The scope of any research activity takes its roots from methodology. Every phenomenon in nature, every object, every essence is considered by scientists in the context of a specific method of cognition of a certain substance. Nothing is done unfoundedly; each construction of a theory must be justified by the evidence base, which is developed through various methodological studies. This pattern and knowledge of psychological processes did not pass by. But on what is the characterization of the methods used in psychology based on the study of various causal relationships based?
The concept of method in psychology
Mankind is accustomed to the fact that the phenomena existing in the world are explained by legitimate reasoned justifications. It rains because the evaporation of water is converted into clouds. The sun rises and sets, because the planet orbits around its axis during the day. Man continues his family and promotes procreation, because it is so inherent in nature. In the same way in psychology: there is a concept, a phenomenon, a process of a psychological nature; its existence is due to scientific justification. And each such concept is deeply and extensively reflected in various textbooks and teaching aids. But how do they come to this? On the basis of what are the main methods and characteristics of the research process?
In itself, the concept of a method involves the use of a tool, a lever of influence on a particular element of study, in the process of influence on which certain scientific conclusions are made about the history of the formation, application in life and the functional orientation of a particular research subject. In other words, the characterization of the concept of a method includes various directions of methods and ways of cognition of a particular phenomenon in nature, science, life, psychology. But what is the importance and depth of the existing methods of research in nature used today to identify natural laws?
The importance of methodology in psychology
What justifies the weight of the methodological principle in any research activity, including psychology?
Firstly, the significance of the totality of existing methods and the general characteristics of each of them separately in the framework of studying a particular object is reflected in the need of specialist researchers to rely on any techniques and means that can be operated on in the course of their experimental activities. That is, each scientist should work on the basis of such a methodological base that will allow him to obtain reliable information and use it in the future to put forward specific theories, hypotheses and provide recommendations of a recommendatory nature. So, for example, in order to determine a person’s temperament, a psychologist needs to conduct observational activities, conduct testing in the “question-answer” manner, and based on this draw specific conclusions about a person’s psychotype. Observation and test methods are the main characters of this action.
Secondly, the characterization of research methods involves the ability to cognize internal psychic phenomena through the analytical aspects of the influence of external factors on the studied object. That is, the methodology plays a crucial role in the registration, identification, fixing of psychological facts, conducting experiments, experiments and using their results to build a theoretical conclusion. Moreover, different methods can be used in working with the same development object and bear the fruit of a successful analysis in the synthesis of different methods. So, it is much faster to diagnose a mentally ill person with mental disorders by applying to him the method of conversation and the method of experiment at the same time.
The definition of methods and the characteristics of their classification provide for the existence of four main areas of research: organizational, empirical, interpretative and data processing methods. What does each of them mean individually?
Organizational Methods
If we talk about the organization of the research process, here we apply the methods of a specific approach to the study of the object, which mainly focus on aspects of the organization of research. So, there are three types of organizational methods, the general characteristics of which are reflected in the following:
- comparison method - is determined by comparing different groups of people over whom the analytical activity is carried out, with a distinction between them by age, gender, type of activity and other similar factors;
- complexity method - several experts from different scientific fields participate in the development at once to derive a specific theory from the perspective of different sources of scientific justification;
- longitudinal method - due to the study of the same group of persons for a long time.
Empirical Methods
If we talk about empirical methods, it should be noted that in their complex they include many possible approaches to research activities in various directions, which makes it possible to give an objective assessment of a particular process or phenomenon. As in any other field, the characterization of methods of psychology from the perspective of empirical research requires the mandatory use of the following methods of influence on the object of examination:
- observation methods;
- methods of psychology and diagnosis;
- modeling methods;
- experimental;
- praximetric;
- biographical.
All of the above variations of the research process are aimed at collecting primary information, which is further analyzed and determines the formation of specific conclusions.
Information Processing Methods
Speaking about the methodology resulting from the collection and processing of information obtained at the stage of empirical research, two main areas can be distinguished both in psychology and in the study of other sciences.
