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Psych 101

1. Describe and give original, complete examples of case studies, naturalistic observation (experiments), and psychological tests and surveys. Also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each research method.

Case studies involve an in-depth examination of single individuals. Typically the individual or small group of individuals being examined possess some skill, or have some problem that is unusual. An example of a case study would be a researcher studying a convicted serial killer to see why he murders people. The researcher would look for a way to diagnose why the serial killer is unusual, and why they murder others. One advantage of case studies are that conclusions drawn are based on a more complete set of information about the subjects. Only by examining a single individual can a researcher gain such complete information. One great disadvantage of a case study is that there can be a bias from the researcher towards the person being studied. This bias could lead to overlooking some facts while concentrating on others. Another disadvantage is that in a lot of cases, information is either missing or is inaccurate.
A naturalistic observation or field study, is defined as an observation of real life situations. An example of a naturalistic observation is that of a researcher who wants to examine aggressive behavior in male and female children. The researcher may watch children in the school playground, and record the number of aggressive acts boys and girls display. One advantage to a naturalistic observation is that the behavior of the subjects will reflect their true behavior as it takes place in a natural setting, where they do not realize that they are being observed. A great disadvantage to naturalistic observation is that the researcher has no control over the setting. An example of this could be any type of outside influence. In my example of the researcher examining the children, what if a boy was more aggressive, not because he is male,...