresponds to the design of the study
Principle of result invariance is resultant, is ensured by the application of the above principles and assumes the reproducibility of the experimental result in other studies and the comparability of the result obtained by one researcher with the results obtained by other researchers.

Thus, the principles reflect the correspondence of the researcher's idea to the real system that he implements.

Each ontological element corresponds to an epistemological element:

The method is characterized by defects, that is, it may be functionally unsuitable for solving a research problem.
The object is the source of the facts.
The subject (psyche) is characterized by variable factors that affect it in the course of the study.
Conditions (environment) is the source of artifacts.
The effect characterizes the assessment of the results of the study: the study can be effective and ineffective.

Accordingly, V. I. Mamsik identifies 5 basic epistemological principles:

principle of registration of facts;
the principle of factor planning;
principle of defect control;
the principle of elimination of artifacts;
principle of result control.

Major developments in creation

XVI century - the first information about psychological experiments.
XVIII century - the beginning of the systematic setting of psychological experiments for scientific purposes (for the most part, experiments with elementary visual sensations).
- publication of the book by G. T. Fechner "Elements of Psychophysics", which founded psychophysics and is considered the first work on experimental psychology.
- Publication of W. Wundt's book "Physiological Psychology".
- the foundation of Wundt's psychological laboratory, in which the first scientific psychological school was created.
- publication of the work of G. Ebbinghaus "On Memory", in which the author comes to understand the task of experimental psychology as the establishment of a functional relationship between certain phenomena and certain factors by solving any problems.

According to materials: Zarochentsev K. D., Khudyakov A. I. Experimental psychology: textbook. - M.: Prospekt Publishing House, 2005. S. 17-21

Basic concepts

Psychological experiment

Research methods in psychology

The classification given here is based on the classification of B. G. Ananiev, who combined in it all the stages of psychological research, from organizational to interpretation. [ Ananiev's classification is given here with some changes .]

Organizational group:
- Comparative method
- Longitudinal method
- Complex method (use of both comparative and longitudinal methods in combination)
A group of empirical data mining methods (depending on the chosen organizational method):
- Experimental Methods
  - Formative, or psychological and pedagogical experiment
- Psychodiagnostic methods
  - Standardized and projective test methods
  - Verbal-communicative methods
    - Conversation method
      - Interview
        Clinical interview
    - personality tests
Methods for the analysis of processes and products of vital activity (or praximetric methods)
- Timing
- Cyclography
- Professiography
Modeling method
All methods and techniques for processing empirical data:
- Methods of mathematical statistics
- Methods for the qualitative characteristics of the obtained material
Interpretive methods
- Genetic method (developmental phase analysis)
- Structural method (analysis of systems and types of intersystem connections)
  - Psychography

Criticism of experimental psychology

Since the very creation of experimental psychology, there have been discussions about the applicability of such a research method as experiment in psychology. There are two polar points of view:

in psychology, the use of experiment is fundamentally impossible and unacceptable;
psychology as a science without experiment is untenable.

The first point of view - about the impossibility of applying the experiment - is based on the following provisions:

The subject of research in psychology is too complicated.
The subject of research in psychology is too unstable, which leads to the impossibility of observing the principle of verification.
In a psychological experiment, the subject-subject interaction (subject-experimenter) is inevitable, which violates the scientific purity of the results.
The individual psyche is absolutely unique, which makes the psychological measurement and experiment meaningless (it is impossible to generalize the data obtained to all individuals).
The psyche has an inherent property of spontaneity, which makes it difficult to predict.
And etc.

Opponents of experimental methods are many adherents of the hermeneutic approach in psychology, based on the method of understanding V. Dilthey.

Supporters of the second point of view, which justifies the expediency of introducing an experiment into science, argue that an experiment makes it possible to discover the principle underlying a phenomenon. The experiment is seen as an attempt at laboratory reconstruction of a simplified reality in which its important characteristics can be modeled and controlled. The purpose of the experiment is to evaluate the theoretical principles underlying the psychological phenomenon.

There is also a point of view that can be perceived as a compromise between the two mentioned above - the idea of levels of mental organization. According to her, there are six levels of mental regulation (0 - physiological level, 1 - psycho-physiological level, 2 - the level of sensory-perceptual processes, 3 - the integrative level of the psyche, 4 - the level of personality, 5 - the level of individuality). The power of the natural-scientific method is highest when considering physiological processes and gradually decreases, tending to zero at the level of the individual. Accordingly, the power of the hermeneutic method rises from zero at the physiological level to its maximum at the individual level. This is shown in the diagram as follows:

According to materials: Zarochentsev K. D., Khudyakov A. I. Experimental psychology: textbook. - M.: Prospekt Publishing House, 2005. S. 21-25

Research objectives in psychology

Four common interrelated tasks facing scientific research: describe behavior, predict behavior, explain behavior, control behavior.

Behavior Description

Identification of regular sequences of events, including stimuli or external factors and responses or behaviors. Composing clear and precise descriptions is the first step in any scientific research, without which it is impossible to predict and explain behavior.

