Which research method do you believe would be most effective in attempting to obtain information on people’s environmental awareness? Explain your answer.

          In environmental psychology there are five main effective environmental research methods used for attempting to obtain information on individuals' environmental awareness. These five main research methods include questionnaire studies, laboratory experiments, simulation studies, field studies and case studies. Each of these five research methods has its own strengths and weaknesses, and can be used in a particular setting. In regards to the use of these five main research methods, questionnaire studies can be used in environment independent settings, laboratory experiments and simulation studies can be used in artificial settings, and case studies and field studies can be used in real settings (Steg, 2013). The research method that I believe would be most effective in attempting to obtain information on people’s environmental awareness is field studies. Steg (2013), "in order to achieve high external validity without compromising too much on internal validity, many environmental psychologists use field studies" (p. 9). Since environmental psychologist conduct field studies in real-life settings, both they are fairly high in external validity and internal validity (Steg, 2013). Field studies are also replicable; therefore, an environmental psychologist is capable of replicating another's work and findings. The replicability of field studies proves how reliable these types are studies are. With a good balance of external and internal validity and with its reliability I believe the most effective research method to use are field studies.       

Reference

Steg, L. (2013). Environmental psychology: An introduction. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.