What Is Empirical Research in Psychology?

Empirical research = collecting new data

There are three main approaches:

Approach	What the data looks like	Examples
Quantitative	Numbers	Experiments, surveys, scales
Qualitative	Words / descriptions	Interviews, focus groups
Mixed methods	Both numbers + words	Surveys + interviews

Most psychology research is quantitative, but mixed methods are becoming more common.

Quantitative vs Qualitative Research

Response Style

• Quantitative: Restricted responses
  (e.g. Likert scales, multiple choice)
• Qualitative: Open responses
  (participants say whatever they want)

Example

• Quant: “How much do you love your partner?” (1–7 scale)
• Qual: “Tell me about how much you love your partner.”

Research Design Differences

Empirical Research Methods

Quantitative	Qualitative
Experiments	Interviews
Surveys (scales)	Focus groups
Correlational studies	Open-ended survey questions
Quasi-experiments	Observations

What is Qualitative Research?

Goal: Understand experiences, not measure them precisely.

Key Features

• Broader research questions
• Often used to generate hypotheses
• Data is usually:
  • Text (spoken or written)
  • Sometimes visual or behavioural
• Produces lots of rich data
• Requires training → this lecture is a light introduction

Main Qualitative Research Methods

1. Interviews

Type	Description
Structured	Fixed script
Semi-structured	Script + flexibility (most common)
Unstructured	Very open, participant-led

2. Focus Groups

• Small group discussion
• People’s responses can influence each other
• Useful for studying social dynamics

3. Open-Ended Surveys

• Written responses
• Easier to collect from larger samples
• Less depth than interviews

How Do We Analyse Qualitative Data?

1. Collect text responses
2. Code responses into themes
3. Check inter-rater reliability (agreement between coders)
4. Count themes → turn them into variables
5. Run statistics if needed

Note: This is where qualitative becomes quantifiable

Example: Coding Responses

Question: “What do you feel when you see this image?”

Theme	% of participants
Mentions “cat”	43%
Positive feelings	43%
Negative feelings	29%

Reporting Qualitative Research

• Can report:
  • Themes across participants
  • Individual quotes
• Participants must be anonymised
  • IDs, pseudonyms, initials
• Qualitative data is often summarised AND quantified

Mixed Methods Research

What is Mixed Methods?

Using qualitative + quantitative methods in the same study

How It’s Done

1. Together
   (e.g. survey with rating scales + open-ended questions)
2. Sequentially
   (e.g. survey → follow-up interviews)

Statistical Tools for Text/ Word Data

When Data is Large

Manual coding becomes impossible → use computational tools

Common Computational Tools

Tool	What it does
Word clouds	Counts word frequency
Sentiment analysis	Detects emotional tone
NLP tools	Finds themes & word patterns

Example: Word Clouds

• Words broken into tokens
• Common words removed (e.g. “and”, “to”)
• More frequent words appear larger

Summary: Quantitative vs Qualitative

Feature	Quantitative	Qualitative
Data type	Numbers	Words
Sample size	Larger	Smaller
Precision	High	Lower
Depth	Lower	High
Cause-and-effect	Possible	Not possible
Internal validity	Higher	Lower
External validity	Lower	Higher
Best for	Testing hypotheses	Exploring experiences