Social Psychology: research methods and techniques

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to identify the research methods adopted by researchers in the field of Social Psychology, differentiating them by considerations derived from the four epistemic dimensions. Our starting point was a study conducted to identify the theoretical references and research methods used by educators and researchers in the field of social psychology. The results presented here refer to data, obtained in the years 2011 and 2012, relating to 545 social psychologists and professors of social psychology, of which 157 responded in Portuguese and 388 in Spanish. The average age of participants was 41.5 years (standard deviation = 11.4; minimum = 21 years; maximum = 78), being 54% female and 43% male. The participants originated from 19 countries, with Spain (158), Brazil (149), Mexico (64), and Argentina (45) the most frequent. Based on the results, we sought to classify and subsequently to estimate the frequency of use of the methods, considering them based on the distribution of the researchers from two geographic regions, Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula. Since geographical distribution did not provide a consistent criterion for differentiating between methods, we tried to understand the differences by considering ultimately the theoretical approach embraced by the researcher.