Disclaimers

For everyone, here are some information, ways of thinking about findings in psychology.

1. All psychological methods have their flaws and limitations.

Experimental designs:

-may not generate to actual life because the study is conducted in a lab

-only a few variables can be manipulated at a time, but in real life, we know that many variables play a role together.

-some studies poorly control for their confounds, but still arrive at their conclusions

Correlational

-May not have a casual relationship; note that possibly effects are bidirectional, or unidirectional (but not sure in which direction), or that there is a third variable. 

Surveys

-low psychological realism (people do not actually mean what they report on a survey especially true if you are asking them what they will do in a particular situation)

Animal Samples

-may not generalize perfectly to humans.

Quasi-Experimental design

-pre-existing variables may explain results; not because the manipulation.