Behavior prediction

The discovery of the laws of behavior (the presence of constant and predictable relationships between variables) should lead to the implementation of forecasting with varying degrees of probability.

Explanation of behavior

Finding the causes of the behavior in question. The process of establishing causal relationships is complex and involves many aspects.

Behavior Management

Application in practice of the laws of behavior discovered in the course of psychological research.

According to materials: Research in psychology: methods and planning / J. Goodwin. - 3rd ed. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2004. S. 42-43

Ethical Issues in Psychological Research

When working with a subject, it is necessary to observe the ethics of psychological research. In most cases, you need:

Obtain the consent of the potential subject, explaining to him the purpose and objectives of the study, his role in the experiment to the extent that he was able to make a responsible decision about his participation.
Protect the subject from harm and discomfort.
Take care of the confidentiality of information about the subjects.
Fully explain the meaning and results of the study after the end of the work.

When working with animals:

It is forbidden to harm an animal and cause suffering, if it is not caused by the objectives of the research, determined by the approved program.
It is necessary to provide sufficiently comfortable conditions of detention.

According to materials: Zarochentsev K. D., Khudyakov A. I. Experimental psychology: textbook. - M.: Prospekt Publishing House, 2005. S. 30

Links

Extract from the educational standard for the discipline "Experimental Psychology"

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

Research methods in psychology are those techniques and means by which psychologists obtain reliable information used to build scientific theories and develop practical recommendations. The strength of science largely depends on the perfection of research methods, on how valid and reliable they are, how quickly a given branch of knowledge is able to absorb and use all the newest, most advanced that appears in the methods of other sciences. Where this can be done, there is usually a noticeable breakthrough in the knowledge of the world.

All of the above applies to psychology. Thanks to the application of the methods of natural and exact sciences, psychology, starting from the second half of the last century, stood out as an independent science and began to develop actively. Up to this point, psychological knowledge was obtained mainly through self-observation (introspection), speculative reasoning, and observation of the behavior of other people. The analysis of the facts obtained by such methods served as the basis for the construction of the first scientific theories explaining the essence of psychological phenomena and human behavior. However, the subjectivity of these methods, their lack of reliability were the reason that psychology for a long time remained a non-experimental science, divorced from practice, capable of assuming, but not proving, causal relationships that exist between mental and other phenomena.

In science, there are general requirements for the objectivity of scientific psychological research. The principle of objective psychological research is implemented by a variety of methodological means.

, consciousness are studied in the unity of internal and external manifestations. However, the relationship between the external flow of the process and its internal nature is not always adequate. The general task of all methods of objective psychological research is to adequately reveal this relationship - to determine its internal psychological nature from the external course of an act.
Our psychology affirms the unity of the mental and the physical, so psychological research often includes a physiological analysis of psychological processes. For example, it is hardly possible to study emotional processes without analyzing their physiological components. Psychological research cannot study mental phenomena in isolation from their psychophysiological mechanisms.
The material foundations of the psyche are not reduced to its organic foundations, the way of thinking of people is determined by the way of their life, the consciousness of people is determined by social practice. Therefore, the methodology of psychological research should be based on the analysis of human activity.
Psychological patterns are revealed in the process. The study of development is not only a special field, but also a specific method of psychological research. The point is not to fix the various levels of development, but to study the driving forces of this process.

Psychology, like any science, uses a whole system of different methods. In domestic psychology, the following four groups of methods are distinguished:
1. include:
a) comparative genetic method (comparison of different species groups according to psychological indicators);

cross-sectional method (comparison of selected same psychological indicators in different groups of subjects);
longitudinal method - the method of longitudinal sections (multiple examinations of the same persons for a long time);
an integrated method (representatives of various sciences participate in the study, while, as a rule, one object is studied by different means). Research of this kind makes it possible to establish connections and dependencies between phenomena of various types, for example, between the physiological, psychological and social development of the individual.

auto-training;
group training;
methods of psychotherapeutic influence;
education.

Features of the experimental research method:

The researcher himself causes the phenomenon he is studying and actively influences it.
The experimenter can vary, change the conditions under which the phenomenon occurs.
In the experiment, it is possible to repeatedly reproduce the results.
The experiment makes it possible to establish quantitative regularities allowing mathematical formulation.

The main task of a psychological experiment is to make mental regularities accessible to objective observation. In the structure of the experiment, it is possible to designate a system of research stages and tasks:
I- theoretical stage of the study (problem statement). At this stage, the following tasks are solved:

the formulation of the problem and the topic of the study, the title of the topic should include the basic concepts of the subject of the study,
definition of the object and subject of research,
determination of experimental tasks and research hypotheses.

At this stage, the known facts on the topic of research obtained by other scientists are clarified, which makes it possible to determine the range of solved problems and unsolved problems and formulate hypotheses and problems of a particular experiment. This stage can be considered as a relatively independent research activity of a theoretical nature.

II - methodical stage of research. At this stage, the experimental methodology and experimental plan are developed. There are two sets of variables in an experiment: independent and dependent. The factor that the experimenter changes is called the independent variable; The factor that the independent variable causes to change is called the dependent variable.

