Research Methods Flashcards
What is content analysis?
It is a type of observational technique which involves studying people indirectly, through the analysis of qualitative data using themes and categories.
Coding in content analysis
It is an important step in conducting content analysis and involves the researcher developing categories for the data to be classified.
How is content analysis carried out?
- The researcher will select and read through a piece of text.
- They will highlight important parts to make distinct categories (operationalised)
- The researcher will go over the text again tallying up the examples.
- Compare to other pieces of text
What is thematic analysis?
It is a technique that helps identify themes throughout qualitative data.
How is thematic analysis carried out?
- Researcher reads through text.
- Uses coding to analyse the text
- Create themes for the text
- Identify data which fits into certain themes
- Compare with more text
Strengths of content analysis and thematic analysis?
-Both have high ecological validity
-Much of the analysis that takes place within these research methods are basing their conclusions on
observations of real-life behaviour and written and visual communications.
- For example, analysis can take place on books people have read or programmes that people have watched on television.
- Since records of these qualitative sources remain, replication of the content/thematic
analysis can be conducted.
- If results were found to be consistent on re-analysis then they would be said to be reliable.
Weaknesses of content analysis and thematic analysis?
- There is the possibility that content analysis can produce findings that are very subjective. For
example, the researcher may interpret some things said in an interview in a completely different
manner from how they were intended, due to their own preconceptions, judgements or biases.
-Cultural differences may contribute to inconsistent interpretation of behaviour coding since
language may be translated and therefore interpreted differently by someone of a different
nationality. As a result, the validity of findings from a content analysis can be questioned since it
may not have been measuring what it intended to with accuracy.
What is a case study?
A case study is an in-depth study of one person or a group of people over time. It is usually carried out in the real world. They are idiographic and very individualistic.
Strengths of case studies
- A strength of the case study approach is that it offers the opportunity to unveil rich, detailed
information about a situation. These unique insights can often be overlooked in situations
where there is only the manipulation of one variable in order to measure its effect on another.
-Further to this, case studies can be used in circumstances which would not be ethical to
examine experimentally. For example, the case study of Genie (Rymer, 1993) allowed
researchers to understand the long-term effects of failure to form an attachment which they
could not do with a human participant unless it naturally occurred.
Weaknesses of case studies?
-There are methodological issues associated with the use of case studies. By only studying one
individual, an isolated event or a small group of people it is very difficult to generalise any
findings to the wider population since results are likely to be so unique. This therefore creates
issues with external validity as psychologists are unable to conclude with confidence that
anyone beyond the ‘case’ will behave in the same way under similar circumstances, thus
lowering population validity.
- An issue in case studies, particularly where qualitative methods are used, is that the researcher's own subjectivity may pose a problem. In the case study of Little Hans, for example, Freud developed an entire theory based around what he observed. There was no scientific or experimental evidence to support his suggestions from his case study. This means that a major problem with his research is that we cannot be sure that he objectively reported his findings. Bias and subjectivity can interfere with validity.
What is reliability?
- The extent to which results or procedures are consistent
- It is a measure of consistency
What is test-retest reliability?
- Way of testing reliability
- The same person or group of people are asked to undertake the research measure on different occasions.
What is inter-observer reliability?
- It is the extent to which two or more observers are observing and recording behaviour in a consistent way.
-This is useful in ensuring reliability in situations where there is a risk of subjectivity. (behavioural categories)
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How could you improve reliability for questionnaires?
- Identify questions which have the biggest impact on reliability and adjust them.
- If they are too important, then rewrite them to reduce ambiguity.
- Changing open questions to closed ones reduce subjective ambiguity.
How could you improve the reliability of interviews?
- Ensuring same interviewer is conducting all interviews will reduce researcher bias.
- Changing interview from unstructured to structured will limit researcher bias.
