1.2: Research Methods in Psychology Flashcards
Experiments
Purpose/Definition:
Manipulates one or more independent variables to determine the effects of certain behavior.
Strength(s):
(1) Can determine cause and effect.
(2) Can be retested and proven.
Weaknesses:
(1) Could have potential ethical issues.
(2) Artificial environment creates low realism (people know they are being researched, which could impact what they say and do).
Whenever researchers want to prove or find causation, they would run an experiment.
Correlational Studies
Purpose/Definition:
Involves looking at the relationships between two or more variables and is used when performing an experiment is not possible.
Strength(s):
(1) Easier to conduct than an experiment.
(2) Can be used when an experiment is impossible. (For example, a researcher may want to examine the relationship between school grades and Adderall. It would not be ethical to force students to take high doses of Adderall. So, one can only rely on participants’ responses).
Weaknesses:
Cannot determine cause and effect.
There could be a correlational study between anything.
Example: Say you wanted to see if there was an association between the number of hours a teenager sleeps and their grades in high school. If there was a correlation, we cannot say that sleeping a greater number of hours causes higher grades. However, we can determine that they are related to each other.
Correlation does not equal causation
Survey Research
Purpose/Definition:
The collection of information reported by people about a particular topic.
Strength(s):
(1) Cost-effective.
(2) Mostly reliable.
Weaknesses:
(1) Low response rates.
(2) Can’t verify the accuracy of an individual’s response.
Surveys are used all the time, especially in advertising and marketing. They are often distributed to a large number of people, and the results are returned back to researchers.
Naturalistic Observations
Purpose/Definition:
A researcher observes a subject’s behavior without intervention.
Strength(s):
Natural setting is more reliable than a lab setting.
Weaknesses:
(1) People behave differently when they know they are being watched, which could impact the results (Hawthorne effect).
(2) Two researchers could see the same behavior but draw different conclusions.
If a student wanted to observe how many people fully stop at a stop sign, they could watch the cars from a distance and record their data. This is a naturalistic observation since the student is in no way influencing the results.
Case Studies
Purpose/Definition:
A case study is an in-depth study of an individual or a small group. Usually, case studies are done on people with rare circumstances. For example, a girl named Genie was locked in her room, causing a delay in development. Researchers did a case study about her to understand more about language and human development stages.
Strength(s):
Provides detailed information.
Weaknesses:
(1) Cannot generalize results to a wider population.
(2) Difficult to replicate.
(3) Time-consuming.
Longitudinal Studies
Purpose/Definition:
The same individuals are studied over a long period of time from years up to decades.
Strength(s):
(1) Can show the effects of changes over time.
(2) More powerful than cross-sectional studies.
Weaknesses:
(1) Require large amounts of time.
(2) Expensive.
Cross-Sectional Studies
Purpose/Definition:
A cross-sectional study examines people of different groups at the same time. For example, studying people that are different ages at the same time to see what differences can be attributed to age.
Strength(s):
(1) Quick and easy to conduct.
(2) Generalizable results.
Phineas Gage
A notable psychological case study is the study of Phineas Gage.
Phineas Gage was a railroad construction foreman who survived a severe brain injury in 1848. The accident occurred when an iron rod was accidentally driven through Gage’s skull, damaging his frontal lobes. Despite the severity of the injury, Gage was able to walk and talk immediately after the accident and appeared to be relatively uninjured.
However, Gage’s personality underwent a dramatic change following the injury. He became impulsive, irresponsible, and prone to outbursts of anger, which were completely out of character for him before the accident. Gage’s case is famous in the history of psychology because it was one of the first to suggest that damage to the frontal lobes of the brain can have significant effects on personality and behavior.
