Lecture #02

Methods of Educational Psychology

Kiran Saleem
Lecturer
Dept. Of Education MUST
 The following points highlight the top
six methods of educational psychology.
• The methods are:
• 1. Introspection
• 2. The Observational Method
• 3. The Experimental Method
• 4. The Clinical Method
• 5. The Genetic or Developmental Method
• 6. The Testing Methods.
 Introduction
• Psychology, we have observed before is a
systematic and scientific study of human
behavior. It has its special tools and
procedures. These tools and procedures help
us in gathering and organizing its subject-
matter or the essential facts about it. These
procedures are called its methods.
 Conti…………..
• These methods have to be scientific,
consistent and systematic if the knowledge
that we get through them is to be used for
scientific purposes. Educational psychology
uses all these main methods of psychology.
Besides these methods, there are certain
other methods that are used by educational
psychologists in the collection and
organization of necessary data.
  1. Introspection:

• Introspection is one of the older methods and

is peculiar to psychology. It means looking
within, looking into the working of our own
minds and reporting what we find there. In
order words, it is a method of “self-
observation “— observation by an individual
of his own mental states directly by directing
attention towards a particular experience with
a particular purpose.
 Conti……..
• This kind of self-observation, therefore, is not a vague,
unsystematic or haphazard observation. For example, a
student has been asked to answer a question.
• He has to recall certain facts learned by him to organize
them in a particular manner and then to report what way he
tried to recall, what he thought and felt when trying to
recall.
• Thus, it is a method in which the individual observes,
analyses and reports his own feelings, thoughts or all that
passes in his mind during the course of a mental act or
experience.
 (b) Advantages:

• The method has many advantages. It enables us to understand

one’s mental set at a certain time and thus throws light on
behavior, which is reflective of mental experience.
• Mere objective and direct observation of a person is not
enough.
• We need to know what is going on in the mind of that person.
• An artist is painting a picture.
• We observe him carefully and find that, he is sitting absorbed
in a certain posture, that he makes certain gestures or that he is
mixing such and such colours.
 Conti………
• But how he is doing it, what feelings and
thoughts are passing his mind, we can learn
only when he introspects his own mind and
reports. Then alone, we are in a position to
understand fully his act or behavior of painting.
Again, the method does not entail any
expenses. There is no need for any laboratory
or apparatus. We obtain a direct knowledge of
the mental experience of the individual.
 (c) Objections:

• Several objections have been raised against this method by

later psychologists i.e., after Titchener. It is a purely
private affair. The results of introspection are only
subjective. Something is going on in another person’s
mind; it is not accessible to me or to you.
• Hence, it cannot be verified by other observers. What
cannot be verified or repeated by others lack scientific
validity. The essence of science is controlled observation
under experimental conditions. Scientific results are
always verifiable. Hence, introspection is regarded as an
unscientific method.
 Conti…….
• Another difficulty of the method is that it may
destroy the very experience or process it aims at
studying. Our immediate memory can come to our
rescue and we can recall the process to a large
extent. Thus introspection actually becomes
retrospection. Besides, this method cannot be found
useful in studying children, animals, insane people
and mental defective or those who are not good at
linguistic expression. This is a limitation of the
method.
 (d) Forms:

• One of the forms of introspection that is used in

educational psychology is the anecdotal method. It consists
of the recording of personal impressions about some aspect
of pupil behavior which seems significant to the observer.
According to Brown and Martin, “anecdotes are
descriptive accounts of episodes or occurrences in the daily
life of the student.”
• These accounts are written out of memory of the teacher or
observer.
 CONT……..
• The method is open to criticism since the
teacher or observer may have missed certain
things or may not remember accurately. He
may also be influenced by suggestion.
 Questionnaire
• The questionnaire is another form of the
introspective method, which is used in the
appraisal of personal qualities, attitudes,
opinions and beliefs of individuals.
• Galton used this method in his study of
individual differences and Stanley Hall in
his study of childhood and adolescence.
 Conti………

• A questionnaire is a series of printed or written

questions which the individual is supposed to
answer. It is a useful device, which is
frequently used by educational and vocational
counsellors. But the usefulness of this method
depends on how specific and clear the
instructions are. In framing a questionnaire,
one should be clear about the objectives in
hand.
 Conti….
• Questions should be so framed that the
answers can easily be given or the right
answer easily checked. The answers obtained
are then compiled, classified and analysed or
categorized and interpreted. The questionnaire
is a type of introspective method because the
answers of various questions evoke
‘retrospective processes’ as in pure
introspection.
 Method # 2. The Observational Method:

