RM: non-experimental methods

what are the 5 ethical issues in psychological research?

• informed consent

• deception

• protection from physical harm

• protection from psychological harm

• privacy and confidentiality

informed consent

the ppt fully knows what is going to happen in the study (aware of aims, procedure and rights before the study goes ahead)

how to deal with informed consent-

• all ppts sign a consent form

• parental consent for those under 16

• presumptive consent (ask a similar group of people)

• prior general consent (give consent to a number of studies)

• retrospective consent (get consent after the study)

deception

deliberately misleading or withholding information from ppts- deception makes informed consent impossible

how to deal with deception-

debrief ppts at the end, informing them of what happened, what their data will be used for and allow them the opportunity to withdraw their results

protection from psychological harm

as long as there is no more danger than everyday life- don't psychologically harm your ppts

how to deal with protection from psychological harm-

• reassure ppts their behaviour was normal

• offer counselling/signposts to where they can get help if needed

• follow up with them

privacy and confidentiality

in line with data protection laws (the right to have personal data proteted)

how to deal with privacy and confidentiality

• maintain anonymity (don't record names, instead use numbers)

• don't share data with other researchers

general positives of observational studies

• high validity (tend to reflect real life situations)

• ppts display more spontaneous and unexpected behaviour due to lack of demand characteristics

general negatives of observational studies

• observer bias (everyone views things differently/to different extremes)

• only observable behaviour is recorded (don't observe thoughts)

types of observational studies: overt observation

a ppt knows that they are going to be observed

types of observational studies: overt observation strengths

• you can get informed consent so is ethically acceptable

types of observational studies: overt observation weaknesses

• demand characteristics can influence behaviour

types of observational studies: covert observation

a ppt is unaware that they are being observed as behaviour is being observed in secret

types of observational studies: covert observation strengths

• people act more naturally

• high internal validity

types of observational studies: covert observation weaknesses

• ethical issues due to a lack of informed consent

types of observational studies: participant observation

observer becomes a member of the group being observed

types of observational studies: participant observation strengths

• experiencing the situation first hand

• increased external validity

types of observational studies: non-participant observation

researcher remains separate from the observation

types of observational studies: non-participant observation strengths

• maintains objective position

• less danger of adopting the local lifestyle

types of observational studies: non-participant observation weaknesses

• may lose valuable insight

• may be too far removed from the observation

types of observational studies: controlled observation

have control over variables

types of observational studies: controlled observation strengths

• control over confounding/extraneous variables

• increased validity of findings

• replication is easier

types of observational studies: controlled observation weaknesses

• cannot be generalised to everyday life

• low external validity

• low mundane realism

• demand characteristics

types of observational studies: naturalistic observation

takes place in the subject area, the environment is not controlled

types of observational studies: naturalistic observation strengths

• high external validity

• reflects real life

• easily generalised to real life

types of observational studies: naturalistic observation weaknesses

• lack of control over variables

• replication is difficult

• no control over confounding/extraneous variables meaning we cannot fully establish cause and effect

observational design: behavioural categories

• taking subjective behaviours (e.g. anger) and making them objective and observable (e.g. kicking, shouting, biting)

observational design: event sampling

recording a behaviour every time it happens (e.g. every time you see someone laugh, record it)

observational design: time samping

recording a behaviour when it happens during a set time period (e.g. for 1 min every 10 mins record when you see someone laugh)

structured observations

there are various systems used to organise the observation

unstructured observations

researcher records all relevant behaviour with no clear system

self report is a non-experimental method consisting of…

interviews and questionnaires

questionnaires

• set of written questions

• collect info about a topic/topics

• can use open or closed questions to get qualitative or quantitative data

positives of questionnaires

• easily distributed

• cheap

• lost of obtainable behaviour

• vast sample increases reliability

• respondent may be more honest than in an interview

negatives of questionnaires

• bias due to only being able to be filled in by people who can read and write

• answers can depend on mood/state

interviews

• face to face with another individual which results in the collection of data

• can be structured or unstructured

structured interviews

pre determined questions that are not deviated from

unstructured interviews

new questions may be developed during the course of the interview- may have some pre planned questions but allows for flexibility

positives of structured interviews

• questions are standardised so can be repeated to assess reliability

• easier to analyse than unstructured interviews

negatives of structured interviews

• interview bias reduced the reliability and validity of findings

• not able to stray from the original questions means that important information may be ignored

positives of unstructured interviews

• can obtain more detailed data

• more informal so a rapport can be built

negatives of unstructured interviews

• requires a highly skilled interviewer

• unquantifiable so cannot be generalised and hard to be analysed

what is the difference between a correlational study and an experiment?

a correlational study has no manipulation of variables so cause and effect cannot be established, they are a really good starting point to research

what will a correlational hypothesis say?

state the association between the two co-variables (e.g. there will be a relationship), also can be directional or non-directional

what is a correlation?

a systematic association between 2 continuous varibales

what is content analysis?

a method used to analyse qualitative data that allows a researcher to take qualitative data and turn it into quantitative data- can be used for data in many formats e.g. interview transcripts

the researcher conducting content analysis will use 'coding units' in their work-

• these units vary depending on the data used

example = number of positive or negative words used by a mother to describe her child's behaviour

example = number of swear words in a film

strengths of content analysis

• easy

• fast

• allows statistical analysis to be conducted

• reliable way to analyse qualitative data (coding units not open to interpretation so can be applied the same way by other researchers)

weaknesses of content analysis

• causality cannot be established as it is purely descriptive