Contemporary Methods And Issues

Question 1

What is basic science research?

Answer 1

• Research that increases understanding and theory
• Tries to understand a given phenomenon
• ex. Universities, Research institutes

Question 2

What is applied science research?

Answer 2

• Research that applies theory into applied interventions
• Used to make the world better in some tangible way
• ex. Healthcare, Workplace, Communities

Question 3

Explain quantitative vs qualitative research

Answer 3

Quantitative:
- Measures “how much”
- Traditional methods and designs are quantitative, which emphasise reliable measures in controlled experiments or surveys

Qualitative:
- Understanding “why, what, when and how”
- Use interviews, focus groups, narratives, or case studies
- Experience-focused

Question 4

Explain the cross-sectional quantitative method

Answer 4

• Measures taken at one point in time
• Issues with causality unless you conduct an experiment

Question 5

Explain the longitudinal quantitative method

Answer 5

• Measures taken at two or more time points
• Better case for cause and effect
• Confounding or “third” variables

Question 6

Explain the SEM quantitative method

Answer 6

• Structural Equation Modelling
• Maps out complex relations between many factors/variables
• Aim to create a model that “fits” data
• Non-exploratory
• Models informed by theory
• Best method to test theories

Question 7

Experimental vs Quasi-Experimental Designs

Answer 7

Experimental:
Researchers randomly assign participants to one condition, treatment or group

Quasi-experimental:
- Group of interest cannot be manipulated (occurs naturally/pre-existing or unethical to manipulate)
- ex. gender, race, alcohol intake, drug use

Question 8

What are the issues with quasi-experimental designs?

Answer 8

• Lack of control or comparison group, which makes it potentially unreliable
• Certain predispositions or individual differences may have influenced categorisation in a group
• Recruitment of certain populations can be difficult

Question 9

What are the advantages of quasi-experimental design?

Answer 9

• Social psychologists are usually very interested in pre-existing groups
• A factor that is commonly focused on in studies of social psychology
• ex. age, race/ethnicity, sex/gender, SES

Question 10

What are the disadvantages of quasi-experimental designs?

Answer 10

• Selection differences: Any differences between pre-existing groups not controlled or accounted for by the researcher
• Cannot demonstrate cause and effect

Question 11

What are the issues with social experiments?

Answer 11

• Ecological validity: Modelling social phenomena in a controlled lab environment can’t always depict an accurate representation of normal contexts
• Use of confederates: Actors who play the role of someone in a study is not always convincing (use of online, virtual confederates might be more reliable)

Question 12

Explain the meta-analysis quantitative method

Answer 12

Use of statistics to combine results of several individual studies addressing similar questions into a single pooled measure of an effect size

Question 13

What is the difference between ‘between-subjects’ and ‘within-subjects’ designs?

Answer 13

Between-subject design:
- Different participants test each condition, so a single person is exposed to a single user interface
- Usually involves a control group that doesn’t undergo treatment

Within-subject design:
- The same person tests all the conditions (all user interfaces)
- No control group

Question 14

Explain double blind control and single-blind control

Answer 14

Double-blind control:
- Randomised study which prevents bias
- Researcher and participant oblivious of the condition they are in

Single-blind control: When only the participant is unaware of their condition

Question 15

What does ‘effect size’ refer to?

Answer 15

Strength of an association between variables

Question 16

What are the ethical concerns of social psychology studies?

Answer 16

1. Social psychologists measure sensitive information, which is an issue because…
   - Some individuals may not honestly report sensitive information
   - Reporting information could elicit stress or other concerns
   - Concern for anonymity, particularly for illegal behaviours
2. Studying social behaviours may harm participants, because…
   - Stressful manipulations can cause anxiety or harm
   - Among stigmatised groups, attempt to study their experiences can make them relieve the traumatic events
   - Just deception of social psych in general

Question 17

How are the ethical concerns of social psychology studies addressed?

Answer 17

1. In response to sensitive information:
   - Anonymity in responses
   - Provide resources for those potentially stressed by the study
   - Avoid asking for additional sensitive information when possible
   - Avoid the use of any identifiable information (ex. anon ID numbers)
2. In response to harmful social studies
   - Pre-screen to exclude “at-risk” participants (ex. high stress individuals; mental health issues)
   - Model phenomenon by minimising use of stigmatised groups (minimal group paradigms; vignettes instead of face2face)

Question 18

What is the definition of construct?

Answer 18

• Attempt to capture patterns of behaviour
• Hard to capture directly due to vagueness

Question 19

What are operational definitions?

Answer 19

• We try to define constructs through operational definitions, which is how we can measure it
• Can be quantitative or qualitative
• Vary in reliability, but there are usually endless options

Examples:
- Quantitative: Self-report scales, Physiological measures, Reaction times,
- Qualitative: Natural observation
- Mixed: Implicit Association Test, Flanker Task, Reading Span Task

Question 20

Differentiate between explicit and implicit operationalisations

Answer 20

Explicit Operationalisation:
- Conscious and deliberate
- Self-reported by participant (e.g. interview, survey, questionnaire)
- Vulnerable to social desirability because it gives you a chance to think about your response

Implicit Operationalisation:
- Unconscious and automatic
- Gut reactions or impulsive decisions made by participant
- Ex. Behavioural tasks, natural observation, facial expression, etc.

Question 21

Explain the Implicit Association Test (IAT)

(what it does, how it works, how its measured)

Answer 21

• Measures the strength of automatic associations between concepts
• Interpreted as implicit preferences or attitudes
• How it works: When two concepts are associated in your mind, it is easy to respond more quickly and correctly when categorising -> Stronger associations will give faster responses
• Bias is measured by D-Score (positive values = congruent bias; negative is opposite; zero = no bias)

Question 22

What are the issues with IAT?

Answer 22

• Makes assumptions about groups and forces categorisation
• May prime participants with stereotypes, rather than assess them
• Some targets may not have appropriate comparisons (ex. is the opposite of alcohol water? soda?); Oversimplifies some things by restriction of two categories
• For the previous point, we could just do a single target comparison when appropriate

Question 23

What are the possible issues (7) in the cycle process of conducting research?

Answer 23

1. Novelty Bias
   - The preference for novel studies instead of a replication
   - This lack of replication as a norm means that only 1 in 1000 papers are replicated
2. Low statistical power of design studies
   - Poor chance to detect effects even if they exist
3. Lack of pre-registration after determining design study
4. “Cherry-picking” data that supports hypothesis, during data collection and/or data analysis
5. Mining data for statistically significant associations (data analysis/interpretation)
6. HARKing to fit the data or analyses (data interpretation/hypothesis-generation)
   - HARKing = presenting a post-hoc hypothesis (one based on or informed by the study’s results)
7. During publishing process
   - Publication Bias = publishing of positive results instead of truthful and critical results
   - Data. materials, method not shared
   - Peer review is secret