• It is one of the most popular of methods used in

psychology for collection of data. This method is
also called the method of ‘objective observation’
as against introspection which is a method of
self-observation. The individual’s behavior is
observed by somebody other than that person
himself. The behavior observed may be
expressed in the form of bodily changes, bodily
action, gestures, facial expression and speech.
 Conti……………….
• The psychologist may sit down and take notes
of the behavior of a subject under particular
conditions. The method was used widely by
child psychologists who would prepare
running records of all that the child did during
a certain period and in a certain situation.
These observations enabled them to make
certain generalizations about human behavior
in general.
 2. Difficulties:

• Psychologists found that they could not keep

pace with the speed of subjects’ behavior and
thought as expressed by them. This problem
was solved to a large extent by the
introduction of type-recording, photographic
films or by employing a number of
stenographers to record the behavior.
 Conti……………..
• There was another problem besides the speed
of behavior. It was felt that the subject’s
behavior can be affected by the presence of the
psychologist in the room. The subject may
become self-conscious and may not behave
naturally, which he would have done had been
alone in the room. This introduced the use of
one-way screens and the system of
observation-booths.
• The subject would behave in the most natural
manner without knowing that he was being
observed or studied. Child development
centers and child guidance clinics are
generally fitted with one-way glass screens or
observations booths. Direct observation
however, can be quite effective one the subject
or subjects get used and adjusted to the
presence of the psychologist.
 3. Precautions:

• In order to have reliable and correct observations,

there are certain precautions that should be borne
in mind:
• Firstly, the observer must adopt an objective attitude.
Our observations should be free from our own biases,
prejudices and result from sustained attention.
• Secondly, it is necessary that before we form an
estimate of an individual’s behaviour, we should have
made a number of observations of the same
behaviour in similar conditions,
• Thirdly, if needed. We should pool our observations
with those made by others.
• Fourthly, the problem that has to be observed, is
well-defined and observers are trained to distinguish
between what is observed and what is interpreted.
• Fifthly, to ensure accuracy of observation and to
reduce the effect of bias, the behavior may be
observed for a specific period of time, after it has
been analyzed into its various aspects.
• This device is called “time sampling” i.e., the behaviour
is sampled for a short and definite period of time and it
is regarded as representative of the behaviour in general
covered by the various analysable elements together.
This device has been used by Iver James Robertson in
his study. “A Two-year Old Goes to Hospital”. He has
observed the reactions of a hospitalised child to various
situations and persons of suitable intervals, for a short
period every time, with the help of a carefully drawn-up
proforma to be filled in by the observer.
 Cont…….
• The experimental method in psychology was
made popular first by a German psychologist
named Wundt who opened the first
psychological laboratory at Leipzing in 1879.
The tremendous progress which psychology
has made during the last 50 years is due to the
use of this method.
 Cont……….
• Experimental investigations has thrown light
on different ways of memorization, the effect
of different factors on learning, mental
fatigue, image and imagination, span of
attention, the effects of giving children
practice or coaching on intelligence tests,
transfer of training, the role of maturation in
learning and the like.
 Cont……
• According to Chapin “An experiment is an
observation under controlled conditions.”
Festinger says, “The essence of an experiment
may be described as observing the effect on a
dependent variable of the manipulation of an
independent variable.”
• 1. Observation under controlled conditions:
• An experiment consists of objective observation of
actions performed under rigidly controlled or
laboratory conditions. Control is the basic element in
experimentation. In it the influence of extraneous
factors that are not included in the hypothesis are
prevented from operating and confusing the outcome
which is to be appraised. Three types of control,
namely (i) Physical control, (ii) Selective control, (iii)
Statistical control are operated in an experiment.
• Randomisation:
• As it very difficult to exercise complete
control, efforts are made to assign cases in the
experimental and control groups randomly.
• 3. Replication:
• Replication implies conducting a number of
sub- experiments within the framework of an
overall experimental design.
 The following are the essential features or
requirements underlying the experiment:

