ABSTRACT
Social psychology, like any other scientific endeavor, involves a semi-organized and extended process of learning about a topic through the collection and analysis of data. Social psychologists also define themselves through their teaching and mentoring, through their theory building, and through their social interactions with other scientists—but, bottom line, for most of us it is our research that matters most to us and to the academic community. This chapter discusses some of the many aspects of doing research in social psychology. It provides some thoughts about what seem to us to be the most critical aspects at each stage of the research process and then address some relevant current topics in the field. Students may often develop their research ideas through induction in part because they have personal interests in certain research topics and in part because they have not yet committed themselves to a particular theoretical orientation.
