EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

Experimental methods in psychology have been widely used since the early 20th century by behaviorists, and from the mid-20th century onward by researchers in cognitive psychology. The ability of experimental methods to clearly establish cause-and-effect relationships has led many other subfields of psychology to adopt experimental approaches in more recent years.

Today, experimental methods (alongside other approaches) are extensively used in nearly all branches of psychology. Therefore, not only researchers working in traditional experimental or cognitive psychology, but also those conducting studies in diverse areas such as developmental psychology, social psychology, environmental psychology, and forensic psychology, need to be well-versed in the details of experimental methods in psychology. For this reason, this book has been prepared as an introductory resource on experimental methods in psychology for researchers across all subfields.

Accordingly, the book covers the fundamental characteristics of experimental research, non-experimental research designs, quantitative methods, reliability and validity concepts, basic and applied research topics in experimental psychology, computer-based measurement techniques, scientific report writing, and ethical issues in experimental research.