Skip to content

    Read more about Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition

    Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition

    (40 reviews)

    Carrie Cuttler, Washington State University

    Rajiv S. Jhangiani, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

    Dana C. Leighton, Texas A&M University, Texarkana

    Copyright Year:

    ISBN 13: 9781999198107

    Publisher: Kwantlen Polytechnic University

    Language: English

    Formats Available

    Conditions of Use

    Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
    CC BY-NC-SA

    Reviews

    Learn more about reviews.

    Reviewed by Beth Mechlin, Associate Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, Earlham College on 3/19/24

    This is an extremely comprehensive text for an undergraduate psychology course about research methods. It does an excellent job covering the basics of a variety of types of research design. It also includes important topics related to research... read more

    Reviewed by William Johnson, Lecturer, Old Dominion University on 1/12/24

    This textbook covers every topic that I teach in my Research Methods course aside from psychology careers (which I would not really expect it to cover). read more

    Reviewed by Brianna Ewert, Psychology Instructor, Salish Kootenai College on 12/30/22

    This text includes the majority of content included in our undergraduate Research Methods in Psychology course. The glossary provides concise definitions of key terms. This text includes most of the background knowledge we expect our students to... read more

    Reviewed by Sara Peters, Associate Professor of Psychology, Newberry College on 11/3/22

    This text serves as an excellent resource for introducing survey research methods topics to undergraduate students. It begins with a background of the science of psychology, the scientific method, and research ethics, before moving into the main... read more

    Reviewed by Sharlene Fedorowicz, Adjunct Professor, Bridgewater State University on 6/23/21

    The comprehensiveness of this book was appropriate for an introductory undergraduate psychology course. Critical topics are covered that are necessary for psychology students to obtain foundational learning concepts for research. Sections within... read more

    Reviewed by Anna Behler, Assistant Professo, North Carolina State University on 6/1/21

    The text is very thorough and covers all of the necessary topics for an undergraduate psychology research methods course. There is even coverage of qualitative research, case studies, and the replication crisis which I have not seen in some other... read more

    Reviewed by Seth Surgan, Professor, Worcester State University on 5/24/21

    Pitched very well for a 200-level Research Methods course. This text provided students with solid basis for class discussion and the further development of their understanding of fundamental concepts. read more

    Reviewed by Laura Getz, Assistant Professor, University of San Diego on 4/29/21

    The topics covered seemed to be at an appropriate level for beginner undergraduate psychology students; the learning objectives for each subsection and the key takeaways and exercises for each chapter are also very helpful in guiding students’... read more

    Reviewed by Laura Stull, Associate Professor, Anderson University on 4/23/21

    This book covers essential topics and areas related to conducting introductory psychological research. It covers all critical topics, including the scientific method, research ethics, research designs, and basic descriptive and inferential... read more

    Reviewed by Anika Gearhart, Instructor (TT), Leeward Community College on 4/22/21

    Includes the majority of elements you expect from a textbook covering research methods. Some topics that could have been covered in a bit more depth were factorial research designs (no coverage of 3 or more independent variables) and external... read more

    Reviewed by Amy Foley, Instructor/Field & Clinical Placement Coordinator, University of Indianapolis on 3/11/21

    This text provides a comprehensive overview of the research process from ideation to proposal. It covers research designs common to psychology and related fields. read more

    Reviewed by Veronica Howard, Associate Professor, University of Alaska Anchorage on 1/11/21, updated 1/11/21

    VERY impressed by the coverage of single subject designs. I would recommend this content to colleagues. read more

    Reviewed by Greg Mullin, Associate Professor, Bunker Hill Community College on 12/30/20, updated 1/6/21

    I was VERY pleased with the comprehensiveness of the text. I believe it actually has an edge over the publisher-based text that I've been using for years. Each major topic was thoroughly covered with more than enough detail on individual concepts. read more

    Reviewed by Maureen O'Connell, Adjunct Professor, Bunker Hill Community College on 12/15/20, updated 12/18/20

    This text edition has covered all ideas and areas of research methods in psychology. It has provided a glossary of terms, sample APA format, and sample research papers.  read more

    Reviewed by Brittany Jeye, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Worcester State University on 6/26/20

    All of the main topics in a Research Methods course are covered in this textbook (e.g., scientific method, ethics, measurement, experimental design, hypothesis testing, APA style, etc.). Some of these topics are not covered as in-depth as in other... read more

    Reviewed by Alice Frye, Associate Teaching Professor, University of Massachusetts Lowell on 6/22/20

    Hits all the necessary marks from ways of knowing to measurement, research designs, and presentation. Comparable in detail and content to other Research Methods texts I have used for teaching. read more

    Reviewed by Lauren Mathieu-Frasier, Adjunct Instructor, University of Indianapolis on 1/13/20

    As other reviews have mentioned, this textbook provides a comprehensive look at multiple concepts for an introductory course in research methods in psychology. Some of the concepts (i.e., variables, external validity) are briefly described and... read more

