ABSTRACT
The purpose of psychological research is to advance knowledge about humans by describing, predicting and eventually allowing intervention to help people. Psychology can legitimately be seen as a science because it employs rigorous methods in its research in order to avoid mere conjecture and to allow fellow psychologists to evaluate the research. However, in common with the natural sciences, such as physics, psychologists employ a range of methods in their research. These vary in the amount of control the researcher has over the situation and the degree to which the context relates to people’s daily lives. Such research is often classified as being either quantitative – involving the collection of numerical data – or qualitative – to do with the qualities of the situation.
