Psych Reading Quiz

Questionnaire

Written set of questions

Survey

Both a set of questions and the process of collecting, aggregating, and analyzing the responses to those questions

Variation Ratio

1 - (the number of people who agree with mode / sample size ).

Longitudinal

Takes place over a significant period of time

Retrospective

Looking backward in time

Prospective

Looking forward in time prediction

Idiographic Approach

Understanding someone in depth

Nomothetic Approach

General Phenomena of interest

Analyzing Surveys

• Can only use median and mode because when we use a Likert Scale the data is ranked data or ordinal, so we cannot presume that the differences between the intervals are equal. We also cannot determine that everyone interprets often and sometimes the same. So you can only use median and mode. 

• Variation Ratio and Mode should be looked at. The VR tells you that that number percentage of respondents did not agree with the mode 

• Create a box plot

Research Methods vs Data Collection:

Surveys and Questionnaires are not always the research methods and sometimes just used simply for data collection

Bias in questionnaires/surveys:

• Social Desirability Bias

• Non response Bias

• Acquiescence Bias: Participants agree with a statement when they have no strong opinion. People are often more comfortable agreeing than disagreeing with the researcher

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Strengths/Limitations of Likert Scale Surveys:

• Strengths: allowing for degrees of opinions, quantitative data is obtained for statistical analysis, 

• Limitations: Validity can be compromised due to social desirability, cultural differences (Japanese and Chinese are more toward mean and no opinions compared to Americans who chose extremes.)

Strengths/Limitations of Questionnaires

• Strengths: Generate a lot of data, rich qualitative data, 

• Limitations: Harder to analyze, statistical analysis cannot be applied, the analysis process may be open to researcher bias, social desirability bias

Types of Triangulation: 

• Methodological: Researchers use different methods to study the same thing

• Data: Use different sources of data

• Researcher: Multiple researchers interpret or analyze the data

• Theoretical: Uses multiple perspectives to understand the data

Strengths/Limitations of Case Study Method

• Strengths: Case studies provide rich data, triangulation helps credibility, may generate new theories

• Limitations: Cannot be replicated, the longitudinal nature may risk researcher bias, Longitudinal case studies may suffer from participant attrition - a high dropout rate of participants.