    Reviewed by Tiffany Kindratt, Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Arlington on 1/1/20

    The text is comprehensive with an effective glossary of terms at the end. It would be beneficial to include additional examples and exercises for students to better understand concepts covered in Chapter II, Overview of the Scientific Method,... read more

    Reviewed by Mickey White, Assistant Professor, East Tennessee State University on 10/23/19

    The table of contents is well-formatted and comprehensive. Easy to navigate and find exactly what is needed, students would be able to quickly find needed subjects. read more

    Reviewed by Robert Michael, Assistant Professor, University of Louisiana at Lafayette on 10/14/19

    Successfully spans the gamut of topics expected in a Research Methods textbook. Some topics are covered in-depth, while others are addressed only at a surface level. Instructors may therefore need to carefully arrange class material for topics in... read more

    Reviewed by Matthew DeCarlo, Assistant Professor, Radford University on 6/26/19

    The authors do a great job of simplifying the concepts of research methods and presenting them in a way that is understandable. There is a tradeoff between brevity and depth here. Faculty who adopt this textbook may need to spend more time in... read more

    Reviewed by Christopher Garris, Associate Professor, Metropolitan State University of Denver on 5/24/19

    Most content areas in this textbook were covered appropriately extensively. Notably, this textbook included some content that is commonly missing in other textbooks (e.g. presenting your research). There were some areas where more elaboration... read more

    Reviewed by Michel Heijnen, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina Wilmington on 3/27/18

    The book covers all areas related to research methods, not only for the field of psychology, but also to other related fields like exercise science. Topics include ethics, developing a research questions, experimental designs, non-experimental... read more

    Reviewed by Chris Koch, Professor of Psychology, George Fox University on 3/27/18

    All appropriate areas and topics are covered in the text. In that sense, this book is equivalent to other top texts dealing with research methods in psychology. The appeal of this book is the brevity and clarity. Therefore, some may find that,... read more

    Reviewed by Kevin White, Assistant Professor, East Carolina University on 2/1/18

    This book covers all relevant topics for an introduction to research methods course in the social sciences, including measurement, sampling, basic research design, and ethics. The chapters were long enough to be somewhat comprehensive, but short... read more

    Reviewed by Elizabeth Do, Instructor, Virginia Commonwealth University on 2/1/18

    Although this textbook does provide good information regarding introductory concepts necessary for the understanding of correlational designs, and is presented in a logical order. It does not, however, cover qualitative methodologies, or research... read more

    Reviewed by Eric Lindsey, Professor, Penn State University Berks Campus on 2/1/18

    The content of the Research Methods in Psychology textbook was very thorough and covered what I would consider to be the important concepts and issues pertaining to research methods. I would judge that the textbook has a comparable coverage of... read more

    Reviewed by zehra peynircioglu, Professor, American University on 2/1/18

    Short and sweet in most areas. Covers the basic concepts, not very comprehensively but definitely adequately so for a general beginning-level research methods course. For instance, I would liked to have seen a "separate" chapter on correlational... read more

    Reviewed by George Woodbury, Graduate Student, Miami University, Ohio on 6/20/17

    This text covers the typical areas for an undergraduate psychology course in research design. There is no table of contents included with the downloadable version, although there is a table of contents on the website (which excludes sub-sections... read more

    Reviewed by Angela Curl, Assistant Professor, Miami University (Ohio) on 6/20/17

    "Research Methods in Psychology" covers most research method topics comprehensively. The author does an excellent job explaining main concepts. The chapter on causation is very detailed and well-written as well as the chapter on research ethics.... read more

    Reviewed by Pramit Nadpara, Assistant Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University on 4/11/17

    The text book provides good information in certain areas, while not comprehensive information in other areas. The text provides practical information, especially the section on survey development was good. Additional information on sampling... read more

    Reviewed by Meghan Babcock, Instructor, University of Texas at Arlington on 4/11/17

    This text includes all important areas that are featured in other Research Methods textbooks and are presented in a logical order. The text includes great examples and provides the references which can be assigned as supplemental readings. In... read more

    Reviewed by Shannon Layman, Lecturer, University of Texas at Arlington on 4/11/17

    The sections in this textbook are overall more brief than in previous Methods texts that I have used. Sometimes this brevity is helpful in terms of getting to the point of the text and moving on. In other cases, some topics could use a bit more... read more

    Reviewed by Sarah Allred, Associate Professor, Rutgers University, Camden on 2/8/17

    Mixed. For some topics, there is more (and more practical) information than in most textbooks. I appreciated the very practical advice to students about how to plot data (in statistics chapters). Similarly, there is practical advice about how... read more

    Reviewed by Joel Malin, Assistant Professor, Miami University on 8/21/16

    This textbook covers all or nearly all of what I believe are important topics to provide an introduction to research methods in psychology. One minor issue is that the pdf version, which I reviewed, does not include an index or a glossary. As... read more