The first direction is a quantitative study of the object of analysis. The characteristics of the main methods in this vein are predetermined by statistical indicators, on the basis of which specific conclusions are drawn about a particular psychological process - the object of study.
The second direction is the quality side of the coin. It involves identifying the characteristics and differentiation of the studied materials into groups and allows you to establish patterns that are not visible to the naked eye, but are hidden in the depths of the main properties of the object of study, hidden from the general primary perception.
Interpretation Methods
The continuing chain reaction and the interpretation base of the methods and characteristics of the argumentation methodology arising from the previous methodology serves as an explanatory one, since its main task is to explain one or another pattern revealed by a qualitative analysis of the object of study or by studying statistics obtained during the study in figures. These include methods of genetics and structure.
The genetic method involves the study of an object in the context of its belonging to a person and society in general, and its elements characterize the analysis “in depth”. That is, to work in this vein, data is collected in many areas, various interconnections of the material being studied with its environment are taken as a basis.
The structural method analyzes the subject of study "in breadth": on its basis, the comprehension of various classifications, typologies, psychological profile of the test object.
So, a brief description of research methods in psychology is outlined by the main four directions. But a more detailed and deep consideration requires an empirical component, since it is empirical methods for studying psychological processes that reveal the essence of the test object as deeply and comprehensively as possible.
Non-experimental methods
The characterization of research methods, the basis of which is not an experiment, determines the non-experimental methodological base in psychology, as well as in other sciences. This direction is profiled on several basic methods of studying the objects of psychological processes.
The first, most effective, popular, convenient and significant way of mastering and comprehending an object in the circle of its interconnections and interdependence with its environment is observation. The simplicity, orderliness, effectiveness of this method in achieving specific goals allows you to characterize the observation method only in a positive way, since this is a universal, focused and specially organized way to collect the information necessary for analysis. This is the most relevant method for studying human psychology today, which allows you to identify the factors necessary for the study of its existence and vital activity. For example, a psychologist uses this method of working with a patient suspected of schizophrenia, based on the gradual systematic communication with him from the perspective of an observer: thus, observing his ward, he reveals specific habits, manners, snippets of speech and thoughts aloud pronounced by the patient , in order to draw certain conclusions about his diagnosis. This is how observation works.
Another fairly effective way to quality research and deriving reliable results is through conversation. The characteristics of the method and its practical application are determined, first of all, by simplicity and accessibility, the expense of a small amount of time, the ability to accumulate statistical information and subsequently apply it to many other patients. So, a specialist can conduct a conversation with his ward, asking him a list of all kinds of questions. Day after day, working with the same patients with approximately the same problems, the doctor can summarize the information received and develop a standard questionnaire, based on which he will interview all subjects and decipher the answers already with concrete conviction in his diagnosis. Subspecies of this empirical method are interviews, surveys, questionnaires - in any form, the information received reaps the benefits of effectiveness and efficiency.
An equally significant way to know a person as a person is to analyze the results of his work. Thanks to him, psychologists have the opportunity to indirectly study psychology, mood, worldview, attitude to the surrounding society of the subject, revealing his character traits, habits, aspirations and the like. The characteristic of the method of analyzing the products of activity includes work with drawings, crafts, applications of children whose consciousness is amenable to research, as well as paintings, musical works, singing of mentally ill patients or people killed by suicide, the motives of which must be identified by forensic psychologists in order to render their medical verdict.
A more extensive method of object research is called sociometric. Due to the fact that it is directly related to the study of the subject and his consciousness in connection with the people around him, the characteristic of the method of sociometry predetermines the group study by a psychologist of people. That is, the specialist’s work is carried out not with one person, but with him and his entourage - a group of close people (colleagues, relatives, friends, friends - those who are most often with him).
