Scientific_Method

Wise Consumers As consumers of products and services, individuals are very concerned with the truth about what they are purchasing so they look toward methods of information such as surveys, however, when it comes to being a wise consumer of scientific information, consumers must take different approaches. Because one is not looking to find out how well a product works or how well a company performs, rather than using methods such as surveys, a consumer uses methods such as media and advertising. In order to make sure that the information from these sources is accurate, however, research is done on the results of case studies and experiments. Research Methods There are many options available when one is conducting research on the methods of Science. Probably the most widely used method in this area would be an experiment. When conducting an experiment, an individual can accomplish all four goals of Science which include: • to describe • to explain • to predict • to control whatever it is that he or she is studying. Other research methods include naturalistic and laboratory observation, surveys and case studies. (Gallego, I., 2010) Because of a vague vision of the outcome of such methods of research, these methods are not as widely used as experiments. Method Limitations One of the most popular and efficient methods of Science that Psychologists use is to perform case studies involving experiments that include a selection of “things” or people There are, however, limitations within the rules of such experiments. One limitation of an experiment is that the rules of Science only allow the conductor of the experiment to perform the experiment while only randomly assigning subjects into groups. This rule limits the effectiveness of the study because the Psychologist cannot select the subjects of the experiment at his or her own discretion.