Focusing on experimental methods, authors Anne Myers and Christine Hansen lead students step by step through the entire research process, from generating testable hypotheses to writing the research report. The major sections of the book parallel the major sections of a research report (Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion), giving students the skills they'll need to design and conduct an experiment, analyze and interpret the research findings, and report those findings. Although the main focus is on experimentation, alternative approaches are discussed as important complements.

Table of Contents:
1. EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY AND THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD. The Need for Scientific Methodology. The Characteristics of Modern Science. The Objectives of Psychological Science. The Tools of Psychological Science. Scientific Explanation in Psychological Science. Summary. Key Terms. Review and Study Questions. Critical Thinking Exercise. Online Resources. 2. RESEARCH ETHICS. Research Ethics. The American Psychological Association Guidelines. Protecting the Welfare of Animal Subjects. Fraud in Science. Plagiarism. Ethical Reports. Summary. Key Terms. Review and Study Questions. Critical Thinking Exercise. Online Resources. 3. ALTERNATIVES TO EXPERIMENTATION: NONEXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS. Describing Research Activities. Phenomenology. Case Studies. Field Studies. Archival Studies. Qualitative Research. Summary. Key Terms. Review and Study Questions. Critical Thinking Exercise. Online Resources. 4. ALTERNATIVES TO EXPERIMENTATION: SURVEYS AND INTERVIEWS. Survey Research. Constructing Surveys. Measuring Responses. Important Considerations for Survey Items. Collecting Survey Data. Evaluating Surveys and Survey Data. Sampling. Summary. Key Terms. Review and Study Questions. Critical Thinking Exercise. Online Resources. 5. ALTERNATIVES TO EXPERIMENTATION: CORRELATIONAL AND QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS. Correlational Designs. Causal Modeling. Quasi-Experimental Designs. Summary. Key Terms. Review and Study Questions. Critical Thinking Exercise. Online Resources. 6. FORMULATING THE HYPOTHESIS. The Characteristics of an Experimental Hypothesis. The Inductive Model. The Deductive Model. Combining Induction and Deduction. Building on Prior Research. Serendipity and the Windfall Hypothesis. Intuition. When All Else Fails. Searching the Research Literature. Summary. Key Terms. Review and Study Questions. Critical Thinking Exercise. Online Resources. 7. THE BASICS OF EXPERIMENTATION. Independent and Dependent Variables. Operational Definitions. Evaluating Operational Definitions. Evaluating the Experiment: Internal Validity. Planning the Method Section. Summary. Key Terms. Review and Study Questions. Critical Thinking Exercise. Online Resources. 8. SOLVING PROBLEMS: CONTROLLING EXTRANEOUS VARIABLES. Physical Variables. Social Variables. Personality Variables. Context Variables. Summary. Key Terms. Review and Study Questions. Critical Thinking Exercise. Online Resources. 9. BASIC BETWEEN-SUBJECTS DESIGNS. Selecting and Recruiting Subjects. One Independent Variable: Two Group Designs. Two Independent Groups. Two Matched Groups. Multiple Groups. Summary. Key Terms. Review and Study Questions. Critical Thinking Exercise. Online Resources. 10. BETWEEN-SUBJECTS FACTORIAL DESIGNS. More Than One Independent Variable. Laying Out a Factorial Design. A Research Example. Choosing a Between-Subjects Design. Summary. Key Terms. Review and Study Questions. Critical Thinking Exercise. Online Resources. 11. WITHIN-SUBJECTS DESIGNS. A Within-Subjects Experiment: Homophone Priming of Proper Names. Within-Subjects Factorial Designs. Mixed Designs. Advantages of Within-Subjects Designs. Disadvantages of Within-Subjects Designs. Controlling Within-Subjects Designs. How Can You Choose a Design? Summary. Key Terms. Review and Study Questions. Critical Thinking Exercise. Online Resources. 12: WITHIN-SUBJECTS DESIGNS: SMALL N. Small N Designs. ABA Designs. Multiple Baseline Design. Discrete Trials Design. Changing Criterion Design. When to Use Large N and Small N Designs. Summary. Key Terms. Review and Study Questions. Critical Thinking Exercise. Online Resources. 13. WHY WE NEED STATISTICS. Weighing the Evidence Statistical Inference: An Overview. Applying Statistical Inference: An Example. The Odds of Finding Significance. Test Statistics. Organizing and Summarizing Data. Summary. Key Terms. Review and Study Questions. Critical Thinking Exercise. Online Resources. 14. ANALYZING RESULTS. Which Test Do I Use? Statistics for Two Group Experiments. Analyzing Results: Multiple Groups and Factorial Experiments. Analysis of Variance. Sources of Variability. A One-Way Between-Subjects Analysis of Variance. One-Way Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance. Analyzing Data from a Between-Subjects. Factorial Experiment. Two-Way Analysis of Variance. Repeated Measures and Mixed Factorial Designs. Summary. Key Terms. Review and Study Questions. Critical Thinking Exercise. Online Resources. 15. DRAWING CONCLUSIONS: THE SEARCH FOR THE ELUSIVE BOTTOM LINE. Evaluating the Experiment from the Inside: Internal Validity. Taking a Broader Perspective: The Problem of External Validity. Handling a Nonsignificant Outcome. Summary. Key Terms. Review and Study Questions. Critical Thinking Exercise. Online Resources. 16. WRITING THE RESEARCH REPORT. The Written Report: Purpose and Format. Major Sections. Looking at a Journal Article. Preparing Your Manuscript: Procedural Details. Making Revisions. Summary. Key Terms. Review and Study Questions. Critical Thinking Exercise. Online Resources. Appendix A: Computational Formulas. Appendix B: Statistical Tables. Appendix C: A Journal Article in Manuscript Form. Glossary. References. Index.