Question

The differences between various research areas in paschology? And the differences between applied areas in psychology?

Answer 1

Using natural observational techniques is one way to examine variables of interest and gather information to understand a specific topic or area of research. However, results can vary depending on the environment or type of observation used. Specifically, when using naturalistic observation to gather data, external validity is controlled for but internal validity is very low. Therefore, it is difficult to determine if behavior changed via condition or extraneous variables. For example, a researcher wanted to examine employee production rates under various factory conditions, such as lighting and temperature. To examine changes in behavior via specific variables the researcher observed the employees under each condition (low temp. ,high temp., low light, etc.). Results suggested when the amount of lighting increased, the amount of production increased as well. However, further analysis revealed production ONLY increased DURING the observations, suggesting employees were responding to the researchers presence not the lighting or temperature. This is generally referred to as the "Hawthorne Effect"

Case study:
An in-depth study of one person. In a case study, nearly every aspect of the subject