A research psychologist performs studies and research at an academic institution, business, or on a freelance basis. The duties of a research psychologist include coming up with hypotheses to test, developing research plans, creating experiments to test their ideas, analyzing the data derived from their experiments, and writing reports and papers explaining the results. They may travel to conferences to present findings. A research psychologist must also be able to write grants or seek funding from outside sources, such as foundations, research institutions, or government agencies.