This second section of this book provides you with a useful discussion of the 10 key methods which you may choose to use to collect your research data. The chapter authors discuss the most relevant information about each method, including the principal advantages and disadvantages, and also provide you with key references for further more detailed reading about each method. These chapters inform you not so much of the how of each method but instead the why you might choose to base your study on a specific method or methods.
Chapter 6 discusses the recent increase in popularity of systematic reviews and clearly demonstrates that conducting a systematic review is not necessarily an ‘easier’ method of data collection. Chapter 7 describes the inclusion of archival data and provides useful insights for working with (usually) someone else’s dataset. Chapter 8 provides a useful overview of the most commonly used qualitative methods within applied psychology research, while Chapter 9 discusses three of the most frequently used qualitative methods in more detail: interviews, focus groups and the Delphi technique. Chapter 10 provides a detailed discussion of experimental and quasi-experimental research methods and suggests how including two or more of these methods can be useful. Chapter 11 discusses the increasing use of self-report surveys within psychology research, including web-based surveys. Methods of collecting data to assess cognitive processes are described in Chapter 12, while Chapter 13 provides a useful commentary on longitudinal data collection methods, including a discussion of current best practice. Chapter 14 focuses on diary studies, event sampling and smart phones ‘apps’, including the recent popularity of experience sampling methods. Finally, Chapter 15 provides a discussion of the key issues involved in collecting data via conducting organisational interventions.