Descriptive, or qualitative, methods include the case study, naturalistic observation, surveys, archival research, longitudinal research, and cross-sectional research. Common examples of archival research sources are census records or survey data that was collected in the past. Archival research is a method of collecting data from sources that already exist. Archival data are nearly always plagued by inconsistencies and incompleteness. Psychology Definition of ARCHIVAL RESEARCH: the use of books, journals, documents, data sets, manuscripts, and other records or cultural artifacts in scientific research, that do not pertain to Here, the focus is on information that may be used to answer questions related to psychological phenomena, with an overview of the myriad sources of data available to the psychological researcher, and the advantages and disadvantages of secondary versus primary data use. Archival data can make it possible for small organizations with limited resources to conduct thorough evaluation studies. noted that the research methods used for internal, industrial research are sometimes not explicitly stated, and peer review is not as stringent as in research published in journals. Psychologists use descriptive, experimental, and correlational methods to conduct research. This method is an example of content analysis —a family of systematic approaches to measurement using complex archival data. Experiments are conducted in order to determine cause-and-effect relationships. > Exploring the Pages of Psychology’s Past: Archival Research in the History of Psychology About the Authors Cathy Faye and Jennifer Bazar are doctoral students in the History and Theory of Psychology program at York University, Toronto, Canada. A wide range of research methods are used in psychology. These methods vary by the sources from which information is obtained, how that information is sampled, and the types of instruments that are used in data collection. That is, the observations are conducted outside the … Most small community-based organizations simply have neither the money nor the personnel to gather large amounts of data – but, there’s no … Archival data may be thought of as any sort of information, previously collected by others, amenable to systematic study. This method differs from empirical research in which a hypothesis and areas of interest are determined before data collection occurs. Cook et al. Moreover, the archival method is more cost-effective than other methods, because researchers can use internet databases to locate free archives. Although this method is typically used as a type of correlational research design—due to the lack of control over the relevant variables—archival research shares the higher ecological validity of naturalistic observation. The method section of an APA format psychology paper provides the methods and procedures used in a research study or experiment.This part of an APA paper is critical because it allows other researchers to see exactly how you conducted your research, allowing for the reproduction of the experiment and assessment of alternative methods that might produce different results.