Methods of Educational Psychology
1. What are the different method of Educational Psychology. Briefly explain any two of them.
Educational psychology has its own method of study which are employed to improve teaching learning process in the classroom. The method uses to gather facts about the nature of children to know how they learn, how they develop and how the various aspects of a child’s personality passes through the several stages of growth and development. Educational Psychologist have adopted various means and methods. A few of them are mentioned below:
(a) Introspection Method.
(b) Observation Method.
(c) Clinical Method.
(d) Experimental Method.
(e) Case Study Method.
(f) Sociometric Method.
(g) Project or Projective Method.
(h) Statistical Method.
Introspection Method
2. Briefly explain the concept of Introspection method and its merits and demerits.
Introspection method is that type of method which is examine our own mental process of thoughts, feelings and motives. In this method, one places oneself in the place of the other person and tries to understand his feelings.
This is the oldest method of educational psychology. Here, The word ‘Introspection’ means self study or inner action of the mind. This method is composed of two words, “Intro” means ‘within’ and “aspection” means ‘looking’. Therefore, the combination word ‘introspection’ means ‘self observation’ or ‘looking within ones own mental stage’.
For example: Suppose you are happy, and in the state of happiness, you look within yourself. Then that means you are introspecting your own mental feelings and examining what is going on in your mental process in the state of happiness.
Merits of Introspection Method:
(a) This is the method which is cheapest and most economical. We do not need any apparatus or laboratory for its use.
(b) This method can be used any time and anywhere.
(c) This method is very simple and is readily available to the individual.
(d) This method helps us in understanding our mental experiences and their improvement.
(e) It is the only method where individual can know his emotions and feelings itself.
Demerits of Introspection Method:
(a) In this method, Study has to be made when the mind is working, which has to be done by the individual himself. Otherwise, it will be disappears due to their emotional state like- anger, sorrow, etc.
(b) This method can be applied only in the case of normal individuals but not for abnormal individuals.
(c) Introspection can not made by children.
(d) In this method, The observer has to be highly trained and skilled person.
(e) It is criticised as a subjective method. That is why, the data acquired through it are may not at all reliable.
Observation Method
3. Write in brief on observation method and its merits and demerits.
Observation means to notice something. It is an important method of educational psychology. This methods includes the observation of the behaviour of a person at different times. The various mental feelings and anger, fear, love, happiness, sadness, etc. can be observed under this method by the outward expression of a person.
This method tries to study human nature by observing expressed behaviour in various situations. There are different types of observation like- direct and indirect, natural and artificial, planned and unplanned, participant and non participant, etc.
Advantages of Observation method :
(i) With the help of this method, Behavioural problems in children can be located and preventive measures can be adopted.
(ii) This method can be used with children of all ages who are shy and problematic.
(iii) This method can be used in every situation where it does not require any special tool or equipment.
Disadvantages of Observation method:
(i) If the subject comes to know that he is being observed he may not behave naturally.
(ii) If the observer does not record the behaviour during the time of observation, he may forget a part of it when he tries to record it.
(iii) The observer may get only a small sample of students behaviour. It is very difficult to observe everything that a student does.
Clinical Method
4. Write a short note on clinical method, its merits and demerits.
The clinical method is an important method of educational psychology. This method used primarily to study behavioural problems of maladjusted individuals. This method is related to the field of medicine. The main purpose of this method is to study a particular individuals problem as a ‘case’ or ‘cases’ of a group to detect problems and suggested remedial measures.
Advantages or merits of the method of Clinical:
(i) This method takes into account the past and present history of the ‘case’ to study behavioural problems.
(ii) It also studies unconscious behaviour along with overt behaviour.
(iii) This method is regarded as a scientific one and it yields reliable results.
Disadvantages or demerits of the method of Clinical:
(i) It is difficult to observe complex behaviour and to provide useful remedies.
(ii) The interpretation of the case study may not always be correct because of the observers own intuition and theoretical.
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Experimental Method
5. Write about experimental method, its merits and demerits.
This method is one of the popular method of studying educational psychology. This method implies the study of the behaviour in a controlled situation that is experimental laboratory. In this method , the cause of the problem is found out before finding the solution, experiment are then caried out. This method can also be applied to test the mental abilities and intelligence of the students through certain tests. But experiment has to be very careful while drawing conclusion.
Advantages or merits of Experiment Method:
(i) This method is based on real experiment and therefore, the findings are reliable.
(ii) It helps a teacher to understand a child better after analysing the data.
