Chapter 1 includes a section on Research Methods in Psychology.  Psychologists use a variety of research methods to study human mental processes and behavior.   Regardless of the method used, they all follow a general “scientific method.”  Review the following online resources for more information on the scientific method, as well as the different types of research methods covered in the reading.

• http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_scientific_method.shtml
• http://allpsych.com/researchmethods/introduction.html
• Video:  http://www.brightstorm.com/science/biology/foundation-of-biology/scientific-method-steps/

Now that you have reviewed applicable concepts related to research methods in psychology and the scientific method, review the following scenario and address the items below.

Research Scenario: An elementary school wants to study reading skills and improvement trends within their student population.  They have several research questions they want to explore including:

1. How much do reading scores change from the beginning of the school year to the end of the school year?
2. Do males and females have similar reading scores or different reading scores?
3. How do the factors of age, number of siblings, and IQ relate to reading scores?
4. Which activities and interventions help students with lower reading scores significantly increase their reading scores?