CHAPTER 2

Methods of Enquiry in Psychology

Learning Outcomes:

 Explain the goals and nature of psychological enquiry,

 Understand different types of data used by psychologists,
 Describe some important methods of psychological enquiry,
 Understand the methods of analysing data, and
 Learn about the limitations of psychological enquiry and ethical considerations.

Relatedness log:
(Students can either draw a diagram or picture related to the methods of enquiry given in
the textbook, or they can find and paste a newspaper or magazine article that talks about a
survey, experiment, or any psychological finding.)

NCERT SOLUTION
Question 1. What are the goals of scientific enquiry?
Answer: There exists diversity in types of research or studies undertaken by psychologists but
they all seem to share some common goals of enquiry, which are as follows-:
1. Description
 This helps to define the phenomena and distinguish it from other phenomena.
 Description is necessary because any event or behaviour may have many aspects.
 For example, the idea of entertainment varies from reading books to going to
pubs, depending on the individual.
 The recording of event or behaviour is an integral part of description.
2. Prediction
 Prediction means forecasting of events.
 It establishes relationship between two variables.
 For example, one might say exercising leads to weight loss.
 In psychology all predictions are made within a certain margin of error i.e. they
are not pin-pointed or exact.
3. Explanation
 Explanation involves knowing the cause or the reason behind the behaviour.
 It also tries to understand the conditions under which a particular behaviour
occurs. For example, a child behaves rudely whenever he is disturbed so his
disturbances become the cause of his rude behaviour.
4. Control
 Control means creating change in the phenomenon or behavior.
 It refers to making behaviour happen, reduction in it or enhancement in it.
 The changes produced by psychological treatment in terms of therapy are good
examples of control.
5. Application
 Psychological researches are often conducted to solve various problems faced
by file society.
 Psychology helps in solving problem at individual, organizational or community
level.
 For example, therapies are provided to individuals and counseling is also there to
help them.
 At file organizational level, various psychological concepts like work motivation
are used to enhance performance. At file community level, counseling is provided
to help people engage in various, helpful and eco-friendly behaviours.

Question 2. Describe the various steps involved in conducting a scientific enquiry.

Answer: Scientific research or study is a clearly defined process that goes through a series of
steps—
1. Conceptualising a problem
 The process begins when a researcher selects a theme or topic for study.
 Then narrows down the focus and develops specific research questions or
problems for the study. This is done on the basis of review of past researches,
observations and personal experiences.
 Problem indicates the relationship between variables.
For example, what is the relationship between reward and classroom learning?
 After formulation of problem, the hypothesis is formed, which is the tentative and
testable statement about the relationship between two variables.
For example, increased amount of reward will lead to betterment in learning.
2. Collecting data
 Data collection requires developing a research design or a blueprint of the entire
study. It requires taking decisions about the following four aspects: participants in
the study, methods of data collection, tools to be used in research, and procedure
for data collection.
 Participants of the study are decided, depending on the nature of study, they
could be children, adolescents, college students, teachers, workers, elder people
etc.
 Methods of data collection like observation, experimental, correlational method
etc are decided.
 The next decision is taken about the tools to be used, like interview schedule,
questionnaire, survey etc.
  Procedure for data collection is decided i.e. how the tools need to be
administered to collect data i.e. individual to collect data i.e. individual or group
administration.
 This is followed by actual data collection.
3. Drawing conclusions
 The next step is to analyse data to understand its meaning.
 This can be achieved through graphical representations of data using, bar
diagram, pie chart, histogram, mean, median, mode, standard deviation etc.
 The purpose of analysis is to verify a hypothesis and draw conclusions by putting
them into an appropriate context.
4. Revising research conclusions
 The research begins with the hypothesis.
 Then researcher sees whether the conclusions support this hypothesis or not.
 If conclusions support the hypothesis, then it is confirmed.
 If it is not confirmed researcher revises or states an alternative hypothesis/theory
and again tests it and the same process continues.

Question 3. Explain the nature of psychological data.

