KWALITATIEF ONDERZOEK
KOM
,Samenvatting KOM deel 1
Chapter 2 – sources of information: why research is best and how
to find it
Research vs. your experience
Comparison group:
o Enables us to compare what would happen with and without the thing we’re
interested in.
o You need to know all the values to come to a conclusion
Example: Dr. Rush bled people who were ill, but he couldn’t compare the
results to ill people who weren’t bled. It seemed like his theory was
supported, but he didn’t have all the values.
o With personal experience, you don’t have a comparison group. Is problematic,
because life doesn’t include comparison experiences. Conclusions based on
systematic data do.
Confounded:
o Problem: too much is going on in daily life. We don’t know what caused the
change.
o Confounds: alternative explanations for an outcome.
Research is better than experience:
o Confederate= an actor playing a role for an experimenter.
o Research of studies (with different groups of people) gives better evidence than
experience
Research is probabilistic:
o At times your experience may be an exception, you may be tempted to conclude
that the research must be wrong. But behavioural research is probabilistic (not
expected to explain all cases, but just a certain proportion. Doesn’t change the
conclusion).
o It gives a strong probability, but the prediction isn’t perfect.
Research vs. your intuition
Biased reasoning
o Being swayed by a good story: people tend to believe a good story, even the
false ones.
o Being persuaded by what comes easily to mind
Availability heuristic: things that pop up easily in your mind tend to guide
our thinking. When events are vivid, recent or memorable, we
overestimate how often they happen, because they come to mind easily.
Ex: more people die of the flu than people are killed by sharks,
but we tend to be more afraid to be killed by a shark.
o Failing to think about what we can’t see
We don’t see the relationship between event and outcome. We fail to look
for absences, we only notice what is present = present/ present bias
o Focussing on the evidence we like best
Confirmation bias: only look at information that agrees with what we
already believe.
o Biased about being biased
We have a bias blind spot: the believe that we are unlikely to fall prey to
the other biases, we think we’re less biased than others -> makes us trust
our faulty reasoning even more.
The intuitive thinker vs. the scientific reasoner
o You must interpret data in an objective way. Scientific reasoners have trained
themselves to guard against the biases and dig deeper.
,Trusting authorities on the subject
Sometimes experts are wrong. You have to ask yourself about the source of their ideas before
taking advice from authorities.
Finding and reading the research
Consulting scientific sources
o Journal articles: psychology’s most important source
Empirical journal articles: details about the study’s method, statistical
tests used and results of the study.
Review journal: summary of all studies in one research area
Sometimes uses meta-analysis: combines results of studies and
gives a number that summarizes the magnitude (effect size) of a
relationship -> is good because it weights each study
proportionally.
Both must be peer-reviewed
o Chapters in edited books
Every chapter has a different author. Summarized a collection of
researches and explains the theory. Not peer-reviewed
o Full length books
Found in academic libraries
Reading the research
o Components of an empirical journal article:
Abstract: summary of the article, hypotheses, results
Introduction: topic of the study, background research, research questions,
goals, hypotheses
Method: how they conducted the study, participants, materials,
procedure, apparatus
Results: results & statistical tests used to analyse the data
Discussion: summary study’s research question and methods and
indicated how well the results supported the hypotheses. Study’s
importance
References: sources
o Reading with a purpose: empirical journal articles
Ask yourself
What is the argument?
What is the evidence to support the argument?
, Chapter 4- Ethical guidelines for psychology research
Historical examples
Unethical choices
Participants were not treated respectfully
The participants were harmed
Researchers targeted a disadvantaged social group
Balancing risk to participants with benefit to society
Deciding whether research is ethical, balancing potential risks to participants and the value of the
knowledge gained is a fundamental dilemma.
Core ethical principles
The Belmont Report: principles and applications
The Belmont Report outlines three main principles for guiding ethical decision making in many
disciplines.
The principle of respect for persons
o Individuals should be treated as autonomous agents and are entitled to the
precaution of informed consent. Participants can’t be lured whichever way.
o Some people have less autonomy and are entitled to special protection, like
children and prisoners.
The principle of beneficence
o Researchers must take precautions to protect participants from harm and to
ensure their well-being, as well as the community.
o Researchers may make the study anonymous, they do not collect personal
information and strip away identifiers of computers. Another option is a
confidential study, where they collect identifying information for a later date, but
prevent it from being disclosed.
The principle of justice
o There needs to be a fair balance between the kinds of people who participate in
research and the kinds of people who benefit from it.
o Researchers might ensure that participants involved in a study are representative
of the kinds of people who would also benefit from its results. When only a
sample of one ethnic group is studied, it needs to be demonstrated that the
problem is especially prevalent in that ethnic group.
Guidelines for psychologists: the APA ethical principles
Belmont plus two: APA’s five general principles
Besides the above stated principles, the APA adds another two.
Fidelity and responsibility
o Avoid sexual relationships with students or clients.
Integrity
o Professors are obligated to teach accurately, therapists are required to stay
current on empirical evidence for therapeutic techniques.
Ethical standards for research
The APA also lists 10 specific ethical standards that are similar to enforceable rules/laws.
Psychologists of the APA who violate these standards can lose their professional license. Ethical
Standard 8 is especially written for psychologists as researchers.
Institutional review boards (Standard 8.01)
o An IRB is a committee responsible for interpreting ethical principles and ensuring
that research is conducted ethically.
o The IRB reviews proposals from individual scientists.
