Title: Descriptive Research | Introduction to Psychology
Headings: 
Descriptive Research
What you’ll learn to do: describe the strengths and weaknesses of descriptive, experimental, and correlational research
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Learning Objectives
Descriptive Research
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Case Studies
Link to Learning
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Naturalistic Observation
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Surveys
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Think It Over
Archival Research
Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Research
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Glossary

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Learning Objectives
Differentiate between descriptive, experimental, and correlational research
Explain the strengths and weaknesses of case studies, naturalistic observation, and surveys
Describe the strength and weaknesses of archival research
Compare longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches to research
Descriptive Research
There are many research methods available to psychologists in their efforts to understand, describe, and explain behavior and the cognitive and biological processes that underlie it. Some methods rely on observational techniques. Other approaches involve interactions between the researcher and the individuals who are being studied—ranging from a series of simple questions to extensive, in-depth interviews—to well-controlled experiments. The three main categories of psychological research are descriptive, correlational, and experimental research. Research studies that do not test specific relationships between variables are called descriptive, or qualitative, studies. These studies are used to describe general or specific behaviors and attributes that are observed and measured. In the early stages of research it might be difficult to form a hypothesis, especially when there is not any existing literature in the area. In these situations designing an experiment would be premature, as the question of interest is not yet clearly defined as a hypothesis. Often a researcher will begin with a non-experimental approach, such as a descriptive study, to gather more information about the topic before designing an experiment or correlational study to address a specific hypothesis.