Introduction

This report will deliberate and evaluate the methodology and moral issues related with psychological research.

Methodology

This is the body of procedures, practice and rule used by those who work in a discipline or engage in an inquiry set of work methods.  It is also the process behind the methods of collecting date. Psychologists use different types of methods to conduct research such as: surveys, case studies, questionnaires, interviews, observations and lab experiments. These are the examples of descriptive or correlational research methods. By using this method the psychologist can describe different events, experiences or behaviour. They all have advantages and disadvantages.

Questionnaire

A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of series of questions for a purpose of gathering information from the percipients. Questionnaires can be carried out face to face, by computer, post, by phone or it can be thought of as a kind of written interview. Questionnaires are a quick, cheap and effective way of obtaining large amounts of information from a large number of people. The data is not time consuming because the researcher would not need to be present when the questionnaires were completed. In addition, questionnaires can be an effective way of measuring attitudes, behaviour, preferences and opinions more cheaply and quickly than other methods (Ppc.sas.upenn.edu, 2018).

One of the strengths of questionnaires is that they are economical.  This means they can provide large amounts of research data for a very low cost and are less time consuming. In addition, the questions are standardized because all the participants are asked exactly same questions in the same way and it can be replicated easily to check the reliability. However, one of the potential weaknesses in the questionnaire is that the participants may lie due to social desirability. Most of the participants want to present a positive image of themselves and they may bend the truth to look good.

Interview

Interview is a different type of research method as they involve social interaction. Unlike questionnaires, the researchers need to be trained to interview people which may cost money. The researchers can ask different types of questions which can produce different types of data. For example, open questions allow people to express what they think in their own words and closed questions provide people with a fixed set of responses. Most of the times researcher use an interview schedule to prepare and to design questions exactly as worded.  This means the same questions are asked to each interviewee in the same way and it will be recorded by the researcher. However, the interviewer must ensure that they take special care when they are interviewing vulnerable group so as not to put suggestions into their minds which might influence the way they respond.