In my “Need for Psychology Understanding” article, I wrote about how almost all fiction writers need at least a basic understanding of psychology in order to write realistic content, dialogues, characters, and relationships. A lack of psychology understanding also sometimes causes writers to use a psychology word incorrectly or to describe it incorrectly to readers. This confusion can easily be avoided with a bit of psychology research. One area that many writers struggle with is cognitive psychology and the research methods used by cognitive psychologists.

Cognitive psychology is a field of psychology that focuses on the study of thought; these studies include people's perception of the world through their senses, attention processes, memory operation, language processes, decision-making processes, and brain activity that controls cognitive psychology processes (McBride & Cutting, 2019).  Researchers in this field have different research methods that they can utilize in their study of this field of study.

Two such research methods are the scientific method and the experimental method. The scientific method is best utilized for gaining knowledge in a field of study that relies on the observations of phenomena and is based upon four main principles: empiricism, determinism, testability, and parsimony (McBride & Cutting, 2016). These four principles mean that the scientific method is based on understanding phenomena through systematic observation, the idea that behaviors have underlying causes, the principle that theories must be formatted in a manner in which allows for testing through observation, and a preference for simple explanations over complex ones (McBride & Cutting, 2016). The experimental research method, also known as the experimental approach, is designed to simplify the contexts surrounding the behavior of interest, thus allowing for a focused investigation of the impact of a small set of variables (McBride & Cutting, 2019). An experimental study allows researchers to actively manipulate the independent and control variables. 

The scientific and experimental research method allows researchers to form hypotheses, test theories, and study behavior. Yet the methods differ in how the study is conducted as the scientific method relies on systematic observation while the experimental method allows the researcher to manipulate variables and to have experimental and control groups for comparisons. Both methods are equally useful as the two methods each are best suited for answering different types of research questions.

An example of a research study conducted using the experimental research method was the study conducted by Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1963) to test the hypothesis that exposure of children to film-mediated aggressive models would increase the probability of participant’s aggression to subsequent frustrations three experimental groups and one control group. The research subjects in the experimental groups all witnessed a different form of aggressive behavior (cartoon, live person, and a recording of a person on a TV) they then spent time in a room with objects that would allow them to imitate the behavior that they witnessed.

References

Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1963). Imitation of film-mediated aggressive models. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 66(1), 3–11. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1037/h0048687

McBride, D., & Cutting, J. (2016). Cognitive Psychology Interactive: Theory, Process, and Methodology. SAGE Publications.

McBride, D., & Cutting, J. (2019). Cognitive Psychology Interactive: Theory, Process, and Methodology (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications.