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11+ Psychology Experiment Ideas (Goals + Methods)

Have you ever wondered why some days you remember things easily, while on others you keep forgetting? Or why certain songs make you super happy and others just…meh?

Our minds are like big, mysterious puzzles, and every day we're finding new pieces to fit. One of the coolest ways to explore our brains and the way they work is through psychology experiments.

A psychology experiment is a special kind of test or activity researchers use to learn more about how our minds work and why we behave the way we do.

It's like a detective game where scientists ask questions and try out different clues to find answers about our feelings, thoughts, and actions. These experiments aren't just for scientists in white coats but can be fun activities we all try to discover more about ourselves and others.

Some of these experiments have become so famous, they’re like the celebrities of the science world! Like the Marshmallow Test, where kids had to wait to eat a yummy marshmallow, or Pavlov's Dogs, where dogs learned to drool just hearing a bell.

Let's look at a few examples of psychology experiments you can do at home.

What Are Some Classic Experiments?

Imagine a time when the mysteries of the mind were being uncovered in groundbreaking ways. During these moments, a few experiments became legendary, capturing the world's attention with their intriguing results.

The Marshmallow Test

One of the most talked-about experiments of the 20th century was the Marshmallow Test , conducted by Walter Mischel in the late 1960s at Stanford University.

The goal was simple but profound: to understand a child's ability to delay gratification and exercise self-control.

Children were placed in a room with a marshmallow and given a choice: eat the marshmallow now or wait 15 minutes and receive two as a reward. Many kids struggled with the wait, some devouring the treat immediately, while others demonstrated remarkable patience.

But the experiment didn’t end there. Years later, Mischel discovered something astonishing. The children who had waited for the second marshmallow were generally more successful in several areas of life, from school achievements to job satisfaction!

While this experiment highlighted the importance of teaching patience and self-control from a young age, it wasn't without its criticisms. Some argued that a child's background, upbringing, or immediate surroundings might play a significant role in their choices.

Moreover, there were concerns about the ethics of judging a child's potential success based on a brief interaction with a marshmallow.

Pavlov's Dogs

Traveling further back in time and over to Russia, another classic experiment took the world by storm. Ivan Pavlov , in the early 1900s, wasn't initially studying learning or behavior. He was exploring the digestive systems of dogs.

But during his research, Pavlov stumbled upon a fascinating discovery. He noticed that by ringing a bell every time he fed his dogs, they eventually began to associate the bell's sound with mealtime. So much so, that merely ringing the bell, even without presenting food, made the dogs drool in anticipation!

This reaction demonstrated the concept of "conditioning" - where behaviors can be learned by linking two unrelated stimuli. Pavlov's work revolutionized the world's understanding of learning and had ripple effects in various areas like animal training and therapy techniques.

Pavlov came up with the term classical conditioning , which is still used today. Other psychologists have developed more nuanced types of conditioning that help us understand how people learn to perform different behaviours.

Classical conditioning is the process by which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus , leading to the same response. In Pavlov's case, the neutral stimulus (bell) became associated with the meaningful stimulus (food), leading the dogs to salivate just by hearing the bell.

Modern thinkers often critique Pavlov's methods from an ethical standpoint. The dogs, crucial to his discovery, may not have been treated with today's standards of care and respect in research.

Both these experiments, while enlightening, also underline the importance of conducting research with empathy and consideration, especially when it involves living beings.

What is Ethical Experimentation?

The tales of Pavlov's bells and Mischel's marshmallows offer us not just insights into the human mind and behavior but also raise a significant question: At what cost do these discoveries come?

Ethical experimentation isn't just a fancy term; it's the backbone of good science. When we talk about ethics, we're referring to the moral principles that guide a researcher's decisions and actions. But why does it matter so much in the realm of psychological experimentation?

An example of an experiment that had major ethical issues is an experiment called the Monster Study . This study was conducted in 1936 and was interested in why children develop a stutter.

The major issue with it is that the psychologists treated some of the children poorly over a period of five months, telling them things like “You must try to stop yourself immediately. Don’t ever speak unless you can do it right.”

You can imagine how that made the children feel!

This study helped create guidelines for ethical treatment in experiments. The guidelines include:

Respect for Individuals: Whether it's a dog in Pavlov's lab or a child in Mischel's study room, every participant—human or animal—deserves respect. They should never be subjected to harm or undue stress. For humans, informed consent (knowing what they're signing up for) is a must. This means that if a child is participating, they, along with their guardians, should understand what the experiment entails and agree to it without being pressured.

Honesty is the Best Policy: Researchers have a responsibility to be truthful. This means not only being honest with participants about the study but also reporting findings truthfully, even if the results aren't what they hoped for. There can be exceptions if an experiment will only succeed if the participants aren't fully aware, but it has to be approved by an ethics committee .

Safety First: No discovery, no matter how groundbreaking, is worth harming a participant. The well-being and mental, emotional, and physical safety of participants is paramount. Experiments should be designed to minimize risks and discomfort.

Considering the Long-Term: Some experiments might have effects that aren't immediately obvious. For example, while a child might seem fine after participating in an experiment, they could feel stressed or anxious later on. Ethical researchers consider and plan for these possibilities, offering support and follow-up if needed.

The Rights of Animals: Just because animals can't voice their rights doesn't mean they don't have any. They should be treated with care, dignity, and respect. This means providing them with appropriate living conditions, not subjecting them to undue harm, and considering alternatives to animal testing when possible.

While the world of psychological experiments offers fascinating insights into behavior and the mind, it's essential to tread with care and compassion. The golden rule? Treat every participant, human or animal, as you'd wish to be treated. After all, the true mark of a groundbreaking experiment isn't just its findings but the ethical integrity with which it's conducted.

So, even if you're experimenting at home, please keep in mind the impact your experiments could have on the people and beings around you!

Let's get into some ideas for experiments.

1) Testing Conformity

Our primary aim with this experiment is to explore the intriguing world of social influences, specifically focusing on how much sway a group has over an individual's decisions. This social influence is called groupthink .

Humans, as social creatures, often find solace in numbers, seeking the approval and acceptance of those around them. But how deep does this need run? Does the desire to "fit in" overpower our trust in our own judgments?

This experiment not only provides insights into these questions but also touches upon the broader themes of peer pressure, societal norms, and individuality. Understanding this could shed light on various real-world situations, from why fashion trends catch on to more critical scenarios like how misinformation can spread.

Method: This idea is inspired by the classic Asch Conformity Experiments . Here's a simple way to try it:

• Assemble a group of people (about 7-8). Only one person will be the real participant; the others will be in on the experiment.
• Show the group a picture of three lines of different lengths and another line labeled "Test Line."
• Ask each person to say out loud which of the three lines matches the length of the "Test Line."
• Unknown to the real participant, the other members will intentionally choose the wrong line. This is to see if the participant goes along with the group's incorrect choice, even if they can see it's wrong.

Real-World Impacts of Groupthink

Groupthink is more than just a science term; we see it in our daily lives:

Decisions at Work or School: Imagine being in a group where everyone wants to do one thing, even if it's not the best idea. People might not speak up because they're worried about standing out or being the only one with a different opinion.

Wrong Information: Ever heard a rumor that turned out to be untrue? Sometimes, if many people believe and share something, others might believe it too, even if it's not correct. This happens a lot on the internet.

Peer Pressure: Sometimes, friends might all want to do something that's not safe or right. People might join in just because they don't want to feel left out.

Missing Out on New Ideas: When everyone thinks the same way and agrees all the time, cool new ideas might never get heard. It's like always coloring with the same crayon and missing out on all the other bright colors!

2) Testing Color and Mood

We all have favorite colors, right? But did you ever wonder if colors can make you feel a certain way? Color psychology is the study of how colors can influence our feelings and actions.

For instance, does blue always calm us down? Does red make us feel excited or even a bit angry? By exploring this, we can learn how colors play a role in our daily lives, from the clothes we wear to the color of our bedroom walls.

• Find a quiet room and set up different colored lights or large sheets of colored paper: blue, red, yellow, and green.
• Invite some friends over and let each person spend a few minutes under each colored light or in front of each colored paper.
• After each color, ask your friends to write down or talk about how they feel. Are they relaxed? Energized? Happy? Sad?

Researchers have always been curious about this. Some studies have shown that colors like blue and green can make people feel calm, while colors like red might make them feel more alert or even hungry!

Real-World Impacts of Color Psychology

Ever noticed how different places use colors?

Hospitals and doctors' clinics often use soft blues and greens. This might be to help patients feel more relaxed and calm.

Many fast food restaurants use bright reds and yellows. These colors might make us feel hungry or want to eat quickly and leave.

Classrooms might use a mix of colors to help students feel both calm and energized.

3) Testing Music and Brainpower

Think about your favorite song. Do you feel smarter or more focused when you listen to it? This experiment seeks to understand the relationship between music and our brain's ability to remember things. Some people believe that certain types of music, like classical tunes, can help us study or work better. Let's find out if it's true!

• Prepare a list of 10-15 things to remember, like a grocery list or names of places.
• Invite some friends over. First, let them try to memorize the list in a quiet room.
• After a short break, play some music (try different types like pop, classical, or even nature sounds) and ask them to memorize the list again.
• Compare the results. Was there a difference in how much they remembered with and without music?

The " Mozart Effect " is a popular idea. Some studies in the past suggested that listening to Mozart's music might make people smarter, at least for a little while. But other researchers think the effect might not be specific to Mozart; it could be that any music we enjoy boosts our mood and helps our brain work better.

Real-World Impacts of Music and Memory

Think about how we use music:

• Study Sessions: Many students listen to music while studying, believing it helps them concentrate better.
• Workout Playlists: Gyms play energetic music to keep people motivated and help them push through tough workouts.
• Meditation and Relaxation: Calm, soothing sounds are often used to help people relax or meditate.

4) Testing Dreams and Food

Ever had a really wild dream and wondered where it came from? Some say that eating certain foods before bedtime can make our dreams more vivid or even a bit strange.

This experiment is all about diving into the dreamy world of sleep to see if what we eat can really change our nighttime adventures. Can a piece of chocolate or a slice of cheese transport us to a land of wacky dreams? Let's find out!

• Ask a group of friends to keep a "dream diary" for a week. Every morning, they should write down what they remember about their dreams.
• For the next week, ask them to eat a small snack before bed, like cheese, chocolate, or even spicy foods.
• They should continue writing in their "dream diary" every morning.
• At the end of the two weeks, compare the dream notes. Do the dreams seem different during the snack week?

The link between food and dreams isn't super clear, but some people have shared personal stories. For example, some say that spicy food can lead to bizarre dreams. Scientists aren't completely sure why, but it could be related to how food affects our body temperature or brain activity during sleep.

A cool idea related to this experiment is that of vivid dreams , which are very clear, detailed, and easy to remember dreams. Some people are even able to control their vivid dreams, or say that they feel as real as daily, waking life !

Real-World Impacts of Food and Dreams

Our discoveries might shed light on:

• Bedtime Routines: Knowing which foods might affect our dreams can help us choose better snacks before bedtime, especially if we want calmer sleep.
• Understanding Our Brain: Dreams can be mysterious, but studying them can give us clues about how our brains work at night.
• Cultural Beliefs: Many cultures have myths or stories about foods and dreams. Our findings might add a fun twist to these age-old tales!

5) Testing Mirrors and Self-image

Stand in front of a mirror. How do you feel? Proud? Shy? Curious? Mirrors reflect more than just our appearance; they might influence how we think about ourselves.

This experiment delves into the mystery of self-perception. Do we feel more confident when we see our reflection? Or do we become more self-conscious? Let's take a closer look.

• Set up two rooms: one with mirrors on all walls and another with no mirrors at all.
• Invite friends over and ask them to spend some time in each room doing normal activities, like reading or talking.
• After their time in both rooms, ask them questions like: "Did you think about how you looked more in one room? Did you feel more confident or shy?"
• Compare the responses to see if the presence of mirrors changes how they feel about themselves.

Studies have shown that when people are in rooms with mirrors, they can become more aware of themselves. Some might stand straighter, fix their hair, or even change how they behave. The mirror acts like an audience, making us more conscious of our actions.

Real-World Impacts of Mirrors and Self-perception

Mirrors aren't just for checking our hair. Ever wonder why clothing stores have so many mirrors? They might help shoppers visualize themselves in new outfits, encouraging them to buy.

Mirrors in gyms can motivate people to work out with correct form and posture. They also help us see progress in real-time!

And sometimes, looking in a mirror can be a reminder to take care of ourselves, both inside and out.

But remember, what we look like isn't as important as how we act in the world or how healthy we are. Some people claim that having too many mirrors around can actually make us more self conscious and distract us from the good parts of ourselves.

Some studies are showing that mirrors can actually increase self-compassion , amongst other things. As any tool, it seems like mirrors can be both good and bad, depending on how we use them!

6) Testing Plants and Talking

Have you ever seen someone talking to their plants? It might sound silly, but some people believe that plants can "feel" our vibes and that talking to them might even help them grow better.

In this experiment, we'll explore whether plants can indeed react to our voices and if they might grow taller, faster, or healthier when we chat with them.

• Get three similar plants, placing each one in a separate room.
• Talk to the first plant, saying positive things like "You're doing great!" or singing to it.
• Say negative things to the second plant, like "You're not growing fast enough!"
• Don't talk to the third plant at all; let it be your "silent" control group .
• Water all plants equally and make sure they all get the same amount of light.
• At the end of the month, measure the growth of each plant and note any differences in their health or size.

The idea isn't brand new. Some experiments from the past suggest plants might respond to sounds or vibrations. Some growers play music for their crops, thinking it helps them flourish.

Even if talking to our plants doesn't have an impact on their growth, it can make us feel better! Sometimes, if we are lonely, talking to our plants can help us feel less alone. Remember, they are living too!

Real-World Impacts of Talking to Plants

If plants do react to our voices, gardeners and farmers might adopt new techniques, like playing music in greenhouses or regularly talking to plants.

Taking care of plants and talking to them could become a recommended activity for reducing stress and boosting mood.

And if plants react to sound, it gives us a whole new perspective on how connected all living things might be .

7) Testing Virtual Reality and Senses

Virtual reality (VR) seems like magic, doesn't it? You put on a headset and suddenly, you're in a different world! But how does this "new world" affect our senses? This experiment wants to find out how our brains react to VR compared to the real world. Do we feel, see, or hear things differently? Let's get to the bottom of this digital mystery!

• You'll need a VR headset and a game or experience that can be replicated in real life (like walking through a forest). If you don't have a headset yourself, there are virtual reality arcades now!
• Invite friends to first experience the scenario in VR.
• Afterwards, replicate the experience in the real world, like taking a walk in an actual forest.
• Ask them questions about both experiences: Did one seem more real than the other? Which sounds were more clear? Which colors were brighter? Did they feel different emotions?

As VR becomes more popular, scientists have been curious about its effects. Some studies show that our brains can sometimes struggle to tell the difference between VR and reality. That's why some people might feel like they're really "falling" in a VR game even though they're standing still.

Real-World Impacts of VR on Our Senses

Schools might use VR to teach lessons, like taking students on a virtual trip to ancient Egypt. Understanding how our senses react in VR can also help game designers create even more exciting and realistic games.

Doctors could use VR to help patients overcome fears or to provide relaxation exercises. This is actually already a method therapists can use for helping patients who have serious phobias. This is called exposure therapy , which basically means slowly exposing someone (or yourself) to the thing you fear, starting from very far away to becoming closer.

For instance, if someone is afraid of snakes. You might show them images of snakes first. Once they are comfortable with the picture, they can know there is one in the next room. Once they are okay with that, they might use a VR headset to see the snake in the same room with them, though of course there is not an actual snake there.

8) Testing Sleep and Learning

We all know that feeling of trying to study or work when we're super tired. Our brains feel foggy, and it's hard to remember stuff. But how exactly does sleep (or lack of it) influence our ability to learn and remember things?

With this experiment, we'll uncover the mysteries of sleep and see how it can be our secret weapon for better learning.

• Split participants into two groups.
• Ask both groups to study the same material in the evening.
• One group goes to bed early, while the other stays up late.
• The next morning, give both groups a quiz on what they studied.
• Compare the results to see which group remembered more.

Sleep and its relation to learning have been explored a lot. Scientists believe that during sleep, especially deep sleep, our brains sort and store new information. This is why sometimes, after a good night's rest, we might understand something better or remember more.

Real-World Impacts of Sleep and Learning

Understanding the power of sleep can help:

• Students: If they know the importance of sleep, students might plan better, mixing study sessions with rest, especially before big exams.
• Workplaces: Employers might consider more flexible hours, understanding that well-rested employees learn faster and make fewer mistakes.
• Health: Regularly missing out on sleep can have other bad effects on our health. So, promoting good sleep is about more than just better learning.

9) Testing Social Media and Mood

Have you ever felt different after spending time on social media? Maybe happy after seeing a friend's fun photos, or a bit sad after reading someone's tough news.

Social media is a big part of our lives, but how does it really affect our mood? This experiment aims to shine a light on the emotional roller-coaster of likes, shares, and comments.

• Ask participants to note down how they're feeling - are they happy, sad, excited, or bored?
• Have them spend a set amount of time (like 30 minutes) on their favorite social media platforms.
• After the session, ask them again about their mood. Did it change? Why?
• Discuss what they saw or read that made them feel that way.

Previous research has shown mixed results. Some studies suggest that seeing positive posts can make us feel good, while others say that too much time on social media can make us feel lonely or left out.

Real-World Impacts of Social Media on Mood

Understanding the emotional impact of social media can help users understand their feelings and take breaks if needed. Knowing is half the battle! Additionally, teachers and parents can guide young users on healthy social media habits, like limiting time or following positive accounts.

And if it's shown that social media does impact mood, social media companies can design friendlier, less stressful user experiences.

But even if the social media companies don't change things, we can still change our social media habits to make ourselves feel better.

10) Testing Handwriting or Typing

Think about the last time you took notes. Did you grab a pen and paper or did you type them out on a computer or tablet?

Both ways are popular, but there's a big question: which method helps us remember and understand better? In this experiment, we'll find out if the classic art of handwriting has an edge over speedy typing.

• Divide participants into two groups.
• Present a short lesson or story to both groups.
• One group will take notes by hand, while the other will type them out.
• After some time, quiz both groups on the content of the lesson or story.
• Compare the results to see which note-taking method led to better recall and understanding.

Studies have shown some interesting results. While typing can be faster and allows for more notes, handwriting might boost memory and comprehension because it engages the brain differently, making us process the information as we write.

Importantly, each person might find one or the other works better for them. This could be useful in understanding our learning habits and what instructional style would be best for us.

Real-World Impacts of Handwriting vs. Typing

Knowing the pros and cons of each method can:

• Boost Study Habits: Students can pick the method that helps them learn best, especially during important study sessions or lectures.
• Work Efficiency: In jobs where information retention is crucial, understanding the best method can increase efficiency and accuracy.
• Tech Design: If we find out more about how handwriting benefits us, tech companies might design gadgets that mimic the feel of writing while combining the advantages of digital tools.

11) Testing Money and Happiness

We often hear the saying, "Money can't buy happiness," but is that really true? Many dream of winning the lottery or getting a big raise, believing it would solve all problems.

In this experiment, we dig deep to see if there's a real connection between wealth and well-being.

• Survey a range of participants, from those who earn a little to those who earn a lot, about their overall happiness. You can keep it to your friends and family, but that might not be as accurate as surveying a wider group of people.
• Ask them to rank things that bring them joy and note if they believe more money would boost their happiness. You could try different methods, one where you include some things that they have to rank, such as gardening, spending time with friends, reading books, learning, etc. Or you could just leave a blank list that they can fill in with their own ideas.
• Study the data to find patterns or trends about income and happiness.

Some studies have found money can boost happiness, especially when it helps people out of tough financial spots. But after reaching a certain income, extra dollars usually do not add much extra joy.

In fact, psychologists just realized that once people have an income that can comfortably support their needs (and some of their wants), they stop getting happier with more . That number is roughly $75,000, but of course that depends on the cost of living and how many members are in the family.

Real-World Impacts of Money and Happiness

If we can understand the link between money and joy, it might help folks choose jobs they love over jobs that just pay well. And instead of buying things, people might spend on experiences, like trips or classes, that make lasting memories.

Most importantly, we all might spend more time on hobbies, friends, and family, knowing they're big parts of what makes life great.

Some people are hoping that with Artificial Intelligence being able to do a lot of the less well-paying jobs, people might be able to do work they enjoy more, all while making more money and having more time to do the things that make them happy.

12) Testing Temperature and Productivity

Have you ever noticed how a cold classroom or office makes it harder to focus? Or how on hot days, all you want to do is relax? In this experiment, we're going to find out if the temperature around us really does change how well we work.

• Find a group of participants and a room where you can change the temperature.
• Set the room to a chilly temperature and give the participants a set of tasks to do.
• Measure how well and quickly they do these tasks.
• The next day, make the room comfortably warm and have them do similar tasks.
• Compare the results to see if the warmer or cooler temperature made them work better.

Some studies have shown that people can work better when they're in a room that feels just right, not too cold or hot. Being too chilly can make fingers slow, and being too warm can make minds wander.

What temperature is "just right"? It won't be the same for everyone, but most people find it's between 70-73 degrees Fahrenheit (21-23 Celsius).

Real-World Implications of Temperature and Productivity

If we can learn more about how temperature affects our work, teachers might set classroom temperatures to help students focus and learn better, offices might adjust temperatures to get the best work out of their teams, and at home, we might find the best temperature for doing homework or chores quickly and well.

Interestingly, temperature also has an impact on our sleep quality. Most people find slightly cooler rooms to be better for good sleep. While the daytime temperature between 70-73F is good for productivity, a nighttime temperature around 65F (18C) is ideal for most people's sleep.

Psychology is like a treasure hunt, where the prize is understanding ourselves better. With every experiment, we learn a little more about why we think, feel, and act the way we do. Some of these experiments might seem simple, like seeing if colors change our mood or if being warm helps us work better. But even the simple questions can have big answers that help us in everyday life.

Remember, while doing experiments is fun, it's also important to always be kind and think about how others feel. We should never make someone uncomfortable just for a test. Instead, let's use these experiments to learn and grow, helping to make the world a brighter, more understanding place for everyone.

Related posts:

• 150+ Flirty Goodnight Texts For Him (Sweet and Naughty Examples)
• Dream Interpreter & Dictionary (270+ Meanings)
• Sleep Stages (Light, Deep, REM)
• What Part of the Brain Regulates Body Temperature?
• Why Do We Dream? (6 Theories and Psychological Reasons)

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80 fascinating psychology research questions for your next project

Last updated

15 February 2024

Reviewed by

Brittany Ferri, PhD, OTR/L

Short on time? Get an AI generated summary of this article instead

Psychology research is essential for furthering our understanding of human behavior and improving the diagnosis and treatment of psychological conditions.

When psychologists know more about how different social and cultural factors influence how humans act, think, and feel, they can recommend improvements to practices in areas such as education, sport, healthcare, and law enforcement.

Below, you will find 80 research question examples across 16 branches of psychology. First, though, let’s look at some tips to help you select a suitable research topic.

• How to choose a good psychology research topic

Psychology has many branches that break down further into topics. Choosing a topic for your psychology research paper can be daunting because there are so many to choose from. It’s an important choice, as the topic you select will open up a range of questions to explore.

The tips below can help you find a psychology research topic that suits your skills and interests.

Tip #1: Select a topic that interests you

Passion and interest should fuel every research project. A topic that fascinates you will most likely interest others as well. Think about the questions you and others might have and decide on the issues that matter most. Draw on your own interests, but also keep your research topical and relevant to others.

Don’t limit yourself to a topic that you already know about. Instead, choose one that will make you want to know more and dig deeper. This will keep you motivated and excited about your research.

Tip #2: Choose a topic with a manageable scope

If your topic is too broad, you can get overwhelmed by the amount of information available and have trouble maintaining focus. On the other hand, you may find it difficult to find enough information if you choose a topic that is too narrow.

To determine if the topic is too broad or too narrow, start researching as early as possible. If you find there’s an overwhelming amount of research material, you’ll probably need to narrow the topic down. For example, instead of researching the general population, it might be easier to focus on a specific age group. Ask yourself what area of the general topic interests you most and focus on that.

If your scope is too narrow, try to generalize or focus on a larger related topic. Expand your search criteria or select additional databases for information. Consider if the topic is too new to have much information published on it as well.

Tip #3: Select a topic that will produce useful and relevant insights

Doing some preliminary research will reveal any existing research on the topic. If there is existing research, will you be able to produce new insights? You might need to focus on a different area or see if the existing research has limitations that you can overcome.

Bear in mind that finding new information from which to draw fresh insights may be impossible if your topic has been over-researched.

You’ll also need to consider whether your topic is relevant to current trends and needs. For example, researching psychology topics related to social media use may be highly relevant today.

• 80 psychology research topics and questions

Psychology is a broad subject with many branches and potential areas of study. Here are some of them:

Developmental

Personality

Experimental

Organizational

Educational

Neuropsychology

Controversial topics

Below we offer some suggestions on research topics and questions that can get you started. Keep in mind that these are not all-inclusive but should be personalized to fit the theme of your paper.

Social psychology research topics and questions

Social psychology has roots as far back as the 18th century. In simple terms, it’s the study of how behavior is influenced by the presence and behavior of others. It is the science of finding out who we are, who we think we are, and how our perceptions affect ourselves and others. It looks at personalities, relationships, and group behavior.

Here are some potential research questions and paper titles for this topic:

How does social media use impact perceptions of body image in male adolescents?

2. Is childhood bullying a risk factor for social anxiety in adults?

Is homophobia in individuals caused by genetic or environmental factors?

What is the most important psychological predictor of a person’s willingness to donate to charity?

Does a person’s height impact how other people perceive them? If so, how?

Cognitive psychology research questions

Cognitive psychology is the branch that focuses on the interactions of thinking, emotion, creativity, and problem-solving. It also explores the reasons humans think the way they do.

This topic involves exploring how people think by measuring intelligence, thoughts, and cognition. 

Here are some research question ideas:

6. Is there a link between chronic stress and memory function?

7. Can certain kinds of music trigger memories in people with memory loss?

8. Do remote meetings impact the efficacy of team decision-making?

9. Do word games and puzzles slow cognitive decline in adults over the age of 80?

10. Does watching television impact a child’s reading ability?

Developmental psychology research questions

Developmental psychology is the study of how humans grow and change over their lifespan. It usually focuses on the social, emotional, and physical development of babies and children, though it can apply to people of all ages. Developmental psychology is important for understanding how we learn, mature, and adapt to changes.

Here are some questions that might inspire your research:

11. Does grief accelerate the aging process?

12. How do parent–child attachment patterns influence the development of emotion regulation in teenagers?

13. Does bilingualism affect cognitive decline in adults over the age of 70?

14. How does the transition to adulthood impact decision-making abilities

15. How does early exposure to music impact mental health and well-being in school-aged children?

Personality psychology research questions

Personality psychology studies personalities, how they develop, their structures, and the processes that define them. It looks at intelligence, disposition, moral beliefs, thoughts, and reactions.

The goal of this branch of psychology is to scientifically interpret the way personality patterns manifest into an individual’s behaviors. Here are some example research questions:

16. Nature vs. nurture: Which impacts personality development the most?

17. The role of genetics on personality: Does an adopted child take on their biological parents’ personality traits?

18. How do personality traits influence leadership styles and effectiveness in organizational settings?

19. Is there a relationship between an individual’s personality and mental health?

20. Can a chronic illness affect your personality?

Abnormal psychology research questions

As the name suggests, abnormal psychology is a branch that focuses on abnormal behavior and psychopathology (the scientific study of mental illness or disorders).

Abnormal behavior can be challenging to define. Who decides what is “normal”? As such, psychologists in this area focus on the level of distress that certain behaviors may cause, although this typically involves studying mental health conditions such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and phobias.

Here are some questions to consider:

21. How does technology impact the development of social anxiety disorder?

22. What are the factors behind the rising incidence of eating disorders in adolescents?

23. Are mindfulness-based interventions effective in the treatment of PTSD?

24. Is there a connection between depression and gambling addiction?

25. Can physical trauma cause psychopathy?

Clinical psychology research questions

Clinical psychology deals with assessing and treating mental illness or abnormal or psychiatric behaviors. It differs from abnormal psychology in that it focuses more on treatments and clinical aspects, while abnormal psychology is more behavioral focused.

This is a specialty area that provides care and treatment for complex mental health conditions. This can include treatment, not only for individuals but for couples, families, and other groups. Clinical psychology also supports communities, conducts research, and offers training to promote mental health. This category is very broad, so there are lots of topics to explore.

Below are some example research questions to consider:

26. Do criminals require more specific therapies or interventions?

27. How effective are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in treating mental health disorders?

28. Are there any disadvantages to humanistic therapy?

29. Can group therapy be more beneficial than one-on-one therapy sessions?

30. What are the factors to consider when selecting the right treatment plan for patients with anxiety?

Experimental psychology research questions

Experimental psychology deals with studies that can prove or disprove a hypothesis. Psychologists in this field use scientific methods to collect data on basic psychological processes such as memory, cognition, and learning. They use this data to test the whys and hows of behavior and how outside factors influence its creation.

Areas of interest in this branch relate to perception, memory, emotion, and sensation. The below are example questions that could inspire your own research:

31. Do male or female parents/carers have a more calming influence on children?

32. Will your preference for a genre of music increase the more you listen to it?

33. What are the psychological effects of posting on social media vs. not posting?

34. How is productivity affected by social connection?

35. Is cheating contagious?

Organizational psychology research questions

Organizational psychology studies human behavior in the workplace. It is most frequently used to evaluate an employee, group, or a company’s organizational dynamics. Researchers aim to isolate issues and identify solutions.

This area of study can be beneficial to both employees and employers since the goal is to improve the overall work environment and experience. Researchers apply psychological principles and findings to recommend improvements in performance, communication, job satisfaction, and safety. 

Some potential research questions include the following:

36. How do different leadership styles affect employee morale?

37. Do longer lunch breaks boost employee productivity?

38. Is gender an antecedent to workplace stress?

39. What is the most effective way to promote work–life balance among employees?

40. How do different organizational structures impact the effectiveness of communication, decision-making, and productivity?

Forensic psychology research questions

Some questions to consider exploring in this branch of psychology are:

41. How does incarceration affect mental health?

42. Is childhood trauma a driver for criminal behavior during adulthood?

43. Are people with mental health conditions more likely to be victims of crimes?

44. What are the drivers of false memories, and how do they impact the justice system?

45. Is the media responsible for copycat crimes?

Educational psychology research questions

Educational psychology studies children in an educational setting. It covers topics like teaching methods, aptitude assessment, self-motivation, technology, and parental involvement.

Research in this field of psychology is vital for understanding and optimizing learning processes. It informs educators about cognitive development, learning styles, and effective teaching strategies.

Here are some example research questions:

46. Are different teaching styles more beneficial for children at different times of the day?

47. Can listening to classical music regularly increase a student’s test scores?

48. Is there a connection between sugar consumption and knowledge retention in students?

49. Does sleep duration and quality impact academic performance?

50. Does daily meditation at school influence students’ academic performance and mental health?

Sports psychology research question examples

Sport psychology aims to optimize physical performance and well-being in athletes by using cognitive and behavioral practices and interventions. Some methods include counseling, training, and clinical interventions.

Research in this area is important because it can improve team and individual performance, resilience, motivation, confidence, and overall well-being

Here are some research question ideas for you to consider:

51. How can a famous coach affect a team’s performance?

52. How can athletes control negative emotions in violent or high-contact sports?

53. How does using social media impact an athlete’s performance and well-being?

54. Can psychological interventions help with injury rehabilitation?

55. How can mindfulness practices boost sports performance?

Cultural psychology research question examples

The premise of this branch of psychology is that mind and culture are inseparable. In other words, people are shaped by their cultures, and their cultures are shaped by them. This can be a complex interaction.

Cultural psychology is vital as it explores how cultural context shapes individuals’ thoughts, behaviors, and perceptions. It provides insights into diverse perspectives, promoting cross-cultural understanding and reducing biases.

Here are some ideas that you might consider researching:

56. Are there cultural differences in how people perceive and deal with pain?

57. Are different cultures at increased risk of developing mental health conditions?

58. Are there cultural differences in coping strategies for stress?

59. Do our different cultures shape our personalities?

60. How does multi-generational culture influence family values and structure?

Health psychology research question examples

Health psychology is a crucial field of study. Understanding how psychological factors influence health behaviors, adherence to medical treatments, and overall wellness enables health experts to develop effective interventions and preventive measures, ultimately improving health outcomes.

Health psychology also aids in managing stress, promoting healthy behaviors, and optimizing mental health, fostering a holistic approach to well-being.

Here are five ideas to inspire research in this field:

61. How can health psychology interventions improve lifestyle behaviors to prevent cardiovascular diseases?

62. What role do social norms play in vaping among adolescents?

63. What role do personality traits play in the development and management of chronic pain conditions?

64. How do cultural beliefs and attitudes influence health-seeking behaviors in diverse populations?

65. What are the psychological factors influencing the adherence to preventive health behaviors, such as vaccination and regular screenings?

Neuropsychology research paper question examples

Neuropsychology research explores how a person’s cognition and behavior are related to their brain and nervous system. Researchers aim to advance the diagnosis and treatment of behavioral and cognitive effects of neurological disorders.

Researchers may work with children facing learning or developmental challenges, or with adults with declining cognitive abilities. They may also focus on injuries or illnesses of the brain, such as traumatic brain injuries, to determine the effect on cognitive and behavioral functions.

Neuropsychology informs diagnosis and treatment strategies for conditions such as dementia, traumatic brain injuries, and psychiatric disorders. Understanding the neural basis of behavior enhances our ability to optimize cognitive functioning, rehabilitate people with brain injuries, and improve patient care.

Here are some example research questions to consider:

66. How do neurotransmitter imbalances in specific brain regions contribute to mood disorders such as depression?

67. How can a traumatic brain injury affect memory?

68. What neural processes underlie attention deficits in people with ADHD?

69. Do medications affect the brain differently after a traumatic brain injury?

70. What are the behavioral effects of prolonged brain swelling?

Psychology of religion research question examples

The psychology of religion is a field that studies the interplay between belief systems, spirituality, and mental well-being. It explores the application of the psychological methods and interpretive frameworks of religious traditions and how they relate to both religious and non-religious people.

Psychology of religion research contributes to a holistic understanding of human experiences. It fosters cultural competence and guides therapeutic approaches that respect diverse spiritual beliefs.

Here are some example research questions in this field:

71. What impact does a religious upbringing have on a child’s self-esteem?

72. How do religious beliefs shape decision-making and perceptions of morality?

73. What is the impact of religious indoctrination?

74. Is there correlation between religious and mindfulness practices?

75. How does religious affiliation impact attitudes towards mental health treatment and help-seeking behaviors?

Controversial topics in psychology research question examples

Some psychology topics don’t fit into any of the subcategories above, but they may still be worthwhile topics to consider. These topics are the ones that spark interest, conversation, debate, and disagreement. They are often inspired by current issues and assess the validity of older research.

Consider some of these research question examples:

76. How does the rise in on-screen violence impact behavior in adolescents.

77. Should access to social media platforms be restricted in children under the age of 12 to improve mental health?

78. Are prescription mental health medications over-prescribed in older adults? If so, what are the effects of this?

79. Cognitive biases in AI: what are the implications for decision-making?

80. What are the psychological and ethical implications of using virtual reality in exposure therapy for treating trauma-related conditions?

• Inspiration for your next psychology research project

You can choose from a diverse range of research questions that intersect and overlap across various specialties.

From cognitive psychology to clinical studies, each inquiry contributes to a deeper understanding of the human mind and behavior. Importantly, the relevance of these questions transcends individual disciplines, as many findings offer insights applicable across multiple areas of study.

As health trends evolve and societal needs shift, new topics emerge, fueling continual exploration and discovery. Diving into this ever-changing and expanding area of study enables you to navigate the complexities of the human experience and pave the way for innovative solutions to the challenges of tomorrow.

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Psychology Experiment Ideas

Categories Psychology Education

Quick Ideas | Experiment Ideas | Designing Your Experiment | Types of Research

If you are taking a psychology class, you might at some point be asked to design an imaginary experiment or perform an experiment or study. The idea you ultimately choose to use for your psychology experiment may depend upon the number of participants you can find, the time constraints of your project, and limitations in the materials available to you.

Consider these factors before deciding which psychology experiment idea might work for your project.

This article discusses some ideas you might try if you need to perform a psychology experiment or study.

Table of Contents

A Quick List of Experiment Ideas

If you are looking for a quick experiment idea that would be easy to tackle, the following might be some research questions you want to explore:

• How many items can people hold in short-term memory ?
• Are people with a Type A personality more stressed than those with a Type B personality?
• Does listening to upbeat music increase heart rate?
• Are men or women better at detecting emotions ?
• Are women or men more likely to experience imposter syndrome ?
• Will students conform if others in the group all share an opinion that is different from their own?
• Do people’s heartbeat or breathing rates change in response to certain colors?
• How much do people rely on nonverbal communication to convey information in a conversation?
• Do people who score higher on measures of emotional intelligence also score higher on measures of overall well-being?
• Do more successful people share certain personality traits ?

Most of the following ideas are easily conducted with a small group of participants, who may likely be your classmates. Some of the psychology experiment or study ideas you might want to explore:

Sleep and Short-Term Memory

Does sleep deprivation have an impact on short-term memory ?

Ask participants how much sleep they got the night before and then conduct a task to test short-term memory for items on a list.

Social Media and Mental Health

Is social media usage linked to anxiety or depression?

Ask participants about how many hours a week they use social media sites and then have them complete a depression and anxiety assessment.

Procrastination and Stress

How does procrastination impact student stress levels?

Ask participants about how frequently they procrastinate on their homework and then have them complete an assessment looking at their current stress levels.

Caffeine and Cognition

How does caffeine impact performance on a Stroop test?

In the Stroop test , participants are asked to tell the color of a word, rather than just reading the word. Have a control group consume no caffeine and then complete a Stroop test, and then have an experimental group consume caffeine before completing the same test. Compare results.

Color and Memory

Does the color of text have any impact on memory?

Randomly assign participants to two groups. Have one group memorize words written in black ink for two minutes. Have the second group memorize the same words for the same amount of time, but instead written in red ink. Compare the results.

Weight Bias

How does weight bias influence how people are judged by others?

Find pictures of models in a magazine who look similar, including similar hair and clothing, but who differ in terms of weight. Have participants look at the two models and then ask them to identify which one they think is smarter, wealthier, kinder, and healthier.

Assess how each model was rated and how weight bias may have influenced how they were described by participants.

Music and Exercise

Does music have an effect on how hard people work out?

Have people listen to different styles of music while jogging on a treadmill and measure their walking speed, heart rate, and workout length.

The Halo Effect

How does the Halo Effect influence how people see others?

Show participants pictures of people and ask them to rate the photos in terms of how attractive, kind, intelligent, helpful, and successful the people in the images are.

How does the attractiveness of the person in the photo correlate to how participants rate other qualities? Are attractive people more likely to be perceived as kind, funny, and intelligent?

Eyewitness Testimony

How reliable is eyewitness testimony?

Have participants view video footage of a car crash. Ask some participants to describe how fast the cars were going when they “hit into” each other. Ask other participants to describe how fast the cars were going when they “smashed into” each other.

Give the participants a memory test a few days later and ask them to recall if they saw any broken glass at the accident scene. Compare to see if those in the “smashed into” condition were more likely to report seeing broken glass than those in the “hit into” group.

The experiment is a good illustration of how easily false memories can be triggered.

Simple Psychology Experiment Ideas

If you are looking for a relatively simple psychology experiment idea, here are a few options you might consider.

The Stroop Effect

This classic experiment involves presenting participants with words printed in different colors and asking them to name the color of the ink rather than read the word. Students can manipulate the congruency of the word and the color to test the Stroop effect.

Memory Recall

Students can design a simple experiment to test memory recall by presenting participants with a list of items to remember and then asking them to recall the items after a delay. Students can manipulate the length of the delay or the type of encoding strategy used to see the effect on recall.

Social Conformity

Students can test social conformity by presenting participants with a simple task and manipulating the responses of confederates to see if the participant conforms to the group response.

Selective Attention

Students can design an experiment to test selective attention by presenting participants with a video or audio stimulus and manipulating the presence or absence of a distracting stimulus to see the effect on attention.

Implicit Bias

Students can test implicit bias by presenting participants with a series of words or images and measuring their response time to categorize the stimuli into different categories.

The Primacy/Recency Effect

Students can test the primacy /recency effect by presenting participants with a list of items to remember and manipulating the order of the items to see the effect on recall.

Sleep Deprivation

Students can test the effect of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance by comparing the performance of participants who have had a full night’s sleep to those who have been deprived of sleep.

These are just a few examples of simple psychology experiment ideas for students. The specific experiment will depend on the research question and resources available.

Elements of a Good Psychology Experiment

Finding psychology experiment ideas is not necessarily difficult, but finding a good experimental or study topic that is right for your needs can be a little tough. You need to find something that meets the guidelines and, perhaps most importantly, is approved by your instructor.

Requirements may vary, but you need to ensure that your experiment, study, or survey is:

• Easy to set up and carry out
• Easy to find participants willing to take part
• Free of any ethical concerns

In some cases, you may need to present your idea to your school’s institutional review board before you begin to obtain permission to work with human participants.

Consider Your Own Interests

At some point in your life, you have likely pondered why people behave in certain ways. Or wondered why certain things seem to always happen. Your own interests can be a rich source of ideas for your psychology experiments.

As you are trying to come up with a topic or hypothesis, try focusing on the subjects that fascinate you the most. If you have a particular interest in a topic, look for ideas that answer questions about the topic that you and others may have. Examples of topics you might choose to explore include:

• Development
• Personality
• Social behavior

This can be a fun opportunity to investigate something that appeals to your interests.

Read About Classic Experiments

Sometimes reviewing classic psychological experiments that have been done in the past can give you great ideas for your own psychology experiments. For example, the false memory experiment above is inspired by the classic memory study conducted by Elizabeth Loftus.

Textbooks can be a great place to start looking for topics, but you might want to expand your search to research journals. When you find a study that sparks your interest, read through the discussion section. Researchers will often indicate ideas for future directions that research could take.

Ask Your Instructor

Your professor or instructor is often the best person to consult for advice right from the start.

In most cases, you will probably receive fairly detailed instructions about your assignment. This may include information about the sort of topic you can choose or perhaps the type of experiment or study on which you should focus.

If your instructor does not assign a specific subject area to explore, it is still a great idea to talk about your ideas and get feedback before you get too invested in your topic idea. You will need your teacher’s permission to proceed with your experiment anyway, so now is a great time to open a dialogue and get some good critical feedback.

Experiments vs. Other Types of Research

One thing to note, many of the ideas found here are actually examples of surveys or correlational studies .

For something to qualify as a tru e experiment, there must be manipulation of an independent variable .

For many students, conducting an actual experiment may be outside the scope of their project or may not be permitted by their instructor, school, or institutional review board.

If your assignment or project requires you to conduct a true experiment that involves controlling and manipulating an independent variable, you will need to take care to choose a topic that will work within the guidelines of your assignment.

Types of Psychology Experiments

There are many different types of psychology experiments that students could perform. Examples of psychological research methods you might use include:

Correlational Study

This type of study examines the relationship between two variables. Students could collect data on two variables of interest, such as stress and academic performance, and see if there is a correlation between the two.

Experimental Study

In an experimental study, students manipulate one variable and observe the effect on another variable. For example, students could manipulate the type of music participants listen to and observe its effect on their mood.

Observational Study

Observational studies involve observing behavior in a natural setting . Students could observe how people interact in a public space and analyze the patterns they see.

Survey Study

Students could design a survey to collect data on a specific topic, such as attitudes toward social media, and analyze the results.

A case study involves in-depth analysis of a single individual or group. Students could conduct a case study of a person with a particular disorder, such as anxiety or depression, and examine their experiences and treatment options.

Quasi-Experimental Study

Quasi-experimental studies are similar to experimental studies, but participants are not randomly assigned to groups. Students could investigate the effects of a treatment or intervention on a particular group, such as a classroom of students who receive a new teaching method.

Longitudinal Study

Longitudinal studies involve following participants over an extended period of time. Students could conduct a longitudinal study on the development of language skills in children or the effects of aging on cognitive abilities.

These are just a few examples of the many different types of psychology experiments that students could perform. The specific type of experiment will depend on the research question and the resources available.

Steps for Doing a Psychology Experiment

When conducting a psychology experiment, students should follow several important steps. Here is a general outline of the process:

Define the Research Question

Before conducting an experiment, students should define the research question they are trying to answer. This will help them to focus their study and determine the variables they need to manipulate and measure.

Develop a Hypothesis

Based on the research question, students should develop a hypothesis that predicts the experiment’s outcome. The hypothesis should be testable and measurable.

Select Participants

Students should select participants who meet the criteria for the study. Participants should be informed about the study and give informed consent to participate.

Design the Experiment

Students should design the experiment to test their hypothesis. This includes selecting the appropriate variables, creating a plan for manipulating and measuring them, and determining the appropriate control conditions.

Collect Data

Once the experiment is designed, students should collect data by following the procedures they have developed. They should record all data accurately and completely.

Analyze the Data

After collecting the data, students should analyze it to determine if their hypothesis was supported or not. They can use statistical analyses to determine if there are significant differences between groups or if there are correlations between variables.

Interpret the Results

Based on the analysis, students should interpret the results and draw conclusions about their hypothesis. They should consider the study’s limitations and their findings’ implications.

Report the Results

Finally, students should report the results of their study. This may include writing a research paper or presenting their findings in a poster or oral presentation.

Britt MA. Psych Experiments . Avon, MA: Adams Media; 2007.

Martin DW. Doing Psychology Experiments. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning; 2008.

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50+ Research Topics for Psychology Papers

How to Find Psychology Research Topics for Your Student Paper

• Specific Branches of Psychology
• Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy
• Human Cognition
• Human Development
• Critique of Publications
• Famous Experiments
• Historical Figures
• Specific Careers
• Case Studies
• Literature Reviews
• Your Own Study/Experiment

Are you searching for a great topic for your psychology paper ? Sometimes it seems like coming up with topics of psychology research is more challenging than the actual research and writing. Fortunately, there are plenty of great places to find inspiration and the following list contains just a few ideas to help get you started.

Finding a solid topic is one of the most important steps when writing any type of paper. It can be particularly important when you are writing a psychology research paper or essay. Psychology is such a broad topic, so you want to find a topic that allows you to adequately cover the subject without becoming overwhelmed with information.

I can always tell when a student really cares about the topic they chose; it comes through in the writing. My advice is to choose a topic that genuinely interests you, so you’ll be more motivated to do thorough research.

In some cases, such as in a general psychology class, you might have the option to select any topic from within psychology's broad reach. Other instances, such as in an  abnormal psychology  course, might require you to write your paper on a specific subject such as a psychological disorder.

As you begin your search for a topic for your psychology paper, it is first important to consider the guidelines established by your instructor.

Research Topics Within Specific Branches of Psychology

The key to selecting a good topic for your psychology paper is to select something that is narrow enough to allow you to really focus on the subject, but not so narrow that it is difficult to find sources or information to write about.

One approach is to narrow your focus down to a subject within a specific branch of psychology. For example, you might start by deciding that you want to write a paper on some sort of social psychology topic. Next, you might narrow your focus down to how persuasion can be used to influence behavior .

Other social psychology topics you might consider include:

• Prejudice and discrimination (i.e., homophobia, sexism, racism)
• Social cognition
• Person perception
• Social control and cults
• Persuasion, propaganda, and marketing
• Attraction, romance, and love
• Nonverbal communication
• Prosocial behavior

Psychology Research Topics Involving a Disorder or Type of Therapy

Exploring a psychological disorder or a specific treatment modality can also be a good topic for a psychology paper. Some potential abnormal psychology topics include specific psychological disorders or particular treatment modalities, including:

• Eating disorders
• Borderline personality disorder
• Seasonal affective disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Antisocial personality disorder
• Profile a  type of therapy  (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy, group therapy, psychoanalytic therapy)

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Cognition

Some of the possible topics you might explore in this area include thinking, language, intelligence, and decision-making. Other ideas might include:

• False memories
• Speech disorders
• Problem-solving

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Human Development

In this area, you might opt to focus on issues pertinent to  early childhood  such as language development, social learning, or childhood attachment or you might instead opt to concentrate on issues that affect older adults such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease.

Some other topics you might consider include:

• Language acquisition
• Media violence and children
• Learning disabilities
• Gender roles
• Child abuse
• Prenatal development
• Parenting styles
• Aspects of the aging process

Do a Critique of Publications Involving Psychology Research Topics

One option is to consider writing a critique paper of a published psychology book or academic journal article. For example, you might write a critical analysis of Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams or you might evaluate a more recent book such as Philip Zimbardo's  The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil .

Professional and academic journals are also great places to find materials for a critique paper. Browse through the collection at your university library to find titles devoted to the subject that you are most interested in, then look through recent articles until you find one that grabs your attention.

Topics of Psychology Research Related to Famous Experiments

There have been many fascinating and groundbreaking experiments throughout the history of psychology, providing ample material for students looking for an interesting term paper topic. In your paper, you might choose to summarize the experiment, analyze the ethics of the research, or evaluate the implications of the study. Possible experiments that you might consider include:

• The Milgram Obedience Experiment
• The Stanford Prison Experiment
• The Little Albert Experiment
• Pavlov's Conditioning Experiments
• The Asch Conformity Experiment
• Harlow's Rhesus Monkey Experiments

Topics of Psychology Research About Historical Figures

One of the simplest ways to find a great topic is to choose an interesting person in the  history of psychology  and write a paper about them. Your paper might focus on many different elements of the individual's life, such as their biography, professional history, theories, or influence on psychology.

While this type of paper may be historical in nature, there is no need for this assignment to be dry or boring. Psychology is full of fascinating figures rife with intriguing stories and anecdotes. Consider such famous individuals as Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner, Harry Harlow, or one of the many other  eminent psychologists .

Psychology Research Topics About a Specific Career

​Another possible topic, depending on the course in which you are enrolled, is to write about specific career paths within the  field of psychology . This type of paper is especially appropriate if you are exploring different subtopics or considering which area interests you the most.

In your paper, you might opt to explore the typical duties of a psychologist, how much people working in these fields typically earn, and the different employment options that are available.

Topics of Psychology Research Involving Case Studies

One potentially interesting idea is to write a  psychology case study  of a particular individual or group of people. In this type of paper, you will provide an in-depth analysis of your subject, including a thorough biography.

Generally, you will also assess the person, often using a major psychological theory such as  Piaget's stages of cognitive development  or  Erikson's eight-stage theory of human development . It is also important to note that your paper doesn't necessarily have to be about someone you know personally.

In fact, many professors encourage students to write case studies on historical figures or fictional characters from books, television programs, or films.

Psychology Research Topics Involving Literature Reviews

Another possibility that would work well for a number of psychology courses is to do a literature review of a specific topic within psychology. A literature review involves finding a variety of sources on a particular subject, then summarizing and reporting on what these sources have to say about the topic.

Literature reviews are generally found in the  introduction  of journal articles and other  psychology papers , but this type of analysis also works well for a full-scale psychology term paper.

Topics of Psychology Research Based on Your Own Study or Experiment

Many psychology courses require students to design an actual psychological study or perform some type of experiment. In some cases, students simply devise the study and then imagine the possible results that might occur. In other situations, you may actually have the opportunity to collect data, analyze your findings, and write up your results.

Finding a topic for your study can be difficult, but there are plenty of great ways to come up with intriguing ideas. Start by considering your own interests as well as subjects you have studied in the past.

Online sources, newspaper articles, books , journal articles, and even your own class textbook are all great places to start searching for topics for your experiments and psychology term papers. Before you begin, learn more about  how to conduct a psychology experiment .

What This Means For You

After looking at this brief list of possible topics for psychology papers, it is easy to see that psychology is a very broad and diverse subject. While this variety makes it possible to find a topic that really catches your interest, it can sometimes make it very difficult for some students to select a good topic.

If you are still stumped by your assignment, ask your instructor for suggestions and consider a few from this list for inspiration.

• Hockenbury, SE & Nolan, SA. Psychology. New York: Worth Publishers; 2014.
• Santrock, JW. A Topical Approach to Lifespan Development. New York: McGraw-Hill Education; 2016.

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

51+ Psychology Project Topics [Updated 2024]

• Post author By admin
• April 11, 2024

Welcome to the fascinating world of psychology! Have you ever wondered what goes on inside the human mind? Psychology delves into the complexities of human behavior, emotions, and cognition. One exciting aspect of studying psychology is engaging in projects that explore various aspects of the human psyche. In this blog, we’ll take a journey through different psychology project topics, understanding their significance, and how they contribute to our understanding of ourselves and others.

Table of Contents

How Do I Choose A Project Topic In Psychology?

Choosing a project topic in psychology can be both exciting and daunting. Here are some steps to help you navigate the process:

• Identify Your Interests: Reflect on areas of psychology that genuinely intrigue you. Are you fascinated by developmental psychology, cognitive processes, social interactions, or mental health? Your passion for the subject will drive your engagement and motivation throughout the project.
• Consider Relevance: Think about how your chosen topic relates to your academic or career goals. Does it align with your academic program’s requirements or your future career aspirations? Choosing a topic that resonates with your goals can make the project more meaningful and beneficial in the long run.
• Review Available Resources: Take advantage of the resources available to you, such as textbooks, academic journals, and online databases. Explore recent research findings, emerging trends, and unanswered questions within your areas of interest. This exploration can inspire new ideas and help you narrow down your options.
• Brainstorm Ideas: Engage in brainstorming sessions to generate potential project topics. Write down any ideas that come to mind, no matter how unconventional they may seem at first. Consider discussing your ideas with peers, mentors, or professors to gain additional perspectives and insights.
• Evaluate Feasibility: Assess the feasibility of each potential topic in terms of available resources, time constraints, and ethical considerations. Ensure that your chosen topic is manageable within the scope of your project and aligns with ethical guidelines for conducting research involving human participants.
• Narrow Down Your Options: Once you have a list of potential topics, evaluate them based on criteria such as your level of interest, available resources, and feasibility. Consider the potential impact of each topic and how it contributes to existing knowledge in the field of psychology.
• Seek Guidance: Don’t hesitate to seek guidance from your professors, academic advisors, or mentors. They can offer valuable insights, feedback, and support as you navigate the process of choosing a project topic. Additionally, they may be able to suggest relevant literature or research methodologies to enhance your project.
• Make a Decision: After careful consideration, choose a project topic that aligns with your interests, goals, and available resources. Remember that your project topic is not set in stone and can evolve as you conduct further research and explore new ideas.

51+ Psychology Project Topics: Category Wise

Developmental psychology.

• The Impact of Parenting Styles on Child Development
• Effects of Technology on Adolescent Development
• Birth Order and Its Influence on Personality
• Gender Identity Development in Adolescence
• Attachment Theory and Parent-Child Relationships
• Effects of Divorce on Children’s Emotional Well-being
• Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Child Rearing Practices
• The Role of Early Childhood Education in Cognitive Development
• Socialization Processes in Childhood and Adolescence
• Influence of Peer Groups on Adolescent Behavior

Cognitive Psychology

• Memory Enhancement Techniques and Their Effectiveness
• Cognitive Biases in Decision Making
• Language Acquisition and Development
• The Impact of Music on Cognitive Abilities
• Problem-Solving Strategies Across Different Age Groups
• Attentional Processes and Their Role in Learning
• Mental Imagery and Its Influence on Perception
• The Relationship Between Creativity and Cognitive Processes
• Cognitive Development in Aging Adults
• Understanding the Brain’s Role in Memory Formation

Social Psychology

• The Influence of Social Media on Self-Esteem and Body Image
• Conformity and Obedience in Group Settings
• Stereotyping and Prejudice in Intergroup Relations
• Factors Influencing Attraction and Relationship Formation
• Group Dynamics and Leadership Styles
• The Psychology of Persuasion and Advertising
• Social Identity Theory and Its Implications for Behavior
• Altruism and Prosocial Behavior
• The Role of Culture in Shaping Social Norms
• Social Influence on Health Behaviors

Clinical Psychology

• Efficacy of Different Therapeutic Approaches for Treating Depression
• Understanding and Managing Anxiety Disorders
• Exploring the Link Between Trauma and Dissociative Disorders
• The Impact of Childhood Adversity on Adult Mental Health
• Interventions for Substance Abuse and Addiction
• Assessing and Treating Personality Disorders
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia
• Addressing Stigma Surrounding Mental Illness
• Psychological Factors in Chronic Pain Management
• Integrating Technology in Mental Health Interventions

Health Psychology

• Impact of Stress on Physical Health and Well-being
• Behavioral Interventions for Promoting Healthy Lifestyles
• Psychological Factors in Coping with Chronic Illness
• The Role of Social Support in Health Outcomes
• Health Beliefs and Health-Seeking Behaviors
• Mind-Body Interventions for Pain Management
• Health Behavior Change Models and Their Application
• Psychological Factors in Eating Disorders
• Stress Management Techniques for Caregivers
• Health Promotion Programs in Workplace Settings

Forensic Psychology

• Psychological Profiling and Criminal Behavior Analysis
• Eyewitness Testimony Reliability and Factors Affecting It
• Psychopathy and Antisocial Behavior
• Competency to Stand Trial Assessments
• Risk Assessment and Violence Prediction in Offenders

What Are 3 To 5 Issues In Today’s World That A Psychologist Would Study?

Psychologists play a crucial role in studying and addressing various issues in today’s world. Here are three to five prominent issues that psychologists may focus on:

• Mental Health Crisis
• Psychologists study the prevalence, causes, and consequences of mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, and substance abuse.
• They research effective interventions and treatments to improve mental health outcomes and reduce stigma surrounding mental illness.
• Psychologists also examine the impact of societal factors such as poverty, discrimination, and access to healthcare on mental well-being.
• Technology and Well-being
• Psychologists investigate the effects of technology on individuals’ psychological well-being, including issues such as screen time, social media use, and digital addiction.
• They explore the relationship between technology use and mental health outcomes, such as increased rates of anxiety, depression, and social isolation.
• Psychologists develop strategies to promote healthy technology habits and mitigate the negative impact of excessive screen time on mental health.
• Social Justice and Equity
• Psychologists study issues related to social justice, equity, and human rights, including systemic racism, discrimination, and inequality.
• They examine the psychological effects of discrimination and prejudice on marginalized groups, such as racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and immigrants.
• Psychologists work to promote diversity, inclusion, and cultural competence within their profession and advocate for social policies that address systemic injustices.
• Climate Change and Environmental Psychology
• Psychologists investigate the psychological impact of climate change and environmental degradation on individuals and communities.
• They study how climate-related events such as natural disasters, extreme weather events, and environmental displacement affect mental health, well-being, and resilience.
• Psychologists develop interventions to address climate anxiety, promote sustainable behaviors, and foster environmental stewardship and resilience.
• Global Health and Crisis Response
• Psychologists play a crucial role in responding to global health crises such as pandemics, infectious diseases, and humanitarian emergencies.
• They study the psychological effects of health crises on individuals, communities, and healthcare workers, including issues such as stress, trauma, grief, and burnout.
• Psychologists develop psychosocial interventions, crisis response strategies , and resilience-building programs to support individuals and communities affected by health emergencies.

Dos & Don’ts Of Psychology Project Topics

• Choose a topic that interests you: Select a topic that you are genuinely passionate about and eager to explore further. Your enthusiasm will drive your engagement and motivation throughout the project.
• Ensure relevance: Ensure that your chosen topic aligns with your academic or career goals and contributes to your field of study. Consider how the topic relates to current research trends, practical applications, or societal issues.
• Narrow down the scope: Select a topic that is specific enough to be manageable within the scope of your project. Avoid overly broad topics that may be too ambitious or challenging to address effectively within the constraints of your project.
• Consider feasibility: Assess the feasibility of your chosen topic in terms of available resources, time constraints, and ethical considerations. Ensure that you have access to the necessary materials, data, and research methods to conduct your project effectively.
• Seek guidance: Seek input and guidance from your professors, academic advisors, or mentors when selecting a topic. They can offer valuable insights, feedback, and support to help you choose a topic that aligns with your interests and goals.

Don’ts

• Choose a topic solely based on popularity: Avoid selecting a topic simply because it seems trendy or popular. Instead, focus on choosing a topic that genuinely interests you and aligns with your academic or career goals, even if it may be less well-known or mainstream.
• Select a topic that is too broad or vague: Avoid choosing topics that are overly broad or vague, as they may be difficult to research and analyze effectively. Instead, narrow down your focus to a specific aspect or dimension of the topic that you can explore in-depth within the scope of your project.
• Ignore ethical considerations: Avoid selecting topics that raise ethical concerns or violate ethical guidelines for conducting research involving human participants. Ensure that your research respects the rights, dignity, and well-being of all individuals involved and adheres to ethical principles and standards.
• Overlook practical constraints: Consider the practical constraints and limitations of your project, such as time, resources, and access to data or participants. Avoid choosing topics that require extensive resources or specialized expertise that may be beyond your means or capabilities.
• Dismiss feedback or guidance: Don’t dismiss feedback or guidance from professors, advisors, or mentors when selecting a topic. Their input and expertise can help you make informed decisions and choose a topic that is well-suited to your interests, skills, and academic or career goals.

Psychology offers a vast array of project topics that illuminate the complexities of human behavior and cognition. Whether you’re interested in developmental milestones, social interactions, mental health, or cultural influences, there are various psychology project topics for you.

By exploring these topics, we can deepen our understanding of ourselves and others, ultimately leading to a more compassionate and interconnected world. So, what aspect of psychology intrigues you the most? Dive in and discover the wonders of the human mind!

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Recent Posts

260 Best Experimental Psychology Research Topics for College Students

Let’s dive into the world of experimental psychology research topics for college students! This field is all about understanding why we behave the way we do and how our minds tick. From famous experiments that changed our views to fresh studies pushing boundaries, there’s so much to explore.

Imagine digging into why we make decisions influenced by others, unlocking how our memory really works, or testing out new ways to help people feel better mentally. It’s like peeking behind the curtain of our minds—super fascinating and full of discoveries!

Experimental Psychology Research Topics

Table of Contents

How do I choose a psychology research topic for College Students?

Here are some simple steps to guide you:

Ignite Your Curiosity

Personal Interest: What fascinates you in psychology? Social interactions, the mind, or mental health? Coursework: Look at your class notes and discussions. What caught your attention?

Explore and Refine

Brainstorm: Write down specific questions or themes in your area of interest. Research Feasibility: Check with your professor for any restrictions. Search databases like PsycINFO or Google Scholar to see if there’s enough research on your topic.

Consider These Factors

Manageability: Can you research this topic within your timeframe and resources? Originality: Is there a unique angle you can explore within a known topic?

Additional Tips

Talk to Your Professor: Get guidance on narrowing down or refining your topic. Browse Psychology Websites or Journals: Stay updated on current research and trends.

A Good Research Topic Should Be

Interesting to You: Your enthusiasm will drive your research and writing. Specific Enough: Avoid broad topics that can be overwhelming. Feasible: Ensure you have enough resources for research.

Follow these steps to find a compelling psychology research topic!

Experimental Psychology Research Topics PDF

Check out some of the popular experimental psychology research topics:-

Social Psychology

Impact of social media on self-esteem.

• Key Points: Explore how social media usage affects self-esteem in college students.
• Factors: Consider types of social media interactions, comparison behaviors, and self-perception.
• Method: Conduct surveys, interviews, and self-esteem assessments before and after social media exposure.

Group Dynamics and Decision-Making

• Key Points: Investigate how group dynamics influence decision-making processes.
• Factors: Consider group size, cohesion, leadership styles, and conformity pressures.
• Method: Use experimental scenarios or simulations to observe group decision-making behaviors.

Peer Pressure and Risk-Taking

• Key Points: Examine the effects of peer pressure on risky behaviors among college students.
• Factors: Explore peer influence, social norms, and individual risk perceptions.
• Method: Conduct controlled experiments or longitudinal studies to track behavior changes.

Perception of Authority Figures

• Key Points: Study how individuals perceive and respond to authority figures.
• Factors: Consider power dynamics, obedience levels, and ethical considerations.
• Method: Use role-playing scenarios or observational studies to analyze behavior in authority contexts.

Bystander Effect in Emergencies

• Key Points: Investigate bystander behavior during emergencies or crisis situations.
• Factors: Explore diffusion of responsibility, social influence, and intervention tendencies.
• Method: Use simulated emergencies or real-life case studies to analyze bystander responses.

Cognitive Psychology

Effects of music on memory recall.

• Key Points: Explore how background music influences memory recall in academic settings.
• Factors: Consider music genres, volume levels, and cognitive load.
• Method: Conduct controlled experiments with memory tasks and varied music conditions.

Attention and Multitasking

• Key Points: Study the impact of multitasking on attention and task performance.
• Factors: Analyze attentional resources, task-switching abilities, and distractions.
• Method: Use cognitive tests, reaction time measurements, and task-switching experiments.

Language and Thought Processes

• Key Points: Examine the relationship between language use and cognitive processes.
• Factors: Explore linguistic relativity, language development, and cognitive biases.
• Method: Conduct language-based experiments, semantic priming tasks, and cognitive assessments.

Sleep Deprivation and Cognitive Functions

• Key Points: Investigate the effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance.
• Factors: Analyze sleep quality, duration, and cognitive fatigue.
• Method: Use sleep deprivation protocols, cognitive tests, and subjective assessments.

Problem-Solving Skills

• Key Points: Assess factors that influence problem-solving abilities in college students.
• Factors: Consider cognitive flexibility, strategy use, and domain-specific knowledge.
• Method: Design problem-solving tasks, puzzles, and case studies to measure skill levels.

Developmental Psychology

Parenting styles and child development.

• Key Points: Examine the effects of different parenting styles on child behavior and emotional development.
• Factors: Consider authoritative, authoritarian, permissive parenting styles, and their impact on children’s self-esteem and resilience.
• Method: Use longitudinal studies, behavioral observations, and parent-child interaction tasks.

Birth Order and Personality Traits

• Key Points: Investigate how birth order influences personality traits and behavior.
• Factors: Analyze sibling dynamics, parental expectations, and family roles.
• Method: Conduct surveys, personality assessments, and birth order comparisons within families.

Early Childhood Education Programs

• Key Points: Assess the long-term effects of early education programs on academic achievement and social skills.
• Factors: Consider quality of preschool programs, educational approaches, and school readiness outcomes.
• Method: Use longitudinal studies, standardized testing, and teacher evaluations.

Impact of Divorce on Children’s Emotional Development

• Key Points: Study the psychological effects of parental divorce on children’s emotional well-being.
• Factors: Explore coping mechanisms, resilience factors, and adjustment difficulties.
• Method: Conduct interviews, psychological assessments, and behavioral observations.

Cognitive and Emotional Changes in Adolescence

• Key Points: Examine cognitive development and emotional regulation during adolescence.
• Factors: Analyze brain maturation, peer influences, and identity formation.
• Method: Use neuropsychological tests, emotion regulation tasks, and longitudinal studies.

Personality Psychology

Personality traits and academic performance.

• Key Points: Investigate the relationship between personality traits (e.g., conscientiousness, openness) and academic success.
• Factors: Consider study habits, motivation levels, and learning styles.
• Method: Conduct personality assessments, academic achievement tests, and correlation analyses.

Culture and Personality Development

• Key Points: Examine how cultural values and norms shape personality traits and behaviors.
• Factors: Analyze collectivism vs. individualism, cultural dimensions, and acculturation processes.
• Method: Use cross-cultural surveys, cultural identity measures, and qualitative interviews.

Personality and Career Choice

• Key Points: Study how personality traits influence career preferences and vocational outcomes.
• Factors: Consider career interests, job satisfaction, and occupational success.
• Method: Conduct career assessments, vocational interest inventories, and longitudinal career studies.

Traumatic Experiences and Personality Development

• Key Points: Investigate the impact of trauma on personality development and coping mechanisms.
• Factors: Analyze post-traumatic growth, resilience factors, and PTSD symptoms.
• Method: Use trauma assessments, psychological interviews, and trauma-focused interventions.

Stability of Personality Traits Over Time

• Key Points: Examine the stability and change of personality traits across different life stages.
• Factors: Consider life events, environmental influences, and genetic predispositions.
• Method: Conduct longitudinal studies, personality inventories at multiple time points, and trait stability analyses.

Health Psychology

Effects of stress on physical health.

• Key Points: Examine the relationship between stress and physical health outcomes.
• Factors: Consider physiological responses to stress, such as inflammation and immune system functioning.
• Method: Use surveys, biological markers, and longitudinal studies to assess stress-related health effects.

Influence of Social Support on Mental Health

• Key Points: Study how social support networks impact mental well-being.
• Factors: Consider types of support (emotional, instrumental) and their effects on coping mechanisms.
• Method: Use surveys, social network analysis, and psychological assessments to measure social support and mental health outcomes.

Study on the Placebo Effect in Pain Management

• Key Points: Investigate the psychological mechanisms behind the placebo effect in pain relief.
• Factors: Consider placebo response rates, expectations, and neurobiological mechanisms.
• Method: Use experimental pain studies, placebo interventions, and neuroimaging techniques to study the placebo effect.

Relationship Between Exercise and Mood

• Key Points: Examine the effects of exercise on mood regulation and mental health.
• Factors: Consider types of exercise, frequency, and duration in relation to mood improvement.
• Method: Use exercise interventions, mood assessments, and physiological measures to study the exercise-mood relationship.

Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Stress Reduction

• Key Points: Explore how mindfulness meditation practices impact stress levels.
• Factors: Consider mindfulness techniques, meditation duration, and frequency.
• Method: Use mindfulness interventions, stress assessments, and psychological measures to study the effects of meditation on stress.

Abnormal Psychology

Study on the causes of phobias.

• Key Points: Investigate the origins and development of specific phobias.
• Factors: Consider genetic predisposition, environmental influences, and conditioning processes.
• Method: Use fear conditioning experiments, case studies, and cognitive-behavioral assessments to study phobia development.

Effects of Therapy on Treating Depression

• Key Points: Examine the effectiveness of different therapeutic approaches for depression.
• Factors: Consider psychotherapy, medication, and combination treatments.
• Method: Use randomized controlled trials, meta-analyses, and longitudinal studies to assess treatment outcomes.

Influence of Genetics and Environment on Schizophrenia

• Key Points: Study the interplay between genetic and environmental factors in schizophrenia.
• Factors: Consider genetic markers, prenatal influences, and psychosocial stressors.
• Method: Use twin studies, genetic analyses, and environmental assessments to study schizophrenia etiology.

Impact of Stigma on Individuals with Mental Illness

• Key Points: Examine how societal stigma affects individuals with mental health disorders.
• Factors: Consider stereotypes, discrimination, and self-stigma.
• Method: Use surveys, qualitative interviews, and stigma assessments to study the impact of stigma on mental health.

Study on the Efficacy of Different Treatments for Anxiety Disorders

• Key Points: Investigate the effectiveness of various treatments for anxiety disorders.
• Factors: Consider cognitive-behavioral therapy, medication, and alternative therapies.
• Method: Use clinical trials, treatment outcome studies, and systematic reviews to assess anxiety treatment efficacy.

Environmental Psychology

Effects of natural environments on well-being.

• Key Points: Explore how exposure to natural environments influences psychological well-being.
• Factors: Consider nature settings, green spaces, and access to natural light.
• Method: Conduct field studies, psychological assessments, and mood evaluations in natural and urban environments.

Influence of Urban Design on Social Interactions

• Key Points: Investigate how urban design elements impact social behaviors and interactions.
• Factors: Consider urban density, street layouts, and public spaces.
• Method: Use observational studies, social interaction analyses, and urban planning assessments to study urban design effects.

Impact of Noise Pollution on Cognitive Performance

• Key Points: Examine the effects of noise pollution on cognitive functions and task performance.
• Factors: Consider noise levels, types of noise (ambient, intermittent), and cognitive tasks.
• Method: Conduct controlled experiments, cognitive assessments, and noise exposure studies to evaluate noise effects.

Study on the Psychology of Sustainable Behaviors

• Key Points: Explore psychological factors influencing sustainable behaviors and environmental conservation.
• Factors: Consider attitudes, beliefs, and motivations related to sustainability.
• Method: Use surveys, behavioral experiments, and intervention studies to promote sustainable behaviors.

Relationship Between Indoor Plants and Mental Health

• Key Points: Investigate the psychological effects of indoor plants on mental well-being.
• Factors: Consider plant presence, aesthetics, and perceived stress reduction.
• Method: Conduct indoor plant interventions, mental health assessments, and environmental psychology surveys to study plant effects.

Educational Psychology

Effects of classroom design on student learning.

• Key Points: Examine how classroom environments impact student learning outcomes.
• Factors: Consider classroom layout, seating arrangements, and environmental stimuli.
• Method: Conduct classroom observations, learning assessments, and student surveys to evaluate classroom design effects.

Influence of Motivation on Academic Achievement

• Key Points: Investigate the role of motivation in student academic performance.
• Factors: Consider intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, goal setting, and self-regulation.
• Method: Use motivation assessments, academic records, and self-report surveys to study motivation effects.

Impact of Teacher Expectations on Student Performance

• Key Points: Explore how teacher expectations influence student academic achievement.
• Factors: Consider teacher-student interactions, feedback, and stereotype threat.
• Method: Conduct teacher expectation experiments, academic assessments, and student evaluations to assess teacher impact.

Study on the Effectiveness of Technology in Education

• Key Points: Examine the effectiveness of technology integration in enhancing student learning.
• Factors: Consider educational apps, online platforms, and digital resources.
• Method: Conduct technology intervention studies, educational assessments, and learning outcome evaluations to evaluate technology effects.

Relationship Between Learning Styles and Academic Success

• Key Points: Investigate how individual learning styles impact student academic achievement.
• Factors: Consider visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning styles, and learning preferences.
• Method: Use learning style assessments, academic performance analyses, and student feedback to study learning style effects.

Effects of Social Support on Health Outcomes

• Key Points: Investigate how social support networks influence physical and mental health.
• Factors: Consider types of support (emotional, instrumental), social network size, and coping mechanisms.
• Method: Use health assessments, social network analyses, and longitudinal studies to study social support effects.

Impact of Health Beliefs on Health Behavior

• Key Points: Examine how individual beliefs about health and illness influence health behaviors.
• Factors: Consider health belief model constructs (perceived susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers) and behavior change theories.
• Method: Conduct surveys, health behavior assessments, and intervention studies to study belief-behavior relationships.

Study on the Psychological Effects of Chronic Illness

• Key Points: Explore the psychological impact of living with a chronic illness on mental health and well-being.
• Factors: Consider coping strategies, adjustment to illness, and quality of life outcomes.
• Method: Use longitudinal studies, psychological assessments, and patient interviews to study chronic illness effects.

Influence of Personality Traits on Health Choices

• Key Points: Investigate how personality traits influence health-related decision-making and behaviors.
• Factors: Consider traits such as conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience.
• Method: Conduct personality assessments, health behavior surveys, and decision-making experiments to study trait-behavior relationships.

Effects of Stress Management Techniques on Health

• Key Points: Examine the efficacy of different stress management interventions in improving physical health outcomes.
• Factors: Consider stress reduction techniques (e.g., mindfulness, relaxation), stress biomarkers, and health indicators.
• Method: Use stress intervention studies, health assessments, and biomarker analyses to study stress management effects on health.

Forensic Psychology

Study on eyewitness testimony accuracy.

• Key Points: Investigate factors influencing the accuracy of eyewitness testimony in criminal investigations.
• Factors: Consider memory processes, eyewitness lineup procedures, and misinformation effects.
• Method: Conduct eyewitness experiments, lineup identifications, and memory recall tests to study testimony accuracy.

Impact of Interrogation Techniques on False Confessions

• Key Points: Examine how interrogation tactics influence the likelihood of false confessions.
• Factors: Consider coercive techniques, psychological manipulation, and suspect vulnerabilities.
• Method: Use interrogation simulations, confession analyses, and psychological assessments to study false confession rates.

Psychological Profiling in Criminal Investigations

• Key Points: Explore the use of psychological profiling techniques in criminal investigations.
• Factors: Consider offender typologies, behavior analysis, and crime scene characteristics.
• Method: Conduct case studies, profiling analyses, and offender interviews to study profiling effectiveness.

Study on the Psychology of Jury Decision-Making

• Key Points: Investigate psychological factors influencing jury deliberations and verdicts.
• Factors: Consider juror biases, group dynamics, and decision-making processes.
• Method: Use mock jury experiments, juror surveys, and case analyses to study jury decision-making psychology.

Effects of Media Portrayals on Perceptions of Crime

• Key Points: Examine how media representations of crime influence public perceptions and attitudes.
• Factors: Consider media framing, crime narratives, and fear of crime effects.
• Method: Conduct media content analyses, public opinion surveys, and attitude assessments to study media effects on crime perceptions.

Industrial-Organizational (I/O) Psychology

Effects of leadership styles on employee motivation.

• Key Points: Investigate how different leadership styles influence employee motivation and performance.
• Factors: Consider leadership styles (transformational, transactional), employee motivation factors, and performance outcomes.
• Method: Conduct surveys, leadership assessments, and performance evaluations to study leadership effects.

Impact of Workplace Diversity on Organizational Performance

• Key Points: Examine how diversity in the workplace affects organizational performance and innovation.
• Factors: Consider diversity dimensions (ethnicity, gender, age), inclusion practices, and team dynamics.
• Method: Use organizational performance metrics, diversity assessments, and innovation analyses to study diversity effects.

Relationship Between Job Satisfaction and Employee Retention

• Key Points: Explore the link between job satisfaction levels and employee turnover rates.
• Factors: Consider job satisfaction factors (pay, benefits, work environment), turnover intentions, and retention strategies.
• Method: Conduct employee surveys, turnover analyses, and job satisfaction assessments to study satisfaction-retention relationships.

Effects of Work-Life Balance Programs on Employee Well-being

• Key Points: Investigate how work-life balance programs impact employee stress levels and well-being.
• Factors: Consider program effectiveness, employee engagement, and stress reduction outcomes.
• Method: Use program evaluations, employee surveys, and well-being assessments to study work-life balance effects.

Influence of Organizational Culture on Employee Engagement

• Key Points: Examine how organizational culture influences employee engagement and job satisfaction.
• Factors: Consider cultural values, norms, and employee commitment.
• Method: Conduct culture assessments, employee engagement surveys, and job satisfaction analyses to study culture effects.

Effects of Indoor Lighting on Productivity

• Key Points: Investigate how different indoor lighting conditions impact workplace productivity.
• Factors: Consider lighting intensity, color temperature, and natural light exposure.
• Method: Conduct lighting interventions, productivity assessments, and mood evaluations to study lighting effects.

Impact of Office Layout on Employee Collaboration

• Key Points: Explore how office layout design influences employee collaboration and communication.
• Factors: Consider open office layouts, cubicles, and collaborative spaces.
• Method: Use observational studies, collaboration metrics, and office design evaluations to study layout effects.

Relationship Between Noise Levels and Workplace Stress

• Key Points: Examine the relationship between workplace noise levels and employee stress levels.
• Factors: Consider noise sources (office equipment, coworkers), noise reduction strategies, and stress outcomes.
• Method: Conduct noise level measurements, stress assessments, and noise reduction interventions to study noise-stress relationships.

Influence of Green Spaces on Mental Health in Urban Environments

• Key Points: Investigate how access to green spaces in urban areas impacts mental health and well-being.
• Factors: Consider green space accessibility, park design, and mental health outcomes.
• Method: Use mental health assessments, urban green space analyses, and community surveys to study green space effects.

Effects of Workplace Temperature on Employee Comfort and Productivity

• Key Points: Examine how workplace temperature affects employee comfort, focus, and productivity.
• Factors: Consider temperature levels, thermal comfort, and productivity outcomes.
• Method: Conduct temperature experiments, comfort assessments, and productivity analyses to study temperature effects.

Experimental Psychology Research Topics for College Students

Have a close look at experimental research psychology research topics for college students:-

• Impact of sleep on memory
• Multitasking effects on focus
• Attention’s role in memory
• Decision-making biases
• Technology’s cognitive impacts
• Memory consolidation during sleep
• Child cognitive development
• Emotions’ cognitive influence
• Learning and memory strategies
• Aging and cognitive decline
• Social media and self-esteem
• Group dynamics in decisions
• Stereotyping effects
• Social influence on behavior
• Cultural behavior variations
• Psychology of prejudice
• Social identity’s impact
• Relationships and attachment
• Leadership styles’ effects
• Social cognition and understanding others
• Early experiences’ lifelong impact
• Parenting styles’ effects
• Moral reasoning development
• Attachment theory’s impact
• Adolescent cognitive development
• Identity formation in teens
• Divorce effects on children
• Gender identity development
• Play’s role in development
• Cultural developmental differences
• Big Five personality traits
• Lifespan personality development
• Personality disorders’ effects
• Self-concept and self-esteem
• Genetics vs. environment on personality
• Cultural personality variations
• Personality assessment methods
• Personality and career choices
• Personality and mental health
• Personality and relationship satisfaction

Clinical Psychology

• Therapy for depression
• Trauma’s mental health impact
• Stigma on mental health help-seeking
• Psychosocial factors in chronic illness
• Anxiety disorder treatments
• Mindfulness for stress reduction
• Addiction interventions
• Chronic pain psychological factors
• Psychotherapy outcomes
• Resilience in adversity
• Stress on physical health
• Health behaviors’ impacts
• Psychological factors in chronic disease
• Social support’s health effects
• Health promotion interventions
• Behavior change techniques
• Psychosomatic disorders’ roots
• Body image and health behaviors
• Health disparities and determinants
• Coping with medical diagnoses

Neuropsychology

• Brain plasticity post-injury
• Neural basis of decision-making
• Brain development in infancy
• Brain injury cognitive rehab
• Neurological disorders’ effects
• Neurotransmitters and behavior
• Brain imaging techniques
• Genetics and neuroscience connections
• Exercise’s brain health impact
• Neuropsychological assessments

Industrial-Organizational Psychology

• Leadership styles’ impact
• Employee motivation and satisfaction
• Work-life balance effects
• Organizational culture’s influence
• Diversity and inclusion
• Employee engagement strategies
• Performance appraisal methods
• Job stress and burnout prevention
• Team dynamics and collaboration
• Talent management and succession planning
• Learning styles and achievement
• Motivation in education
• Classroom management
• Technology’s learning impacts
• Assessment methods and performance
• Developmental milestones in education
• Special education support
• Teacher-student relationships
• At-risk student interventions
• Parental involvement in education
• Natural environments’ well-being effects
• Environmental attitudes and behavior
• Urban design and mental health
• Noise pollution’s cognition impact
• Sustainable behavior change
• Coping with environmental stressors
• Green spaces and mental health
• Environmental education impact
• Climate change perception
• Human-nature interactions
• Eyewitness testimony reliability
• Psychological profiling in investigations
• Media’s crime perception
• Juvenile delinquency prevention
• Psychopathy and crime
• Interrogation techniques
• False memories in criminal cases
• Offender rehabilitation programs
• Jury decision-making
• Mental health assessments in legal contexts

Sports Psychology

• Peak performance psychology
• Athlete motivation and goals
• Team cohesion effects
• Psychology of injury recovery
• Coaching styles and development
• Mental toughness in sports
• Athlete burnout prevention
• Psychological skills training
• Youth athlete psychology
• Mindfulness in sports

Positive Psychology

• Science of happiness
• Gratitude’s effects
• Positive workplaces
• Character strengths development
• Resilience training
• Life’s meaning and purpose
• Positive relationships
• Self-compassion’s effects
• Flourishing in life
• Positive education interventions

Evolutionary Psychology

• Mate selection preferences
• Parental investment theory
• Evolution of social behaviors
• Sex differences in mating
• Mate competition
• Altruism’s evolutionary roots
• Aggression from an evolutionary lens
• Parent-offspring conflict
• Cultural evolution and adaptations
• Emotions’ evolutionary roles

Cross-Cultural Psychology

• Cultural emotion expressions
• Culture’s perception impacts
• Acculturation and identity
• Cross-cultural parenting
• Cultural dimensions’ effects
• Intercultural communication
• Cultural competence in therapy
• Cultural decision-making styles
• Cultural values and well-being
• Cross-cultural research methods

Experimental Methods and Techniques

• Psychology experimental designs
• Quantitative data analysis
• Qualitative research methods
• Psychophysiological measures
• Eye-tracking in attention studies
• Virtual reality in research
• Neuroimaging in brain studies
• Behavioral genetics
• Longitudinal studies
• Research design comparisons

Ethics and Professional Issues

• Informed consent
• Ethical vulnerable population studies
• Confidentiality in assessments
• Ethical deception guidelines
• Professional boundaries in therapy
• Cultural competence
• Animal research ethics
• Reporting standards
• Peer review process
• Forensic psychology ethics

Emerging Trends in Psychology

• AI impacts on research
• Telepsychology
• Neurodiversity in practice
• Ecopsychology interventions
• Positive technology trends
• Global mental health initiatives
• Intersectionality in research
• Behavioral economics
• Transpersonal psychology
• Psychedelic therapy research

Miscellaneous Topics

• Placebo effect mechanisms
• Psychology of superstitions
• Psychology of humor
• Creativity’s psychological aspects
• Color perception psychology
• Music’s emotional effects
• Psychology of gambling
• Social media influencers’ impacts
• Psychology of space travel
• Psychology of conspiracy theories

Methodology and Statistics

• Bayesian statistics in psychology
• Power analysis in experiments
• Factor analysis applications
• Structural equation modeling
• Meta-analysis
• Item response theory
• Non-parametric statistics
• Qualitative data analysis
• Sampling methods
• Psychometric assessment validation

These topics are simplified for easier understanding and can serve as inspiration for various research projects in experimental psychology.

Emerging Areas of Study in Experimental Psychology Research

Experimental psychology is evolving. Key areas include:

• Gut-Brain : Gut bacteria’s impact on mood.
• VR/AR : Using tech to study behavior.
• Neuromodulation : Brain stimulation for mental health.
• Psychedelics : Studying drugs for depression.
• AI : Analyzing data for mental health tools.

These developments highlight an exciting future.

What is an example of experimental psychology research?

Research Topic : How social media affects college students’ body image.

Hypothesis : Seeing idealized images on social media makes college students feel worse about their bodies.

• Recruit college students.
• One sees idealized social media posts.
• The other sees neutral content.
• Have both groups complete body image surveys before and after.
• Compare how each group’s body image feelings change.
• If the group seeing idealized images feels worse, the hypothesis is supported.
• Look at factors like time spent on social media for deeper insights.

This kind of research helps us understand and address important issues.

What are examples of possible research topics in psychology?

Check out the examples of possible research topics in psychology:-

• How social media algorithms affect political views.
• Training effectiveness in preventing violence.
• Cultural norms’ impact on emotions.
• Conformity’s role in group decisions.
• Stereotypes and teacher expectations.
• Memory strategies in kids.
• Multitasking’s effect on attention.
• Emotions in uncertain decisions.
• Memory improvement techniques’ efficacy.
• Sleep’s impact on learning.
• Effects of early education programs.
• Parental involvement and teen behavior.
• Digital media and social skills in kids.
• Aging’s cognitive changes.
• Socioeconomic status and academics.
• Personality traits and career success.
• Factors shaping personality development.
• Cultural differences in personality.
• Predicting behavior with assessments.
• Personality’s link to mental health.
• Stress management for physical health.
• Social support and chronic illness.
• Media’s role in body image and health.
• Mindfulness for anxiety reduction.
• Exercise and mental well-being.

Tips for Successful Experimental Psychology Research Topics

Here are simplified tips for choosing experimental psychology research topics:

• Define and measure variables clearly.
• Avoid causing stress, get informed consent.
• Ensure you have access to needed participants and equipment.
• Build on existing research, bring a fresh angle.
• Study how background music affects memory.
• Investigate how power poses impact negotiation.

Remember, your topic should be interesting, ethical, feasible, and contribute to psychology. Discuss with your professor for guidance!

In summary, experimental psychology is a fascinating field full of diverse research topics. From investigating how our gut affects our mood to exploring the intelligence of animals, researchers are always discovering new things about the human mind and behavior.

Exciting technologies like virtual reality are also helping us understand perception and social interactions better. Studying how our brains can change and using psychedelics for mental health are other areas that show how psychology is always evolving.

Through these studies, psychologists are uncovering insights that help us understand ourselves and our world in fresh, meaningful ways.

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• The 25 Most Influential Psychological Experiments in History

While each year thousands and thousands of studies are completed in the many specialty areas of psychology, there are a handful that, over the years, have had a lasting impact in the psychological community as a whole. Some of these were dutifully conducted, keeping within the confines of ethical and practical guidelines. Others pushed the boundaries of human behavior during their psychological experiments and created controversies that still linger to this day. And still others were not designed to be true psychological experiments, but ended up as beacons to the psychological community in proving or disproving theories.

This is a list of the 25 most influential psychological experiments still being taught to psychology students of today.

1. A Class Divided

Study conducted by: jane elliott.

Study Conducted in 1968 in an Iowa classroom

Experiment Details: Jane Elliott’s famous experiment was inspired by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the inspirational life that he led. The third grade teacher developed an exercise, or better yet, a psychological experiment, to help her Caucasian students understand the effects of racism and prejudice.

Elliott divided her class into two separate groups: blue-eyed students and brown-eyed students. On the first day, she labeled the blue-eyed group as the superior group and from that point forward they had extra privileges, leaving the brown-eyed children to represent the minority group. She discouraged the groups from interacting and singled out individual students to stress the negative characteristics of the children in the minority group. What this exercise showed was that the children’s behavior changed almost instantaneously. The group of blue-eyed students performed better academically and even began bullying their brown-eyed classmates. The brown-eyed group experienced lower self-confidence and worse academic performance. The next day, she reversed the roles of the two groups and the blue-eyed students became the minority group.

At the end of the experiment, the children were so relieved that they were reported to have embraced one another and agreed that people should not be judged based on outward appearances. This exercise has since been repeated many times with similar outcomes.

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2. Asch Conformity Study

Study conducted by: dr. solomon asch.

Study Conducted in 1951 at Swarthmore College

Experiment Details: Dr. Solomon Asch conducted a groundbreaking study that was designed to evaluate a person’s likelihood to conform to a standard when there is pressure to do so.

A group of participants were shown pictures with lines of various lengths and were then asked a simple question: Which line is longest? The tricky part of this study was that in each group only one person was a true participant. The others were actors with a script. Most of the actors were instructed to give the wrong answer. Strangely, the one true participant almost always agreed with the majority, even though they knew they were giving the wrong answer.

The results of this study are important when we study social interactions among individuals in groups. This study is a famous example of the temptation many of us experience to conform to a standard during group situations and it showed that people often care more about being the same as others than they do about being right. It is still recognized as one of the most influential psychological experiments for understanding human behavior.

3. Bobo Doll Experiment

Study conducted by: dr. alburt bandura.

Study Conducted between 1961-1963 at Stanford University

In his groundbreaking study he separated participants into three groups:

• one was exposed to a video of an adult showing aggressive behavior towards a Bobo doll
• another was exposed to video of a passive adult playing with the Bobo doll
• the third formed a control group

Children watched their assigned video and then were sent to a room with the same doll they had seen in the video (with the exception of those in the control group). What the researcher found was that children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior towards the doll themselves. The other groups showed little imitative aggressive behavior. For those children exposed to the aggressive model, the number of derivative physical aggressions shown by the boys was 38.2 and 12.7 for the girls.

The study also showed that boys exhibited more aggression when exposed to aggressive male models than boys exposed to aggressive female models. When exposed to aggressive male models, the number of aggressive instances exhibited by boys averaged 104. This is compared to 48.4 aggressive instances exhibited by boys who were exposed to aggressive female models.

While the results for the girls show similar findings, the results were less drastic. When exposed to aggressive female models, the number of aggressive instances exhibited by girls averaged 57.7. This is compared to 36.3 aggressive instances exhibited by girls who were exposed to aggressive male models. The results concerning gender differences strongly supported Bandura’s secondary prediction that children will be more strongly influenced by same-sex models. The Bobo Doll Experiment showed a groundbreaking way to study human behavior and it’s influences.

4. Car Crash Experiment

Study conducted by: elizabeth loftus and john palmer.

Study Conducted in 1974 at The University of California in Irvine

The participants watched slides of a car accident and were asked to describe what had happened as if they were eyewitnesses to the scene. The participants were put into two groups and each group was questioned using different wording such as “how fast was the car driving at the time of impact?” versus “how fast was the car going when it smashed into the other car?” The experimenters found that the use of different verbs affected the participants’ memories of the accident, showing that memory can be easily distorted.

This research suggests that memory can be easily manipulated by questioning technique. This means that information gathered after the event can merge with original memory causing incorrect recall or reconstructive memory. The addition of false details to a memory of an event is now referred to as confabulation. This concept has very important implications for the questions used in police interviews of eyewitnesses.

5. Cognitive Dissonance Experiment

Study conducted by: leon festinger and james carlsmith.

Study Conducted in 1957 at Stanford University

Experiment Details: The concept of cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting:

This conflict produces an inherent feeling of discomfort leading to a change in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to minimize or eliminate the discomfort and restore balance.

Cognitive dissonance was first investigated by Leon Festinger, after an observational study of a cult that believed that the earth was going to be destroyed by a flood. Out of this study was born an intriguing experiment conducted by Festinger and Carlsmith where participants were asked to perform a series of dull tasks (such as turning pegs in a peg board for an hour). Participant’s initial attitudes toward this task were highly negative.

They were then paid either $1 or $20 to tell a participant waiting in the lobby that the tasks were really interesting. Almost all of the participants agreed to walk into the waiting room and persuade the next participant that the boring experiment would be fun. When the participants were later asked to evaluate the experiment, the participants who were paid only $1 rated the tedious task as more fun and enjoyable than the participants who were paid $20 to lie.

Being paid only $1 is not sufficient incentive for lying and so those who were paid $1 experienced dissonance. They could only overcome that cognitive dissonance by coming to believe that the tasks really were interesting and enjoyable. Being paid $20 provides a reason for turning pegs and there is therefore no dissonance.

6. Fantz’s Looking Chamber

Study conducted by: robert l. fantz.

Study Conducted in 1961 at the University of Illinois

Experiment Details: The study conducted by Robert L. Fantz is among the simplest, yet most important in the field of infant development and vision. In 1961, when this experiment was conducted, there very few ways to study what was going on in the mind of an infant. Fantz realized that the best way was to simply watch the actions and reactions of infants. He understood the fundamental factor that if there is something of interest near humans, they generally look at it.

To test this concept, Fantz set up a display board with two pictures attached. On one was a bulls-eye. On the other was the sketch of a human face. This board was hung in a chamber where a baby could lie safely underneath and see both images. Then, from behind the board, invisible to the baby, he peeked through a hole to watch what the baby looked at. This study showed that a two-month old baby looked twice as much at the human face as it did at the bulls-eye. This suggests that human babies have some powers of pattern and form selection. Before this experiment it was thought that babies looked out onto a chaotic world of which they could make little sense.

7. Hawthorne Effect

Study conducted by: henry a. landsberger.

Study Conducted in 1955 at Hawthorne Works in Chicago, Illinois

Landsberger performed the study by analyzing data from experiments conducted between 1924 and 1932, by Elton Mayo, at the Hawthorne Works near Chicago. The company had commissioned studies to evaluate whether the level of light in a building changed the productivity of the workers. What Mayo found was that the level of light made no difference in productivity. The workers increased their output whenever the amount of light was switched from a low level to a high level, or vice versa.

The researchers noticed a tendency that the workers’ level of efficiency increased when any variable was manipulated. The study showed that the output changed simply because the workers were aware that they were under observation. The conclusion was that the workers felt important because they were pleased to be singled out. They increased productivity as a result. Being singled out was the factor dictating increased productivity, not the changing lighting levels, or any of the other factors that they experimented upon.

The Hawthorne Effect has become one of the hardest inbuilt biases to eliminate or factor into the design of any experiment in psychology and beyond.

8. Kitty Genovese Case

Study conducted by: new york police force.

Study Conducted in 1964 in New York City

Experiment Details: The murder case of Kitty Genovese was never intended to be a psychological experiment, however it ended up having serious implications for the field.

According to a New York Times article, almost 40 neighbors witnessed Kitty Genovese being savagely attacked and murdered in Queens, New York in 1964. Not one neighbor called the police for help. Some reports state that the attacker briefly left the scene and later returned to “finish off” his victim. It was later uncovered that many of these facts were exaggerated. (There were more likely only a dozen witnesses and records show that some calls to police were made).

What this case later become famous for is the “Bystander Effect,” which states that the more bystanders that are present in a social situation, the less likely it is that anyone will step in and help. This effect has led to changes in medicine, psychology and many other areas. One famous example is the way CPR is taught to new learners. All students in CPR courses learn that they must assign one bystander the job of alerting authorities which minimizes the chances of no one calling for assistance.

9. Learned Helplessness Experiment

Study conducted by: martin seligman.

Study Conducted in 1967 at the University of Pennsylvania

Seligman’s experiment involved the ringing of a bell and then the administration of a light shock to a dog. After a number of pairings, the dog reacted to the shock even before it happened. As soon as the dog heard the bell, he reacted as though he’d already been shocked.

During the course of this study something unexpected happened. Each dog was placed in a large crate that was divided down the middle with a low fence. The dog could see and jump over the fence easily. The floor on one side of the fence was electrified, but not on the other side of the fence. Seligman placed each dog on the electrified side and administered a light shock. He expected the dog to jump to the non-shocking side of the fence. In an unexpected turn, the dogs simply laid down.

The hypothesis was that as the dogs learned from the first part of the experiment that there was nothing they could do to avoid the shocks, they gave up in the second part of the experiment. To prove this hypothesis the experimenters brought in a new set of animals and found that dogs with no history in the experiment would jump over the fence.

This condition was described as learned helplessness. A human or animal does not attempt to get out of a negative situation because the past has taught them that they are helpless.

10. Little Albert Experiment

Study conducted by: john b. watson and rosalie rayner.

Study Conducted in 1920 at Johns Hopkins University

The experiment began by placing a white rat in front of the infant, who initially had no fear of the animal. Watson then produced a loud sound by striking a steel bar with a hammer every time little Albert was presented with the rat. After several pairings (the noise and the presentation of the white rat), the boy began to cry and exhibit signs of fear every time the rat appeared in the room. Watson also created similar conditioned reflexes with other common animals and objects (rabbits, Santa beard, etc.) until Albert feared them all.

This study proved that classical conditioning works on humans. One of its most important implications is that adult fears are often connected to early childhood experiences.

11. Magical Number Seven

Study conducted by: george a. miller.

Study Conducted in 1956 at Princeton University

Experiment Details:   Frequently referred to as “ Miller’s Law,” the Magical Number Seven experiment purports that the number of objects an average human can hold in working memory is 7 ± 2. This means that the human memory capacity typically includes strings of words or concepts ranging from 5-9. This information on the limits to the capacity for processing information became one of the most highly cited papers in psychology.

The Magical Number Seven Experiment was published in 1956 by cognitive psychologist George A. Miller of Princeton University’s Department of Psychology in Psychological Review .  In the article, Miller discussed a concurrence between the limits of one-dimensional absolute judgment and the limits of short-term memory.

In a one-dimensional absolute-judgment task, a person is presented with a number of stimuli that vary on one dimension (such as 10 different tones varying only in pitch). The person responds to each stimulus with a corresponding response (learned before).

Performance is almost perfect up to five or six different stimuli but declines as the number of different stimuli is increased. This means that a human’s maximum performance on one-dimensional absolute judgment can be described as an information store with the maximum capacity of approximately 2 to 3 bits of information There is the ability to distinguish between four and eight alternatives.

12. Pavlov’s Dog Experiment

Study conducted by: ivan pavlov.

Study Conducted in the 1890s at the Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia

Pavlov began with the simple idea that there are some things that a dog does not need to learn. He observed that dogs do not learn to salivate when they see food. This reflex is “hard wired” into the dog. This is an unconditioned response (a stimulus-response connection that required no learning).

Pavlov outlined that there are unconditioned responses in the animal by presenting a dog with a bowl of food and then measuring its salivary secretions. In the experiment, Pavlov used a bell as his neutral stimulus. Whenever he gave food to his dogs, he also rang a bell. After a number of repeats of this procedure, he tried the bell on its own. What he found was that the bell on its own now caused an increase in salivation. The dog had learned to associate the bell and the food. This learning created a new behavior. The dog salivated when he heard the bell. Because this response was learned (or conditioned), it is called a conditioned response. The neutral stimulus has become a conditioned stimulus.

This theory came to be known as classical conditioning.

13. Robbers Cave Experiment

Study conducted by: muzafer and carolyn sherif.

Study Conducted in 1954 at the University of Oklahoma

Experiment Details: This experiment, which studied group conflict, is considered by most to be outside the lines of what is considered ethically sound.

In 1954 researchers at the University of Oklahoma assigned 22 eleven- and twelve-year-old boys from similar backgrounds into two groups. The two groups were taken to separate areas of a summer camp facility where they were able to bond as social units. The groups were housed in separate cabins and neither group knew of the other’s existence for an entire week. The boys bonded with their cabin mates during that time. Once the two groups were allowed to have contact, they showed definite signs of prejudice and hostility toward each other even though they had only been given a very short time to develop their social group. To increase the conflict between the groups, the experimenters had them compete against each other in a series of activities. This created even more hostility and eventually the groups refused to eat in the same room. The final phase of the experiment involved turning the rival groups into friends. The fun activities the experimenters had planned like shooting firecrackers and watching movies did not initially work, so they created teamwork exercises where the two groups were forced to collaborate. At the end of the experiment, the boys decided to ride the same bus home, demonstrating that conflict can be resolved and prejudice overcome through cooperation.

Many critics have compared this study to Golding’s Lord of the Flies novel as a classic example of prejudice and conflict resolution.

14. Ross’ False Consensus Effect Study

Study conducted by: lee ross.

Study Conducted in 1977 at Stanford University

Experiment Details: In 1977, a social psychology professor at Stanford University named Lee Ross conducted an experiment that, in lay terms, focuses on how people can incorrectly conclude that others think the same way they do, or form a “false consensus” about the beliefs and preferences of others. Ross conducted the study in order to outline how the “false consensus effect” functions in humans.

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In the first part of the study, participants were asked to read about situations in which a conflict occurred and then were told two alternative ways of responding to the situation. They were asked to do three things:

• Guess which option other people would choose
• Say which option they themselves would choose
• Describe the attributes of the person who would likely choose each of the two options

What the study showed was that most of the subjects believed that other people would do the same as them, regardless of which of the two responses they actually chose themselves. This phenomenon is referred to as the false consensus effect, where an individual thinks that other people think the same way they do when they may not. The second observation coming from this important study is that when participants were asked to describe the attributes of the people who will likely make the choice opposite of their own, they made bold and sometimes negative predictions about the personalities of those who did not share their choice.

15. The Schachter and Singer Experiment on Emotion

Study conducted by: stanley schachter and jerome e. singer.

Study Conducted in 1962 at Columbia University

Experiment Details: In 1962 Schachter and Singer conducted a ground breaking experiment to prove their theory of emotion.

In the study, a group of 184 male participants were injected with epinephrine, a hormone that induces arousal including increased heartbeat, trembling, and rapid breathing. The research participants were told that they were being injected with a new medication to test their eyesight. The first group of participants was informed the possible side effects that the injection might cause while the second group of participants were not. The participants were then placed in a room with someone they thought was another participant, but was actually a confederate in the experiment. The confederate acted in one of two ways: euphoric or angry. Participants who had not been informed about the effects of the injection were more likely to feel either happier or angrier than those who had been informed.

What Schachter and Singer were trying to understand was the ways in which cognition or thoughts influence human emotion. Their study illustrates the importance of how people interpret their physiological states, which form an important component of your emotions. Though their cognitive theory of emotional arousal dominated the field for two decades, it has been criticized for two main reasons: the size of the effect seen in the experiment was not that significant and other researchers had difficulties repeating the experiment.

16. Selective Attention / Invisible Gorilla Experiment

Study conducted by: daniel simons and christopher chabris.

Study Conducted in 1999 at Harvard University

Experiment Details: In 1999 Simons and Chabris conducted their famous awareness test at Harvard University.

Participants in the study were asked to watch a video and count how many passes occurred between basketball players on the white team. The video moves at a moderate pace and keeping track of the passes is a relatively easy task. What most people fail to notice amidst their counting is that in the middle of the test, a man in a gorilla suit walked onto the court and stood in the center before walking off-screen.

The study found that the majority of the subjects did not notice the gorilla at all, proving that humans often overestimate their ability to effectively multi-task. What the study set out to prove is that when people are asked to attend to one task, they focus so strongly on that element that they may miss other important details.

17. Stanford Prison Study

Study conducted by philip zimbardo.

Study Conducted in 1971 at Stanford University

The Stanford Prison Experiment was designed to study behavior of “normal” individuals when assigned a role of prisoner or guard. College students were recruited to participate. They were assigned roles of “guard” or “inmate.”  Zimbardo played the role of the warden. The basement of the psychology building was the set of the prison. Great care was taken to make it look and feel as realistic as possible.

The prison guards were told to run a prison for two weeks. They were told not to physically harm any of the inmates during the study. After a few days, the prison guards became very abusive verbally towards the inmates. Many of the prisoners became submissive to those in authority roles. The Stanford Prison Experiment inevitably had to be cancelled because some of the participants displayed troubling signs of breaking down mentally.

Although the experiment was conducted very unethically, many psychologists believe that the findings showed how much human behavior is situational. People will conform to certain roles if the conditions are right. The Stanford Prison Experiment remains one of the most famous psychology experiments of all time.

18. Stanley Milgram Experiment

Study conducted by stanley milgram.

Study Conducted in 1961 at Stanford University

Experiment Details: This 1961 study was conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram. It was designed to measure people’s willingness to obey authority figures when instructed to perform acts that conflicted with their morals. The study was based on the premise that humans will inherently take direction from authority figures from very early in life.

Participants were told they were participating in a study on memory. They were asked to watch another person (an actor) do a memory test. They were instructed to press a button that gave an electric shock each time the person got a wrong answer. (The actor did not actually receive the shocks, but pretended they did).

Participants were told to play the role of “teacher” and administer electric shocks to “the learner,” every time they answered a question incorrectly. The experimenters asked the participants to keep increasing the shocks. Most of them obeyed even though the individual completing the memory test appeared to be in great pain. Despite these protests, many participants continued the experiment when the authority figure urged them to. They increased the voltage after each wrong answer until some eventually administered what would be lethal electric shocks.

This experiment showed that humans are conditioned to obey authority and will usually do so even if it goes against their natural morals or common sense.

19. Surrogate Mother Experiment

Study conducted by: harry harlow.

Study Conducted from 1957-1963 at the University of Wisconsin

Experiment Details: In a series of controversial experiments during the late 1950s and early 1960s, Harry Harlow studied the importance of a mother’s love for healthy childhood development.

In order to do this he separated infant rhesus monkeys from their mothers a few hours after birth and left them to be raised by two “surrogate mothers.” One of the surrogates was made of wire with an attached bottle for food. The other was made of soft terrycloth but lacked food. The researcher found that the baby monkeys spent much more time with the cloth mother than the wire mother, thereby proving that affection plays a greater role than sustenance when it comes to childhood development. They also found that the monkeys that spent more time cuddling the soft mother grew up to healthier.

This experiment showed that love, as demonstrated by physical body contact, is a more important aspect of the parent-child bond than the provision of basic needs. These findings also had implications in the attachment between fathers and their infants when the mother is the source of nourishment.

20. The Good Samaritan Experiment

Study conducted by: john darley and daniel batson.

Study Conducted in 1973 at The Princeton Theological Seminary (Researchers were from Princeton University)

Experiment Details: In 1973, an experiment was created by John Darley and Daniel Batson, to investigate the potential causes that underlie altruistic behavior. The researchers set out three hypotheses they wanted to test:

• People thinking about religion and higher principles would be no more inclined to show helping behavior than laymen.
• People in a rush would be much less likely to show helping behavior.
• People who are religious for personal gain would be less likely to help than people who are religious because they want to gain some spiritual and personal insights into the meaning of life.

Student participants were given some religious teaching and instruction. They were then were told to travel from one building to the next. Between the two buildings was a man lying injured and appearing to be in dire need of assistance. The first variable being tested was the degree of urgency impressed upon the subjects, with some being told not to rush and others being informed that speed was of the essence.

The results of the experiment were intriguing, with the haste of the subject proving to be the overriding factor. When the subject was in no hurry, nearly two-thirds of people stopped to lend assistance. When the subject was in a rush, this dropped to one in ten.

People who were on the way to deliver a speech about helping others were nearly twice as likely to help as those delivering other sermons,. This showed that the thoughts of the individual were a factor in determining helping behavior. Religious beliefs did not appear to make much difference on the results. Being religious for personal gain, or as part of a spiritual quest, did not appear to make much of an impact on the amount of helping behavior shown.

21. The Halo Effect Experiment

Study conducted by: richard e. nisbett and timothy decamp wilson.

Study Conducted in 1977 at the University of Michigan

Experiment Details: The Halo Effect states that people generally assume that people who are physically attractive are more likely to:

• be intelligent
• be friendly
• display good judgment

To prove their theory, Nisbett and DeCamp Wilson created a study to prove that people have little awareness of the nature of the Halo Effect. They’re not aware that it influences:

• their personal judgments
• the production of a more complex social behavior

In the experiment, college students were the research participants. They were asked to evaluate a psychology instructor as they view him in a videotaped interview. The students were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Each group was shown one of two different interviews with the same instructor. The instructor is a native French-speaking Belgian who spoke English with a noticeable accent. In the first video, the instructor presented himself as someone:

• respectful of his students’ intelligence and motives
• flexible in his approach to teaching
• enthusiastic about his subject matter

In the second interview, he presented himself as much more unlikable. He was cold and distrustful toward the students and was quite rigid in his teaching style.

After watching the videos, the subjects were asked to rate the lecturer on:

• physical appearance

His mannerisms and accent were kept the same in both versions of videos. The subjects were asked to rate the professor on an 8-point scale ranging from “like extremely” to “dislike extremely.” Subjects were also told that the researchers were interested in knowing “how much their liking for the teacher influenced the ratings they just made.” Other subjects were asked to identify how much the characteristics they just rated influenced their liking of the teacher.

After responding to the questionnaire, the respondents were puzzled about their reactions to the videotapes and to the questionnaire items. The students had no idea why they gave one lecturer higher ratings. Most said that how much they liked the lecturer had not affected their evaluation of his individual characteristics at all.

The interesting thing about this study is that people can understand the phenomenon, but they are unaware when it is occurring. Without realizing it, humans make judgments. Even when it is pointed out, they may still deny that it is a product of the halo effect phenomenon.

22. The Marshmallow Test

Study conducted by: walter mischel.

Study Conducted in 1972 at Stanford University

In his 1972 Marshmallow Experiment, children ages four to six were taken into a room where a marshmallow was placed in front of them on a table. Before leaving each of the children alone in the room, the experimenter informed them that they would receive a second marshmallow if the first one was still on the table after they returned in 15 minutes. The examiner recorded how long each child resisted eating the marshmallow and noted whether it correlated with the child’s success in adulthood. A small number of the 600 children ate the marshmallow immediately and one-third delayed gratification long enough to receive the second marshmallow.

In follow-up studies, Mischel found that those who deferred gratification were significantly more competent and received higher SAT scores than their peers. This characteristic likely remains with a person for life. While this study seems simplistic, the findings outline some of the foundational differences in individual traits that can predict success.

23. The Monster Study

Study conducted by: wendell johnson.

Study Conducted in 1939 at the University of Iowa

Experiment Details: The Monster Study received this negative title due to the unethical methods that were used to determine the effects of positive and negative speech therapy on children.

Wendell Johnson of the University of Iowa selected 22 orphaned children, some with stutters and some without. The children were in two groups. The group of children with stutters was placed in positive speech therapy, where they were praised for their fluency. The non-stutterers were placed in negative speech therapy, where they were disparaged for every mistake in grammar that they made.

As a result of the experiment, some of the children who received negative speech therapy suffered psychological effects and retained speech problems for the rest of their lives. They were examples of the significance of positive reinforcement in education.

The initial goal of the study was to investigate positive and negative speech therapy. However, the implication spanned much further into methods of teaching for young children.

24. Violinist at the Metro Experiment

Study conducted by: staff at the washington post.

Study Conducted in 2007 at a Washington D.C. Metro Train Station

During the study, pedestrians rushed by without realizing that the musician playing at the entrance to the metro stop was Grammy-winning musician, Joshua Bell. Two days before playing in the subway, he sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats average $100. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars. In the 45 minutes the musician played his violin, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. Around 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32.

The study and the subsequent article organized by the Washington Post was part of a social experiment looking at:

• the priorities of people

Gene Weingarten wrote about the social experiment: “In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?” Later he won a Pulitzer Prize for his story. Some of the questions the article addresses are:

• Do we perceive beauty?
• Do we stop to appreciate it?
• Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

As it turns out, many of us are not nearly as perceptive to our environment as we might like to think.

25. Visual Cliff Experiment

Study conducted by: eleanor gibson and richard walk.

Study Conducted in 1959 at Cornell University

Experiment Details: In 1959, psychologists Eleanor Gibson and Richard Walk set out to study depth perception in infants. They wanted to know if depth perception is a learned behavior or if it is something that we are born with. To study this, Gibson and Walk conducted the visual cliff experiment.

They studied 36 infants between the ages of six and 14 months, all of whom could crawl. The infants were placed one at a time on a visual cliff. A visual cliff was created using a large glass table that was raised about a foot off the floor. Half of the glass table had a checker pattern underneath in order to create the appearance of a ‘shallow side.’

In order to create a ‘deep side,’ a checker pattern was created on the floor; this side is the visual cliff. The placement of the checker pattern on the floor creates the illusion of a sudden drop-off. Researchers placed a foot-wide centerboard between the shallow side and the deep side. Gibson and Walk found the following:

• Nine of the infants did not move off the centerboard.
• All of the 27 infants who did move crossed into the shallow side when their mothers called them from the shallow side.
• Three of the infants crawled off the visual cliff toward their mother when called from the deep side.
• When called from the deep side, the remaining 24 children either crawled to the shallow side or cried because they could not cross the visual cliff and make it to their mother.

What this study helped demonstrate is that depth perception is likely an inborn train in humans.

Among these experiments and psychological tests, we see boundaries pushed and theories taking on a life of their own. It is through the endless stream of psychological experimentation that we can see simple hypotheses become guiding theories for those in this field. The greater field of psychology became a formal field of experimental study in 1879, when Wilhelm Wundt established the first laboratory dedicated solely to psychological research in Leipzig, Germany. Wundt was the first person to refer to himself as a psychologist. Since 1879, psychology has grown into a massive collection of:

• methods of practice

It’s also a specialty area in the field of healthcare. None of this would have been possible without these and many other important psychological experiments that have stood the test of time.

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After earning a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Rutgers University and then a Master of Science in Clinical and Forensic Psychology from Drexel University, Kristen began a career as a therapist at two prisons in Philadelphia. At the same time she volunteered as a rape crisis counselor, also in Philadelphia. After a few years in the field she accepted a teaching position at a local college where she currently teaches online psychology courses. Kristen began writing in college and still enjoys her work as a writer, editor, professor and mother.

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15 Famous Experiments and Case Studies in Psychology

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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Psychology has seen thousands upon thousands of research studies over the years. Most of these studies have helped shape our current understanding of human thoughts, behavior, and feelings.

The psychology case studies in this list are considered classic examples of psychological case studies and experiments, which are still being taught in introductory psychology courses up to this day.

Some studies, however, were downright shocking and controversial that you’d probably wonder why such studies were conducted back in the day. Imagine participating in an experiment for a small reward or extra class credit, only to be left scarred for life. These kinds of studies, however, paved the way for a more ethical approach to studying psychology and implementation of research standards such as the use of debriefing in psychology research .

Case Study vs. Experiment

Before we dive into the list of the most famous studies in psychology, let us first review the difference between case studies and experiments.

• It is an in-depth study and analysis of an individual, group, community, or phenomenon. The results of a case study cannot be applied to the whole population, but they can provide insights for further studies.
• It often uses qualitative research methods such as observations, surveys, and interviews.
• It is often conducted in real-life settings rather than in controlled environments.
• An experiment is a type of study done on a sample or group of random participants, the results of which can be generalized to the whole population.
• It often uses quantitative research methods that rely on numbers and statistics.
• It is conducted in controlled environments, wherein some things or situations are manipulated.

See Also: Experimental vs Observational Studies

Famous Experiments in Psychology

1. the marshmallow experiment.

Psychologist Walter Mischel conducted the marshmallow experiment at Stanford University in the 1960s to early 1970s. It was a simple test that aimed to define the connection between delayed gratification and success in life.

The instructions were fairly straightforward: children ages 4-6 were presented a piece of marshmallow on a table and they were told that they would receive a second piece if they could wait for 15 minutes without eating the first marshmallow.

About one-third of the 600 participants succeeded in delaying gratification to receive the second marshmallow. Mischel and his team followed up on these participants in the 1990s, learning that those who had the willpower to wait for a larger reward experienced more success in life in terms of SAT scores and other metrics.

This case study also supported self-control theory , a theory in criminology that holds that people with greater self-control are less likely to end up in trouble with the law!

The classic marshmallow experiment, however, was debunked in a 2018 replication study done by Tyler Watts and colleagues.

This more recent experiment had a larger group of participants (900) and a better representation of the general population when it comes to race and ethnicity. In this study, the researchers found out that the ability to wait for a second marshmallow does not depend on willpower alone but more so on the economic background and social status of the participants.

2. The Bystander Effect

In 1694, Kitty Genovese was murdered in the neighborhood of Kew Gardens, New York. It was told that there were up to 38 witnesses and onlookers in the vicinity of the crime scene, but nobody did anything to stop the murder or call for help.

Such tragedy was the catalyst that inspired social psychologists Bibb Latane and John Darley to formulate the phenomenon called bystander effect or bystander apathy .

Subsequent investigations showed that this story was exaggerated and inaccurate, as there were actually only about a dozen witnesses, at least two of whom called the police. But the case of Kitty Genovese led to various studies that aim to shed light on the bystander phenomenon.

Latane and Darley tested bystander intervention in an experimental study . Participants were asked to answer a questionnaire inside a room, and they would either be alone or with two other participants (who were actually actors or confederates in the study). Smoke would then come out from under the door. The reaction time of participants was tested — how long would it take them to report the smoke to the authorities or the experimenters?

The results showed that participants who were alone in the room reported the smoke faster than participants who were with two passive others. The study suggests that the more onlookers are present in an emergency situation, the less likely someone would step up to help, a social phenomenon now popularly called the bystander effect.

3. Asch Conformity Study

Have you ever made a decision against your better judgment just to fit in with your friends or family? The Asch Conformity Studies will help you understand this kind of situation better.

In this experiment, a group of participants were shown three numbered lines of different lengths and asked to identify the longest of them all. However, only one true participant was present in every group and the rest were actors, most of whom told the wrong answer.

Results showed that the participants went for the wrong answer, even though they knew which line was the longest one in the first place. When the participants were asked why they identified the wrong one, they said that they didn’t want to be branded as strange or peculiar.

This study goes to show that there are situations in life when people prefer fitting in than being right. It also tells that there is power in numbers — a group’s decision can overwhelm a person and make them doubt their judgment.

4. The Bobo Doll Experiment

The Bobo Doll Experiment was conducted by Dr. Albert Bandura, the proponent of social learning theory .

Back in the 1960s, the Nature vs. Nurture debate was a popular topic among psychologists. Bandura contributed to this discussion by proposing that human behavior is mostly influenced by environmental rather than genetic factors.

In the Bobo Doll Experiment, children were divided into three groups: one group was shown a video in which an adult acted aggressively toward the Bobo Doll, the second group was shown a video in which an adult play with the Bobo Doll, and the third group served as the control group where no video was shown.

The children were then led to a room with different kinds of toys, including the Bobo Doll they’ve seen in the video. Results showed that children tend to imitate the adults in the video. Those who were presented the aggressive model acted aggressively toward the Bobo Doll while those who were presented the passive model showed less aggression.

While the Bobo Doll Experiment can no longer be replicated because of ethical concerns, it has laid out the foundations of social learning theory and helped us understand the degree of influence adult behavior has on children.

5. Blue Eye / Brown Eye Experiment

Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, third-grade teacher Jane Elliott conducted an experiment in her class. Although not a formal experiment in controlled settings, A Class Divided is a good example of a social experiment to help children understand the concept of racism and discrimination.

The class was divided into two groups: blue-eyed children and brown-eyed children. For one day, Elliott gave preferential treatment to her blue-eyed students, giving them more attention and pampering them with rewards. The next day, it was the brown-eyed students’ turn to receive extra favors and privileges.

As a result, whichever group of students was given preferential treatment performed exceptionally well in class, had higher quiz scores, and recited more frequently; students who were discriminated against felt humiliated, answered poorly in tests, and became uncertain with their answers in class.

This study is now widely taught in sociocultural psychology classes.

6. Stanford Prison Experiment

One of the most controversial and widely-cited studies in psychology is the Stanford Prison Experiment , conducted by Philip Zimbardo at the basement of the Stanford psychology building in 1971. The hypothesis was that abusive behavior in prisons is influenced by the personality traits of the prisoners and prison guards.

The participants in the experiment were college students who were randomly assigned as either a prisoner or a prison guard. The prison guards were then told to run the simulated prison for two weeks. However, the experiment had to be stopped in just 6 days.

The prison guards abused their authority and harassed the prisoners through verbal and physical means. The prisoners, on the other hand, showed submissive behavior. Zimbardo decided to stop the experiment because the prisoners were showing signs of emotional and physical breakdown.

Although the experiment wasn’t completed, the results strongly showed that people can easily get into a social role when others expect them to, especially when it’s highly stereotyped .

7. The Halo Effect

Have you ever wondered why toothpastes and other dental products are endorsed in advertisements by celebrities more often than dentists? The Halo Effect is one of the reasons!

The Halo Effect shows how one favorable attribute of a person can gain them positive perceptions in other attributes. In the case of product advertisements, attractive celebrities are also perceived as intelligent and knowledgeable of a certain subject matter even though they’re not technically experts.

The Halo Effect originated in a classic study done by Edward Thorndike in the early 1900s. He asked military commanding officers to rate their subordinates based on different qualities, such as physical appearance, leadership, dependability, and intelligence.

The results showed that high ratings of a particular quality influences the ratings of other qualities, producing a halo effect of overall high ratings. The opposite also applied, which means that a negative rating in one quality also correlated to negative ratings in other qualities.

Experiments on the Halo Effect came in various formats as well, supporting Thorndike’s original theory. This phenomenon suggests that our perception of other people’s overall personality is hugely influenced by a quality that we focus on.

8. Cognitive Dissonance

There are experiences in our lives when our beliefs and behaviors do not align with each other and we try to justify them in our minds. This is cognitive dissonance , which was studied in an experiment by Leon Festinger and James Carlsmith back in 1959.

In this experiment, participants had to go through a series of boring and repetitive tasks, such as spending an hour turning pegs in a wooden knob. After completing the tasks, they were then paid either $1 or $20 to tell the next participants that the tasks were extremely fun and enjoyable. Afterwards, participants were asked to rate the experiment. Those who were given $1 rated the experiment as more interesting and fun than those who received $20.

The results showed that those who received a smaller incentive to lie experienced cognitive dissonance — $1 wasn’t enough incentive for that one hour of painstakingly boring activity, so the participants had to justify that they had fun anyway.

Famous Case Studies in Psychology

9. little albert.

In 1920, behaviourist theorists John Watson and Rosalie Rayner experimented on a 9-month-old baby to test the effects of classical conditioning in instilling fear in humans.

This was such a controversial study that it gained popularity in psychology textbooks and syllabi because it is a classic example of unethical research studies done in the name of science.

In one of the experiments, Little Albert was presented with a harmless stimulus or object, a white rat, which he wasn’t scared of at first. But every time Little Albert would see the white rat, the researchers would play a scary sound of hammer and steel. After about 6 pairings, Little Albert learned to fear the rat even without the scary sound.

Little Albert developed signs of fear to different objects presented to him through classical conditioning . He even generalized his fear to other stimuli not present in the course of the experiment.

10. Phineas Gage

Phineas Gage is such a celebrity in Psych 101 classes, even though the way he rose to popularity began with a tragic accident. He was a resident of Central Vermont and worked in the construction of a new railway line in the mid-1800s. One day, an explosive went off prematurely, sending a tamping iron straight into his face and through his brain.

Gage survived the accident, fortunately, something that is considered a feat even up to this day. He managed to find a job as a stagecoach after the accident. However, his family and friends reported that his personality changed so much that “he was no longer Gage” (Harlow, 1868).

New evidence on the case of Phineas Gage has since come to light, thanks to modern scientific studies and medical tests. However, there are still plenty of mysteries revolving around his brain damage and subsequent recovery.

11. Anna O.

Anna O., a social worker and feminist of German Jewish descent, was one of the first patients to receive psychoanalytic treatment.

Her real name was Bertha Pappenheim and she inspired much of Sigmund Freud’s works and books on psychoanalytic theory, although they hadn’t met in person. Their connection was through Joseph Breuer, Freud’s mentor when he was still starting his clinical practice.

Anna O. suffered from paralysis, personality changes, hallucinations, and rambling speech, but her doctors could not find the cause. Joseph Breuer was then called to her house for intervention and he performed psychoanalysis, also called the “talking cure”, on her.

Breuer would tell Anna O. to say anything that came to her mind, such as her thoughts, feelings, and childhood experiences. It was noted that her symptoms subsided by talking things out.

However, Breuer later referred Anna O. to the Bellevue Sanatorium, where she recovered and set out to be a renowned writer and advocate of women and children.

12. Patient HM

H.M., or Henry Gustav Molaison, was a severe amnesiac who had been the subject of countless psychological and neurological studies.

Henry was 27 when he underwent brain surgery to cure the epilepsy that he had been experiencing since childhood. In an unfortunate turn of events, he lost his memory because of the surgery and his brain also became unable to store long-term memories.

He was then regarded as someone living solely in the present, forgetting an experience as soon as it happened and only remembering bits and pieces of his past. Over the years, his amnesia and the structure of his brain had helped neuropsychologists learn more about cognitive functions .

Suzanne Corkin, a researcher, writer, and good friend of H.M., recently published a book about his life. Entitled Permanent Present Tense , this book is both a memoir and a case study following the struggles and joys of Henry Gustav Molaison.

13. Chris Sizemore

Chris Sizemore gained celebrity status in the psychology community when she was diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, now known as dissociative identity disorder.

Sizemore has several alter egos, which included Eve Black, Eve White, and Jane. Various papers about her stated that these alter egos were formed as a coping mechanism against the traumatic experiences she underwent in her childhood.

Sizemore said that although she has succeeded in unifying her alter egos into one dominant personality, there were periods in the past experienced by only one of her alter egos. For example, her husband married her Eve White alter ego and not her.

Her story inspired her psychiatrists to write a book about her, entitled The Three Faces of Eve , which was then turned into a 1957 movie of the same title.

14. David Reimer

When David was just 8 months old, he lost his penis because of a botched circumcision operation.

Psychologist John Money then advised Reimer’s parents to raise him as a girl instead, naming him Brenda. His gender reassignment was supported by subsequent surgery and hormonal therapy.

Money described Reimer’s gender reassignment as a success, but problems started to arise as Reimer was growing up. His boyishness was not completely subdued by the hormonal therapy. When he was 14 years old, he learned about the secrets of his past and he underwent gender reassignment to become male again.

Reimer became an advocate for children undergoing the same difficult situation he had been. His life story ended when he was 38 as he took his own life.

15. Kim Peek

Kim Peek was the inspiration behind Rain Man , an Oscar-winning movie about an autistic savant character played by Dustin Hoffman.

The movie was released in 1988, a time when autism wasn’t widely known and acknowledged yet. So it was an eye-opener for many people who watched the film.

In reality, Kim Peek was a non-autistic savant. He was exceptionally intelligent despite the brain abnormalities he was born with. He was like a walking encyclopedia, knowledgeable about travel routes, US zip codes, historical facts, and classical music. He also read and memorized approximately 12,000 books in his lifetime.

This list of experiments and case studies in psychology is just the tip of the iceberg! There are still countless interesting psychology studies that you can explore if you want to learn more about human behavior and dynamics.

You can also conduct your own mini-experiment or participate in a study conducted in your school or neighborhood. Just remember that there are ethical standards to follow so as not to repeat the lasting physical and emotional harm done to Little Albert or the Stanford Prison Experiment participants.

Asch, S. E. (1956). Studies of independence and conformity: I. A minority of one against a unanimous majority. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 70 (9), 1–70. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0093718

Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1961). Transmission of aggression through imitation of aggressive models. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63 (3), 575–582. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0045925

Elliott, J., Yale University., WGBH (Television station : Boston, Mass.), & PBS DVD (Firm). (2003). A class divided. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Films.

Festinger, L., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1959). Cognitive consequences of forced compliance. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58 (2), 203–210. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0041593

Haney, C., Banks, W. C., & Zimbardo, P. G. (1973). A study of prisoners and guards in a simulated prison. Naval Research Review , 30 , 4-17.

Latane, B., & Darley, J. M. (1968). Group inhibition of bystander intervention in emergencies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 10 (3), 215–221. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0026570

Mischel, W. (2014). The Marshmallow Test: Mastering self-control. Little, Brown and Co.

Thorndike, E. (1920) A Constant Error in Psychological Ratings. Journal of Applied Psychology , 4 , 25-29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0071663

Watson, J. B., & Rayner, R. (1920). Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of experimental psychology , 3 (1), 1.

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10 Top Psychology Project Ideas for High School Students

Indigo Research Team

The world of psychology has become very interesting over the years. Especially with the mental illness issue that was brought to light heavily by many activists, scientists, and influencers. Many people have become aware of the dangers and possibilities within this field of knowledge. In addition, many projects in psychology are roaming around the internet, making this area even more popular.

This topic has also become very appealing for high school students as we’ve seen many cases of burnout among students. So, no wonder that students are becoming more aware of this topic. If you are interested in a psychology project and looking to look into the complexities of human behavior and intellect, you are in the right place. If you are still unsure what topic to choose for your passion project, check out this article for broader topics to inspire you. Now, here are some interesting psychology projects for your inspiration:

1. Social Media: Friend or Foe?

We all scroll, like, and share, but how does social media really affect us? Conduct research to see if it impacts your classmates' self-esteem. Design surveys, interview friends, or even observe how people interact online. Explore questions like: Does more screen time mean lower confidence? Do different platforms like Instagram or Snapchat have different effects? This psychological activity could help you understand the digital world's influence and even suggest ways to use it more positively.

2. Music Magic: Soundtrack to Success

Feeling stressed during exams? Well, time to listen to the music! Investigate the psychological effects of music on mood and productivity. This psychology project experiments with different genres and see how they impact your classmates' focus, energy levels, and even test scores. Use heart rate monitors, mood surveys, or even track academic performance to gather data. You might just discover the perfect study playlist, help others unlock their musical potential and it would be a fun psychology experiment!

3. Toy Story: Cracking the Code of Gender Stereotypes

Think all superheroes are boys and princesses wear pink? It's not always that simple! Toys can actually shape how kids see themselves and others. Observe, analyze, and even create a video exploring how toys are advertised, packaged, and colored. Ask kids and parents about their choices: do specific toys push kids towards certain behaviors? 

This psychology project is an excellent choice if you're interested in social justice, marketing, or even starting a movement for more inclusive toys. What you can do in this project is document all the interviews or findings that you find online or offline. This could be an interesting behavioral psychology experiment that you can try in your neighborhood. 

4. Procrastination: The Enemy of Deadlines 

Let's be honest, we've all put things off until the last minute. But why? This project lets you explore the fascinating science of procrastination. Design surveys, conduct interviews, or even run experiments to understand why we procrastinate and how to beat it. Explore personality traits, motivation, and even time management tricks. This psychology research project is so relatable, and practical, and could even help you get better grades! If you need more inspiration about doing research in psychology, check out our students’ work here . 

5. Explore the Power of Positive Thinking

We all have seen how athletes pump up before the show and how motivational quotes flood social media. These positive affirmations were adored by the people! These short, positive statements can actually impact your self-esteem and well-being. But do they really work? 

This could be your next cool psychology experiment. Design your own experiment to see if affirmations truly have the power they claim. Maybe you write different positive statements on sticky notes and place them around your mirror, comparing your mood before and after seeing them. Or, create a group of friends and test the effects of repeating affirmations daily, analyzing changes in confidence and stress levels.

This psychology project is for someone who is into self-improvement, understanding the mind, or maybe even starting a personal challenge to see if positive thinking can change your life! Plus, it's fully customizable, you can get creative and design an experiment that reflects your unique interests.

6. Research Question Idea in Psychology: “Culture Clash: How Does Your Background Shape How You See Color?”

Ever wonder why some colors have different meanings in different cultures? As an individual, we have different cultural influences on perception, a mind-blowing area of psychology that explores how where you come from shapes how you see the world!

This research project topic in psychology is perfect for the curious explorer. Try designing a cross-cultural experiment from many resources. For example: red might symbolize love in one culture and danger in another. You can design a survey asking participants from different backgrounds to associate certain colors with emotions or concepts. Analyze your data and see if cultural background affects color perception. Share your findings in a blog post, interactive map, or even an art exhibition!

7. Explore the Psychology Project of Fears and Phobias

For some people, Friday the 13th sends shivers down some spines but leaves others unfazed. Phobias, intense and irrational fears, grip millions worldwide. A psychology of fear and phobia of a certain thing could be an excellent behavioral psychology research topic that you can dive into. 

Explore why harmless objects like spiders trigger terror, how these fears develop, and the fascinating theories behind them. Investigate classical conditioning, where a scary experience gets linked to something harmless, or delve into how negative thoughts fuel phobias.

Consult mentors like psychologists or professors for guidance and make your psychology project more impactful. Who knows, this research might not just help you to understand fears but maybe it can help others overcome their own.

8. Unmasking the Psychology of Body Image

If you are looking for an exciting group psychology experiment, this idea might be for you. A lot of people, youngsters included, have different opinions on their body image. Some are more confident, but some struggle with a negative self-image.

In this project, you can team up with your classmates and design questionnaires to understand how people perceive their bodies and how that affects their confidence and mental health. Or, conduct group discussions to delve deeper into the factors shaping body image, like social media, celebrity culture, and even family dynamics.

To add to the impact of this psychology project, you can create a local social media campaign promoting body positivity or organize a photography project celebrating diverse body types. You could even analyze how group interactions influence body image, comparing individual vs. group perceptions. 

9. The Effects of Certain Exercise on Mental Health

If you are a physically active student, you probably know that regular exercise has been linked to a variety of intellectual health advantages, including depression and stress relief, mood improvement, and cognitive enhancement. But do all sports produce the same effects? 

If you are passionate about sports, this would be an easy research topic in psychology for you .   You can explore how different types of exercise influence mental well-being. Compare the effects of individual activities like running or yoga to team sports like basketball or soccer. Analyze how high-intensity workouts differ from more mindful practices like tai chi or Pilates. Other ideas for psychology research projects could be investigating the unique mental challenges and strategies specific to different sports, and interviewing coaches and athletes to gain firsthand insight. 

10. Exposing the Ethics of Persuasion of Mass Media 

While persuasive techniques in advertising can be powerful tools for businesses, the ethical implications deserve critical examination. Here's how you can turn this research into a psychology passion project with real impact; Analyze the Ethics of Persuasion in the media. 

You can start by researching the common persuasion tactics used in advertising, like emotional appeals, scarcity, or celebrity endorsements. Analyze real-world examples and identify potential ethical concerns associated with each.

To amplify the impact, explore how these techniques might influence vulnerable populations, children, or individuals with specific needs. Research potential negative consequences like financial strain, unrealistic expectations, or manipulation.

This project is ideal if you're passionate about marketing, business, or social impact. It allows you to combine your interests with the power of psychology and make a real difference in how people interact with advertising.

‍ Conclusions

There are endless ideas for psychological experiments that a high school student can try. However, it’s important to look within first, what are the issues that you like the most or even the case that is close to home. Identifying this might help you in determining the best topics for your passion project. 

These engaging psychology project ideas offer access to data on the complexity of the human mind and behavior. Through passion projects, you can enhance your critical thinking skills and start your own clinical research adventure that offers intellectual enrichment and personal improvement.

Did you know that you can do a research project in psychology without knowing too much about it? The IRIS Program offers a psychology course for this summer. In this research project, you will be mentored by top mentors who have extensive knowledge and experience in psychology. The program starts on July 8, 2024.

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20+ Psychology Capstone Project Ideas and Topics

by  Antony W

June 28, 2024

The first step to write a psychology capstone project is to choose the right topic, and the ideas we’ve put together in this post can help you put the right foot forward.

Once you choose a psychology topic to explore, you can dive deep into research to find interesting information and then combine your research into a comprehensive psychology capstone project.

Coming up with psychology capstone project ideas from the top of your head isn’t as easy. So we’ve put together some topics to help you cut down on the time you would have otherwise spent on brainstorming.

This list of psychology capstone topics is by no means exhaustive. Therefore, treat it as a starting point in your research. You might find an interesting idea from this list, which can be the focus of your entire psychology capstone project.

Personality Psychology Topics

A psychology project on personality focuses on people’s character. Your focus should be on how humans develop based on physical structures and processes that define them. Some key factors to consider when writing a psychology capstone project about personality include disposition, moral beliefs, thoughts, reactions, and dispositions. Below are some topics to consider:

• Nature Versus Nurture: Examining the Primary Influences on Personality Development
• Genetic Influence on Personality: Exploring the Inheritance of Traits in Adopted Children
• Personality Dynamics in Leadership: Understanding the Interplay Between Traits and Effectiveness in Organizational Contexts
• Exploring the Intersections: The Relationship Between Personality Traits and Mental Health
• Chronic Illness and Personality: Investigating the Impact of Long-term Health Conditions on Psychological Characteristics

Cognitive Psychology Topics

Cognitive psychology studies how our creativity, emotions, thoughts, and ability to solve problems affect us. If you choose to write a capstone project in cognitive psychology, you may focus entirely on how people thin based on their cognition, intelligence, and thoughts. Following are some ideas to consider:

• How might specific genres of music evoke memories for individuals experiencing memory loss?
• Is there a correlation between persistent stress levels and memory retention?
• To what extent do virtual meetings affect the collaborative decision-making process within teams?
• What influence does television viewing have on the development of children’s reading skills?
• Can engagement in word games and puzzles decelerate cognitive decline among individuals aged 80 and above?

Social Psychology Topics

Quite common in social science , social psychology studies how the presence and behavior of people affect other people. Ideally, social psychology focuses on human identity, helping us to know who we are, who we are not, and how our perceptions affect the people around us. Here are some good topics under this category:

• Explore the Influence of Social Media on Body Image Perceptions Among Male Adolescents
• Childhood Bullying as a Predictor of Social Anxiety in Adulthood
• Genetic Versus Environmental Influences on Homophobic Attitudes
• Identifying the Key Psychological Predictor of Charitable Giving
• Understanding the Social Perceptions of Height and Their Implications

Developmental Psychology Topics

You can focus your psychology capstone project on topics that study how people grow and change over time. Center on social, emotional, and physical development on any age group, and demonstrate how people learn, grow, and embrace change. See the examples below:

• What are the effects of the transition to adulthood on individuals’ decision-making capacities?
• How does early exposure to music affect the mental health and overall well-being of children during their school years?
• Can grief expedite the aging process?
• How do patterns of attachment between parents and children shape the development of emotion regulation during adolescence?
• Is there a correlation between bilingualism and the rate of cognitive decline in adults aged 70 and above?

Forensic Psychology Topics

Forensic psychology is another area you can explore in your psychology capstone project, particularly if your coursework focuses exclusively on the legal and judicial systems. Here are some ideas you might find interesting to explore:

• Exploring the Psychological Fallout: Understanding the Impact of Incarceration on Mental Health
• Unpacking the Roots: Investigating the Influence of Childhood Trauma on Adult Criminal Behavior
• Vulnerability and Victimization: Examining the Relationship Between Mental Health Conditions and Crime Victimization
• Memory Manipulation: Identifying Factors Driving False Memories and Their Implications for the Justice System
• Media Influence and Crime: Assessing the Role of Media in Spurring Copycat Criminal Behavior

What is a Psychology Capstone Project?

A psychology capstone project , also known as synthesis or synthesis capstone, is an assignment you complete near the end of your psychology program. A capstone project in psychology can be in the form of an essay, a research paper, a dissertation, creative work, or scientific experiment.

Psychology capstone project requires in-depth research, analysis, and reflection of the selected topic. More importantly, how you write a psychology capstone project should demonstrate that you have a higher level of knowledge of the program, especially based on your findings and conclusions.

Can I Buy a Psychology Capstone Project Online?

You can buy a capstone project on the internet through Help for Assessment. Help for Assessment is a safe and legit academic writing platform that focuses on writing different papers, including capstone projects.

We’ll connect you with the best available writer if you order a capstone project from us. The writer will help you choose a topic, conduct in-depth research, write, and deliver your capstone project on time.

How Much Does It Cost to Write a Psychology Capstone Project?

We charge $12.99 to $40 per page depending on the urgency of the capstone project. We also offer up to 10% discount to customers new to Help for Assessment. The payment you make covers for topic suggestions, in-depth research, outline, writing, editing, and timely delivery.

How Long Does It Take to Complete a Psychology Capstone Project?

It can take between 3 and 6 months to complete a capstone project. The 3 to 6 months period should be enough to choose a topic, write the proposal, engage in in-depth research, plan the project, write the project, complete the editing phase, and submit the project before the due date.

Customers who hire Help for Assessment to write their capstone projects usually get the project completed for them much earlier. Ideally, we might take 21 to 45 days to complete the project depending on its urgency, complexity, level of education, and your budget.  

About the author 

Antony W is a professional writer and coach at Help for Assessment. He spends countless hours every day researching and writing great content filled with expert advice on how to write engaging essays, research papers, and assignments.

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• Psychology /

50+ Topics for Psychology Projects

• Updated on  
• May 20, 2021

Known as the study of behaviours, experiences, and mental processes in different contexts, Psychology is a broad and dynamic field that comprises numerous subfields like Counselling Psychology , Organisational Psychology , Social Psychology, and many more. These fields contribute uniquely and immensely to Psychology. And owing to the increasing interest of students in this field and higher emphasis on mental health , Psychology is witnessing tremendous growth these days and is bound to witness limitless growth in future. Many students take up Psychology as a subject at school and university level. Project work is an important part of the curriculum. If you are in a similar situation and looking for topics for Psychology projects then this blog is going to help you a lot!

This Blog Includes:

Importance of projects in psychology, serial position effect, stroop effect, organizational behaviour, trial and error learning, role of organization in memory, role of emotional words in learning, 50 topics for psychology project .

• Projects play a crucial role as they provide much needed practical exposure which not only helps them complete their practicals in colleges but also help them gain relevant and useful insights into concepts they have learnt identifiable and experiential. 
• Project ideas may be needed for conducting completely practical experiments. 
• Projects may also be needed for research purposes that are theoretical in nature yet provides valuable learning and insights about the topic being chosen for the research. 
• Also, it is rightly said that “well begun is half done” and it accurately fits in the given context as selecting the right topic gives clarity on the execution of further action plan and successful actions are preceded by crystal clear thinking.

Let’s explore some amazing topics for Psychology projects now! 

Popular Topics for Psychology Project 

Here are some most popular topics for Psychology project that are explained briefly to help students understand important concepts of the subject: 

Aim To study the speed of retention and recall and primacy and recency effect in learning of meaningful and non-meaningful syllables. Theory – Recency and Primary Effect 1. The primacy effect is the tendency to remember the information at the beginning of a body of information better than the information that follows. 2. The recency effect is the tendency to remember the information at the end of a body of information better than the information ahead of it. Material Required Pen, Paper, List A (List of meaningful words), List B( a list of non-meaningful words), Stopwatch, Graph paper

Before going onto the next topic for Psychology project, check out 100 Psychology Facts You Must Know!

Aim To study the automaticity of attention using the Stroop task. Theory Stroop effect is a demonstration of interference in the reaction time of a task when the name of a colour is printed in a colour that is not denoted by the name, for example, the word red printed in blue ink instead of red. Naming the colour of the word takes a longer time and is more prone to error than when the colour of ink matches the colour name. This effect is named after John Stroop who first proposed this effect in 1935. Material required Paper, pen, laptop, list of stroops    

Aim To understand various concepts of organizational behaviour such as risk-taking, goal setting and team building through a tower building activity. Theory Human resource management refers to a systematic branch of management that is concerned with managing people at work to give the best results to the organization. It is an application of management principles to the people working in the organization. It aims at improving the performance and productivity of the organization by finding out the effectiveness of its human capital.  Material required Wooden blocks/cubes, Scarf/handkerchief (for blindfolding), Pen and paper, timer

Aim   To demonstrate the learning of skill by trial and error approach. Theory Law of effect – Those actions tend to be repeated that is followed by a positive consequence and vice-versa. Law of exercise – Those actions that are repeated frequently tend to get easily established and vice-versa. Material required Mirror drawing board, stopwatch, batteries, impulse counters, stylus

Aim  To study the role of organization (formation of clusters) in memory. Theory The four basic learning processes are-

• Habituation- A change in behaviour merely because of repeated exposure to a stimulus.
• Classical conditioning- Association of a stimulus with another stimulus and thus developing a common response towards both of them.
• Operant conditioning- Association of responses with specific consequences.
• Observational learning- Imitating model’s behaviour

Material required Laptop with Microsoft PowerPoint in it, Pen, Paper strips

Difference Between BA Psychology and BSc Psychology

Aim  To compare the pace of learning of emotional and neutral words.  Theory Emotions play a crucial role in facilitating the learning process and arouse certain parts of the brain when it comes to the influence of emotions on learning.  Material required List of 10 emotional words, List of 10 neutral words Difference Between BA Psychology and BSc Psychology Aim  To compare the pace of learning of emotional and neutral words.  Theory Emotions play a crucial role in facilitating the learning process and arouse certain parts of the brain when it comes to the influence of emotions on learning.  Material required List of 10 emotional words, List of 10 neutral words

• Causes and effects of sleep paralysis
• Impact of yoga on mental health
• Effect of parental conflicts on children
• Gender roles in Society
• Ways to enhance performance
• Performance anxiety
• Examination anxiety
• Social anxiety
• Causes of bullying among adolescents
• Prosocial behaviour
• Effect of action movies on adults
• Parenting styles
• Psychology based movies
• Psychology based books
• Role of media in increasing violence and aggression
• Impact of video games on child’s mental health
• Causes behind teenage Suicides
• Romantic relationships and stress
• Causes of PTSD
• effect of meditation on health
• Treatment of psychological disorders
• Factors contributing to mental wellness
• Impact of physical fitness on mental health
• Antisocial behaviour among teenagers
• Academic performance of children
• Autism spectrum disorder
• Non-verbal communication
• Marketing psychology
• Sportsman attitude
• Borderline personality disorders
• False memories
• Critical thinking
• Problem solving
• Learning disabilities
• Ageing process
• Existential crisis
• Peer group and its impact
• Socialization
• Child abuse
• Motivation and ways to sustain it

Check Out – Top Schools for Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology

Were you able to pick one of these topics for Psychology projects? Let us know in the comment section below! We covered a spectrum of concepts in psychology and indeed had something for every psychology enthusiast. If you are interested to know more about this field and how to make a global career in Psychology, then reach out to experts at Leverage Edu !

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For additional free resources (such as article summaries, podcasts, and more), please visit the Highlights in Psychological Research page.

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• Moving While Black: Intergroup Attitudes Influence Judgments of Speed (PDF, 71KB) Journal of Experimental Psychology: General February 2016 by Andreana C. Kenrick, Stacey Sinclair, Jennifer Richeson, Sara C. Verosky, and Janetta Lun
• Recognition Without Awareness: Encoding and Retrieval Factors (PDF, 116KB) Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition September 2015 by Fergus I. M. Craik, Nathan S. Rose, and Nigel Gopie
• The Tip-of-the-Tongue Heuristic: How Tip-of-the-Tongue States Confer Perceptibility on Inaccessible Words (PDF, 91KB) Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition September 2015 by Anne M. Cleary and Alexander B. Claxton
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• Nepali Bhutanese Refugees Reap Support Through Community Gardening (PDF, 104KB) International Perspectives in Psychology: Research, Practice, Consultation January 2017 by Monica M. Gerber, Jennifer L. Callahan, Danielle N. Moyer, Melissa L. Connally, Pamela M. Holtz, and Beth M. Janis
• Does Monitoring Goal Progress Promote Goal Attainment? A Meta-Analysis of the Experimental Evidence (PDF, 384KB) Psychological Bulletin February 2016 by Benjamin Harkin, Thomas L. Webb, Betty P. I. Chang, Andrew Prestwich, Mark Conner, Ian Kellar, Yael Benn, and Paschal Sheeran
• Youth Violence: What We Know and What We Need to Know (PDF, 388KB) American Psychologist January 2016 by Brad J. Bushman, Katherine Newman, Sandra L. Calvert, Geraldine Downey, Mark Dredze, Michael Gottfredson, Nina G. Jablonski, Ann S. Masten, Calvin Morrill, Daniel B. Neill, Daniel Romer, and Daniel W. Webster
• Supervenience and Psychiatry: Are Mental Disorders Brain Disorders? (PDF, 113KB) Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology November 2015 by Charles M. Olbert and Gary J. Gala
• Constructing Psychological Objects: The Rhetoric of Constructs (PDF, 108KB) Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology November 2015 by Kathleen L. Slaney and Donald A. Garcia
• Expanding Opportunities for Diversity in Positive Psychology: An Examination of Gender, Race, and Ethnicity (PDF, 119KB) Canadian Psychology / Psychologie canadienne August 2015 by Meghana A. Rao and Stewart I. Donaldson
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• The Alleged "Ferguson Effect" and Police Willingness to Engage in Community Partnership (PDF, 70KB) Law and Human Behavior February 2016 by Scott E. Wolfe and Justin Nix
• Randomized Controlled Trial of an Internet Cognitive Behavioral Skills-Based Program for Auditory Hallucinations in Persons With Psychosis (PDF, 92KB) Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal September 2017 by Jennifer D. Gottlieb, Vasudha Gidugu, Mihoko Maru, Miriam C. Tepper, Matthew J. Davis, Jennifer Greenwold, Ruth A. Barron, Brian P. Chiko, and Kim T. Mueser
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• Feeling Older and Risk of Hospitalization: Evidence From Three Longitudinal Cohorts (PDF, 55KB) Health Psychology Online First Publication — February 11, 2016 by Yannick Stephan, Angelina R. Sutin, and Antonio Terracciano
• Anger Intensification With Combat-Related PTSD and Depression Comorbidity (PDF, 81KB) Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy January 2016 by Oscar I. Gonzalez, Raymond W. Novaco, Mark A. Reger, and Gregory A. Gahm
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• An Examination of Generational Stereotypes as a Path Towards Reverse Ageism (PDF, 205KB) The Psychologist-Manager Journal August 2017 By Michelle Raymer, Marissa Reed, Melissa Spiegel, and Radostina K. Purvanova
• Sexual Harassment: Have We Made Any Progress? (PDF, 121KB) Journal of Occupational Health Psychology July 2017 By James Campbell Quick and M. Ann McFadyen
• Multidimensional Suicide Inventory-28 (MSI-28) Within a Sample of Military Basic Trainees: An Examination of Psychometric Properties (PDF, 79KB) Military Psychology November 2015 By Serena Bezdjian, Danielle Burchett, Kristin G. Schneider, Monty T. Baker, and Howard N. Garb
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• Annual Review of Asian American Psychology, 2014 (PDF, 384KB) Asian American Journal of Psychology December 2015 By Su Yeong Kim, Yishan Shen, Yang Hou, Kelsey E. Tilton, Linda Juang, and Yijie Wang
• Resilience in the Study of Minority Stress and Health of Sexual and Gender Minorities (PDF, 40KB) Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity September 2015 by Ilan H. Meyer
• Self-Reported Psychopathy and Its Association With Criminal Cognition and Antisocial Behavior in a Sample of University Undergraduates (PDF, 91KB) Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science / Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement July 2015 by Samantha J. Riopka, Richard B. A. Coupland, and Mark E. Olver

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Exploring 200+ Psychology Topics to Research: Unlocking the Depths of the Mind

The world of psychology is as vast as the human mind itself. Delving into the intricate workings of the human psyche can be both fascinating. For students, academics, or anyone with a curious mind, choosing the right psychology topics to research is paramount. In this blog, we’ll navigate through the labyrinth of psychology topics, helping you find your way to a captivating and meaningful research endeavor.

How To Select Psychology Topics To Research?

Table of Contents

• Follow Your Interests: Start with what you love. What aspects of human behavior or the mind fascinate you the most? It’s much easier to research something you’re passionate about.
• Consider Relevance: Think about how your chosen topic fits into your academic or career goals. Does it relate to what you’re studying or the job you want? If it does, great!
• Balance the Scope: Don’t pick a topic that’s too broad or too narrow. Find that sweet spot in the middle. You want a topic that’s focused enough to research effectively but not so narrow that there’s no existing information.
• Explore Different Areas: Research the various branches of psychology, like cognitive, social, clinical, developmental, or biological psychology. See which one resonates with you the most.
• Seek Advice: Talk to your professors, mentors, or peers. They can provide guidance and suggestions based on your interests and goals.

200+ Popular Psychology Topics To Research: Category Wise

40+ cognitive psychology topics.

• The role of working memory in problem-solving.
• Cognitive effects of sleep deprivation.
• Neural basis of attention and focus.
• Influence of language on cognitive development.
• Decision-making biases in economic behavior.
• The psychology of learning and memory.
• The impact of stress on cognitive performance.
• Cognitive decline in aging populations.
• Emotion and memory recall.
• False memories and eyewitness testimony.
• Cognitive processes in creativity.
• Cognitive aspects of decision-making in healthcare.
• The psychology of expertise and skill acquisition.
• Cognitive factors in reading comprehension.
• The role of schemas in information processing.
• Cognitive development in infants.
• Cognitive rehabilitation after brain injury.
• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and executive functions.
• Neural mechanisms of perception and visual attention.
• The psychology of problem-solving in artificial intelligence.
• Cognitive aspects of mathematical reasoning.
• Neural plasticity and cognitive recovery.
• Cognitive load and its impact on learning.
• Memory consolidation during sleep.
• Attentional disorders and their impact on cognitive functioning.
• The influence of music on cognitive processes.
• Cognitive development in bilingual individuals.
• Cognitive aspects of decision-making in criminal behavior.
• Neural correlates of cognitive control.
• The psychology of cognitive biases in politics.
• Cognitive effects of mindfulness meditation.
• The part working memory plays in academic success.
• Cognitive processes in language acquisition.
• Cognitive factors in problem gambling behavior.
• The psychology of cognitive development in children with autism.
• Cognitive aspects of spatial navigation.
• Memory distortions and the courtroom.
• Neural basis of cognitive dissonance.
• Cognitive aspects of social perception.
• Cognitive rehabilitation in Alzheimer’s disease.

40+ Social Psychology Research Topics

• The impact of social media on self-esteem.
• Groupthink and decision-making.
• Stereotype threat in academic settings.
• Bystander effect in emergencies.
• Cross-cultural perspectives on conformity.
• Online dating and self-presentation.
• The psychology of social influence.
• The role of empathy in prosocial behavior.
• Social identity and intergroup relations.
• Aggression and video game exposure.
• Prejudice and discrimination in modern society.
• The influence of social norms on behavior.
• Attitudes and attitude change.
• Social support and mental health.
• Obedience to authority figures.
• Social comparison and self-concept.
• The psychology of attraction and relationships.
• The bystander intervention model.
• Body image and social media.
• Political polarization and social psychology.
• The psychology of fake news and misinformation.
• Emotional contagion and social interactions.
• Stereotyping in the workplace.
• Consequences of cyberbullying.
• The impact of group dynamics on creativity.
• Gender roles and socialization.
• The role of humor in social interactions.
• Social factors in decision-making and risk-taking.
• Altruism and volunteerism.
• The psychology of leadership and authority.
• Social exclusion and its effects on individuals.
• The relationship between religion and prosocial behavior.
• Social influence in marketing and advertising.
• Online activism and social change.
• The psychology of online communities and forums.
• Attachment styles and adult relationships.
• Social perceptions of beauty and attractiveness.
• Social isolation’s negative consequences on mental health.
• The psychology of public speaking anxiety.
• The role of forgiveness in interpersonal relationships.

40+ Clinical Psychology Research Topics

• Effects of childhood trauma on mental health in adults.
• Efficacy of virtual therapy for treating anxiety disorders.
• Exploring the genetics of schizophrenia.
• Effects of mindfulness meditation on depression.
• Cultural factors in the diagnosis of eating disorders.
• Examining the link between sleep disorders and mood disorders.
• Assessing the effectiveness of group therapy for substance abuse.
• The role of attachment in borderline personality disorder.
• Investigating the stigma surrounding mental illness.
• Treating PTSD in veterans through exposure therapy.
• Neurobiological basis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
• Parent-child relationships and their impact on conduct disorder.
• Gender differences in the prevalence of depression.
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder.
• Psychopharmacology and treatment-resistant depression.
• The psychology of self-harm and self-injury.
• Internet addiction and its connection to mental health.
• Assessing the efficacy of art therapy for PTSD.
• Personality disorders and their impact on interpersonal relationships.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) in treating borderline personality disorder.
• Factors contributing to the rise in adolescent depression.
• Exploring the link between childhood abuse and dissociative identity disorder.
• Cross-cultural perspectives on the diagnosis of ADHD.
• The role of serotonin in mood disorders.
• Mindfulness-based stress reduction in chronic pain management.
• Impact of family dynamics on eating disorders in adolescents.
• Examining the long-term effects of child neglect on adult mental health.
• Psychosocial factors in the development of schizophrenia.
• Gender dysphoria and psychological well-being.
• The psychology of resilience in cancer patients.
• Attachment styles and their influence on adult relationships.
• Virtual reality exposure therapy for phobias.
• Exploring the effectiveness of equine therapy for trauma survivors.
• Autism spectrum disorders and early intervention.
• Body image dissatisfaction and its link to eating disorders.
• The psychological impact of chronic illness.
• Cognitive rehabilitation in traumatic brain injury.
• Sleep disorders in children and their impact on academic performance.
• The role of social support in recovery from substance abuse.
• Neuropsychological assessment in Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis.

40+ Developmental Psychology Research Topics

• The impact of parental divorce on child development.
• Adolescents’ self-identity and social media.
• Long-term effects of early childhood attachment on adult relationships.
• Gender identity development in children.
• The influence of birth order on personality development.
• The role of genetics in language development.
• Autism spectrum disorder interventions for toddlers.
• Adolescent peer pressure and substance abuse.
• The impact of bullying on psychological development.
• Sibling rivalry and its long-term effects.
• Parenting styles and their influence on children’s behavior.
• The development of moral reasoning in children.
• Influence of cultural factors on child development.
• Attachment theory and foster care outcomes.
• The impact of technology on cognitive development in children.
• Children’s understanding of death and grief.
• Cognitive development in bilingual children.
• The role of play in early childhood development.
• Attachment disorders and interventions in adopted children.
• The development of emotional intelligence in adolescents.
• The impact of poverty on child development.
• The relationship between nutrition and cognitive development.
• Bullying prevention and intervention programs in schools.
• The role of grandparents in child development.
• Developmental aspects of sibling relationships.
• Child prodigies and their psychological development.
• Gender stereotypes and their influence on children’s aspirations.
• The effects of early education on academic success.
• Cognitive development in children with learning disabilities.
• The impact of divorce on young adults’ romantic relationships.
• Parent-child communication about sex education.
• Adolescents’ body image and its influence on self-esteem.
• Influence of peer relationships on early social development.
• The role of extracurricular activities in adolescent development.
• Long-term outcomes for children in same-sex parent families.
• Cognitive development in children with ADHD.
• The effects of early exposure to screens on cognitive development.
• The role of attachment in adolescent mental health.
• Identity development in multicultural children.

40+ Biological Psychology Research Topics

• The neural basis of addiction and substance abuse.
• The role of genetics in personality traits.
• Effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive function.
• Exploring the gut-brain connection and its impact on mental health.
• Neural mechanisms of stress and its long-term effects.
• The relationship between brain structure and intelligence.
• The impact of exercise on brain health and cognition.
• Neurobiological factors in eating disorders.
• Neural pathways involved in fear and anxiety.
• The influence of hormones on behavior and mood.
• Neuroplasticity and its implications for recovery after brain injuries.
• The biology of memory and amnesia.
• Understanding the neurological basis of schizophrenia.
• The role of neurotransmitters in depression.
• The impact of aging on brain structure and function.
• Neural mechanisms underlying aggression and violence.
• Brain imaging techniques and their applications in research.
• The effects of prenatal exposure to toxins on brain development.
• Neurological aspects of autism spectrum disorders.
• Brain changes associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
• The genetics of Alzheimer’s disease.
• Neurobiology of consciousness and altered states of consciousness.
• The role of the amygdala in emotional processing.
• Neural mechanisms of sexual attraction and orientation.
• The impact of nutrition on brain development and function.
• Brain regions involved in decision-making and impulsivity.
• Neurological factors in Tourette’s syndrome.
• The biology of reward and motivation.
• Neural correlates of empathy and social cognition.
• Genetic predisposition to addiction.
• The influence of hormones on maternal behavior.
• The neurological basis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
• Adolescent brain development and the effects on behavior.
• The prefrontal cortex’s function in executive tasks.
• Linguistic disorders and language neuroscience.
• Neuroinflammation’s effects on mental health.
• Mechanisms in the brain that affect sensory perception.
• Neurological and genetic influences on bipolar disorder.
• The impact of persistent pain on brain development and function.
• The endocannabinoid system’s function in controlling mood.

Research Methodology for Psychology Topics

Understanding various research methodologies is key to conducting a successful study. Whether you opt for experimental designs, surveys, case studies, or sophisticated data analysis, each method offers unique insights. Choose the methodology that aligns with your research questions and objectives, ensuring a robust and reliable study.

Resources for Psychology Research

In the digital age, a wealth of resources for psychology topics to research is at your fingertips. Utilize academic journals, databases, books, and online courses to enhance your understanding. 

Engage with professional organizations and attend conferences to stay updated with the latest research trends and network with fellow enthusiasts.

Tips for Successful Psychology Topics for Research

• Choose a Fascinating Topic: Select a research topic that genuinely interests you. Your passion and curiosity will drive your motivation and engagement throughout the research process.
• Narrow Your Focus: Refine your research question to ensure it’s specific and manageable. A focused question will lead to more meaningful and in-depth findings.
• Conduct a Thorough Literature Review: Familiarize yourself with existing research in your chosen area. This helps you build on prior knowledge and identify gaps in the literature.
• Hypothesize and Predict: Develop clear hypotheses and predictions for your study. This sets the direction for your research and provides a framework for data collection and analysis.
• Choose the Right Research Method: Select the research method that best suits your research question, whether it’s experiments, surveys, interviews, or case studies.
• Ethical Considerations: Prioritize ethical guidelines in your research, including obtaining informed consent, ensuring confidentiality, and avoiding harm to participants.
• Sample Selection: Carefully choose your sample to make sure it’s representative of the population you’re studying. Consider factors like age, gender, and cultural diversity.
• Data Collection: Collect data systematically and ensure its accuracy and reliability. Use well-established measurement tools when applicable.
• Data Analysis: Employ appropriate statistical techniques to analyze your data. Make use of software like SPSS or R for thorough analysis.
• Interpret Results Objectively: Avoid confirmation bias and interpret your results objectively, even if they don’t align with your initial hypotheses.
• Discuss Limitations: Acknowledge the limitations of your study in your research paper. This demonstrates your awareness of potential weaknesses and strengthens your research’s credibility.
• Contribute to the Field: Highlight the significance of your research and how it contributes to the broader field of psychology. What does it add to existing knowledge?
• Write Clearly and Concisely: Communicate your findings in a clear, concise, and well-structured manner. Use APA or other relevant style guides for formatting.
• Peer Review: Seek feedback from colleagues, mentors, or professors. Peer review can help identify blind spots and improve the quality of your work.
• Stay Organized: Maintain detailed records of your research process, including notes, data, and references. Organization is key to successful research.
• Time Management: Plan your research timeline carefully, allocating sufficient time for each stage, from literature review to data collection and analysis.
• Persevere: Research often involves setbacks and challenges. Stay persistent, adapt when necessary, and remain dedicated to your research goals.
• Publish and Share: Consider presenting your research at conferences and seek opportunities for publication in academic journals . Sharing your findings contributes to the advancement of the field.
• Stay Informed: Keep up with the latest research trends and developments in psychology. Attend conferences and join professional organizations to stay connected with the academic community.
• Collaborate: Don’t hesitate to collaborate with other researchers, as teamwork can lead to valuable insights and more significant research outcomes.

Choosing the psychology topics to research is akin to embarking on an adventure into the depths of the human mind. Each topic holds the potential to unravel mysteries, challenge assumptions, and make a meaningful impact on individuals and society. 

As you venture into this realm, remember that your curiosity and dedication are your greatest assets. Embrace the journey, learn from every step, and let your research contribute to the ever-expanding tapestry of psychological knowledge. Happy researching!

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Jean piaget, behaviorism, neuroscience.

Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggests that children move through four different stages of intellectual development which reflect the increasing sophistication of children's thoughts. Child development is determined by biological maturation and interaction with the environment.

Learn More: Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development

Behaviorism is a theory of learning that states all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment through a process called conditioning. Thus, behavior is simply a response to environmental stimuli.

Learn More: Behaviorist Approach in Psychology

Sigmund Freud (1856 to 1939) was the founding father of psychoanalysis, a method for treating mental illness and a theory that explains human behavior. His theories are clinically derived, based on what his patients told him during therapy.

Learn More: Sigmund Freud's Influence on Psychology

An approach is a perspective that involves certain assumptions about human behavior: the way people function, which aspects of them are worthy of study, and what research methods are appropriate for undertaking this study. The five major psychological perspectives are biological, psychodynamic, behaviorist, cognitive, and humanistic.

Learn More: Major Perspectives in Modern Psychology

Neuroscience is the branch of science concerned with studying the nervous system. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating numerous perspectives from biology, psychology, and medicine. It consists of several sub-fields ranging from the study of neurochemicals to the study of behavior and thought.

Learn More: What is Neuroscience?

Frequent Asked Questions

Is psychodynamic same as psychoanalytic?

The words psychodynamic and psychoanalytic are often confused. Remember that Freud’s theories were psychoanalytic, whereas the term ‘psychodynamic’ refers to both his theories and those of his followers, such as Carl Jung, Anna Freud, and Erik Erikson.

Learn More: Psychodynamic Approach

What is developmental psychology?

Developmental psychology is a scientific approach which aims to explain how thinking, feeling, and behavior change throughout a person’s life. A significant proportion of theories within this discipline focus upon development during childhood, as this is the period during an individual’s lifespan when the most change occurs.

Learn More: Developmental Psychology

What is Freud’s psychosexual theory?

Sigmund Freud proposed that personality development in childhood takes place during five psychosexual stages, which are the oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages.

During each stage, sexual energy (libido) is expressed in different ways and through different body parts.

Learn More: Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development

What Is object permanence in Piaget’s theory?

Object permanence means knowing that an object still exists, even if it is hidden. It requires the ability to form a mental representation (i.e. a schema) of the object.

The attainment of object permanence generally signals the transition from the sensorimotor stage to the  preoperational stage of development .

Learn More: What Is Object Permanence According To Piaget?

What is the difference between a psychology and sociology?

Psychology studies the mind of an individual to understand human behavior and social and emotional reactions, whereas sociology looks beyond individuals and examines societal institutions and groups of people.

Learn More: Similarities and Differences Between Sociology and Psychology

Explore Famous Experiments

Dement and Kleitman (1957)

Henry Gustav Molaison: The Curious Case of Patient H.M. 

Held and Hein (1963) Kitten carosel

Harry Harlow Theory & Rhesus Monkey Experiments in Psychology

Hawthorne Effect: Definition, How It Works, and How to Avoid It

Hofling Hospital Experiment (1966)

Hodges and Tizard (1989): Attachment Research Study

What Happened to Kitty Genovese

Konrad Lorenz: Theory of Imprinting in Psychology

Little Hans - Freudian Case Study

Little Albert Experiment (Watson & Rayner)

Little Peter, Cover-Jones (1924)

Loftus and Palmer (1974): Car Crash Experiment

Mary Ainsworth: Strange Situation Experiment & Attachment Theory

Stanford Marshmallow Test Experiment

Stanley Milgram Shock Experiment

Phineas Gage: His Accident and Impact on Psychology

Pavlov’s Dogs Experiment and Pavlovian Conditioning Response

Piliavin (1969) Subway Study

Serial Position Effect (Glanzer & Cunitz, 1966)

Rosenhan (1973) Experiment - 'On being sane in insane places'

Robbers Cave Experiment | Realistic Conflict Theory

Visual Cliff Experiment (Gibson & Walk, 1960)

Skinner Box: What Is an Operant Conditioning Chamber?

Stanford Prison Experiment: Zimbardo's Famous Study

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

Descriptive Research and Case Studies

Learning objectives.

• Explain the importance and uses of descriptive research, especially case studies, in studying abnormal behavior

Types of Research Methods

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. Descriptive research is distinct from correlational research , in which psychologists formally test whether a relationship exists between two or more variables. Experimental research goes a step further beyond descriptive and correlational research and randomly assigns people to different conditions, using hypothesis testing to make inferences about how these conditions affect behavior. It aims to determine if one variable directly impacts and causes another. Correlational and experimental research both typically use hypothesis testing, whereas descriptive research does not.

Each of these research methods has unique strengths and weaknesses, and each method may only be appropriate for certain types of research questions. For example, studies that rely primarily on observation produce incredible amounts of information, but the ability to apply this information to the larger population is somewhat limited because of small sample sizes. Survey research, on the other hand, allows researchers to easily collect data from relatively large samples. While surveys allow results to be generalized to the larger population more easily, the information that can be collected on any given survey is somewhat limited and subject to problems associated with any type of self-reported data. Some researchers conduct archival research by using existing records. While existing records can be a fairly inexpensive way to collect data that can provide insight into a number of research questions, researchers using this approach have no control on how or what kind of data was collected.

Correlational research can find a relationship between two variables, but the only way a researcher can claim that the relationship between the variables is cause and effect is to perform an experiment. In experimental research, which will be discussed later, there is a tremendous amount of control over variables of interest. While performing an experiment is a powerful approach, experiments are often conducted in very artificial settings, which calls into question the validity of experimental findings with regard to how they would apply in real-world settings. In addition, many of the questions that psychologists would like to answer cannot be pursued through experimental research because of ethical concerns.

The three main types of descriptive studies are case studies, naturalistic observation, and surveys.

Clinical or Case Studies

Psychologists can use a detailed description of one person or a small group based on careful observation.  Case studies  are intensive studies of individuals and have commonly been seen as a fruitful way to come up with hypotheses and generate theories. Case studies add descriptive richness. Case studies are also useful for formulating concepts, which are an important aspect of theory construction. Through fine-grained knowledge and description, case studies can fully specify the causal mechanisms in a way that may be harder in a large study.

Sigmund Freud   developed  many theories from case studies (Anna O., Little Hans, Wolf Man, Dora, etc.). F or example, he conducted a case study of a man, nicknamed “Rat Man,”  in which he claimed that this patient had been cured by psychoanalysis.  T he nickname derives from the fact that among the patient’s many compulsions, he had an obsession with nightmarish fantasies about rats. 

Today, more commonly, case studies reflect an up-close, in-depth, and detailed examination of an individual’s course of treatment. Case studies typically include a complete history of the subject’s background and response to treatment. From the particular client’s experience in therapy, the therapist’s goal is to provide information that may help other therapists who treat similar clients.

Case studies are generally a single-case design, but can also be a multiple-case design, where replication instead of sampling is the criterion for inclusion. Like other research methodologies within psychology, the case study must produce valid and reliable results in order to be useful for the development of future research. Distinct advantages and disadvantages are associated with the case study in psychology.

A commonly described limit of case studies is that they do not lend themselves to generalizability . The other issue is that the case study is subject to the bias of the researcher in terms of how the case is written, and that cases are chosen because they are consistent with the researcher’s preconceived notions, resulting in biased research. Another common problem in case study research is that of reconciling conflicting interpretations of the same case history.

Despite these limitations, there are advantages to using case studies. One major advantage of the case study in psychology is the potential for the development of novel hypotheses of the  cause of abnormal behavior   for later testing. Second, the case study can provide detailed descriptions of specific and rare cases and help us study unusual conditions that occur too infrequently to study with large sample sizes. The major disadvantage is that case studies cannot be used to determine causation, as is the case in experimental research, where the factors or variables hypothesized to play a causal role are manipulated or controlled by the researcher. 

Link to Learning: Famous Case Studies

Some well-known case studies that related to abnormal psychology include the following:

• Harlow— Phineas Gage
• Breuer & Freud (1895)— Anna O.
• Cleckley’s case studies: on psychopathy ( The Mask of Sanity ) (1941) and multiple personality disorder ( The Three Faces of Eve ) (1957)
• Freud and  Little Hans
• Freud and the  Rat Man
• John Money and the  John/Joan case
• Genie (feral child)
• Piaget’s studies
• Rosenthal’s book on the  murder of Kitty Genovese
• Washoe (sign language)
• Patient H.M.

Naturalistic Observation

If you want to understand how behavior occurs, one of the best ways to gain information is to simply observe the behavior in its natural context. However, people might change their behavior in unexpected ways if they know they are being observed. How do researchers obtain accurate information when people tend to hide their natural behavior? As an example, imagine that your professor asks everyone in your class to raise their hand if they always wash their hands after using the restroom. Chances are that almost everyone in the classroom will raise their hand, but do you think hand washing after every trip to the restroom is really that universal?

This is very similar to the phenomenon mentioned earlier in this module: many individuals do not feel comfortable answering a question honestly. But if we are committed to finding out the facts about handwashing, we have other options available to us.

Suppose we send a researcher to a school playground to observe how aggressive or socially anxious children interact with peers. Will our observer blend into the playground environment by wearing a white lab coat, sitting with a clipboard, and staring at the swings? We want our researcher to be inconspicuous and unobtrusively positioned—perhaps pretending to be a school monitor while secretly recording the relevant information. This type of observational study is called naturalistic observation : observing behavior in its natural setting. To better understand peer exclusion, Suzanne Fanger collaborated with colleagues at the University of Texas to observe the behavior of preschool children on a playground. How did the observers remain inconspicuous over the duration of the study? They equipped a few of the children with wireless microphones (which the children quickly forgot about) and observed while taking notes from a distance. Also, the children in that particular preschool (a “laboratory preschool”) were accustomed to having observers on the playground (Fanger, Frankel, & Hazen, 2012).

It is critical that the observer be as unobtrusive and as inconspicuous as possible: when people know they are being watched, they are less likely to behave naturally. For example, psychologists have spent weeks observing the behavior of homeless people on the streets, in train stations, and bus terminals. They try to ensure that their naturalistic observations are unobtrusive, so as to minimize interference with the behavior they observe. Nevertheless, the presence of the observer may distort the behavior that is observed, and this must be taken into consideration (Figure 1).

The greatest benefit of naturalistic observation is the validity, or accuracy, of information collected unobtrusively in a natural setting. Having individuals behave as they normally would in a given situation means that we have a higher degree of ecological validity, or realism, than we might achieve with other research approaches. Therefore, our ability to generalize the findings of the research to real-world situations is enhanced. If done correctly, we need not worry about people modifying their behavior simply because they are being observed. Sometimes, people may assume that reality programs give us a glimpse into authentic human behavior. However, the principle of inconspicuous observation is violated as reality stars are followed by camera crews and are interviewed on camera for personal confessionals. Given that environment, we must doubt how natural and realistic their behaviors are.

The major downside of naturalistic observation is that they are often difficult to set up and control. Although something as simple as observation may seem like it would be a part of all research methods, participant observation is a distinct methodology that involves the researcher embedding themselves into a group in order to study its dynamics. For example, Festinger, Riecken, and Shacter (1956) were very interested in the psychology of a particular cult. However, this cult was very secretive and wouldn’t grant interviews to outside members. So, in order to study these people, Festinger and his colleagues pretended to be cult members, allowing them access to the behavior and psychology of the cult. Despite this example, it should be noted that the people being observed in a participant observation study usually know that the researcher is there to study them. [1]

Another potential problem in observational research is observer bias . Generally, people who act as observers are closely involved in the research project and may unconsciously skew their observations to fit their research goals or expectations. To protect against this type of bias, researchers should have clear criteria established for the types of behaviors recorded and how those behaviors should be classified. In addition, researchers often compare observations of the same event by multiple observers, in order to test inter-rater reliability : a measure of reliability that assesses the consistency of observations by different observers.

Often, psychologists develop surveys as a means of gathering data. Surveys are lists of questions to be answered by research participants, and can be delivered as paper-and-pencil questionnaires, administered electronically, or conducted verbally (Figure 3). Generally, the survey itself can be completed in a short time, and the ease of administering a survey makes it easy to collect data from a large number of people.

Surveys allow researchers to gather data from larger samples than may be afforded by other research methods . A sample is a subset of individuals selected from a population , which is the overall group of individuals that the researchers are interested in. Researchers study the sample and seek to generalize their findings to the population.

There is both strength and weakness in surveys when compared to case studies. By using surveys, we can collect information from a larger sample of people. A larger sample is better able to reflect the actual diversity of the population, thus allowing better generalizability. Therefore, if our sample is sufficiently large and diverse, we can assume that the data we collect from the survey can be generalized to the larger population with more certainty than the information collected through a case study. However, given the greater number of people involved, we are not able to collect the same depth of information on each person that would be collected in a case study.

Another potential weakness of surveys is something we touched on earlier in this module: people do not always give accurate responses. They may lie, misremember, or answer questions in a way that they think makes them look good. For example, people may report drinking less alcohol than is actually the case.

Any number of research questions can be answered through the use of surveys. One real-world example is the research conducted by Jenkins, Ruppel, Kizer, Yehl, and Griffin (2012) about the backlash against the U.S. Arab-American community following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Jenkins and colleagues wanted to determine to what extent these negative attitudes toward Arab-Americans still existed nearly a decade after the attacks occurred. In one study, 140 research participants filled out a survey with 10 questions, including questions asking directly about the participant’s overt prejudicial attitudes toward people of various ethnicities. The survey also asked indirect questions about how likely the participant would be to interact with a person of a given ethnicity in a variety of settings (such as, “How likely do you think it is that you would introduce yourself to a person of Arab-American descent?”). The results of the research suggested that participants were unwilling to report prejudicial attitudes toward any ethnic group. However, there were significant differences between their pattern of responses to questions about social interaction with Arab-Americans compared to other ethnic groups: they indicated less willingness for social interaction with Arab-Americans compared to the other ethnic groups. This suggested that the participants harbored subtle forms of prejudice against Arab-Americans, despite their assertions that this was not the case (Jenkins et al., 2012).

Think it Over

Research has shown that parental depressive symptoms are linked to a number of negative child outcomes. A classmate of yours is interested in  the associations between parental depressive symptoms and actual child behaviors in everyday life [2] because this associations remains largely unknown. After reading this section, what do you think is the best way to better understand such associations? Which method might result in the most valid data?

clinical or case study:  observational research study focusing on one or a few people

correlational research:  tests whether a relationship exists between two or more variables

descriptive research:  research studies that do not test specific relationships between variables; they are used to describe general or specific behaviors and attributes that are observed and measured

experimental research:  tests a hypothesis to determine cause-and-effect relationships

generalizability:  inferring that the results for a sample apply to the larger population

inter-rater reliability:  measure of agreement among observers on how they record and classify a particular event

naturalistic observation:  observation of behavior in its natural setting

observer bias:  when observations may be skewed to align with observer expectations

population:  overall group of individuals that the researchers are interested in

sample:  subset of individuals selected from the larger population

survey:  list of questions to be answered by research participants—given as paper-and-pencil questionnaires, administered electronically, or conducted verbally—allowing researchers to collect data from a large number of people

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• Scollon, C. N. (2020). Research designs. In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener (Eds), Noba textbook series: Psychology. Champaign, IL: DEF publishers. Retrieved from http://noba.to/acxb2thy ↵
• Slatcher, R. B., & Trentacosta, C. J. (2011). A naturalistic observation study of the links between parental depressive symptoms and preschoolers' behaviors in everyday life. Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43), 25(3), 444–448. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023728 ↵

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7 Famous Psychology Experiments

Many famous experiments studying human behavior have impacted our fundamental understanding of psychology. Though some could not be repeated today due to breaches in ethical boundaries, that does not diminish the significance of those psychological studies. Some of these important findings include a greater awareness of depression and its symptoms, how people learn behaviors through the process of association and how individuals conform to a group.

Below, we take a look at seven famous psychological experiments that greatly influenced the field of psychology and our understanding of human behavior.

The Little Albert Experiment, 1920

A John’s Hopkins University professor, Dr. John B. Watson, and a graduate student wanted to test a learning process called classical conditioning. Classical conditioning involves learning involuntary or automatic behaviors by association, and Dr. Watson thought it formed the bedrock of human psychology.

A nine-month-old toddler, dubbed “Albert B,” was volunteered for Dr. Watson and Rosalie Rayner ‘s experiment. Albert played with white furry objects, and at first, the toddler displayed joy and affection. Over time, as he played with the objects, Dr. Watson would make a loud noise behind the child’s head to frighten him. After numerous trials, Albert was conditioned to be afraid when he saw white furry objects.

The study proved that humans could be conditioned to enjoy or fear something, which many psychologists believe could explain why people have irrational fears and how they may have developed early in life. This is a great example of experimental study psychology.

Stanford Prison Experiment, 1971

Stanford professor Philip Zimbardo wanted to learn how individuals conformed to societal roles. He wondered, for example, whether the tense relationship between prison guards and inmates in jails had more to do with the personalities of each or the environment.

During Zimbardo’s experiment , 24 male college students were assigned to be either a prisoner or a guard. The prisoners were held in a makeshift prison inside the basement of Stanford’s psychology department. They went through a standard booking process designed to take away their individuality and make them feel anonymous. Guards were given eight-hour shifts and tasked to treat the prisoners just like they would in real life.

Zimbardo found rather quickly that both the guards and prisoners fully adapted to their roles; in fact, he had to shut down the experiment after six days because it became too dangerous. Zimbardo even admitted he began thinking of himself as a police superintendent rather than a psychologist. The study confirmed that people will conform to the social roles they’re expected to play, especially overly stereotyped ones such as prison guards.

“We realized how ordinary people could be readily transformed from the good Dr. Jekyll to the evil Mr. Hyde,” Zimbardo wrote.

The Asch Conformity Study, 1951

Solomon Asch, a Polish-American social psychologist, was determined to see whether an individual would conform to a group’s decision, even if the individual knew it was incorrect. Conformity is defined by the American Psychological Association as the adjustment of a person’s opinions or thoughts so that they fall closer in line with those of other people or the normative standards of a social group or situation.

In his experiment , Asch selected 50 male college students to participate in a “vision test.” Individuals would have to determine which line on a card was longer. However, the individuals at the center of the experiment did not know that the other people taking the test were actors following scripts, and at times selected the wrong answer on purpose. Asch found that, on average over 12 trials, nearly one-third of the naive participants conformed with the incorrect majority, and only 25 percent never conformed to the incorrect majority. In the control group that featured only the participants and no actors, less than one percent of participants ever chose the wrong answer.

Asch’s experiment showed that people will conform to groups to fit in (normative influence) because of the belief that the group was better informed than the individual. This explains why some people change behaviors or beliefs when in a new group or social setting, even when it goes against past behaviors or beliefs.

The Bobo Doll Experiment, 1961, 1963

Stanford University professor Albert Bandura wanted to put the social learning theory into action. Social learning theory suggests that people can acquire new behaviors “through direct experience or by observing the behavior of others.” Using a Bobo doll , which is a blow-up toy in the shape of a life-size bowling pin, Bandura and his team tested whether children witnessing acts of aggression would copy them.

Bandura and two colleagues selected 36 boys and 36 girls between the ages of 3 and 6 from the Stanford University nursery and split them into three groups of 24. One group watched adults behaving aggressively toward the Bobo doll. In some cases, the adult subjects hit the doll with a hammer or threw it in the air. Another group was shown an adult playing with the Bobo doll in a non-aggressive manner, and the last group was not shown a model at all, just the Bobo doll.

After each session, children were taken to a room with toys and studied to see how their play patterns changed. In a room with aggressive toys (a mallet, dart guns, and a Bobo doll) and non-aggressive toys (a tea set, crayons, and plastic farm animals), Bandura and his colleagues observed that children who watched the aggressive adults were more likely to imitate the aggressive responses.

Unexpectedly, Bandura found that female children acted more physically aggressive after watching a male subject and more verbally aggressive after watching a female subject. The results of the study highlight how children learn behaviors from observing others.

The Learned Helplessness Experiment, 1965

Martin Seligman wanted to research a different angle related to Dr. Watson’s study of classical conditioning. In studying conditioning with dogs, Seligman made an astute observation : the subjects, which had already been conditioned to expect a light electric shock if they heard a bell, would sometimes give up after another negative outcome, rather than searching for the positive outcome.

Under normal circumstances, animals will always try to get away from negative outcomes. When Seligman tested his experiment on animals who hadn’t been previously conditioned, the animals attempted to find a positive outcome. Oppositely, the dogs who had been already conditioned to expect a negative response assumed there would be another negative response waiting for them, even in a different situation.

The conditioned dogs’ behavior became known as learned helplessness, the idea that some subjects won’t try to get out of a negative situation because past experiences have forced them to believe they are helpless. The study’s findings shed light on depression and its symptoms in humans.

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The Milgram Experiment, 1963

In the wake of the horrific atrocities carried out by Nazi Germany during World War II, Stanley Milgram wanted to test the levels of obedience to authority. The Yale University professor wanted to study if people would obey commands, even when it conflicted with the person’s conscience.

Participants of the condensed study , 40 males between the ages of 20 and 50, were split into learners and teachers. Though it seemed random, actors were always chosen as the learners, and unsuspecting participants were always the teachers. A learner was strapped to a chair with electrodes in one room while the experimenter äóñ another actor äóñ and a teacher went into another.

The teacher and learner went over a list of word pairs that the learner was told to memorize. When the learner incorrectly paired a set of words together, the teacher would shock the learner. The teacher believed the shocks ranged from mild all the way to life-threatening. In reality, the learner, who intentionally made mistakes, was not being shocked.

As the voltage of the shocks increased and the teachers became aware of the believed pain caused by them, some refused to continue the experiment. After prodding by the experimenter, 65 percent resumed. From the study, Milgram devised the agency theory , which suggests that people allow others to direct their actions because they believe the authority figure is qualified and will accept responsibility for the outcomes. Milgram’s findings help explain how people can make decisions against their own conscience, such as when participating in a war or genocide.

The Halo Effect Experiment, 1977

University of Michigan professors Richard Nisbett and Timothy Wilson were interested in following up a study from 50 years earlier on a concept known as the halo effect . In the 1920s, American psychologist Edward Thorndike researched a phenomenon in the U.S. military that showed cognitive bias. This is an error in how we think that affects how we perceive people and make judgements and decisions based on those perceptions.

In 1977, Nisbett and Wilson tested the halo effect using 118 college students (62 males, 56 females). Students were divided into two groups and were asked to evaluate a male Belgian teacher who spoke English with a heavy accent. Participants were shown one of two videotaped interviews with the teacher on a television monitor. The first interview showed the teacher interacting cordially with students, and the second interview showed the teacher behaving inhospitably. The subjects were then asked to rate the teacher’s physical appearance, mannerisms, and accent on an eight-point scale from appealing to irritating.

Nisbett and Wilson found that on physical appearance alone, 70 percent of the subjects rated the teacher as appealing when he was being respectful and irritating when he was cold. When the teacher was rude, 80 percent of the subjects rated his accent as irritating, as compared to nearly 50 percent when he was being kind.

The updated study on the halo effect shows that cognitive bias isn’t exclusive to a military environment. Cognitive bias can get in the way of making the correct decision, whether it’s during a job interview or deciding whether to buy a product that’s been endorsed by a celebrity we admire.

How Experiments Have Impacted Psychology Today

Contemporary psychologists have built on the findings of these studies to better understand human behaviors, mental illnesses, and the link between the mind and body. For their contributions to psychology, Watson, Bandura, Nisbett and Zimbardo were all awarded Gold Medals for Life Achievement from the American Psychological Foundation. Become part of the next generation of influential psychologists with King University’s online bachelor’s in psychology . Take advantage of King University’s flexible online schedule and complete the major coursework of your degree in as little as 16 months. Plus, as a psychology major, King University will prepare you for graduate school with original research on student projects as you pursue your goal of being a psychologist.

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Psychology manuscript: Project pre-registration and planning

Unit Code: PSY4412

Duration: 6 weeks

Contact Hours: 20-24 hours of study per week

Credit Points: 6

Description:

‘Project pre-registration and planning’ marks the beginning of your research project journey where you will focus on the development of your research project. You will complete the pre-registration of your research proposal, providing context and justification for the investigation of your research project. You will then assist in preparing the ethics application for a low-risk quantitative or qualitative research project.

This unit will also provide you with an opportunity for formative feedback on a draft of your Journal Manuscript introduction, supporting you in the development of a high-quality Journal Manuscript as the capstone assessment of the GDPA. Throughout ‘Psychology manuscript: Project pre-registration and planning’, emphasis will be placed on professionalism and fitness for practice, ethical considerations and the development of research methodologies, ensuring a robust foundation for your future academic and professional endeavours.

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Research Methods (Developmental Psychology)

• September 2025
• September 2024

1 year full-time

Durham City

Course details

The MA in Research Methods (Developmental Psychology) is an ESRC-accredited Social Sciences & Health Faculty degree in which departments from across the University work together to deliver a tailored study programme that explores human development through a research lens.

It is primarily designed for students who plan to continue their graduate studies at PhD level in the broad area of developmental psychology or work as a research psychologist. It is also relevant for students wishing to pursue careers in applied areas, such as clinical or educational psychology.

Students intending to have a career as a research psychologist need to acquire a high level of research skills at postgraduate level. Research methods training, co-ordinated through the Durham Research Methods Centre, therefore forms a central part of the MA course, including both quantitative and qualitative research methods. One third of the course is also devoted to the dissertation which may be carried out in any area of psychology related to development. The taught course modules include both generic and subject level components, providing an introduction to broad issues and methodological approaches in developmental psychology and the social sciences.

Course structure

Core modules:.

Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Practices Across Social Research introduces the areas of contemporary social scientific research practice. You will develop an understanding of the intersection where philosophical, methodological and disciplinary contexts meet, including qualitative, quantitative, statistical, computational and historical programmes of research. You will also explore the various issues involved in the application of these methods inside and outside academia and will consider the ethical issues involved such as power and equality.

Qualitative Methods and Analysis supports your preparation for conducting qualitative research equipping you with the knowledge and skills to understand and appraise qualitative social sciences research, including different approaches to research and design and the analysis of qualitative data.

Advanced Developmental Psychology Review teaches the skills to create and deliver literature reviews as well as providing analysis of key topics in the field of developmental psychology, including research skills, data handling, writing styles and methods of presentation.

Research Design in Child and Clinical Psychology provides an introduction to the methods and design used in child and clinical psychology and offers practical training in the transferable skills relevant for professional and personal development.

Current Issues in Developmental Psychology and Psychopathology provides in-depth knowledge of current theoretical stances and methodological issues within the fields of developmental psychology and neurodiversity. The aim is for you to gain a broad understanding of typical development and then consider different development pathways.

Quantitative Methods and Analysis develops your knowledge, critical understanding and skills in quantitative data analysis and teaches you how to use statistical techniques for exploration and description of data sets. You will also learn how to make appropriate statistical inferences about associations between social phenomena.

Advanced Statistics for Psychology and the Behavioural Sciences teaches you a set of advanced statistical methods that are used across psychology and the behavioural sciences, equipping you with the skills to confidently identify appropriate statistical techniques and analyse data using relevant software across a range of different types of research.

The Dissertation enables you to design, implement, analyse and finally discuss an empirical project relevant to your field of study, giving you the opportunity to apply the theoretical knowledge you have acquired and to gain experience of collaborating with other researchers and undertaking research and project management. The Department provides excellent support and opportunities for conducting a significant piece of independent research.

Alternative modules (depending on prior knowledge and understanding) include:

• Advanced Ethnographic Research
• Multilevel Modelling
• Simulating Data in R
• Systematic Review
• Computational Social Science
• Participatory Action Research
• Statistics in Health and Medicine with R

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The course is delivered through a mixture of lectures, seminars and practical classes. Lectures provide key information on a particular topic, such as social and emotional development. Seminars are held in order that smaller group teaching can take place, with focused discussion on specific topics. Finally, practical and workshop classes allow you to gain direct experience, particularly in how to use statistical tools.

The balance of this type of activity varies as a function of the module. This is a one year course, with students having the summer term to work on dissertation related activities. You will typically attend approximately 12 hours a week comprising lectures, tutorials and seminars. Outside timetabled contact hours, you are also expected to undertake your own independent study to prepare for your classes and broaden your subject knowledge, as well as conduct your dissertation. Independent study is a key element to the course, with complex factors raised in lectures that do assume some prior knowledge of the topic area.

The course is divided into three parts. One third, comprising three modules, is of subject specific topics related to developmental psychology and developmental psychopathology, including issues relevant to clinical/ educational work throughout development. Across these modules, the material is delivered via a combination of lectures, seminars, practical workshops and discussions.

A further three modules focus on placing psychology in the larger framework of social science research and providing generic research skills, for example, qualitative and quantitative analysis skills.

The final third of the course is the dissertation, which reflects the culmination of learning and practical endeavours from throughout the course via the production of an independent and original body of research material. This is performed under supervision with a member of staff, with meetings varying in duration and frequency throughout the year as a function of the needs of the research project and student.

Assessment features examinations, written assignments, oral presentations, and the completion of a dissertation.

Entry requirements

2:1 in Psychology or Psychology related subject (or equivalent).

English language requirements

Fees and funding

The tuition fees for 2025/26 academic year have not yet been finalised, they will be displayed here once approved.

The tuition fees shown are for one complete academic year of full time study, are set according to the academic year of entry, and remain the same throughout the duration of the programme for that cohort (unless otherwise stated) .

Please also check costs for colleges and accommodation .

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We are committed to supporting the best students irrespective of financial circumstances and are delighted to offer a range of funding opportunities. 

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Cara Struble, Ph.D

Assistant Professor 374 Williams Hall 207.581.2049 [email protected]

**Note to applicants: Dr. Struble plans to recruit a graduate student to start in Fall 2025

Research Interests:

Broadly, my research interests aim to (1) increase our understanding of individual factors on substance use behaviors and outcomes and to (2) leverage this knowledge to develop and test efficacious treatments for substance use disorders. I am particularly interested in examining substance use risks, behaviors, and consequences within LGBTQ+ populations. I am more recently developing a program of research investigating scalable digital technologies, adapted for LGBTQ+ populations, to improve access to evidence-based treatments for substance use and co-occurring mental health problems. My lab works closely with academic collaborators at Geisel School of Medicine, Columbia University, and Wayne State University.

Examples of specific projects include:

Characterizing cannabis use and internalizing symptomatology among LGBTQ+ young adults

Evaluating opioid overdose risk and treatment disparities among non-LGBTQ+ and LGBTQ+ adults recruited nationally

Developing a digital app for treating co-occurring cannabis use and major depressive disorders

Developing and validating a cannabis exposure inventory measure

Examining the effects of advertising claims on cannabis purchase behaviors

Selected Publications:

Struble, C. A., Borodovsky, J. T., Habib, M. I., Livne, O., Walsh, C. A., Aharonovich, E., Hasin, D. S., & Budney, A. J. (2024). Evaluating age-related disparities in cannabis-related problems among LGBT+ versus non-LGBT+ adults.  Addictive behaviors ,  148 , 107861.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2023.107861

Struble, C. A., Borodovsky, J. T., Habib, M. I., Hasin, D. S., Shmulewitz, D., Livne, O., Walsh, C., Aharonovich, E., & Budney, A. J. (2023). Extending Gender- and Sex-Based Analyses in Cannabis Research: Findings from an Online Sample of Gender Diverse Young Adult Consumers.  Cannabis and cannabinoid research , 10.1089/can.2023.0069. Advance online publication.  https://doi.org/10.1089/can.2023.0069

Struble, C. A., Thomas, K., Stenersen, M. R., Moore, K. E., Burke, C., Pittman, B., & McKee, S. A. (2022). Sexual minority disparities in opioid and benzodiazepine misuse among adults with opioid use disorder.  The American journal on addictions ,  31 (3), 200–209.  https://doi.org/10.1111/ajad.13258

Struble, C. A., Bauer, S. J., Lundahl, L. H., Ghosh, S., & Ledgerwood, D. M. (2022). Electronic cigarette use among sexual minority and heterosexual young adults in a U.S. national sample: Exploring the modifying effects of advertisement exposure.  Preventive medicine ,  155 , 106926.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2021.106926

Struble, C. A., Lister, J. J., Urbiel, J., Nyaku, A. N., & Arfken, C. L. (2022). Comparisons of injection and non-injection opioid use among Black people in methadone treatment: A pilot in Detroit.  Addictive behaviors ,  126 , 107182.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.107182

Struble, C. A., Ellis, J. D., & Lundahl, L. H. (2019). Beyond the Bud: Emerging Methods of Cannabis Consumption for Youth.  Pediatric clinics of North America ,  66 (6), 1087–1097.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pcl.2019.08.012

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New online master’s in work & organizational psychology program.

September 17, 2024

We’re thrilled to announce our new Master’s in Work & Organizational Psychology program!

Designed with adult learners in mind, this program offers hands-on learning that’s perfect for those looking to hone their skills and make a real impact in the workplace.

Our five-week courses offer hands-on learning experiences that prepare you for the ever-evolving world of work. You’ll get to learn from top experts who are actively shaping the field, and our curriculum is crafted by professionals who know what it takes to succeed.

Ready to take your career to the next level? Learn more about the program here.

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OCR A-level Psychology - Research Methods Autumn Term Lessons, Activities, Revision and Assessment

Subject: Psychology

Age range: 16+

Resource type: Unit of work

Last updated

17 September 2024

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Covers: Experiments Variables Experimental Designs Sampling Aims and Hypotheses Validity and Reliability 35-mark Assessment Assessment Answers Assessment Feedback (in depth, question by question with examples)

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House Passes McMorris Rodgers’ Bipartisan Legislation to Preserve Funding for Down Syndrome Research

Washington, D.C. – Last night, the House of Representatives unanimously passed H.R. 7406, the DeOndra Dixon INCLUDE Project Act of 2024 . The legislation was led by House Energy and Commerce Committee Cathy Chair McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-OK), House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN), and Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC).

The DeOndra Dixon INCLUDE Project Act of 2024 would authorize the INCLUDE Project at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and continue funding for Down syndrome research at $90 million annually for the next five years.

“This bipartisan legislation will support research into Down syndrome, which has been dramatically underfunded despite affecting one in every 700 babies,” said Rodgers. “Better understanding individuals with this disability–and truly valuing the unique gifts they possess–will help unleash their potential and benefit every American who knows someone battling other diseases, like cancer and Alzheimer’s. As the proud mom of a child with Down syndrome, I am committed to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to see this bill signed into law.”

The INCLUDE (INvestigation of Co-occurring conditions across the Lifespan to Understand Down syndromE) Project was launched in June 2018 at the direction of Congress to conduct research on critical health and quality-of-life needs for individuals with Down syndrome. The project investigates conditions that affect individuals with Down syndrome and the general population, such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, autism, cataracts, celiac disease, congenital heart disease, and diabetes.

CLICK HERE to learn more about the project.

Rep. Rodgers was joined in introducing this legislation by Reps. Tom Cole (R-OK), Diana DeGette (D-CO), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Pete Stauber (R-MN), and Eleanor Holmes-Norton (D-DC).

“Medical research has the power to transform lives. This legislation strengthens the innovative environment needed to advance medical breakthroughs and support those with Down syndrome,” said Cole. “By understanding the unique needs of patients and ensuring clinical trials address them, we are making real differences in people’s lives and health. The bill will bring great value to so many, and I am proud to see it pass on the House Floor.”

“The INCLUDE Project Act is a much-needed step to advance research and improve health outcomes for individuals with Down syndrome and related conditions,” said DeGette. “The groundbreaking work being done in my home state at the University of Colorado’s Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome Research exemplifies why this program is so crucial — not only to improve treatments for those with Down syndrome but also to advance our overall understanding of the disease. By passing this bill, we’re reaffirming our commitment to fostering the kind of innovative research that will benefit all individuals, and I look forward to the INCLUDE Project’s continued impact on the medical science field.”

“As an ovarian cancer survivor, I am immensely grateful for biomedical research and believe I am here today because of it,” said DeLauro. “We must do all we can to strengthen the resources available to facilitate medical breakthroughs and help those with Down syndrome live healthier, fuller lives. Since 2018, as the top Democrat on the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, I am proud that on a bipartisan basis we have provided more than $400 million in funding for the more than 200 INCLUDE Project research grant awards at the National Institutes of Health. This legislation builds on this success, and I am proud to work with my colleagues in the House to ensure this critical program continues for years to come.”

“As a father of a son with Down syndrome, I understand the important role research plays in improving the lives of those with disabilities. For too long, the federal government has neglected investment in Down syndrome research, and it’s time we changed that,” said Stauber. “Every life deserves a chance to reach its full potential. That’s why I’m proud to support legislation to preserve funding for groundbreaking research for Down syndrome. The passage of this legislation in the House today demonstrates our commitment to improving health outcomes, fostering inclusion, and celebrating individuals with Down syndrome’s incredible contributions to our world. I am proud to join my colleagues in this fight and excited for the brighter future it will bring.”

“People with Down syndrome, including my own daughter Katherine, have a strong and irrefutable moral case for substantial NIH research funding to benefit their health and quality of life,” said Norton. “Today’s House passage of our bill to preserve this funding at NIH to $90 million annually for the next five years will benefit Katherine, 400,000 other Americans living with Down syndrome, and countless others who suffer from conditions those with Down syndrome are predisposed to. I applaud today’s passage, thank Rep. Rodgers for her leadership on the issue, and look forward to the bill’s progression in the Senate.”

The DeOndra Dixon INCLUDE Project Act of 2024 is supported by the following Down syndrome advocacy groups:

“We are overwhelmed by the strong bipartisan support for the DeOndra Dixon INCLUDE Project Act that will formally authorize the INCLUDE Project at the NIH for five years. GLOBAL is truly grateful to our congressional champions for their continued commitment to improving health outcomes for our children and adults with Down syndrome. The tangible medical breakthroughs that the NIH INCLUDE Project has already made since 2018 would not have been possible without the great leadership of Chair Rodgers, Chairman Tom Cole, Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, Congresswoman Diana DeGette, and many others. While there is still much work to be done, the momentum is clearly on our side.” – Michelle Sie Whitten, President & CEO of the Global Down Syndrome Foundation

“We are thrilled to celebrate the passage of the DeOndra Dixon INCLUDE Project Act by the House of Representatives. In the six years since its inception, the INCLUDE Project at NIH has conducted groundbreaking research and innovation to dramatically improve the health and life outcomes of individuals with Down syndrome. Continued investments in the project, such as those found in the DeOndra Dixon INCLUDE Project Act, are vital and necessary to ensure this important work continues. We thank Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Congresswoman Diana DeGette, Congressman Tom Cole, and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton for their leadership on this issue and we urge the United States Senate to take action to ensure its swift passage.” – Kandi Pickard, President and CEO of the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS)

“The National Down Syndrome Congress is pleased that the DeOndra Dixon INCLUDE Act has passed. This bill will increase lifespan and improve health outcomes for children and adults with Down syndrome by establishing a Down syndrome program at the National Institutes for Health (NIH). NDSC’s vision is a world with equal rights and opportunities for people with Down syndrome, and good health is critical to achieve this vision and for success in all areas of life.” – Jim Hudson, NDSC Executive Director

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