Research Methods in Psychology: Evaluating a World of Information

by Beth Morling

A text that will make your students care about research methods as much as you do. This market-leading text emphasizes future consumers of psychological research, uses real-world examples drawn from popular media, and develops students’ critical-thinking skills as they become systematic interrogators of information in their everyday lives.

Genres: Psychology, Textbooks, School, Nonfiction, Science, Academic, College

640 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 2011

Reviews

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat to my chagrin, I will be teaching Research Methods next Spring. This is a course that I had expected to teach 30+ years ago and which I haven't expected to ever teach in almost as long. This is also a course that is the foundation of what it means to be a psychologist, any sort of psychologist, so reading Research Methods in Psychology: Evaluating a World of Information has been both somewhat overwhelming and exciting.

Let me be clear, Beth Morling's text is clear, accessible, and readable, aimed at smart undergraduates, without demanding that they have already taken a Statistics course. The only calculations recommended by this text can be easily performed using online calculators. It focuses on critical thinking about research studies and research claims, which will be useful for my students who are more to become consumers of research than researchers, per se. They may use research strategies as they critically evaluate the data they obtain out in the field.

Nonetheless, sometimes I felt like a frog being slowly boiled alive – apparently, a myth. Morling starts slowly, building to a boil across the course of her book (e.g., moderators, mediators, and factorial designs).

It wasn't a difficult process, though, as the conscientious reader is well-prepared by the point at which she finally brings things to a boil. Morling repeatedly referred back to earlier-discussed studies to offer familiar context. She also repeatedly discussed popular articles and how the writers got the research right (or not). She supplements these with many examples and useful review questions or applications. Each of these factors made working through this text as exciting as it could also be challenging.

In sum, some of my students will love Morling. Some will not – but they would find any of the other books out there challenging, too.

[Julia]

czasem pierdu pierdu ale zawsze lepsze niz statystyka

[johana]

yaas, první vš učebnice, kterou jsem přečetla celou 😎

[Siobhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best books on the market for research methods in psychology.

Thoroughly well written, it’s an easily accessible book that works well to make complicated aspects of the subject much easier to understand. If you’re someone who struggles with the methodology section of psychology I would recommend giving this book a read as it works well to help you understand the topic.

[Chloe Bright · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good textbook. The thing I probably utilized most and found the most helpful were the diagrams throughout the chapters that differentiated the similar concepts to make them more understandable and separate instead of confusing them as the same things. The writing itself was fairly easy to comprehend and it was jam-packed with examples of real studies to support every concept it was explaining.
The only minor complaint I have about this textbook was that sometimes instead of giving an actual definition for hard-to-define concepts, it would just give an example of it happening. Examples are useful, but I, personally, need those foundational definitions for things so it's easier for me to generalize them to other studies besides just the ones it would use in the example. For those things that it didn't provide definitions for, it's a little harder for me to comprehend them and know when to identify them in any other research.
Other than that, this was a great textbook. If you ever have to read it for your Research Methods in Psychology class, you will be well off.

[Isabelle Harris]

yes i am counting my textbooks as reading because this is all i read during the semesters :P

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This textbook is exactly what it says it is: a very comprehensible introduction to research methodology in psychology. Guided expertly by my fantastic professor, I managed to get an 8 on the exam.

Every textbook has its flaws, but overall this book contained very clear explanations of key terms and methods, as well as clarifying examples for everything discussed. Maybe too many examples, but it drives the point home. Some things are a little less clearly explained, like mixed factorial design, but a good lecturer easily makes up for it.

One thing to keep in mind is that ironically after the chapter on ethics and data falsification, the book still uses an example from Brian Wansink's studies, who has a questionable reputation in that very regard.