Answer: The nature of psychological data can be explained through the following points:

1. The psychological data are not independent entities: The physical or social context,
the persons involved and the time of the behaviour affects the data. For instance, an
individual behaves differently in a group than being alone.
2. The quality and nature of data is affected by the method of data collection: It is
possible that while conducting a personal interview, an individual provides with answers
which are different than his/her behaviour as observed by the researcher.
3. Data are facts without any meaning: This suggests that data do not speak themselves
about reality. They only acquire meaning when placed in a context by the researcher.
Data is any information related to mental processes, experiences and behaviour, collected
by using various tools. Psychological data are of different types, such as:
1. Demographic information
This information includes personal information related to a particular individual. This
includes name, age, gender, education, marital status, residence, caste, religion, income
etc.
2. Physical information
This includes information about physical environment i.e. ecological condition. It also
includes information about economy, housing conditions, facilities at the home, in the
school, transportation etc.
3. Physiological data
This is related to biological data. For example, height, weight, heart rate, level of fatigue,
 EEG, reaction time, sleep, blood pressure etc is collected. Data related to animal’s
biological functioning is also collected.
4. Psychological information
This includes data regarding psychological functioning of individual.
It involves data about intelligence, personality, attitudes, values, emotions, motivation,
psychological dysfunctions, consciousness etc. Thus obtained data is divided into various
categories, so that it can be analysed using statistical measures.

Question 4. How do experimental and control group differ? Explain with the help of an
example.
Answer:
1. Experimental group: The group of participants in a study that is exposed to the
independent variable (the variable that is manipulated to see its effect on any other
variable) to study its effect on the dependent variable. In other words, this group receives
the experimental condition related to the independent variable.
2. Control Group:
The control group serves as a comparison group in an experiment.
o The independent variable is not administered on this group.
o Participants in this group do not receive the experimental condition, allowing
researchers to assess the effect of the independent variable by comparing the
outcomes with those of the experimental group.
The purpose is to see whether any difference occur in two groups as a result of application of
independent variable on experimental group. For example, in the study by Latane and Darley,
there were two experimental groups and one control group. The participants in the study were
sent to three types of rooms. In one room no one was present (control group). In the other two
rooms, two persons were already seated (experimental groups).
The independent variable, in this study, was the absence or presence of other persons sitting in
the room. The remaining factors in the experiment were the same for both kinds of groups. In
experimental groups, two persons were present with the real participant while in the control
group, participant was alone. Therefore, it can be said that the manipulated variable is absent in
control group. In an experiment except for the experimental manipulation, other conditions are
kept constant for both the groups.

Question 5. A researcher is studying relationship between speed of cycling and the

presence of people. Formulate a relevant hypothesis and identify the independent and
dependent variables.
Answer:
 Variable: It is any stimulus or event which varies or can take on different valves can be
measure e.g. weight, height.
  Hypothesis: It is a tentative and testable statement which expresses relation between two
or more than two variables, e.g.: those who are rewarded shall require lesser number of
trials to learn than those who are not rewarded.
 Independent variable: It is the variable which is systematically manipulated or altered
in an experiment. It is the cause.
 Dependent variable: It is the variable that is measured in an experiment. It is the effect.
 As per the question:
 A study of relationship between speed of cycling and the presence of people.
 Hypothesis − As the speed of cycling increases people tend to move away fast.
Field experiment − Two market places
A boy is asked to ride a bicycle with different speeds in the market.
Market 1 − It is observed that when the boy passes through the market street with high speed
on the bicycle, people surrounding him will get away quickly in order to protect themselves
from getting hit by the cycle.
Market 2 − It is observed that when the boy passes through the market street with normal
speed on the bicycle people around him will get away normally and slowly to give him the
way as compared to the people of market 1.
Conclusion − When the speed of the cycle is high people move away from it quickly and
when the speed of cycle is normal people will move away slowly in comparison.
Revision of research conclusion − The conclusion has matched the hypothesis. Therefore, the
hypothesis is correct.
Independent variable − Presence of others
Dependent variable − Speed of cycling

