Conceptual And Historical Issues Within Statistics And Research Methods Flashcards
What is the distinction between nomothetic and idiographic?
Idiographic = describes the study of the individual, seen as an entity, with properties setting him/her apart from others - effort to understand the individual in context, phenomenological approach, subjective -> looks at anomaly
Nomothetic = study of a cohort of individuals, describes effort to derive laws that explain objective phenomena -> stats remove anomaly = dominant approach in psychology
What is epistemology?
Branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge
How knowledge is related to truth, relief, and justification
Means of production of knowledge
Skepticism about different knowledge claims
Who was Quetlet?
First to devise BMI equation
First to highlight importance of statistical analysis for behavioural data
Impossible to predict individual data points but predictions could be made on mean scores (group data)
Who was Galton?
First to use term nature v nurture
First to apply normal distribution to intelligence
Who was Pearson?
Pearson chi-sqaure test
Pearson correlation
Introduced term ‘variable’ into psychology research
First use term ‘standard deviation’
Who was Fisher?
Developed z-distribution (F) and used in ANOVA
Pioneered principles of design of experiments and statistics of small samples and analysis of real data
Introduced concept of null hypothesis
What was the downside and upside to statistical development?
Downside
Eugenics; First used by Galton - Believed human race could help direct its future by ‘selectively breeding individuals’ who have desired traits
Advocated ‘social imperialism’ -> ‘superior races’ and countries should produce more offspring thuan those considered less developed
Upside
Technical contributions to psychology, use of questionnaires and inferential statistics = scientific without being experimental
What are the paradigm wars?
Realists (positivist) on one side v constructionists (interpretivists)
Argument in part about epistemology - nature of knowledge
Is knowledge a reflection of an outside reality or constructed by us? = key question to debate
What are the 2 different views in the paradigm wars?
Realist = as (perhaps imperfect) representations of a reality (perhaps partially) independent of us (possibly as the result of a fallible social process)
Constructivist = as constructions (by us or society) that are useful to us for interaction (possibly for prediction or explanation)(possibly weakly constrained by observations and interaction with a world)
What would realism say?
~ Strong form: objective reality independent of the observer and theories directly reflect this
~ Intermediate form: objective reality independent of the observer and theories approximate this and are improved over time
~ Weak form: objective reality where the observer participates and theories capture what is observable of this
Some theories make novel and surprising predictions that turn out to be correct
Realist scientists have produced a lot of knowledge that’s undoubtedly useful
It’s often sensible to assume some things are objectively and independently real
What would constructivism say?
~ Theories/knowledge about world constructed by us in creative process
~ There’s (at least some degree) choice or contingency about our knowledge
~ Reasons for this could include: observations are insufficient to uniquely determine theory, can only deal its knowledge through a framework which gives it form (language)
Many theoretical entities have turned out to be incorrect
In retrospect can see the biasing effect of culture, assumptions, language etc
Doing science involves being creative
What is the way forward in the paradigm wars?
Some psychologists see the 2 as incompatible
Mixed methods research - 3rd wave or 3rd research movement
L> collects both quantitative and qualitative data, claims to move past the paradigm wars, offers logical and practical alternative
Chapter 11
What are the assumptions of quantitative research methods?
~ There is an outside reality that can be discovered through scientific methods
~ Main aim of scientific research is finding universal causal relationships - how variable interact, abuse and effect
~ Trying to avoid confounds and sources of noise - try to eliminate random variables through control of maximum degree
~ Suspicion about researcher’s input - source of bias
~ Progress through falsification - evaluate truth of conclusions/theories
~ observation of numerical data and large samples
Chapter 11
What are the strengths of quantitative research methods?
~ Makes use of scientific method
~ Application of statistical analysis allow researchers to detect patterns of large data sets
~ Falsification test prevents wrong ideas and weak theories
Chapter 11
What are the limitations of quantitative research methods?
~ Participants returned a/some numbers used in statistical analyses = usually brief
~ Not interested in person
~ Can bias research to limit topics that can be easily measured - quantitative imperative = conviction you can’t know what you can’t measure
~ Falsification test primarily focused on erasing wrong theories rather than producing new ones
Chapter 11
What are the assumptions of qualitative research methods?
~ In Psychology there’s little/no evidence for reality outside people’s minds - not convinced there’s objective reality
~ Believe attempts to control situations making settings artificial and impoverished - investigators should be active participant and listen to what participants say
~ Immersion and understanding - need to be open-minded
~ Idiographic - see what’s relevant to subject under study
~ Induction rather than deduction - look at complete situation with open mind and don’t focus preconceptions = bracketing
~ Qualitative research is evidence based - depends on collecting and analysing empirical findings just not coded in numerical format
Chapter 11
What are the strengths of qualitative research methods?
~ Look at specific cases needing to be solved, understanding stipulations and solving problems
~ Involves intense investigations which often leads to finding new ideas and theory building
~ Want to understand events as they are perceived by the participants = better feel for participants needs
Chapter 11
What are the limitations of qualitative research methods?
~ Stresses importance of inductive reasoning and verification
~ Find it difficult to decide between ideas and theories
~ Conclusions go back to introspective opinions from participants and are interpreted by researchers = impossible to decide between conflicting opinions of people
~ Input from researcher may be a problem in high-stake situations - outcomes of studies depends on the researcher to som extent
Chapter 11
Can quantitative and qualitative research. Ethics relate to each other?
Some say incompatible - emphasise different world views eg. objective reality v social construction, natural science ps v humanities
Too contradictory to integrate them -> paradigm wars
Some say complement each other - increasing view = likely quantitative and qualitative are used in combination in future
Supporters focus on what the methods bring in terms of info
