A summary of the book An Introduction to Social Psychology 6th edition. This book is used by the subject Social and cross-cultural psychology in the first year of studying Psychology at the University of Groningen.
An introduction to social psychology
Chapter 2: Research methods in social psychology
Theory A set of abstract concepts together with propositions about how those
construct are related to one another.
Construct An abstract theoretical concept (such as social influence).
Variable The term used to refer to the measurable representation of a construct.
Hypothesis A prediction derived from a theory concerning the relationship
between variables.
Participants People who take part in psychological research.
Experiment A method in which the researcher deliberately introduces some change
into a setting to examine the consequences of that change.
Quasi-experiment An experiment in which participants are not randomly allocated to the
different experimental conditions (typically because of factors beyond
of factors beyond the control of the researcher).
True randomized An experiment in which participants are allocated to the different
experiment conditions of the experiment on a random basis.
Random allocation/ The process of allocating participants to groups (or conditions) in such a
random assignment way that each participant has an equal chance of being assigned to
each group.
Field experiment A true randomized experiment conducted in a natural setting.
Survey research A research strategy that involves interviewing (or administering a
questionnaire to) a sample respondents who are selected so as to be
representative of the population from which they are drawn.
Sampling The process of selecting a subset of members of a population with a
view to describing the population from which they are taken.
Simple random sample A sample in which each member of the population has an equal chance
of being selected and in which the selection of every possible
combination of the desired number of members is equally likely.
Quota sample A sample that fills certain prespecified quotas and thereby reflects
certain attributes if the population (such as age and sex) that are
thought to be important to the issue being researched.
Discourse analysis A family of methods for analyzing talk and texts, with the goal of
revealing how people make sense of their everyday worlds.
Triangulation The use of multiple methods and measures to research a given issue.
Disadvantages of quota sampling:
- It is usually left to the interviewer to decide whom to approach in order to fill a quota, with
the result that bias can enter into the selection process
- It is impossible to provide an accurate estimate of sampling error
Quantitative strategies: the data we analyze are represented as numbers.
- Experiments
- Quasi-experiments
- Survey research
Qualitative strategies: data are typically textual rather than numerical, focusing on the content and
meaning of the words and language used by participants.
- Discourse analysis
, - Content analysis or thematic analysis of open-ended oral or written responses can shed light
on potentially relevant factors.
- Grounded theory focuses on systematically generating theory about a specific phenomenon
in an inductive or bottom-up manner.
- Interpretative phenomenological analysis; focus on revealing and interpreting the subjective
meaning that participants attach to particular issues or events.
Features of the social psychological experiment:
Experimental scenario The package within which an experiment is presented to participants.
Confederate An accomplice or assistant of the experimenter who is ostensibly another
participant but who in fact plays a prescribed role in the experiment.
Independent variable The variable that an experimenter manipulates or modifies in order to
examine the effect on one or more dependent variables.
Dependent variable The variable that is expected to change as a function of changes in the
independent variables. Measured changes in the dependent variable are
seen as dependent on manipulated changes in the independent variable.
Operationalization The way in which a theoretical construct is turned into a measurable
dependent variable or manipulable independent variable in particular
study.
Manipulation check A measure of the effectiveness of the independent variable.
Debriefing The practice of explaining to participants the purpose of the experiment
in which they have just participated and answering any questions the
participants may have.
The success of an experiment often hinges on the effectiveness of manipulations of the independent
variable. By effectiveness we mean;
- The extent to which changes in the independent variable capture the essential qualities of
the construct that is theoretically expected to have a causal influence on behavior
- The size of the changes that are introduced
APA ethical principles:
- Most researchers will need to inform the institution in which they work about the study they
plan to conduct
- Those who participate in the research should provide informed consent, meaning that they
are given an accurate account of what to expect and an opportunity to withdraw their
participation
- Special care needs to be taken when dealing with vulnerable groups
- Deception should only be used in research when it van be scientifically justified and where no
viable alternative is available
- Research participants should be debriefed about the nature and purpose of the research,
taking care to correct any misconceptions they may have
- Researchers should not fabricate or misreport any aspect of their data and should take steps
to correct or retract any mistakes in published reports as soon as they become aware of
them
One-shot case study A research design in which observations are made on a group after
some event has occurred or some manipulation has been introduced.