    Reviewed by Abbey Dvorak, Assistant Professor, University of Kansas on 8/21/16

    The text includes basic, essential information needed for students in an introductory research methods course. In addition, the text includes three chapters (i.e., research ethics, theory, and APA style) that are typically absent from or... read more

    Reviewed by Karen Pikula, Psychology Instructor PhD, Central Lakes College on 1/7/16

    The text covers all the areas and ideas of the subject of research methods in psychology for the learner that is just entering the field. The authors cover all of the content of an introductory research methods textbook and use exemplary examples... read more

    Reviewed by Alyssa Gibbons, Instructor, Colorado State University on 1/7/16

    This text covers everything I would consider essential for a first course in research methods, including some areas that are not consistently found in introductory texts (e.g., qualitative research, criticisms of null hypothesis significance... read more

    Reviewed by Moin Syed, Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota on 6/10/15

    The text is thorough in terms of covering introductory concepts that are central to experimental and correlational/association designs. I find the general exclusion of qualitative and mixed methods designs hard to defend (despite some researchers’... read more

    Reviewed by Rajiv Jhangiani, Instructor, Capilano University on 10/9/13

    The text is well organized and written, integrates excellent pedagogical features, and covers all of the traditional areas of the topic admirably. The final two chapters provide a good bridge between the research methods course and the follow-up... read more

    Table of Contents

    • Chapter 1: The Science of Psychology
    • Chapter 2: Overview of the Scientific Method
    • Chapter 3: Research Ethics
    • Chapter 4: Psychological Measurement
    • Chapter 5: Experimental Research
    • Chapter 6: Non-experimental Research
    • Chapter 7: Survey Research
    • Chapter 8: Quasi-Experimental Research
    • Chapter 9: Factorial Designs
    • Chapter 10: Single-Subject Research
    • Chapter 11: Presenting Your Research
    • Chapter 12: Descriptive Statistics
    • Chapter 13: Inferential Statistics

    Ancillary Material

    • Kwantlen Polytechnic University
    • About the Book

      This fourth edition (published in 2019) was co-authored by Rajiv S. Jhangiani (Kwantlen Polytechnic University), Carrie Cuttler (Washington State University), and Dana C. Leighton (Texas A&M University—Texarkana) and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Revisions throughout the current edition include changing the chapter and section numbering system to better accommodate adaptions that remove or reorder chapters; continued reversion from the Canadian edition; general grammatical edits; replacement of “he/she” to “they” and “his/her” to “their”; removal or update of dead links; embedded videos that were not embedded; moved key takeaways and exercises from the end of each chapter section to the end of each chapter; a new cover design.

      About the Contributors

      Authors

      Dr. Carrie Cuttler received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of British Columbia. She has been teaching research methods and statistics for over a decade. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Washington State University, where she primarily studies the acute and chronic effects of cannabis on cognition, mental health, and physical health. Dr. Cuttler was also an OER Research Fellow with the Center for Open Education and she conducts research on open educational resources. She has over 50 publications including the following two published books: A Student Guide for SPSS (1st and 2nd edition) and Research Methods in Psychology: Student Lab Guide. Finally, she edited another OER entitled Essentials of Abnormal Psychology. In her spare time, she likes to travel, hike, bike, run, and watch movies with her husband and son. You can find her online at @carriecuttler or carriecuttler.com.

      Dr. Rajiv Jhangiani is the Associate Vice Provost, Open Education at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia. He is an internationally known advocate for open education whose research and practice focuses on open educational resources, student-centered pedagogies, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Rajiv is a co-founder of the Open Pedagogy Notebook, an Ambassador for the Center for Open Science, and serves on the BC Open Education Advisory Committee. He formerly served as an Open Education Advisor and Senior Open Education Research & Advocacy Fellow with BCcampus, an OER Research Fellow with the Open Education Group, a Faculty Workshop Facilitator with the Open Textbook Network, and a Faculty Fellow with the BC Open Textbook Project. A co-author of three open textbooks in Psychology, his most recent book is Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science (2017). You can find him online at @thatpsychprof or thatpsychprof.com.

      Dr. Dana C. Leighton is Assistant Professor of Psychology in the College of Arts, Science, and Education at Texas A&M University—Texarkana. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas, and has 15 years experience teaching across the psychology curriculum at community colleges, liberal arts colleges, and research universities. Dr. Leighton’s social psychology research lab studies intergroup relations, and routinely includes undergraduate students as researchers. He is also Chair of the university’s Institutional Review Board. Recently he has been researching and writing about the use of open science research practices by undergraduate researchers to increase diversity, justice, and sustainability in psychological science. He has published on his teaching methods in eBooks from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, presented his methods at regional and national conferences, and received grants to develop new teaching methods. His teaching interests are in undergraduate research, writing skills, and online student engagement. For more about Dr. Leighton see http://www.danaleighton.net and http://danaleighton.edublogs.org

      Contribute to this Page

      Suggest an edit to this book record