ABSTRACT
Numerous books on research methods written by and for psychologists are published every year. My bookshelf overflows with complimentary copies of such texts that publishers send me in the hope that I will recommend them to my students. I find the bulk of these books unimaginative and dull. A lot of authors seem to think that 'research methods' is little more than statistical analysis, based on psychologists' peculiar interpretation of statistical significance testing (see Chapter 5). The better ones tell you something about good design principles that ensure the control of extraneous or confounding variables. What is striking about all of them is what they do not tell you: how to do research. In a sense, they are much more about how not to do research.
