ABSTRACT
Designing any research study in psychology may be seen as a decision-making process. One of the first decisions that need to be made is whether people are going to adopt a quantitative or qualitative approach to the study of personality. A quantitative approach is characterised by collecting data that can, if required, be turned into numbers or numerical data of some sort. This numerical data can then be subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistics. The laboratory experiment is the method par excellence, representing a scientific approach to the study of personality. The laboratory experiment allows research to progress from theory to hypothesis/prediction to testing the prediction under highly controlled conditions. Whilst interviews are usually categorised under the qualitative approach this does not have to be the case. An interview is usually conducted on a one-to-one basis between the researcher and the quantitative approach.
