Article: Evaluating 3 Research Methods in Social Psychology:Laboratory, Survey, and Archive
Abstract:
There are several trusted methods of research in Social Psychology. This paper examines the strengths and weaknesses of Laboratory Research, Survey Research, and Archival Research.
Laboratory Research offers a great deal of environmental control, eliminating potential confounding factors, but it is limited in the number of individuals it can test, does not test organic behavior which might occur in a more natural setting, and subjects behaviors may change when they know they are being tested.
Survey Research has the potential of gathering large samples, raising the probability of reliable results, but it relies on self-reporting which may be biased by the reporter’s desire to portray themselves favorably. It also requires a great deal of rigor in its design.
Archival research gives access to an enormous amount of data, but these data were not initially collected with psychological study in mind.
