How do researchers know which research method to use for their study?

The decision to use one of these over another depends mostly on what exactly the researchers are trying to find or understand, that is the aim of the study. as each has different strengths and limitations. An experiment, for example, is more appropriate for studies needing a lot of control and precision, especially when it comes to determining if the variable the researchers are interested in can directly cause an outcome. For example, if a psychologist is looking at the effect of listening to music on academic performance, they could use this method to get some participants to listen to music and others not while doing, for example, a reading task. This allows them to determine that the cause of how well they do is music listening. Also, they could be very accurate and make sure they all listen in the same volume, they do not have any other distractions, they have the same amount of time, etc, making sure no other variables affect their study. To put this in perspective, if these psychologists used a survey simply asking participants whether they listen to music while studying or not and also how good their grades are in school, their results would not be as accurate. There is no way to know if the reason for their grades is specifically music listening because there are many other factors that could affect their grades, such as stress, IQ level and motivation. However, if a psychologist wants to investigate, for example, how students use their social skills to make friends in school, an experiment would not be an appropriate method as it would not replicate the natural environment where students interact, and therefore the results would not be an actual representation of the real world scenarios. Therefore, the researcher may prefer to use an observational method, where they can simply watch real-life interactions between students and analyse them to make a conclusion.