Post-test only control An experimental design in which participants are randomly allocated
group design to one of two groups; one group is exposed to the independent
variable, another (the control group) is not.
, Experimental group Group of participants allocated to the experimental condition of the
experiment.
Control group A group of participants who are typically not exposed to the
independent variable(s) used in experimental research.
Factorial experiment An experiment in which two or more independent variables are
manipulated within the same design.
Main effect A term used to refer to the separate effects of each independent
variable in a factorial experiment.
Interaction effect A term used when the combination of two (or more) independent
variables in a factorial experiment yields an effect that differs from
the sum of the main effects.
Mediating variable A variable that mediates the relation between two other variables.
An interaction effect is an instance of what is known more generally as
moderation, in which the effect of one variable on another varies in strength
depending on the level of a third variable. The role of the third variable is in
determining when the independent variable influences the dependent
variable. It is important to distinguish moderation from another type of
statistical relationship between three or more variables; namely mediation. X
may have an effect on O but this is not a direct effect. Instead (the mediating
variable) which in turn affects O.
Validity A measure is valid to the extent that it measures precisely what it is
supposed to measure.
Experimental confound When an independent variable incorporate two or more potentially
separable components it is a confounded variable. When an
independent variable is confound, the researcher’s ability to draw
causal inferences is seriously compromised.
Internal validity Refers to the validity of the inference that changes in the independent
variable result in changes in the dependent variable.
Construct validity The validity of the assumption that independent and dependent
variables adequately capture the abstract variables (constructs) they
are supposed to represent.
External validity Refers to the generalizability of research findings to settings and
populations other than those involved in the research.
Social desirability Refers to the fact that research participants are likely to want to be
seen in a positive light and may therefore adjust their responses or
behavior in order to avoid being negatively evaluated.
Demand characteristics Cues that are perceived as telling participants how they are expected
to behave or respond in a research setting; that is, cues that demand
a certain sort of response.
Post-experimental A technique advocated by Orne (1962) for detecting the operation of
enquiry demand characteristics. The participant is carefully interviewed after
participation in an experiment, the object being to assess perceptions
of the purpose of the experiment.
Unobtrusive measures/ Measures that the participant is not aware of and which therefore
non-reactive measures cannot influence his or her behavior.
Cover story A false but supposedly plausible explanation of the purpose of an
, experiment; the intention is to limit the operation of demand
characteristics.
Experimenter expectancy Effect produced unintentionally by the experimenter that increases
effect the likelihood that participants will confirm the experimenter’s
hypotheses.
Internet experiment An experiment that is accessed via the internet; participants access
the experiment via the web, receive instructions and questions on
their computer screen and provide responses via their keyboard or
touch screen.
Meta-analysis A set of techniques for statistically integrating the results of
independent studies of a given phenomenon, with a view to
establishing whether the findings exhibit a pattern of relationships
that is reliable across studies.
Experimental research attempts to maximize each of three types of validity:
1. Internal validity; refers to the validity of the conclusion that an observed relationship
between independent and dependent variables reflects a causal relationship.
Use of a control group enhances internal validity
2. Construct validity; threat to the construct validity:
Social desirability reduce social desirability effects: make the measurement process
unobtrusive. If participants do not know what it is that is being measured, they will be
unable to modify their behavior.
Demand characteristics; cues that unintentionally convey the experimenter’s hypothesis
to the participant. Reduce demand characteristics;
Post-experimental enquiry
Unobtrusive measures
Cover story
Experimenter expectancy; reduce experimenter expectancy;
Keep experimenters blind to the hypothesis under test or at least blind to the
condition to which a given participant has been allocated.
Minimizing the interaction between experimenter and participant and automating
the experiment as far as possible.
3. External validity.
Advantages internet experiments:
- The ease with which quite large amounts of data can be collected in a relatively short time
- Participants are recruited from different countries, from different age groups and from
different socioeconomic backgrounds
Disadvantages internet experiments:
- Researcher loses a degree of control over the running of the experiment
- Representativeness of those who choose to participate. They tend to be white, to live in the
US or Europe and to be relatively young.
- The effect of linguistic competence on the reliability and validity of responses. Most studies
posted on the web are in English.
- Those who choose to participate in such studies are of course volunteers raising the
possibility that they differ systematically from the general population.
Problems with experimentation;
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