Research Methods Flashcards
Why Are Research Methods Important?
Intuition is good but not always correct
What are Research Methods
Research method are how social psychologists test their ideas or theories about social behaviour
What is a Theory?
Set of principles that explain and predict observed events
Imply testable predictions or hypotheses
Hypothesis
Testable predictions about relationships that exist between events/behaviours/constructs
How Do Social Psychologists Test Their Ideas?
Participant Observation
Archival Research
Surveys
Experiments
Participant Observation
Social psychologists place themselves in real situations to understand social phenomena better
Ethnography
Researcher present in situation
Archival Methods
Records of any kind
Ex. police reports, medical records, sports statistics, newspaper articles, novels
Surveys
Researchers ask participants questions about their attitudes, thoughts, emotions or behaviours
Correlational Method
How much do two variables go together
Experiments
Random assignment to different conditions (on the independent variable)
Independent variable
Manipulated
Dependent variable
Measured
Replication is important to have confidence in our findings (T/F)
True
