The strongest research methods for psychological studies are: qualitative findings versus quantitative; experimental rather than descriptive or correlational; controlled - experiment, meta -
analysis, and observation designs over archival, case study, computational modeling, content
analysis, field experiment, interview, neuroimaging, quasi experiment, self - report inventory, random sample survey, or twin study; and prospective (where subjects are recruited prior to the proposed independent effects being administered) and longitudinal (where subjects are studied at
multiple time points) rather than retrospective or cross-section study.