Research Methods ext.

Surveys

  • Questionnaires or interviews administered to a select group of people

  • Parts of a survey

    • Target population: group of the population you are focusing on

    • Sample: part of the population

    • Size: determined by the size of target population (1-2%)

    • Must represent all people of the target population

    • Random sample: select random people from target population

    • Stratified sample: population is divided by characteristic(s). Then the population is randomly sampled within each category.

    • Volunteer bias: only having people who care about taking surveys being questioned

  • Ex: if NJ wanted to lower the drinking age…who would be the target population?

  • Cons:

    • People may not be honest

    • People may limit their responses

    • People may say what they think the interviews want to hear

  • Pros:

    • Get a lot of information quickly

Case Study Method

  • In-depth study of a specific person or group

  • Ex:

    •  Phineus P, Gage, 

    • Freud’s research

    • Genie’s story

  • Pros: Can get a lot of information about behavior through repeated instances

  • Cons: Observer bias

Longitudinal Method

  • Long study, lasts many years

  • Select a group of participants and study them over a length of time

  • Observe participants at different intervals (ex: every 6 months)

  • Pros:

    • Detailed information about something specific

    • Know that changes are a result of development or experience

  • Cons:

    • Very time consuming

    • Extremely expensive

    • Risky? Will subject remain available?

Cross-Sectional

  • Select a sample of people of different age groups

  • Pros: Quicker

  • Cons: Less reliable; different due to experiences won’t be the same for everyone

Testing Method

  • Tests that are used to gather data and info

  • Ex:

    • Intelligence tests

    • Personality tests

  • New jobs may make you fill one out

Naturalistic Observation

  • Defined as a Field Study

  • Basically just observing in natural environment

  • Pros: easy; natural results

  • Cons: 

    • Take behavior as it happens- miss it, don’t understand it

    • Observer bias

    • Lots of uncontrolled variables

Laboratory Observation

  • Make sure we see the behavior we want to see

  • Control the environment of study

  • Pro: Less variables to worry about

  • Con: Less likely to see natural behavior

Experiment

  • Only way to show cause and effect

  • Be sure to replicate the experiment to ensure the same results

  • Process:

    • 1 - form a question: thinking of a question that you can experiment on

    • 2 - form a hypothesis: create a prediction for the question

    • 3 - test the hypothesis: conduct experiment

    • 4 - analyze results: review the data from experiment

    • 5 - draw a conclusion: decide whether your hypothesis was proven right or wrong

Analyzing Observations

  • After conducting research, analyze and interpret results

  • One method is correlation

    • Defined: a measure of how closely one thing is related to another

  • Positive correlation: As one variable goes up so does the other

  • Negative correlation: one variable goes up,  the other goes down

  • Correlation describes relationships

    • They do not show cause and effect

    • To see if cause and effect are present another method must be used

Variables

  • independent variable: the variable that is the cause of another variable

  • Dependent variable: the variable that is considered the effect of another variable

  • To determine cause and effect:

    • Independent variable must be first; dependent variable second

    • There must not be a third variable that causes the correlation between both of them

Experimental and Control Groups

  • Control Group: is used to make certain that the treatment is causing the behavior

  • Experimental Group: receives treatment

Placebo Effect

  • A treatment that has no effect apart from a person’s belief in it

Single Blind Study

  • When one doesn’t know if they received the experimental item

  • Participants are unaware of whether they are receiving the actual treatment or not

Double Blind Study

  • Both the participants and the experimenters are unaware of who has obtained treatment

Ethics in Research

  • Standards for proper and responsible behavior

  • Research with people

    • Limits the type of research that a psychologist may conduct

  • Confidentiality 

    • Must respect clients privacy

  • Tests can not pose a serious threat to physical or psychological health in the long run

  • However, they can have short-term or temporary effects

  • Informed consent

    • People are made aware of and agree to participate in the study after they have been given an overview of it

  • Deception

    • Some experiments cannot be conducted without deceiving people

  • When to use deception:

    • Believe that the benefits of research outweigh the potential harm

    • Believe individuals would agree if they understood the benefits 

    • Participants receive an explanation after experiment is concluded

Ethics in Using Data

  • Rules for collecting and analyzing data

  • If data contradicts hypothesis:

    • Must make that information available to others

    • Cannot use parts that support the hypothesis

Animal Research

  • Most studies don’t harm the animal

  • Some are harmful but necessary

  • Help us understand humans

  • Only as a last alternative

  • Potential benefits must outweigh the harm