Question 6. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of experimental method as a method of

enquiry.
Answer: Experimental method is aimed at discovering cause and effect relationship between
various factors by manipulating the situation under totally controlled conditions.
Characteristics:
 Experimentation involves manipulation of variables to study their effect on other aspects.
 Experiments are carried out in totally controlled condition.
 Subjects or individuals are assigned to experimental and control group, randomly.
 All factors other than manipulated variable that might affect the dependent variable are
kept constant.
Advantages:
 Experimental method aims at establishing cause-effect relationship between the variables.
 Replication and verification of obtained result is possible.
 The investigator can manipulate the independent variable according to the demands of the
situation.
 It can be performed at any time.
 It is very objective—No personal bias exists.
  The extraneous variables can be minimised.
 It is used to minimise the sequence effect with the help of counter-balancing technique.
 It eliminates any potential systematic differences between groups through random
assignment of participants to different groups
Limitations:
 Experiments are conducted in a very artificial and unrealistic situations-the setting is not
natural.
 They lack external validity i.e. generalizability. Since they are not done in natural
settings, the results can’t be generalized with confidence.
 It is difficult to control and know all extraneous variables like – motivation, emotion,
state etc.
 It is not always possible to study a problem experimentally. For example, personality
can’t be studied experimentally.
Question 7. Dr. Krishnan is going to observe and record children’s play behaviour at a
nursery school without attempting to influence or control the behaviour. Which method of
research is involved? Explain the process and discuss its merits and demerits.
Answer: Dr. Krishnan would use the method of non-participant observation to observe and
record children’s behaviour at play without attempting to influence or control the behaviour. He
would sit in a corner and observe the children’s behaviour without them being aware of it. He
would note the behaviour of children while playing, how they interact with each other and their
reaction towards winning or losing. He would collect all the data in a file and then match the
conclusion with the hypothesis.
Merits of non-participant observation:
 The researcher observes the people and their behaviour in naturalistic settings.
 The observer can get firsthand information regarding the subject.
Demerits:
 This method is time consuming, labour intensive and subject to personal biases.
 The researcher may interpret the behaviour based on personal values.

Question 8. Give two examples of the situations where survey method can be used. What
are the limitations of this method?
Answer: Survey Method is a research method utilizing written questionnaires or personal
interviews to obtain data of a given population.
For example: Surveys are used in variety of situations such as
1. They can be used in political regime to know whether people approve or disapprove any
particular policy of government, say for example, policy of reservation in higher
education or nuclear deal with America in recent times.
2. They are used during elections also to know who will people vote to.
3. Surveys can also be used to test hypothesis about the relationship among variables. One
may try to find out the effect of some event on people’s behaviour. For example –
 Surveys have been conducted after the earthquake at Bhuj in Gujarat to find out the
impact of earthquake on people’s lives.
4. In marketing area, before launching product surveys are often conducted. They are used
to assess people’s attitude on various social issues such as family planning and gender
equality.
Limitation:
1. The major difficulty is the issue of accuracy and honesty of the responses as the
respondents attempt to create favourable impression – faking is possible.
2. Surveyor’s bias also affects the results. He/she may ask the question in such a way as to
elicit desired response.
3. Surveys remain at the surface and it does not penetrate into the depth of the problem.
4. They are time-consuming and expensive.
5. These techniques make the respondent conscious. So, he/she may mould his/her
responses.
6. Survey demand expertise, research knowledge and competence on the part of the
researcher.
7. Sample selected might not be the true representative of the population.

Question 9. Differentiate between interview and questionnaire.

