Chapter 8: Non-experimental research: Observational, Case Study, Archive Flashcards
manipulation:
in an experiment, conditions or variables assigned or presented to a participant
assignment:
in an experiment, pairing a subject with a condition or variable, according to the experimenter’s plan
observation:
the record of a behavior
Observational research takes two general forms:
naturalistic observation and participant observation, which vary in the degree of intervention by the researcher.
4 main non-experimental research methods:
observation, archival research, case studies, and surveys
The distinction between experimental research and non experimental research
1) The independent variable is not manipulated
Key words here are manipulation and assignment versus observation
2) data collection procedure often must forfeit some degree of control in return for obtaining the data
3) qualitative research interested in how individuals understand themselves and make meaning out of their lives
qualitative research:
nonexperimental research that asks questions regarding how people make meaning out of the world
correlational research:
nonexperimental research that measures two or more variables to determine the degree of relationship between them
The goals of correlational research are to describe and to predict
can determine a relationship between two variables, but cannot determine which variable is the cause and which variable is the effect
Why is non-experimental research often called correlational research?
The term is somewhat misleading, however, because all research is correlational to the extent that it seeks functional relationships between variables
What makes research correlational in the common usage is the inability to manipulate some variable independently
Experimental research frequently is done as a follow-up to previous nonexperimental observations
Observational research:
describe behaviour and, possibly, to examine the relationships among variables
can provide a rich source of hypotheses about the relationships between behaviours and the causes of behaviours. Thus, observation is often the first step in discovering the causes of behaviours
archival research:
study method that examines existing records to obtain data and test hypotheses
study crime statistics in different countries to see if there is a relation between capital punishment and the murder rate
case study:
exploratory study of an existing situation as a means of creating and testing a hypothesis
An investigator might study the victims of a natural disaster (such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico) to determine its effects on their psychological health
survey:
assessing public opinion or individual characteristics by the use of questionnaire and sampling methods
hermeneutics:
the principles of interpretation of a text’s meaning
How is naturalistic observation different from the casual observation that most people do?
Naturalistic observation is research conducted in such a way that the subject’s behavior is disturbed as little as possible by the observation process. The observation is made in the environment where the behavior naturally occurs
unobtrusive research:
another term for naturalistic observation: the effort that researchers make not to influence, or obtrude on, the behavior being studied.
nonreactive research:
another term for naturalistic observation emphasizing that the subjects are unaware that they are being studied
physical trace and 2 kinds:
unobtrusive measure of behavior that uses physical evidence
use trace
- smudges on a pages book to see if the person spent a lot of time on that page
physical trace
- cigar butts after a poker party
laboratory observation:
a type of observation that occurs in the laboratory rather than in the field
Describe briefly three common ways of sampling behaviours in observational research
To describe behaviours accurately, a researcher must observe a sample of behaviour that is representative of the larger population of all possible behaviours.
Time sampling refers to selecting various time intervals, either systematically (e.g., every 15 minutes) or randomly, for their observations.
Event sampling refers to recording each event that meets a predetermined definition (e.g., fighting), which tends to happen infrequently.
Situation sampling refers to observing behaviour in as many different locations (e.g., in school playground and at home) and under as many different circumstances and conditions as possible
Naturalistic observing has few hard-and-fast rules.
Three that should be mentioned are
- careful record keeping, detailed logs/checklists
- the use of a variety of types of measures, video/camera
- and care for privacy of the participants, ethics
Propose a hypothesis that may be tested using physical traces:
Cave art in relation to sexual status hierarchy among ancient civilizations
advantages and disadvantages of using physical traces as measures to test hypotheses about people’s past behaviour?
- Advantages:
- It is unobtrusive and non-reactive so people’s behaviors are not influenced by the measurement process
- Disadvantages:
- Can still run into ethical questions: example of looking at student’s library card
- Erosion of evidence
- Must consider alternative explanations and potentially collect data to rule out alternatives
- Best to collect many different forms of evidence/data
participant-observer research:
in which investigators participate in groups and record their observations.
The greatest challenge for the researcher is to gain access to the group, as White and McBurney (2013) point out. Once in, the participant observer may either take the role of an active participant of the group or stay in the periphery
must maintain a balance between reporting from the insider’s perspective and scientific objectivity.
Under what conditions is participant-observer research useful?
most useful in studying a small group that is separated from the population as a whole, when little is known about a group, or when the group’s activities are not generally available to public view
ethical problems that participant-observer research poses
- leads to problems of objectivity
- converted by the religious group that they were studying
- Sometimes it is possible to be open about the fact that you are there to study the group
- By contrast, certain groups are hostile to the larger society and suspicious of anyone who shows an interest in them.
- From an ethical perspective, it is best to be truthful where possible and to adopt a disguised strategy only when necessary
- Participant observers cannot always obtain informed consent from the people they study.
- Some researchers hold that participant-observer research is therefore always unethical.
- Others point out that professionals such as journalists are permitted to engage in this type of practice.
- They argue that if psychologists do not perform participant-observer research, they are withholding the application of psychological techniques and insights to important social problems
Main Problems in Participant Observational Research
first problem is reactivity. The mere presence of the observer changes the composition of the group, and the act of observing changes the behaviours of the people being observed at least to some extent.
The second issue concerns the invasion of privacy. Some researchers contend that participant observation is always unethical because the people observed have not given informed consent to be observed. This is particularly so when the observation is disguised. Others argue that the knowledge gained and the possible alleviation of social problems is likely to outweigh any harm caused by invasion of privacy.
