What research design should I choose if I want to describe or predict people's behavior?

• Observational research design, correlational research design

Two important goals of research in psychology are description and prediction. In observational research, researchers attempt to describe fully all aspects of behavior in a situation. Correlational research goes one step further by attempting to find predictive relationships (correlations) among the variables that are measured in the study. A correlation exists when two variables are associated (co-vary), but the relationship may not be causal (i.e., one variable does not cause the other).

These two types of studies are combined in this section because a key feature of both designs is that researchers don't attempt to control or manipulate the participants' behavior. Instead, they simply measure and record behavior and mental processes as they naturally occur. For this reason, these designs sometimes are called passive observational studies (Kazdin, 1999).

How do I conduct an observational or correlational study?

Can a study be both observational and correlational?