2. Social Psychology Methods Flashcards
How is the data that is collected in social psych analysed?
Analyse the data using statistical methods, such as a t-test to compare means between two groups. Helps to determine whether there is a significant difference.
What are the experimental methods?
Manipulate the IV and observe the effect of a DV
What are the types of experimental method?
- laboratory experiment: highly controlled
- field experiment: natural environment
- surveys
- randomised controlled trial
What are non-experimental methods?
Correlation between variables - no manipulation of IV
What are the types of non-experimental method?
- archival
- case studies
- qualitative research
- surveys
- field study
What are positives of laboratory studies?
+ establish cause and effect
+ control extraneous variables
+ objectively assess behaviour
What are negatives of laboratory studies?
- low external validity as are artificial
- demand characteristics
- hard to assess long term behaviour
What’s a positive of a field study?
high external validity
What’s are negatives of field studies?
- less control over extraneous variables
- difficulty in obtaining accurate measures
What are explicit vs implicit measures?
Explicit:
- PP is aware
- conscious control
Implicit:
- PP is unaware
- automatic process
How can we use the self report measure of explicit measure?
- open responses
- numeric scale
- questionnaires
What are issues with with people explicitly asking about, feelings, thoughts and behaviours?
Social desirability bias: behaviour may not match the answers given
What do implicit measures assess?
The PPs responses outside conscious control that are given automatically
What in our brain are used in implicit measures? explain them
Schemas- mental structure that organises and collects info for something
What is schema accessibility? What type of tasks assess this?
The ease of retrieving our schema.
Implicit tasks assess the assessability.
What do we usually measure in implicit tasks?
Reaction time
Explain he implicit association task
Assesses the implicit associations we have.
PPs categorise two types of stimuli with two buttons.
These categories will be either congruent or incongruent.
The speed of categorisation responses are measured.
What pair of items are we faster to group?
Those that have been historically paired together (congruent) than incongruent items.
What is priming?
Presentation of a stimulus unconsciously increases accessibility of related cognitions (schemas.)
This influences processes and behaviours.
Explain lexical decision tasks
They assess the accessibility of cognitions.
PPs judge if letters form a word or not.
On critical trials, target words are presented that reflect the cognitions of interest.
Reaction times to correctly identity target words are used to infer the accessibility of that cognition.
After priming of the target topic, what would we expect to find in a lexical decision task?
Cognitions about the target topic are likely to be more accessible compared to the control
What does WEIRD sample mean
This is when studies disproportionally involve PPs who are Western, Educated and are from Industrialised, Rich, Democracies
Why is using a WEIRD sample an issue within research?
A biased sample and therefore the evidence cannot be generalised to different cultures and contects
