Psychology is a scientific study of the human mind and behaviour, and the quality of any psychological claim requires empirical research behind it. However, students at any level, whether taking research methods at the undergraduate level or conducting a master’s dissertation, will find themselves making a series of mistakes. These mistakes can be due to inexperience with the requirements of the research process, lack of time, ignorance of what constitutes an error, or even lack of knowledge about what it is they should be doing. This article discusses common errors in six areas.
Research Design Mistakes
A research design can ruin everything that comes after it. One big problem is that the research question and the method used do not match. For instance, a learner wishing to find out why people act in a certain way may survey while they ought to conduct an interview or conduct observation of people. The second error is that the learner is ambiguous about whether the research will be qualitative, quantitative or both, which affects the reasoning of the research design (Illinois Institute of Technology Libraries, n.d.).
Read More: The Dark Side of Psychological Research: 5 Experiments That Changed Research Ethics
Failing to Review Existing Literature Thoroughly
Students might not conduct an exhaustive literature review before conducting their research. Conducting a literature review assists students in comprehending the available information and finding topics that need more research (Steiner et al., 2023).
Confusion about the meaning of results is also experienced by the students. The students might assume that, merely on the basis of the relation between two variables, one is causing the other. This may not always be true, particularly in the case of observational studies or survey studies. To determine the causality between two variables, an experiment needs to be conducted.
Tip: Write a sentence before the collection of data which links the research question to the design and how the students will interpret it. If the sentence doesn’t make sense, the design must be altered.
Choosing a Research Topic That Is Too Broad or Too Narrow
If a chosen research topic is too broad, the research becomes hard to narrow down. A very specific research topic may have very little information related to it.
Read More: 4 Interesting Psychology Research Paper Topics
Sampling Errors
Sampling errors are hard to fix once data collection begins. One of the errors is inviting friends to participate in research without considering the fact that this will affect the kind of information that will be gathered about other people.
Another problem is when the selection process leads to choosing individuals who are not the right people that the researcher intends to conduct research on. If the participants under study are heterogeneous, there may be a need to adopt a sampling technique that will include heterogeneous samples (Illinois Institute of Technology Libraries, n.d.).
Tip: Determine the sample size based on some calculations and not by guesswork. Justify the choice of a particular sampling technique and perform a power calculation for sample size determination.
Read More: Master the Art of Research: Topics and Tips for Your Psychology Paper
Ethical Mistakes
Such ethical errors in research may lead to real harm for participants and pose significant problems for the institution in question (British Psychological Society, 2021).
- Vague Consent Forms: The ideal consent form does not simply require signatures but must include detailed information about the study that will be done and its potential consequences to the participants and their ability to exit the study at will.
- Skipping the Debrief: If a study has used deception, then participants must be debriefed afterwards (American Psychological Association, 2017).
- Conducting Data Collection without Ethical Approval: Conducting data collection without getting the relevant approval beforehand is a significant ethical mistake (British Psychological Society, 2021).
- Underestimating Sensitive Data: In the case of personal experience, emotions or behaviour data collection, the data collected will be sensitive. Unless properly treated, participants may experience harm from that (Grover et al., 2022).
Pro-Tip: Do not think of the consent forms and debriefing scripts as last-minute bureaucratic paperwork. Think of them as core tools of research design that protect both participants and the project.
Read More: Common Mistakes in Psychological Report Writing
Overlooking Proper Citation and Referencing
Students often have problems with patchwriting and giving credit for information or facts that are not common knowledge. They may think that information learned in class does not need a citation. That is not true (American Psychological Association Style, n.d.).
There are also problems with formatting. Citations from the text may not be matched with references in the reference list, or there may be errors with punctuation and italics. As per APA 7th edition style, the author and date in brackets must match the reference in the list (American Psychological Association Style, n.d.).
Tip: It is better to note references from the very beginning of research, and when paraphrasing something, to write it out in your own words and then compare it with the reference.
Read More: What Is APA Style? A Complete Guide to Academic Writing and Citations
Interpretation Errors
The biggest mistakes can happen when looking at collected information because they can produce results that seem real but are not. P-hacking is done when information is analysed using multiple methods, and once a significant outcome is observed, it becomes the focus of attention. This practice may cause problems in replicating the results of studies (Head et al., 2015).
Another problem is HARKing. This is when researchers develop a theory after looking at the information and then present it as though they had predicted it (Kerr, 1998). There are also statistical interpretation mistakes. One is thinking that a non-significant p-value means that nothing is happening. Another is misunderstanding what a p-value means. Researchers may also fail to account for multiple tests or choose a statistical method that does not match their data (Head et al., 2015).
Tip: Before analysing data, write down what you expect and how you plan to analyse it. Report the ways you looked at the information, not only those that produced the desired results. If a result is surprising, report it honestly.
Reporting Weaknesses
Even well-planned studies can have problems because of how they are reported. Students may not provide enough methodological detail for other researchers to repeat the study. They may also avoid discussing limitations or report only statistically significant results without reporting effect sizes. These practices can lead to unsupported conclusions (CASRAI, 2026).
Tip: When writing limitations, be honest and specific. Discuss the sample size, whether results can be applied to other groups, and problems with measurement. Clear limitations show that researchers are careful and rigorous.
Conclusion
The problems in research that most psychology students make are not due to their lack of intelligence, but rather their inability to develop good research practices. When the design fails to align with the question, sampling is incorrect, ethical guidelines are neglected, citation practices are incomplete, statistics are misconstrued, or report elements are missing, research suffers. Practices such as developing analyses and ethics prior to conducting research, as well as transparency in research, can assist students in creating a solid basis for their future practice in psychology (British Psychological Society, 2021).
References +
- American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct (2002, amended effective June 1, 2010, and January 1, 2017). https://www.apa.org/ethics/code
- American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct (2002, amended effective January 1, 2010, and January 1, 2017). https://www.apa.org/ethics/code
- American Psychological Association Style. (n.d.). “Avoiding plagiarism”. https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/avoiding-plagiarism.pdf
- British Psychological Society. (2021). BPS Code of Human Research Ethics (2nd ed.). https://www.bps.org.uk/guidelines/bps-code-human-research-ethics
- CASRAI. (2026). The Review, replication 2(3), crisis, 196–217. explained. https://casrai.org/guides/replication-crisis
- Grover, S., Sarkar, S., & Sahoo, S. (2022). Ethics in psychiatric research. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 64(Suppl. 1), S68–S80. https://doi.org/10.4103/indianjpsychiatry.indianjpsychiatry_49_21
- Head, M. L., Holman, L., Lanfear, R., Kahn, A. T., & Jennions, M. D. (2015). The extent and consequences of p-hacking in science. PLoS Biology, 13(3), e1002106. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002106
- Illinois Institute of Technology Libraries. (n.d.). Common research pitfalls to avoid. https://guides.library.iit.edu/c.php?g=1302211&p=11042740
- Kerr, N. L. (1998). HARKing: Hypothesising after the results are known. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2(3), 196–217. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0203_4
- Steiner, P. M., Shadish, W. R., & Sullivan, K. J. (2023). Frameworks for causal inference in psychological science. In H. Cooper, M. N. Coutanche, L. M. McMullen, A. T. Panter, D. Rindskopf, & K. J. Sher (Eds.), APA handbook of research methods in psychology: Foundations, planning, measures, and psychometrics (2nd ed., pp. 23–56). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000318-002