• 1. Psychological laboratory:
• There should be psychological laboratory fully equipped with
apparatus.
• 2. Experimenter:
• There is an experimenter or experimenters.
• 3. Subject:
• There is a subject or subjects on whom the experiment is
performed. In physical sciences, experiments are performed
on inorganic or dead subjects, whereas in psychology
experiments are performed on living subjects.
• 4. Stimulus:
• By “stimulus”, we mean any physical force in the
environment which impinges (strikes) the
organism to behave, or to react.
• 5. Response:
• Response is reaction to the stimulus. It can also
be defined as change in behaviour which can be
observed. So observable change in behaviour is
known as response.
 6. Variables:
• The term “variable” means that which can be varied
or changed or that which changes or varies itself. The
stimulus is changed and the response changes. The
former represents one type and the latter another type
of variable.
• The first variable (stimulus variable) can be
changed by the experimenter at will and is
deliberately and systematically varied to find
out how this is accompanied by changes in the
second set of variables (response variables).
The variation in the response variable is
known to follow changes in the stimulus
variable. However, there is no such definite
relation in reverse direction.
There are mainly three types of variables:

• Independent variable is one which is

systematically and independently varied or
manipulated by the experimenter. For
example, if we want to study the effect of
noise on mental activity, then in this example
noise is an independent variable since it is the
variable from which we predict changes in
mental activity.
Independent variables in psychology can be
classified into following groups:

• (i) Environmental variables:

• Perhaps the most common type of independent
variable studied by psychologists is the
variation of some aspect of the environment.
In the above example, noise is an independent
variable. Noise is an environmental condition.
• (ii) Instructional variables:
• A second type of variable often studied by
psychologists is the kind of instruction given to the
subjects. Depending on the instructions, a subject
may have a set to respond in different ways.
Instruction may influence his response. For example,
student typists who work under instructions to
emphasize accuracy may become better typists than
students who are introduced to emphasize speed.
• (iii) Task variables:
• The experimenter may be interested in
knowing the effect of manipulating aspect of
the task itself. Difficulty of the task, length of
the task, similarity of the task, meaningfulness
of the task, pleasantness of the task may serve
as independent variables.
• (iv) Subject variables:
• Subject variables involve characteristics of the
individuals such as age, sex, intelligence, race
and fatigue.
 (b) Organismic Variables:
• Organismic variables are those variables which
are within the organism.
• Organismic variables are variables that may
be obtained by. measurement of subjects, but
that are not assignable (in the. given
investigation) to subjects. Mental age, I.Q.,
personality. characteristics, past education,
etc., are examples of organismic.
 Some of the organismic variables are
following:-
• (i) Habit strength, the strength of association between
a certain S and certain R, based on previous learning.
• (ii) Drive such as hunger.
• (iii) Incentive like reward or punishment expected.
• (iv) Inhibition tending to diminish the momentary
readiness for a response. Fatigue, satiation,
distraction, fear and caution may cause inhibition.
• (v) Individual differences due to age, sex, intelligence,
interests, aptitudes, health and organic state.
 (c) Response variables (Dependent
variables):
• The dependent variable is the variable that we
predict will change with changes in the
independent variable. In other words,
dependent variable or response variable is that
variable on which the effect is being studied.
For example, we want to study the effect of
punishment on learning. Here ‘punishment’ is
stimulus variable and ‘slow or quick speed of
learning’ is known as response variable.
Response variables can vary in the following
ways:-
• (i) Accuracy:
• Measure of accuracy is almost inevitably a measure
of errors.
• (ii) Speed or quickness:
• It can be measured in terms of:
• (a) Time limit:
• How much is done in the same time allowed?
• (b) Amount limit:
• b How long does it take to do the assigned amount ?
 (iii) Probability or frequency:
• When a particular response occurs sometimes
but not on every trial. If there are two or more
competing responses to the same stimulus or
situation, the probability of each competitor
can be determined in series of trials. The
percentage or frequency of correct responses
or errors is an index of discrimination.
 (iv) Strength or energy response:
• (a) We have to understand the organism and its nature
fully. The human subjects on which the experiment is being
performed may be an adult or a child or an adolescent.
• (b) The maturation level reached by the organism must not
be ignored.
• (c) The state of the organism at the time of experiment
must be considered. It is important to know if the organism
is hungry, fatigued or bored.
• (d) If the experiment involves danger to human subjects, it
must be performed on the species close to human beings
i.e., chimpanzees rather than rats.
• (e) The condition or variable that affect the
behaviour should be controlled and defined as
perfectly as possible. These controls are called
experimental controls. However, where
experimental controls are not possible,
various types of statistical controls may be
used instead.
 Characteristics of Experimental
Method:
• 1. It enables us to study behavior under
controlled conditions.
• 2. It is scientific in nature.
• 3. The experimental method can be repeated
without any difficulty.
• 4. The results or conclusions arrived at by this
method are reliable.
• 5. Randomization.
 Steps of Experimental Method:

• (1) Statement of the problem.