[Sam Niet Vonhof · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hopelijk een 7/8


(update: 7.5)

[Sephy Hallow · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read for a course on research methodology. I used the fifth edition (not listed on here), which comes with online "Inquizitives", a series of extremely annoying quizzes. Questions are fill-in-the-blanks comprehension style, with two (two!) pop-ups every time you apply one correct answer. There are usually 3-5 blanks to fill in each question, meaning every question is essentially 3-5 questions. I enjoy revising a subject, but this was actually sensorily overwhelming for my poor autistic brain - music, pings for every correct/incorrect answer, a blinking little man with one eyeball watching from the top corner - it was nauseating, not to mention kind of juvenile. I felt like a child, not an undergraduate, and I resented every single one (which I had to complete for a grade). A lot of the questions were actively wrong - I even brought them up with my professor, who agreed. Poorly designed interactive elements, that created a lot of frustration and stress, plus a bog-standard, boring textbook that overly explained simplistic concepts and didn't spend nearly enough time unpacking factorial designs. I am so glad to see the back of this expensive mandated shite.

[Ellie J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 stars

I found this textbook to be extremely repetitive and felt that many of the chapters could be condensed down. I understand that some of the information being provided is complex, but I feel the publisher severely underestimated the intelligence of the target readers. Further, the textbook goes over some pretty basic information that you would reasonably already know coming into a research methods class. I've seen the curriculum and pre-reqs for psych research methods for four different universities and all of them require stats first, while this might not be 100% generalizable, I feel like it's pretty safe to say that there didn't need to be constant reminders of what a p value or 2x2x2 experimental design is. If it was less repetitive and didn't do so much review, I feel like the book could've been around 200 pages (and thus also a lot cheaper).

[Indira Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ya know...I actually liked this book, for the most part, considering it was an assigned reading for a class. Despite being forced to learn the information within, I kind of liked some aspects to this book. For example,the author used interesting examples to get her point across. I also just liked learning more about the research aspect in Psychology. Sue me for that, oh wait, please dont. XD

[Marissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

For not having the most exciting subject matter, this text did a great job of explaining concepts in interesting ways. I really appreciated the way that the authors used examples to illustrate their points, and carried those examples throughout each chapter. It definitely made the text more engaging.

[Brianna · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a textbook, it was pretty good. I appreciated the wealth of examples. The book had strong organization and touched on the most important ideas from my class. I thought it was a little long winded in some sections and did not always include as much information as I wanted in others, but overall it made a good companion to my research design class.

[Patrick Riley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 4th Edition does an excellent job of navigating various research methods, a breakdown of accompanied examples and provided sample data, along with practical execution with each method. Incredibly digestible content that was fabulously informative, one of my favorite textbooks I’ve ever had!

[Teri Temme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great textbook!

[Joey · Rating 4 out of 5]

For having a dull subject matter, the textbook did a good job of making the material somewhat easy to understand and palatable. The examples were relevant and the text itself was pretty basic.

[Miles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid textbook, was able to effectively teach myself the course material for an online class without having to watch the professor’s video lectures.

[Breana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would be awesome if the multiple choice review questions actually had the answers in the back of the book instead of "answers may vary" LOLLL

[Steph Guzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of the easier textbooks reads i have had to do 🤠

[Raphael Lysander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear, well organized, and complemented with suitable examples at each step.

[Mia Marais]

By far the saddest addition to my goodreads list🥲

[Bonni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like how this book is organized, and it teaches potentially confusing principles in straightforward ways.

[Astrid KK · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the whole thing front to cover, so it counts :) It wasn’t all that helpful.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

also for school!! didn’t love the course that much but i loved the book’s writing and the examples that were used.

[Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

stats can suck it but this book was admittedly very well written, thank you Beth.

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was without a doubt the best textbook I've ever read. Morling thoroughly and clearly describes the many methods involved in psychology, painting the pictures of psychology methods in a way that anyone can understand. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is pursuing a degree in psychology, or just is interested in psychology in general.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a textbook, this was incredibly well written. Morling does a wonderful job of explaining complex material very clearly and the book is remarkably interesting considering how dense the subject is. Would definitely recommend for classrooms and for anyone interested in conducting psychological research.

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's really useful to be able to properly read and interrogate scientific studies. Everyone should know how to do this (then maybe people could stop believing that vaccines cause autism).

[Joel Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not exactly riveting, but that's to be expected. Was mostly clear and made good use of interesting anecdotes along the way. I appreciated the use of so many real studies as examples because I learned as much about different historical findings as I did the method of research behind them.

[Dan Desmarques · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although nothing in this book is new to me, I strongly recommend it because of this trend of so many ignorant people using the term "it's scientifically proven" when they have absolutely no idea what it means or what science really is.