The Goals and Purposes Behind Research, Explained

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The Goals and Purposes Behind Research

Research Methods in Psychology · Chapter 1: Foundations of Psychological ResearchSection 1.7 · lesson 7 of 9410 min · free with a free account

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In this lesson

What psychology ultimately tries to achieve.

  • Name the four core goals of psychology
  • Explain why each goal earns the next
  • Separate legitimate influence from manipulation
  • Recognize purposes beyond the classical four

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Everything said in the video, section by section (1,273 words). Read along, or search it.

Foundations of Psychological Research

The Goals Behind Research

This is the final section of the chapter, and it steps back from technique. Every study you have met so far answers one specific question. But what is psychology, as a whole, trying to do? The traditional answer names four goals. Describe, predict, explain, and influence. They are not four options to choose between. They are four stages, and each one earns the right of the next. By the end, you will name all four and say why the order matters. You will separate legitimate influence from manipulation. And you will see why the power to influence carries ethical weight.

The Bigger Question

The Question Beneath All Questions

Every individual study addresses a specific research question. But psychological research as a whole is guided by a smaller set of goals. Broad ambitions that shape what counts as progress, and why the work matters. Naming those goals does two useful things. For a researcher, it places your own study in a larger context. For a reader, it clarifies what any given study actually contributes. That second use is the one most people skip. A study can be excellent and still not answer the question you brought to it. This final section draws together the strands of the previous sections. It asks what scientific psychology, taken collectively, is ultimately trying to do.

Four Classical Goals

Describe, Predict, Explain, Influence

Most introductory texts describe psychology as pursuing four interlocking goals. Describe, predict, explain, and control. That last word is often replaced by influence, and we will come to why. Each goal builds on the one before it. Together they capture the cumulative ambition of the discipline. Description asks what is happening. Prediction asks when, or under what conditions, it will happen. Explanation asks why it happens at all. And influence asks whether we can change it. The arc runs from observation to influence, and the later goals rest on the earlier ones.

What Exists

Description

Description is the starting point of any scientific investigation. It identifies what exists, what people do, and how phenomena are organized. The question it answers is simply this. What is happening? Surveys mapping the prevalence of anxiety disorders serve descriptive ends. So do observational studies documenting parent and child interaction patterns. And case studies of unusual psychological conditions. Description sounds modest. It is the least glamorous word on the list, and the most load-bearing. No science advances without it. Everything that follows depends on a clear, accurate account of the phenomenon. Get the description wrong, and every later stage inherits the error.

Under What Conditions

Prediction

Once a phenomenon has been described, researchers can look for systematic relationships. Relationships that allow prediction. The question becomes: when, or under what conditions, will this happen? High school grade point average predicts university performance. Childhood shyness predicts adult social anxiety. Findings like these let researchers and practitioners anticipate outcomes. Without yet explaining why the relationship holds. That point is worth sitting with for a moment. Prediction does not require causal understanding. It requires only a reliable association. A study may show that holding a pen in your non-dominant hand slightly worsens performance. Nobody needs to know why for that difference to be predictively useful. Many applied tools work at this level, including risk assessment scales and screening instruments.

Why It Happens

Explanation

Explanation moves beyond prediction to ask why a phenomenon occurs. Explanatory research seeks the underlying mechanisms. Cognitive, emotional, neurobiological, social, or developmental processes. The processes that actually produce the observed pattern. This is a far harder standard to meet. Explanation typically requires experimental evidence. It requires theoretical integration, and the elimination of rival accounts. That last requirement is where most explanatory claims come apart. A satisfying explanation tells us not only that A predicts B, but how A produces B. And why the relationship can be expected to hold across different conditions.

Control And Influence

The Fourth Goal

The fourth goal is the most ambitious, and the most ethically charged. Using psychological knowledge to influence behavior, mental processes, or outcomes. When clinicians treat depression, they are exercising it. When educators design curricula, so are they. When human factors engineers redesign cockpit displays. When public health campaigns encourage vaccination. Each of these applies evidence in order to produce an intended outcome. The technical term for this goal is control, and the word does real damage. Control in psychology does not mean coercion. It means the systematic application of evidence to produce intended outcomes. Usually outcomes that the participants themselves want.

Ethical Limits

Influence, and Where It Stops

Because the language of control can sound paternalistic, or even manipulative. Contemporary psychology often substitutes the term influence, or change. The ethical boundary itself is clear enough. Techniques that help people achieve their own goals are appropriate. Managing anxiety, quitting smoking, improving sleep. Techniques used to manipulate people against their interests are not. Notice that the technique can be identical in both cases. What differs is whose goals are being served. The American Psychological Association, and similar bodies worldwide, set the requirement. Any application of psychological knowledge must respect autonomy and transparency. And informed consent, which later chapters take up in detail.