(iii) As the conditions are under control the different mental process of the child can be studied accuracy.
Disadvantages or demerits of Experimental Method:
(i) This method is not always possible to control all conditions properly.
(ii) The experiment can be carried out by trained persons only.
(iii) If proper rapport can not be established between the subjects and the experimenter, the result will not be correct.
(iv) As lot of apparatus are required to carry out the experiment so that the method becomes expensive.
Case Study Method
6. Write short note on case study method, its merits and demerits.
Case study method is one of the important method of educational psychology. This method is used in the case of a problem of child. In this method, the history of the family of the child, his early life, student life, home and school life are studied thoroughly. This method is applied on children having psychological problem like- learning difficulties, behavioural problems, emotional disturbance etc. But not only in case of problematic children, this method also used in case of gifted children also.
Advantages or merits of Case Study Method:
(i) Case study method is useful and popular method used for studying special characteristics in individuals.
(ii) It helps to understand the root causes of behavioural problems faced by the subject after analysing the obtained data.
(iii) It also helps teacher to adopt remedial measures and rehabilitation of problems of children.
Disadvantages of Case Study Method:
(i) Case study method is a lengthy and time consuming.
(ii) The Collection of data and their analysis is difficult in this method.
(iii) The finding are always not reliable because it depends upon the information provided by the person himself which may not be authentic.
Socio-Metric Method
7. Who introduced socio-metric method ? Write its merits and demerits.
Socio-metric method is one another method of educational psychology which was first developed in 1946 by Dr. J.L. Moreno and Hellen Jennings. This method studies the social behaviour of individual relationship that exists between individuals or among members of a particular group to provide an interesting study of their nature of social relationship for measuring the status of each individuals. The nature and the degree of such relationship can be objectively assessed by using questionnaire, check list, interview, rating scales, standard tests etc.
Advantages or merits of Socio-metric method:
(i) Socio-metric method helps to make study the social relationship of an individual or among members of the group.
(ii) This method gives us an understanding of the likings and disliking’s of all the members of the groups.
(iii) Through this method teacher may know the most accepted and rejected students to organize group activity of the students in various academic and non- academic field out of it.
Disadvantages or demerits of Socio-metric method:
(i) Socio-metric method can be used to test only one trait of personality that is sociability.
(ii) The process of collection of data is not very scientific as if done through collection of opinion of member of particular group.
(iii) The response of a child regarding some questions may be affected by peer pressure.
Project or Projective Method
8. Write a brief concept of Projective Method. Enumerated its merits and demerits.
Project or projective method is a psycho-analytical method of educational psychology. This method applied in knowing the unconscious and repressed elements of individual mind. This method provides opportunity to evoke responses from unconscious mind which reveal a persons desire, hopes and wishes that could not be fulfilled in the reality. Such responses are drawn by presenting a broad range of testing materials like- pictures, ink-blot cards, drawing and painting, free association test, sentence completion, arranging and interpreting picture situations, filling in the blanks and so on. The responses are expected to reveal one’s inmost thoughts, ideas, emotions and complexes that have been repressed.
Advantages or merits of Projective method:
(i) Projective method is very helpful for psychiatrist for dragonising and treating mental disorders.
(ii) Through this method a complete picture of the personality of a person can be obtained.
(iii) This method also helps to externalize the inner thoughts and ideas of an individual.
Disadvantages or demerits of Projective method:
(i) Project projective method is time consuming and interpretation of the response is very difficult.
(ii) A common classroom teacher can not apply it because for the administration of projective tests special training is necessary.
Statistical Method
9. Write a brief concept of Statistical Method. Mention its merits and demerits.
Statistical method is also a one of the method of educational psychology. This method is being used for study and analysis of human behaviour and responses. In this method, the data is made which is collected by the experimenter on various occasion. This method uses to compare the intellectual development of two children or the same child over the years as he develops. This method also helps to compare the results of two classes, two schools, and so on. Statistical methods used are consisted of measure of central tendency, variability, percentile, coefficient of correlation, etc. Use these methods can simplify the complex data for objective and numerical observation of the result with greater reliability.
Advantages or merits of Statistical method:
(i) The calculations are accurate hence findings are reliable.
(ii) The facts collected has to be accurate for accuracy of the method.
(iii) One very important merits of this method is that scientific procedures are always followed in every steps of any statistical method.
Disadvantages or demerits of Statistical method:
(i) A common teacher is not capable of applying it as this method requires specially trained personnel.
(ii) If proper statistical method is not applied, the findings may be wrong and hence harmful for the subject.
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