Ch.2 - Research Methods
Research Methods
• There is a lot of opinion competing for your attention
◦ Pseudoscience : “fake” science
‣ Mind reading, astrology
◦ Common sense psychology
‣ We only use 10% of our brains; only the crazies come out during a full moon
‣ Have to be careful about relying on common sense; the goal of science is to do the research and find the facts
• Is it peer reviewed? Outdated data or theories? Reliable sources?
Relationship Science
• The scientific study of relationships
• Relatively new endeavor
◦ 1879
◦ New area of psychology; a sub-study of it
◦ Difficulties as a relatively new study
You Start With a Question
• The questions researchers ask emerge from various sources
◦ Where might we be able to get research questions for this class?
‣ By reading articles and picking it apart; finding what could’ve been done better; what we liked and didn’t
‣ Relationship problems
• How you respond to grand gestures is determined by what YOU think a grand gesture is
Developing a Question
• Some studies describe behavior, some wish to predict behavior, and others strive to establish the cause of behaviors
• Depending on which you are interested in will help us to determine our methodology
Obtaining Participants
• Whose relationships get studied?
◦ Convenience Sample : they are convenient to access to me
‣ Info done with one sample, take it with a grain of salt
◦ Representative Sample : representative of the pop. you are interested in; subset of the pop.
• A potential problem:
◦ Volunteer Bias : bias in those who volunteer to participate
‣ Lack of representation in your volunteer; limits the scope of who you can make assumptions about
Choosing Your Method
• Non-experimental
◦ Observational
◦ Surveys
◦ Correlational
◦ Developmental
• Experimental
Observational Method
• Diff kinds of observational research:
◦ Laboratory : in a controlled environment
‣ Less lifelike, more control
◦ Naturalistic : outside the lab, in the field, in it’s natural environment
‣ More lifelike, lacks control
◦ Participant methods : you as a researcher are acting like a participant
‣ Participants wouldn’t know
‣ Good for behaviors often hidden
‣ Ethical concerns
‣ Undercover cop
‣ Confederates : their participation is supposed to manipulate the behaviors
◦ Experience-sampling : rare behaviors, observe people in range of time
‣ Journal entries
‣ Useful for getting a snapshot
◦ Archival analysis : looking at the past through documents
‣ Letters, diaries, journals
• Cons
◦ May affect research
◦ May be a private thing so it’s hard to get the real behavior (arguing/fighting between couples)
Surveys
• A self-report
◦ Participant is reporting about themselves
• Asked about attitudes or reported behavior
◦ How might we used this is a relationship research?
• Advantages?
◦ Can kind of see how people view themselves
• Disadvantages?
◦ Lying
‣ Social desirability : make ourselves appear as society thinks we should
• FOREX : “How many sexual partners have you had?”
‣ They’re just mean
◦ Bad memory/misremembering
‣ Age
‣ Stories can influence
Correlational Method
• Used to predict behavior
• Correlation coefficient : r = +1 to -1
◦ This tells us 2 pieces of information
‣ The direction of the relationship (positive or negative)
• Positive : move in same direction
• Negative : move in opposite directions
‣ The strength of the relationship
• The closer it is to 1, the stronger the relationship (as long as it is within the two 1’s)
• Collectively not individually
• Describing a correlation
◦ Correlational data can be graphed
‣ Positive
‣ Negative
‣ Unrelated (no slope)
• When can correlations be trusted
◦ Issues with correlations?
‣ 3rd variable : a new amiable that better explains the correlation
‣ Directionality : which direction (aggressive kids are more likely to play violent video games or violent video games cause kids to be more violent?)
‣ No causation : correlation does not equal causation
2.3.25
Developmental Designs
• Longitudinal
◦ Long study : follow same group of individual over time
◦ Cons : takes a long time 1 yrs of data, may drop out, move)
◦ Pros : easy to detect changes
• Cross-sectional designs
◦ Same 10 years but now we will look at cross section of it : newly weds, 3 years, 2 years)
◦ Testing all different groups
◦ Pros : shorter term = faster results
◦ Cons : different people = harder to detect changes
• Retrospective designs
◦ Looks backwards
◦ Want to know about your first love, first kiss
◦ Cons : sometimes inaccurate because based on memory
• What might we study using these approaches? Benefits and drawbacks?
• Development of growth and a development of a relationship
◦ Predict a behavior
Experimental Method
• What if we want to know the cause of a behavior/
◦ Independent variable : manipulated
◦ Dependent variable (outcome)
◦ Cause of Behavior
◦ Something is being manipulated (IV & DV
• EX
◦ Drug IV since they are giving each group a different drug
◦ Level of depression DV
• Internal Validity vs. External Validity
◦ Internal Validity : control
◦ External validity : generalizability
‣ Mundane realism : like real-life
‣ Psychology realism : similar to psychological processes in real life
• Limits
◦ Experimental sitch’s can be
‣ Artificial and distant from real life
‣ Unethical
Selecting a Setting
• Laboratories : controlled
• Natural environments : daily lives of participants
• One structured sitch’s invite people to role-play (tell participants to remember the last fight they had)
◦ Scenarios
◦ Simulations
The Nature of the Data
• Self-Reports
◦ Most common relationship science
‣ Issues?
• Bias to look good
• Bias bc of inaccurate memory
• Bias emotional statement
• Bias bc researcher is the only one responding and observing behavior
• be careful with eh conclusions they drop
◦ Other types of data:
‣ Physiological measures : heart rate, pupil dilation, fear
‣ Couples’ reports : report the couple and each one themselves
◦ The complex nature of relationships research
Ethics
• Should relationship science pry into people’s personal affairs?
◦ Distress since we are asking questions about what they don’t want to think about
◦ It can benefit humans to see why each relationship could be successful, communication, effective relationship coping
• Institutional review board (IRB) : evaluate study and look at all those risks; the benefit outweighs the costs/harm