Lecture 9 - Data Collection Techniques in Psychological Research Flashcards
What are experimental designs?
When the IV causes the DV - causal relationship is clear
What are laboratory-based experiments?
Carried out in laboratory, researcher has greatest control over environment an other factors
What are the advantages of laboratory experiments?
- Highly-controlled environments, so extraneous and/or confounding variables may be excluded
- Easier to replicate due to standardised procedure
What are the disadvantages of laboratory experiments?
- Setting likely to be artificial and so participants’ behaviour may be unnatural, and so ecological validity may be a concern
- Demand characteristics may influence participants’ behaviour
What are field experiments?
Carried out in everyday environment, but researcher still manipulates variables of interest
What are the advantages of field experiments?
- Naturalistic environment, so participants’ behaviour more likely to reflect real responses (i.e., higher ecological validity)
- Demand characteristics less likely to affect participants (especially true in covert field experiments)
What are the disadvantages of field experiments?
- Less control over extraneous and/or confounding variables, making replication more difficult
- Reliability may be affected
What are natural experiments?
Carried out in everyday environment, but researcher cannot manipulate variables of interest, as these naturally occur
What are advantages of natural experiments?
- Naturalistic environment, so very high ecological validity
- Demand characteristics unlikely to affect participants (especially true in covert natural experiments)
- Can be used in situations where ethical considerations prevent manipulation of independent variables (e.g., stress research)
What are disadvantages of natural experiments?
- Can be costly (e.g. time, financial, economic, human costs)
- No control over extraneous or confounding variables (e.g., randomisation to condition not possible, so self-selection and pre-existing differences may be an issue)
- Reliability may be an issue
What are correlation designs?
- All variables are measured and the strength of associations between them is assessed
- May be possible to establish causation through theoretical or other considerations
- Variables are measured and the strength of associations between them is examined
- Naturalistic observation and surveys often used in correlational designs
What are advantages of correlation designs?
- May allow study of phenomena that cannot be investigated ethically or practically using experiments
- May help to establish how well findings from experiments generalise to more naturalistic contexts – provides confirmatory evidence
- Allows researcher to predict direction and strength of relationship(s) between variables, but only based on theoretical or other considerations
What are disadvantages of correlation designs?
Cannot establish causation, unless logical sequence of relationships exists
What are the methods for data collection?
- Observational methods
- Case studies
- Surveys
- Interviews
- Experiments
- New technologie
What are observational studies?
- Behaviour is observed within the setting in which it naturally occurs
- Participants may know that they are being observed (overt observation) or they may be unaware (covert observation)
What are the three main types of observational studies?
- Controlled observation
- Naturalistic observations
- Participant observations
What are controlled observations?
- Usually under laboratory conditions, so researcher maintains control over environment and context
- Behaviour usually systematically classified and coded into distinct categories, using a specific timed-observation schedule
- Behaviour may be coded by more than one researcher and inter-rater reliability checked
What are examples of controlled observations?
- Bandura (1961) - Bobo doll studies
- Ainsworth (1970) – Attachment styles
What are the strengths of controlled observations?
- Easy to replicate using same methods and observation schedule
- Data is quick to analyse using quantitative statistical methods and software
- Relatively quick to conduct, so large samples possible
What are the limitations of controlled observations?
- Hawthorne effect or demand characteristics may limit validity
- Do participants act differently when being observed?
What are naturalistic observations?
- Behaviour observed under naturalistic conditions
- Data recorded using variety of methods
What are the strengths of a naturalistic observation?
- Observing flow of behaviour in natural setting increases ecological validity
- Often used to inform further research
What are the limitations of naturalistic observations?
- Observations on small scale may not be representative
- May be difficult to replicate circumstances and findings
- Substantial training required – what to observe?
- May not be able to establish cause and effect relationships or direction
What are participant observations?
- Variation on naturalistic observations
- Researcher becomes participant, becomes part of the group under investigation
- Assumes false role and identity, goes ‘under-cover’