One Trajectory

The Four Goals in Sequence

The four goals are not alternative paths. They are cumulative stages. Consider the development of effective treatments for clinical depression. It reads as a single trajectory through all four. The first stage is description. Surveys document the prevalence, duration, and symptom profile of major depression. The second stage is prediction. Longitudinal studies identify risk factors, which may be genetic, social, or cognitive. The third stage is explanation. Experimental and neuroscientific research uncovers cognitive mechanisms, such as rumination. The fourth stage is influence. Cognitive-behavioral therapy, pharmacology, and behavioral activation programs. Four stages, and every one of them depended on the stage before it.

Skipping Stages

Each Goal Earns the Next

Which raises an obvious question. What happens if you skip a stage? Skipping stages produces shaky foundations. An intervention designed without proper description may target the wrong phenomenon. One designed without prediction may be applied to the wrong population. And one designed without explanation may appear to work, then fail when conditions change. Read that third failure again. It appears to work. That is exactly what makes it hard to catch. With no known mechanism, you cannot say where the effect should hold. So you cannot tell in advance which change will break it. Each goal earns the right of the next.

Broader Purposes

Beyond the Four Goals

The classical four describe what research tries to achieve about its subject matter. But research also serves broader purposes, at the level of the discipline itself. Theory development is the first. A single study may extend an existing theory to a new population. Or test a counter-prediction made by a rival theory. Or identify the boundary conditions under which a general principle fails. Methodological innovation is the second. Improved measures, refined paradigms, validated statistical techniques. Tools imported from other fields, including computational modeling and machine learning. Social betterment is the third. Reducing suffering, increasing opportunity, informing policy, advancing justice. And the fourth is education, because misunderstood or sensationalized research can cause harm.

Power And Duty

The Responsibility of Influence

One last responsibility, and it follows directly from that fourth goal. The goal of influence places real power in the hands of psychologists. Knowledge of persuasion, compliance, conditioning and cognitive bias can help people. The very same knowledge can be used to exploit them. Techniques that motivate adherence to medical regimens also work on consumer purchases. And on political opinions. The method does not settle the ethics. The purpose does. Codes of professional ethics, institutional review boards, and ongoing public discussion are the safeguards. They exist so that psychological knowledge serves human flourishing rather than its opposite. So carry one question into every study you read from here on. Not only what design is being used, but which goal is being served. It prevents a common mistake. Demanding causal explanation from a study designed only to describe.

About Research Methods in Psychology at UPI Study

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Research Methods in Psychology carries a NCCRS credit recommendation. These universities work with NCCRS; some are UPI Study's signed partners. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

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FAQ

Questions students ask us

About The Goals and Purposes Behind Research

What are the four goals of psychology?
The four traditional goals of psychology are to describe, predict, explain and control (often called influence) behavior and mental processes. Description asks what is happening, prediction asks when or under what conditions it will happen, explanation asks why it happens, and influence asks whether it can be changed. The goals are cumulative stages, with each later goal resting on the earlier ones.
Does prediction in psychology require knowing the cause?
No, prediction requires only a reliable association, not an understanding of why the relationship holds. High school grade point average predicts university performance, and childhood shyness predicts adult social anxiety, even without a causal explanation. Many applied tools, such as risk assessment scales and screening instruments, work at this level. Explanation is a harder standard that usually needs experimental evidence and the elimination of rival accounts.
What does control mean as a goal of psychology?
In psychology, control means the systematic application of evidence to produce intended outcomes, usually ones the people involved want, not coercion. Examples include treating depression, designing curricula and running vaccination campaigns. Because the word can sound manipulative, many psychologists say influence or change instead. The ethical line depends on whose goals are served: helping people reach their own goals is appropriate, while working against their interests is not.
How did depression research move from describing the disorder to treating it?
It moved through the four goals of psychology in order, each stage building on the last. Description came from surveys documenting the prevalence, duration and symptoms of major depression. Prediction came from longitudinal studies identifying genetic, social and cognitive risk factors. Explanation came from experimental and neuroscientific work on mechanisms such as rumination. Influence came from treatments including cognitive-behavioral therapy, medication and behavioral activation programs, each building on the earlier stages.

About the Research Methods in Psychology course

How many college credits is Research Methods in Psychology?
Research Methods in Psychology (Psychology 111) carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.
How much does Research Methods in Psychology cost and what is included?
$250, paid once, with lifetime access: all 94 video lessons, a practice quiz after each, the graded work and final exam, and an official transcript when you finish. Students who want several courses choose UPI Study PRO instead.
Which universities accept UPI Study credits?
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How long does Research Methods in Psychology take?
It is self-paced with no deadlines. The 94 lessons total about 16 hours of video; most students add reading and practice time and finish in a few weeks to a few months, on their own schedule.
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Quizzes and assignments are online in the course. The final exam is taken online with proctoring; a person on the UPI Study team checks assignments, usually within two days.
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