Research Methods Y2

content analysis

a form of observational research where people are studied indirectly via communications they have produced (media, written, spoken)

* aim is to systematically summarise so that conclusions can be drawn

case studies

detailed study of a single individual, institution or event

strengths and weaknesses of case studies

\- diff to generalise to rest of the target population

\+ produces rich detailed data

strengths and weaknesses of content analysis

\- may lack objectivity as it may impose meaning of behaviour from preconceptions

\- reductionist

\- detailed qualitative data gets reduced to numerical figure

\+ allows for statistical procedures

\+ more objective and replicable

thematic analysis

identifying/analysing patterns of meaning within qualitative data to organise into pre-identified themes to analyse an existing theory

strengths and weaknesses of thematic analysis

\- time consuming

\- subjective

\+ allows systematic study and exploration of qualitative data

procedure of content analysis

1. **Sampling**: researcher decides what material to use, what they will analyse and how they will collect the info
2. **Coding**: researcher must decide how to categorise the analysed materials
3. **Instances of each theme are gathered and categorised**
4. **Frequencies counted** numerically
5. **Reliability is tested** (+0.8 positive correlation)
6. Conclusions are drawn

Reliability

a measure of consistency

* **Reliability ain’t great unless it’s +0.8**

Ways of assessing reliability

* Test-retest
* Inter-observer reliability

Test-Retest method

administer the same test/ questionnaire to the same person/people on diff occasions

used for questionnaires, interviews, tests (like IQ etc)

* reliable test should give similar results

Inter-Observer reliability

observers should work in teams of 2, watch the same event and record separately

results should be correlated at the end to assess reliability

Ways to improve reliability

Questionnaires

* use test retest method, low reliability = some items may need to be rewritten due to ambiguity or too complex

Interviews

* use same interviewer each time, structured interviews, no leading questions

Experiments

* lab for high control and standardisation

Observations

* behavioural categories = properly operationalised, measurable and self-evident

Validity

a measure of legitimacy

* **internal validity**: whether the effects observed are due to manipulation of IVs or not
* **external validity**: factors outside of the investigation such as generalising to other populations, settings etc

Ways of assessing validity

* **face validity**: does it look good?
* **concurrent validity**: compare current research to previously established research and see if they produce similar results

Ways to improve validity

Experimental research

* single/double blinds, standardisation, control groups

Questionnaires

* lie scales to control social desirability bias, anonymity

Observations

* covert observations as behaviour more likely to be authentic, behaviour categories = properly operationalised

Qualitative

* interpretive validity = research must be reported coherently, triangulation = multiple diff sources as evidence

hypothesis

precise and predictable statement about the world which can be tested

* **null hypothesis**
* **alternative hypothesis**

significance

indicating that the research findings are sufficiently strong to enable a researcher to reject the null hypothesis

* 95% + = IV caused change
* higher for drug trials = 99%

type 1 error

**rejecting** a null hypothesis which is true

* likely if significance level is too high (10%)

type 2 error

**accepting** null hypothesis that is false

* likely to happen when significance level is too low (1%)

Levels of measurement

* nominal
* ordinal
* interval

Nominal

frequency data that consists of the # of pps falling into categories

eg. 7 ppl passed the test whilst 5 ppl didn’t

Ordinal

data presented in rank order

eg. attractiveness ratings

Interval

data measured in fixed units with equal distance between points on the scale

eg. temperature

descriptive statistics

describe, show differences and pattern in the data set

* includes measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion

inferential statistics

find out whether results are significant so they can be used to generalise to the rest of the population

critical value

calculated value needs to be less than or equal to critical value to be significant

parametric tests

* better able to detect a significant affect
* only used on interval data
* homogeneity of variance between conditions is needed
* unrelated t-test
* related t-test
* Pearson’s R

non-parametric tests

* used for ordinal and norminal data
* less powerful
* no homogeneity of variance
* Spearman’s Rho
* Wilcoxon
* Mann-Whitney U-Test
* Chi-squared

Mann Whitney U test

used when

* hypothesis predicts a diff between 2 sets of data
* independent groups design
* ordinal data

Wilcoxon

used when

* hypothesis predicts difference
* repeated measures or matched pairs
* ordinal data

Unrelated t-test

used when

* independent groups design
* interval data

Related t-test

used when

* repeated measures or matched pairs design
* interval data

Chi-squared

used when

* test of difference
* independent groups design
* nominal data

Spearman’s Rho

used when

* test of relationship
* ordinal data

Pearson’s R

used when

* test of correlation
* interval data

Features of science

* **objectivity**
* **empirical method**
* **replicability**
* **falsifiability**
* **theory construction**: evidence needs to be collected before and knowledge cannot be based on beliefs
* **hypothesis**
* **paradigms and paradigm shift**

structure of psychological studies

1. title
2. abstract
3. introduction
4. aim and hypothesis
5. method
* design of the investigation
* procedure
* use of participants
* resources used
6. results
7. discussion
* explanation of findings
* implications of study
* limitations and modifications of the study
* relationship to background research
* suggestions for further researcher
8. references
9. appendices