Answer: Interview:
 Interview is a face-to-face interaction between two people
 They can be structured or unstructured
 Interviews are flexible and questions can be added or altered.
 Its questions may vary in their sequence and asked according to the need of the situation.
 Interviewer can dig deeper by posing counter question and by noticing non-verbal clues.
 They are subjective in nature.
 It is not a good tool for those who can’t express themselves verbally.
 It is be administered to one person at a time.
 It requires highly skilled person as interviewer.
Questionnaire:
 It consists of a form containing a series of questions where the respondents themselves
fill in the answers.
 Questionnaire is always structured.
 It is not possible to know anything more than what is asked in the question.
 It consists of a predetermined set of questions.
 They are highly objective.
 Sometimes someone else can also fill in the questionnaire other than the target person.
 Clarification of questions is sometimes not possible.
 They can be administered to a large number of people at a time.
 Comparatively less skilled person can do the Interpretation.
Question 10. Explain the characteristics of a standardised test.
Answer: Characteristics of a standardised test:
1. Reliability: Reliability refers to the consistency of scores obtained by an individual on
the same test on different occasions. If the test is reliable, there should not be any
variation in the scores obtained by the students on the 2 occasions.
For this we can complete the following:
(i)Test-retest reliability: It indicates the temporal stability. It is computed by finding out
the co-efficient of correlation b/w the 2 sets of the same people.
(ii) Split-half reliability: It gives an indication about the degree of intent, consistency of
the test.
2. Validity: For a test to be usable, it must be valid. Validity refers to the question “does the
test measure what it claims to measures”. E.g. If a test is for assessment intelligence, it
should only be testing intelligence and not aptitude.
3. Norms: A test becomes standardized if norms are developed for the test, norm is the
normal average performance of the group. The test is administered on a large number of
students. Their average performance standards are based in their age, sex, place of
residence, etc. this helps us in compassion of performance of groups and individual
students.

Question 11. Describe the limitations of psychological enquiry.

Answer: LIMITATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ENQUIRY:
1. Lack of true zero point
Psychological measurements do not have a true zero point like physical sciences. For
example, no person in this world has zero intelligence, zero interest, attitude or
personality. So the scores given to an individual in psychological studies are not absolute,
they are relative in nature. Sometimes ranks are also used as scores.
2. Relative nature of psychological tools
Psychological tests, Questionnaire etc. are not universally applied. They are developed
keeping in view the salient features of a particular context.For example: Tools developed
in urban context may not be applied in rural area or tribal areas also western tests and
other tools may not apply elsewhere.
3. Subjective interpretation qualitative data
Data from qualitative studies(which can’t be categorized or quantified in scores or ranks)
are largely subjective (individual, personal) since they involve interpretation on the part
of the researcher as well as the person providing data. The interpretations may vary from
one individual to the other. Every researcher may give different meanings to data.
Question 12. What are the ethical guidelines that a psychologist needs to follow while
conducting a psychological enquiry?
Answer: Since psychology largely deals with human beings, so the researchers need to follow
some moral principles which are as follows:
1. Voluntary participation
  This means that participants have the freedom to choose whether to participate in
the study or not.
 Use of force or coercion or any other pressure should not be used.
 Participants should have the right to withdraw from study any time without
penalty.
2. Informed consent
 Participants in a study should understand what treatment they will undergo during
study.
 This information should be given before the study/research starts.
 If at times it is not possible to reveal all the information, they should be at least
explained the nature of study before it starts.
3. Debriefing
 Sometimes due to the nature of the study it becomes necessary to withhold some
information from the participants, this is known as deception.
 So after the study is over the participants are given complete information to
complete their understanding of research.
For example, suppose a researcher wants to study the relationship between
frustration and aggression, the participants will not be informed that they’ll be put
in a frustrating situation, otherwise experiment or study will have no conclusions;
so here deception is necessary.
However, after it is over they should be told that they were aroused deliberately.
Why was it done should also be explained.
 It ensures that the participants leave the study in the same physical or mental state
as when they entered.
 Efforts should be made to remove any anxiety or other adverse effects from the
minds of the participants as a result of being deceived in the study.
4. Sharing the results of the study
It is obligatory for the researcher to go to the participants and share the results of study
with them. Participants expect that the results of study done with them will be told to
them, they want to know about their behaviour and where do they fall as compared to
others.
It has two advantages-:
 One, researchers fulfil the expectations of the participants.
 Second, the participants may tell the researcher about something else which may
provide supplementary information.
5. Confidentiality of data sources
 The participants have right to privacy.
 This right is protected by keeping the information provided by them in strict
confidence.
 It becomes more important if the information is personal and may become
embarrassing if revealed.
  The information should be used for the purpose of research only.
 To maintain confidentiality, one should not record their identities.
 Sometimes identity is required, in such cases code numbers should be given on
the data sheet and the names and their codes should be kept separately.