The development of an experimental plan involves two points:

drawing up a work plan and a sequence of experimental procedures,
mathematical model of experimental data processing.

III - pilot stage. At this stage, direct experiments are carried out. The main problem of this stage is to create in the subjects an identical understanding of the task of their activity in the experiment. This problem is solved through the reproduction of the same conditions for all subjects and instructions, which aims to bring all subjects to a common understanding of the task, acting as a kind of psychological attitude.

IV- analytical stage. At this stage, a quantitative analysis of the results (mathematical processing), scientific interpretation of the facts obtained is carried out; formulation of new scientific hypotheses and practical recommendations. Regarding the mathematical coefficients of statistics, it should be remembered that they are external in relation to the essence of the studied mental phenomena, describing the probability of their manifestation and the relationship between the frequencies of the compared events, and not between their essences. The essence of phenomena is revealed through the subsequent scientific interpretation of empirical facts.

The expansion of the use of the experiment moved from the elementary processes of sensation to the higher mental processes. The modern experimental method exists in three forms: laboratory, natural and formative experiment.

Three considerations are put forward against the laboratory experiment. The artificiality of the experiment, the analyticity and abstractness of the experiment, the complicating role of the experimenter's influence are pointed out.

A peculiar version of the experiment, representing, as it were, an intermediate form between observation and experiment, is the method of the so-called natural experiment proposed by the Russian scientist A.F. Lazursky (1910). His main tendency is to combine the experimental nature of the study with the naturalness of the conditions. Instead of translating the phenomena under study into laboratory conditions, researchers try to find natural conditions that suit their goals. A natural experiment that solves the problems of psychological and pedagogical research is called a psychological and pedagogical experiment. Its role is exceptionally great in the study of the cognitive abilities of students at various age stages.

Another variation of the experimental method is called formative experimentation. In this case, the experiment acts as a means of influencing, changing the psychology of people. Its originality lies in the fact that it simultaneously serves as a means of research and a means of forming the phenomenon under study. The formative experiment is characterized by the active intervention of the researcher in the mental processes he is studying. As an example of a formative experiment, one can consider the modeling of psychological and pedagogical situations. This method is based on the design of new education and training programs and ways to implement them.

all methods of group training are focused on teaching group interaction;
these methods are based on the student's activity (through the inclusion of research elements in the training).

If traditional methods are focused mainly on conveying ready-made knowledge, then here the research participants themselves must come to them.

All the many forms of socio-psychological training can be divided into two large classes:

games focused on the development of social skills (for example, the ability to conduct a discussion, resolve interpersonal conflicts). Among game methods, the method of role-playing games is the most widely used;
group discussions aimed at the skills of analyzing communication situations - analyzing oneself, a communication partner, a group situation as a whole. The group discussion method is most often used in the form of case studies.

Forms of group training are very diverse. Classes can be recorded on tape or videotaped. The last form of training is called "video training". This audio and video recording is used by the training leader for review by the group members and subsequent group discussion.

Currently, the practice of group training is a booming branch of applied psychology. Socio-psychological training is used to train specialists of various profiles: managers, teachers, doctors, psychologists, etc. It is used to correct the dynamics of marital conflicts, improve relations between parents and children, correct socio-psychological maladjustment of adolescents, etc.

When students of psychology study the methods of psychology in order to answer them on the exam, they study the methods of not all, but only theoretical (academic) psychology. Methods of practical psychology are not yet asked from psychology students. About them - at the end of the article, and in the main article, when "methods of psychology" is written, one should read "methods of academic psychology." So,

The methods of (academic) psychology are those techniques and means by which psychologists obtain reliable information that is used further to build scientific theories and develop practical recommendations. A good method does not replace a talented researcher, but is an important help to him.

The methods of psychology are aimed at studying mental phenomena in development and change.

The development and change of the psyche in the history of the animal world, in the history of mankind, with age characteristics, under the influence of exercise, training and education, as a result of adverse environmental influences, as a result of diseases are studied.

Methods of psychological research study not only the special person himself, but also the conditions affecting him.

It is impossible, for example, to understand the properties of a child's personality without taking into account the situation around him in the family and at school.

Methods of psychology are very different. Classifying them, first of all, the methods of the actual scientific research and the methods directly applied in practice are distinguished. Methods can be more general and more specific, more or less scientific. In a psychology that claims to be scientific, there must be appropriate scientific methods.

The main methods of psychology, like most other sciences, are observation and experiment. Additional -, conversation, and biographical method. Recently, psychological testing has become increasingly popular.

In the study of mental phenomena, various methods are usually used that complement each other.

For example, the manifestation of an employee's confusion when performing a certain task, repeatedly noted by observation, has to be clarified by conversation, and sometimes verified by a natural experiment, using target tests.

If sensation and thought cannot be seen, then they are observed indirectly, not only through self-observation, but also through practical deeds and actions.

Methods of psychology must be used systematically, in a complex - and always purposefully, for each task specifically.

First of all, the task that has arisen, the question to be studied, the goal to be achieved are specified, and then, in accordance with this, a specific and accessible method is selected.