Question

What is the benefit to using the experimental method when compared with correlational studies? How have cross-sectional and longitudinal studies helped us to understand relationships between health and psychology?

Answer 1

The primary benefit of using the experimental method in comparison to correlational studies is that it allows researchers to make causal inferences. In other words, experimental methods seek to establish cause and effect relationships between variables. Researchers carefully manipulate or a variable and study it’s subse impact on another variable under a highly controlled environment. Correlational methods can only indicate the extent to which a set of variables are associated with each other.

Cross sectional studies analyzes data from a population or a representative subset at a specific point in time whereas longitudinal studies study patterns of data from a population or a representative subset over a long duration of time. Cross sectional data allows researchers to extensively study expected behaviours in a particular sample and thereby establish standards of health and disease. On the other hand, longitudinal studies can help researchers analyse the development of a disease among individuals.