• (2) Formulation of hypothesis.
• (3) Designing the independent and dependent
variable.
• (4) Controlling the conditions of experiment.
• (5) Selection of experimental design.
• (6) Analysis of the result.
• (7) Verification and confirmation of the hypotheses
by the result of the experiment.
Merits (Advantages) of Experimental Method:

• 1. Reliable and valid:

• Experimental method is most reliable, most valid, most
systematic, most precise and most objective method of
psychology.
• 2. Exact science:
• It is the experimental method which has made
psychology a science and put it on scientific footing. As
Woodworth states, “Experiment has made psychology
an exact science.” It gives us the exact results, as
statistical techniques and calculations are used in it.
• 3. Universal application:
• This method has universal application. It can
be applied in case of children as well as adults.
Even animals can be studied with the help of
this method. It becomes difficult to study all
types of people with the help of other
methods.
• 4. Wide applications:
• (a) It has wide applications in all the branches
of psychology especially in the intelligence
measurement, personality measurement,
attitude formation, individual differences and
mental disorders.
• (b) Experimental investigations have been
thrown light on different methods and laws of
learning and memory, effect of different
factors of learning, memory, attention,
interest, motivation, transfer of training,
growth and development and finally
development of personality.
 5. Quantitative measurement:
• It has introduced quantitative measurement in
psychology. Individual is studied internally by
this method in a quantitative manner like the
study of emotion, motivation, learning and
perception etc.
 6. Special activities:

• There are some special activities which can be

studied only with the help of experimental
method. For example, phenomena of
conditioning can be studied only with the help
of experimental method. Similarly reaction
time of the subject cannot be tested with the
help of any method except the experimental
method.
• 7. Pre-planned:
• It can be pre-planned and the experimenter can be fully prepared for the
accurate observation.
• 8. Variation and repetition:
• The experimenter can control and create the conditions himself which
influence the fact under investigation and can vary them systematically.
He can repeat them as often as he wants. In observation, he has to wait
for the natural phenomenon to occur. The experimenter can repeat the
experiment for many times without any wait.
• 9. Verification:
• It is given to verification. Results of the experiment can be verified.
• 10. Utility in education:
 Experimental method has been widely used in almost
all the aspects of education i.e., in:

• (1) determining the aim of education,

• (2) curriculum,
• (3) methods of teaching,
• (4) framing the timetable,
• (5) recruiting teachers,
• (6) measuring the achievements of the pupils
and
• (7) in guidance programme.
Demerits (Limitations) of Experimental Method:

• 1. Lengthy and time consuming:

• It is very lengthy, time consuming and energy
consuming.
• 2. Expensive:
• It is very expensive or costly as it requires well
equipped laboratory or apparatus and experts
to handle them. Prof. Woodworth says,
“Experiment is a very costly affair.”
3. Difficulty in controlling variables:
• All the variables cannot be completely
controlled. Experiments on heredity cannot be
conducted on human beings under controlled
conditions.
 4. Problem of measuring dependent
variable:
• Supposing that a suitable observable dependent
variable is settled, still, there is the problem of
measuring them. We do not have anything like a
thermometer or an inch scale or weight box.
• We cannot say that such and such person has so much
of anxiety. We can only say that such and such person
is more worried today than yesterday or he is more
worried than another individual.
• Our measures are purely ordinal and comparative.
This also limits the scope of our generalizations.
 5. Artificiality:
• There is certain amount of artificiality of
laboratory conditions and this artificiality does
curb our results.
 6. A gulf between laboratory and life:

• In the laboratory, we control all other

variables and arrive at a finding regarding the
relation between a specific stimulus and a
specific response. In actual life, several stimuli
act at the same time and several responses
appear. Hence there is a gulf between the
laboratory experiments and life.
• A man who is hungry, thirsty, sick and has no
money whose child has died and whose wife is
in the hospital is a cold fact we get in life. But
no laboratory has studied such a man and
perhaps no laboratory will be able to do that
though we may succeed in studying
individually the effect of each one of the
above facts.
 7. Every phenomena cannot be studied:

• Every phenomena cannot be studied in the

laboratory e.g., to study the causes of
abnormality and abnormal behaviour we
cannot make our subject mad. Similarly, we
cannot retard the growth of a child to find out
the causes of retardation.
 8. Restriction of time and place:
• In method of introspection and observation
there is no restriction of time and place. But in
experimental method, there is restriction of
time and place. An experiment cannot be
conducted at all times and all places. As Prof.
Murphy states, “The restrictions of time,
place and laboratory are a great obstacle in
the study of human behaviour.”
 The Clinical Method:

• The clinical method is also called case study

method. It is used by clinical psychologists,
psychiatrists, psychiatric social works and teachers
in child guidance clinics or mental hygiene centers
or in ordinary school situations. Generally, we use
this method when we want to understand the
causes and sources of people’s fears, anxieties,
worries, obsessions, their personal, social,
educational and vocational maladjustments.
• A couple of students in your class are showing
poor scholastic achievements or some behaviour
problems. You want to understand the causes so
that you may plan some treatment procedures.
• This method will be useful in such conditions. It
may be noted that the clinical methods or
“procedures are not designed to discover general
behavioural trends, laws or relationships.
 Conti………………..
• Rather they are concerned with a unique
individual who is trouble in and interest is
focused on the immediate, practical question
of how to best help him.
• The starting point of a clinical investigation is
an individual who needs or seeks help and the
procedure ideally terminates with the better
adjustment of the individual.” (Sawney and
Telford).
 Conti……

• The clinical investigator may start with some

hypothesis about the probable causes of the difficulty
or troublesome behavior. The tentative hypothesis is
supported or disproved by the data collected through
the use of case-history, interviews, visits to the home
or school and psychological testing.
• From the data collected, certain deductions are made
as to probable treatment. The employment of this
method includes the use of case histories, interviews
and psychological testing.
 Conti…..

• A case history traces the family and health,

history, hereditary factors, classifies the
developmental data, the educational progress,
interpersonal and inter- parental or intra-
parental relationships, and thus makes us
understand the major forces and influences,
which have developed and shaped the
individual’s personality.
 Conti……

• The clinical method, in itself, cannot claim to

the objectivity attained by the experimental
method, but it may afford fruitful new
hypothesis which can be tested by the better
controlled experimental procedures.
 The Genetic or Developmental
Method:
• This method, by laying emphasis on the
developmental aspects of behavior, seeks to
find out the causes of that behavior in its
crude beginnings. It assumes that a full
appreciation of such behavior patterns of an
adult requires the study of simple behavior
patterns in his childhood. These simple
behavior patterns grow more complex
gradually as the individual grows in age.
• An understanding of an adult can be facilitated
if we begin with the learning behaviour in his
childhood, go on to the study of such
behaviour in his preadolescence and
adolescence. This back-ground should help us
to arrive at some conclusions about the
learning behaviour in adulthood.
• The same can be said about the development
of imagination, thinking and reasoning. This
method seeks to answer such questions as:
How do we become what we are? What do we
inherit? How is inheritance modified in
childhood, adolescence and adulthood? What
changes take place in thought and behaviour
at different stages of life? How does the
perception develop?
 The Testing Methods:

• The testing methods comprise psychological tests,

educational measurements, rating scales, checklists
and questionnaires. Some writers characterize
rating scales, checklists and questionnaires as field
investigation methods as different from the testing
methods. We know that the use of questionnaires
as a form of the introspective method. Rating scales
and checklists are often used as important devices
of observing and evaluating personality or behavior
traits.
• In rating scales we rate or judge an individual
on the possession or absence of certain traits.
The individual is given a place on the scale or a
score which indicates the degree to which a
person possesses a given behaviour trait.
 For example,
• if we want to rate teacher- trainees on their
sociability we might ask three or four
supervisors to point out the place of each
teacher trainee on the scale which may be as
follows:
 Example

In a checklist, examiners may be provided with a list of traits or qualities and may be
asked to point out or checkup ones that apply to particular persons.
• The psychological tests are carefully devised and
standardised tests for measuring aptitudes,
interests, achievement, intelligence and personality
traits. Intelligence tests measure the intellectual
capacity of an individual and achievements tests
throw light on the achievement of students in
various subjects they are studying. Aptitude tests
will enable us to evaluate the nature and degree of
aptitude of a person for a certain subjects or
profession.
• In many teacher training colleges such test
have been developed for selecting candidates
for teacher training courses. Personality tests
which are of various types shed light on
general personality patterns, cluster of traits,
moods temperament, emotionality,
interpersonal relationships, needs and
pressure and other qualities.