summary for psy1005s exam
section it includes: quantitative research, intelligence, community psychology
summary made from textbook, but also includes my lecture notes
Quantitative Research
Quantitative vs. Qualitative
Quantitative
Involves the analysis of numbers
Draws on the logical positivist paradigm
Focus
o Prediction
o Causation
o Cause and effect
Can be described as more conclusive
o Because of how it looks at Cause and effect
Sample group chosen randomly
Researcher knows exactly what they are looking for
o Careful not to let anything interfere with the relationship they are
studying
Qualitative
Often involves an analysis of words
o In different settings
Discussions
Interviews
Unstructured
o Participant speaks and presents data in own
time and way
Structured
o Researcher organizes the topic
o Fixed questions
Asked to all
Semi- structured
o No fixed questions
o Researcher guides conversation
Predetermined topics
Images
Videos
Objects
o Opinions of the participants valued
Draws on a number of paradigms
Focus
o In-depth understandings of behaviour
o Reasons behind people’s behaviour
o Find patterns in peoples’ behaviour
More exploratory
o Can get evidence to further research
Can use sample groups chosen from a particular group
, o Instead of random selection
Researcher starts off with a general area they wish to study
o Can be surprised by the responses from participants
o May not know exactly what they are looking for when starting the
study
Problem of the subjective nature of Qualitative research
o Difficult to interpret
o Could be interpreted in many ways
o Can also be a strength
o Researcher find a balance to solve the problem
Need for rich subjective data
Problems that come with interpreting it
Researcher plays an integral part
o Decide how the data is collected
Many ways mentioned above
o Analyse the data
Interpreting the answers using criteria they have developed
Interpreting subtle body language in videosmjlbiugufiuty
,The Scientific Process
Start with a question
Develop an hypothesis
Define your variables
Test the hypothesis using sound research design
Analyse data
Report findings
More research and theory building
New hypotheses derived from theory
May then start at 4 again
Goals of Quantitative Research
Describing behaviour
Does attractiveness change over time?
Do students who study in front of the TV do worse than those who study
in a quiet environment?
Prediction of behaviour
Matric points predict success at university
Identifying the causes of behaviour
Do matric points cause university outcome?
Explaining behaviour:
If watching violence on TV causes aggressive behaviour, how?
o Through modeling?
o Through desensitisation to violence?
o Leading to a belief that violence is the norm?
Where do scientific ideas come from?
Common sense:
Do opposites attract?
Observations:
You store something in a special place and then can’t find it
Past research:
Which students drink more….
Practical problems:
How do we solve the problem of violence?
,Theories
• A theory is a systematic body of ideas about a particular topic or
phenomenon, which has two functions:
• It organises and explains a variety of specific facts or descriptions
of behaviour
• It generates new knowledge by focusing our thinking
• Scientific theory
• Are grounded in actual data from prior research
• They generate hypotheses which can be tested/They must be
falsifiable
• Hypothesis
• Testable predictions based on the theory
5 Types of Quantitative Studies
1. Case Study
Description
• Examine one subject in detail
Main Advantage
Provides rich descriptive detail
Suggests hypotheses for further study
Can study rare phenomena in depth
Main Disadvantage
o Can’t establish cause and effect
o May not be representative
o Can rely on subjective opinions
o Researcher
2. Naturalistic observation
Description
• Behaviour is observed
• Where it naturally occurs
Main Advantage
• Can provide detailed information about naturally occurring behaviours
o Nature
o Frequency
o Context
Main Disadvantage
• Can’t establish cause and effect
• Observer’s presence may affect behaviour of participants
3. Survey
Description
• Questions or tests
• Administered to a portion of a larger population
Main Advantage
• A properly drawn, representative sample
• Gives accurate information about the broader population
Main Disadvantage
, • Unrepresentative samples = misleading results
• Interviewer and social desirability bias may distort the findings
4. Correlational study
Description
Strength of association between variables is assessed
Main Advantage
Allows prediction
Contextualizes experimental results into a more natural setting
Can examine issues that cannot be studied practically or ethically in
experiments
Main Disadvantage
• Cannot give causation
5. Experiment
Description
Variables are manipulated
Effects on non-manipulated variables measured
Main Advantage
Best for examining cause & effect
Main Disadvantage
o Careful design is essential
Otherwise confounding can threaten validity
,Causation & Correlation
Correlation Coefficients
Vary from -1 to +1
The closer they are to zero, the weaker the correlation
o Zero therefore means no correlation at all
The direction of the correlation (positive or negative) tells us how the
variables are associated:
o Negative
As one goes up, the other goes down
o Positive
As one goes up, the other goes up
OR as one does down, the other goes down
Issues with Correlation Studies
Prevent you from deciding what is the cause, and what is the effect
Problem 1
o Can’t tell the direction of the association
Problem 2
o May be third variables
Reasons for doing a correlational study
Can identify real-world associations
o And then be studied under controlled laboratory conditions
Can test whether relationships found in the laboratory generalise to the
real world
Sometimes it is the only possible method
o Practical reasons
o Ethical reasons
Allows prediction
Establishing causality
Temporal precedence
o One variable must come before the other in time
o The experimenter manipulates a deciding which variable comes
first
Covariation between the two variables
o When one variable changes, the other shows the effect
Eliminate other possible or plausible explanations
o Third variables
,Experimental Design
What makes a good experiment?
Random assignment
Large sample size
o Helps ensure that the random assignment groups are the same in
all important ways
An anomaly is more of a problem in a small group
o Gives you statistical power to find an effect
No confounding variables
o Takes careful planning
o
Experimental control
What you the experimenter manipulates must be the ONLY difference
between the experimental and control groups
Partly achieved through random assignment
o To the experimental and control groups
Partly achieved through carefully eliminating all confounding variables
Literature Review
1. Research of literature done before you
1. Summary if all the relevant literature/studies before
2. Important so you don’t just repeat a previous study
1. Learn from previous studies
, Types of research
Descriptive
Exploratory type of research
Usually broad
Types
o Case study
Few cases
Lots of detail
o Naturalistic Observation
Just watching people
o Interview
Correlative
Association
Relations
Don’t directly manipulate the IV
o Rather observe
Experimental
Look at cause and effect
Manipulate the IV
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