Extra- Questions
Question 1. Explain Scientific observation is different from day to day observation in three
respects.
Answer:
1. Selection:
a. Psychologist select one particular behaviour for observation rather than
considering all.
b. For example, you will have an interest to grasp how children studying at school
spend their time in class.
c. Based on this instance two things are possible at this stage.
d. As a researcher, you may think that you just have a reasonably good idea about
what happens in class or you would possibly prepare a listing of activities and
move to the college to sort out their occurrences.
e. Another aspect is, you are doing not know what happens within the school and, by
your observation you’d wish to discover it.
2. Recording: While observing, a researcher records the chosen behaviour using different
means, like marking tallies for the already identified behaviour whenever they occur,
taking notes describing each activity in greater detail using short hand or symbols,
photographs, video, etc.
3. Analysis of data: After the observations are made, psychologists analyse whatever they
need recorded with a view to derive some meaning out of it.

Question 2: What are variables? State any TWO variables.

Answer:
Any stimulus or event which varies, that is, it takes on different values (or changes) and can be
measured is called a variable.
a) Independent variable
b) Dependent variable

Question 3: Define case study. State any TWO characteristics of a case study.
Answer:
Case studies provide you a narrative or detailed descriptions of the events that take place in a
person's life.
The following are the characteristics of a case study:
a) Case study, emphasis on in-depth study of a particular person's life.
b) The cases that are selected for study are unique and rich in information.
c) Various methods are used to collect information. for example, multiple methods for collecting
information, such as interview, observation, and psychological tests from a variety of
respondents.
d) Case studies provide detailed in-depth depictions of people's lives.

Question 4: Explain Speed and Power tests.

Answer: Psychological tests are classified into speed and power tests.
1. In a speed test, there is a time limit within which the test taker is required to answer all
the items. Such a test evaluates the individual on the basis of time taken to answer the
items accurately.
2. In a speed test, all the items are of the same degree of difficulty.
3. On the other hand, power test assesses the underlying ability (or power) of the individuals
by allowing them sufficient time, i.e. these tests do not have any time limit.
4. In a power test, the items are generally arranged in an increasing order of difficulty. If a
person, for example, is unable to solve the 6th item, s/he will have difficulty in answering
the subsequent items.
5. It is, however, difficult to construct a pure speed or power test. Majority of the tests are a
combination of both speed and power.

Question 5: Define Objectivity.

Answer: Objectivity refers to the requirement that research findings should be free from
personal biases, emotions, and prejudices. It means that different researchers studying the same
phenomenon using the same method should arrive at the same results.

Question 6: What is a correlation coefficient? What are its types?

Answer:
The correlation coefficient is a number that shows the direction and strength of the relationship
between two variables. It is written as ‘r’ and its value ranges from –1 to +1.
Types of Correlation:
1. Positive Correlation:
Both variables increase together. Example: Marks in psychology and marks in other
subjects.
2. Negative Correlation:
One variable increases while the other decreases. Example: Hours spent watching TV and
marks obtained in tests.
3. Zero Correlation:
No relationship between the variables. Example: Shoe size and marks obtained in a test.

Question 7: What is the difference between a population and a sample in psychological

research?
Answer:
  Population refers to the entire group of individuals or events that a researcher is interested
in studying.
 Sample is a smaller subset of the population that is actually studied to draw conclusions
about the population.
 The sample should be representative, so that results can be generalized.

Question 8: What is standardization in psychological testing?

Answer:
Standardization means administering a test using the same procedures, conditions, and scoring
methods for all individuals. It ensures consistency and comparability of results across different
people.

Question 9: Distinguish between quantitative and qualitative research.

Answer:
Quantitative Research Qualitative Research
Focuses on numbers and statistics Focuses on descriptions and meanings
Uses structured tools like tests, surveys Uses interviews, case studies, observations
Data is analyzed statistically Data is analyzed through interpretation