Empirical Research

Finding Empirical Research for Psychology

For any kind of classroom assignments, but especially graduate or doctoral level research, it is important to search subject indexes like PsycINFO and PubMed to locate enough logical and empirical resources that would help you establish the merit and importance of your own research.

The goal is to locate empirical research that provides systematic observation about your topic. You want primary resources that provide detailed reports on the methodology used and the findings. You are most likely to locate scholarly resources in refereed (peer-reviewed) journals, dissertations, government reports, books, and conference papers in the professional literature. You should avoid secondary resources such as newspaper or magazine articles, web sites, or digests that simply summarize research in the literature review unless there is a compelling reason to include a resource.

It is very important to remember that each database has its own vocabulary, therefore different subject headings or descriptors. Use the Thesaurus or Subject index for that particular database to guide you to relevant terms.

So what exactly is Empirical Research?

Empirical research uses data derived from actual observation or experimentation.

Three major types of journal articles that discuss research are: reports of empirical studies, review articles, and theoretical articles.

• Reports of empirical studies are articles summarizing original research.

• Review articles are further examinations of research that has already been published.
  • A research review can describe a phenomenon, review an existing theory or present a new one. One example is a critical evaluation of how one theory accounts for some data as compared to some other theory. Whatever the kind of review, the goal is to organize, integrate, and evaluate previous research in order to clarify a particular problem or issue. In PsycINFO, both Literature Review and Systematic Review are in this category.

• Theoretical articles are written to advance theory and they may include both empirical research and a review of research in order to elaborate the theoretical position.

Components of Empirical Research

You should become familiar with the format of an article reporting on original research so that you can recognize an empirical study even if you come across it in your reading (i.e. without using a library database to assist you in limiting to this type of journal article).

There are several different sections of reports of empirical studies relating to the different steps of the scientific method:

Abstract – A report of an empirical study includes an abstract that provides a very brief summary of the research.

Introduction – The introduction sets the research in a context, which provides a review of related research and develops the hypotheses for the research.

Method – The method section is a description of how the research was conducted, including who the participants were, the design of the study, what the participants did, and what measures were used.

Results – The results section describes the outcomes of the measures of the study.

Discussion – The discussion section contains the interpretations and implications of the study.

General Discussion – There may be more than one study in the report; in this case, there are usually separate Method and Results sections for each study followed by a general discussion that ties all the research together.

References - A references section contains information about the articles and books cited in the report.

A Word about Literature Reviews

Sometimes a class assignment will be to “do a literature review.” Lit reviews are also part of research reports, usually in the introduction where a discussion of previous research is included.

When carrying out this assignment, students usually want to know how many articles they need to review and how many resources should be included in the literature review.

Whether it is part of an essay, thesis or dissertation or you are preparing a literature review as a separate project, what you should ask yourself is, “Why am I including this study or reference?”

The resources you select will help build an argument for the methods and interpretations you employ in your research paper. It is important to remember that you be comprehensive and that the reviews you use are up to date. The literature review should also demonstrate that you have a thorough command of your field.

But, remember, showing that you have a command of the literature in your area of interest does not mean that you need to provide a catalog of every article ever written on your topic. Consider what aspects of the topic you are specifically focusing on so that you can select the appropriate database, and can narrow your search down to a manageable 50-100 resources that you will want to start taking a look at (you won’t necessarily be including all 50-100). The literature review is meant to provide a coherent argument that justifies the value, importance, and need for your study.