By entering the group, the observer (by definition) changes it to some large group may not be influenced much by an observer’s presence, whereas a small group may be influenced considerably. In general, participant-observer research is done in unusual groups that can absorb an observer whose presence would have little effect.
archival research:
refers to research conducted using data that the archival data: factual researcher had no part in collecting. Present in existing records, or archives. The researcher simply examines or selects the data for analysis.
2 reasons for archival research
- Data that bear on the hypothesis may already exist, and collecting new data would be wasteful.
- Or ethics or logistics may make it infeasible to conduct an experiment relating the variables of interest. In other words because it has already been collected as a function of public record, the researcher’s ethical concerns may be reduced
Limitations of archival research:
- 1) most archival data are collected for nonscientific reasons. Governments and private agencies collect the data for their own purposes, and such data often do not suit the purposes of the scientist.
- for archival data to be useful to your investigation, the agency collecting the data must ask questions similar to yours or must inadvertently collect data that are valuable to your research question.
- 2) because archival research is by nature carried out after the fact, ruling out alternative hypotheses for particular observed correlations may be difficult
- 3) A researcher who relies on archival data is at the mercy of any biases that may have occurred in collecting the data. Police records are notoriously subject to bias.
- 4) some records are incomplete
- 5) may be errors in records kept and data may not be as complete as hoped for
limitations of archival research said another way
First, inherent biases may be present in archival data because the data are collected by others for a particular purpose, which means they are not necessarily designed to address the researcher’s specific question.
Second, only some records are produced and kept (called selective deposits) and some records are missing and incomplete (called selective survival).
Third, the quality of data may not be as good as a researcher anticipates, in that there may be errors in record keeping.
Fourth, changes may have occurred in the way records are kept or in the definition of categories (e.g., types of crime).
Finally, reactivity may have been a problem when the archival record was produced
three basic steps in carrying out a content analysis
- The first step is to identify a relevant archival source.
- Audio recordings of therapy sessions in the 1950s LSD experiments
- The second step is to select a representative sample from the source.
- Choose a case to focus on
- The last step is to code; that is, to define relevant descriptive categories and units of measure.
- How many times the person on LSD says the word GOD and how it relates to coherence
- Code the latent meaning behind this to interpret the psychotherapy session
What problems are associated with analysing archival data? What steps can researchers take to reduce these problems?
- One of the challenges of performing archival research is finding the specific archives that have the information relevant to your research needs.
- Once you locate and gain access to an archive that has a good deal of material on your topic, preparation is vital before you actually visit the archive itself
case study:
an intensive description and analysis of an instance, or case, of a phenomenon, such as an individual, an institution, a treatment, or an event.
distinguish a case study from other nonexperimental methods
- the use of observation and archival methodologies
- Sometimes this is an individual person, as in a psychiatric or neuropsychological case.
- Other times it is an individual town or institution, as in a case of mass hysteria reported after a meteorite crash in Peru
- it can be an individual method or treatment, such as the effectiveness of a new surgical intervention on a patient’s health
advantages and disadvantages of case studies
- advantages.
- First, they can provide insight into possible causes of people’s behaviour that can be tested later with more controlled research approaches.
- Second, case studies allow for the study of rare events - example of kid with a tumor who could only see things on one side
- disadvantages
- First, researchers can rarely infer any cause-effect relationships from the results because of the presence of extraneous variables.
- Second, subjective observer biases are likely to occur.
- Third, it is difficult to generalize the results to other cases
narrative case study:
a viewpoint expressed by telling and listening to stories that communicate meaning
“I am never absentminded. I’ve never lost a single key. In fact I still have the house key my parents gave me when I was 10 years old, which I used until I was 37, when we moved. I’ve never lost an ATM card…
What is the difference between research method and research procedure?
- Method is a broader term that encompasses all aspects of the study, including the logic of the design and the steps for carrying it out.
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Procedure refers only to the latter—what the researcher does in translating the design into action. The design, for example, may be an experiment with two conditions that are both experienced by each subject.
- Procedural concerns include whether each condition is tested on the same day or on different days.
- After the design is completed, you should develop a clear idea of the exact procedure, or protocol, you will follow
A protocol is
a list of the exact steps needed to test a subject from start to finish.
Will you be greeting the participants? Giving them a written debriefing form? Etc… Write it down
pilot study:
tentative, small-scale study done to pretest and modify study design and procedures
Why is it necessary to conduct a pilot study?
- find the bugs in the procedure
- almost always problems to be smoothed out.
- Nearly every experiment we have performed without testing some pilot subjects has been disappointing.
- Some researchers will not proceed to the main study until they have a good idea of what they will find in the full experiment, based on pilot work.
- When a pilot study has been done, followed by a main study that has been run once and replicated once or twice, the credibility of the finding is increased tremendously over a single study that was not preceded by pilot work
- Planning usually takes way longer than the actual experiment
2 Problems with Observational Research
Influence of the Observer
Reactivity: People tend to change their behaviours when they are aware of being observed.
role demands
can reduce the problem of role demands by limiting what the people being observed know about their role or about the hypothesis being tested in the study.
Observer Bias
Expectancies of the observer can lead to biases
The use of electronic devices can help to reduce the likelihood of observer biases.
So, too, can keeping observers “blind”; that is, not letting the observers know the reasons for the observations or the goals of a study
