Final answer:
Principal methods in Psychology include interviews, surveys, and other methods like ethnographic field research and historical secondary data analysis. Psychologists use interviews to gather authoritative perspectives, surveys for self-reported information, and other methods depending on the research topic.
Step-by-step explanation:
Psychology uses various information-gathering methods to study behavior and cognitive processes. Some of the principal methods include:
- Interviews: Psychologists conduct interviews with professionals or individuals who have direct experience with the research topic to gather authoritative perspectives.
- Surveys: Psychologists use surveys to collect self-reported information about thoughts, experiences, and beliefs. Surveys provide large amounts of data in a relatively short time.
- Other methods: Depending on the research topic, psychologists may use methods such as ethnographic field research, historical secondary data analysis, and content analysis. These methods are chosen based on the specific research question and suit the study topic.