Psychodiagnostic
Characterization of the methods of psychodiagnostic analysis involves an empirical study of the object of study through testing. The test is one of the most qualitative forms of empirical study of an object in the person of a person, which allows a psychologist to draw a clear picture about the patient in terms of his psychological state through a list of standardized questions with possible answers, if the research process is aimed at this. The versatility of the method and the characteristics of the classification of tests are represented by a wide range of various questionnaires:
- free - provide a question-answer within the framework of possible independent answers of the test person, that is, it is either a question for listing the list of correct answers that a person should reflect himself, or a test as a sentence with an addition, or a test for identifying errors;
- structured - this means the ability to answer in the affirmative or negative, or emphasize the correct answer, or choose the best answer;
- scaled - represent the possibility of choosing an answer from extreme to extreme: always, never, and between them - rarely, sometimes, often;
- with spaces - it means that in the volumetric test task the text is reflected in the body of which there is a gap, and you need to fill this gap with the only correct answer.
So, choosing a specific type of test, the psychologist initially knows which method of researching the individual personality will suit him as much as possible in a given period of time working with the patient. The advantage of testing is the objectivity of assessing the psychological state of the test, the efficiency in testing the method on a large number of different people, as well as the ability to compare data obtained by different specialists from different patients.
Experimental methods
The characteristic of the experimental methods suggests that in the course of them should lie some kind of experience, on the basis of which certain conclusions are drawn regarding the object under study. An experiment is considered one of the main methods in the psychology of today - this is such a way of examining an object in the circle of its cause-effect relationships, during which researchers create the conditions necessary for the manifestation and measurement of specific data to establish the necessary factors.
The main features of the experiment are the following:
- the possibility of repeated use of research methods, if necessary, to test the hypothesis;
- the organization of a certain situation in which this or that property of the test subject is required to be studied;
- logging of the obtained data during the experiment in order to fix the date, time, and final indicators of the result obtained at the end of the experiment.
Experiments are often conducted not only for research, but also for teaching. The characteristics of the methods of studying the object of the experiment include four possible types of experiments:
- laboratory - is considered to be as accurate as possible, since it is carried out in a special place equipped for this with the help of various instrument constructions;
- natural - involves the study of the object of study in completely normal and familiar conditions of existence, with the most common option that the subject does not even know about the experiment being conducted on him - he simply lives his life in a normal rhythm with the usual signs of his life;
- stating - aimed at stating a specific fact or its refutation based on the results of the experiment;
- formative - provides for a direct impact on the life and activity of the subject, assigning and imposing on him the conditions of living and functioning necessary for studying specific psychological phenomena.
Correction Methods
In addition to the above methods of studying the psychological state of a person and his relationship with his environment, methods that are based on specific psychological concepts: assessment, management, upbringing are considered important.
The characteristics of the methods of education are reflected, in particular, in classical psychoanalysis, which assumes the relationship of a person with his past, with childhood, with the adoption of childhood memories in adult real life. Thus, working with a patient, a specialist in the field of psychology acts on him during the treatment by balancing the balance between his current consciousness and his current life, gradually switching it from resentment, problems, and dangers of childhood, rooted in the patient’s memory, to a calm, peaceful existence in the present real of life.
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The characteristic of management methods is reflected through hypnosis, auto-training and neuro-linguistic programming. As you know, hypnosis is based on immersing a person in a mild unconscious state, due to which a specialist can ask him all the questions that concern the patient and get answers to them that are not distorted by the patient’s cunning because of his constraint or inclination to deceive. The task of the psychologist in this case is to give the patient the opportunity to look at the situation that the patient considers a problem that depresses his consciousness, in a new light, in a positive way.
The autotraining technique also applies to this, only it involves its own immersion in itself, in the depths of its consciousness in order to supply itself with specific settings to achieve the effect of auto-suggestion. Regular organization of conditions in which the brain is rebuilt to the fact that “it should be better”, that “everything will be fine”, “I can”, “I can do it”, helps a person mobilize his energy in the right direction and go through life easily and naturally. . The programming technique is exactly the same : through a neurological effect and linguistic channels of influence on a person, one can ask him a psychological program of his further actions. Through perception with the help of hearing, vision, smell and linguistic elements, a specialist penetrates the consciousness of his patient with the aim of giving him further attitudes and eliminating his psychological problems.