Research Methods Lessons 11-15 Flashcards
Psychology and the economy - Social influence
Social influence has been used to change people’s behaviour and attitudes.
E.g the US state of Montana had a problem with alcohol-related car crashes among 21-34 year olds. While only 20% of people in this age group had driven after drinking, 92% of this age group believed that the majority of their peers did this.
By correcting this misperception with adverts stating that most young adults (4 out of 5) do not drink and drive, alcohol-related car crashes were massively reduced.
This campaign worked because it made people aware of the actual social norm around drink driving so that they moderated their behaviour to fit with what the majority was doing.
Research into conformity was applied to prevent people engaging in a risky behaviour.
Similar campaigns have been used to reduce smoking. Campaigns have the potential to bring about changes that will have a positive impact on the economy. E.g reducing drink driving and smoking would alleviate the burden on emergency and health services.
Psychology + the economy - improving memory
The cognitive interview was developed based on psychological research into the way in which memory works.
It has improved the amount of accurate information collected from eyewitnesses.
The implication for the economy is that the amount spent on wrongful arrests and wasted police time will be vastly reduced.
Psychology + the economy - attachment
Attachment research has evolved considerably since Bowlby asserted that a child can only ever form a secure attachment and lasting monotropic bond with its mother.
In Bowlby’s time era, childcare was seen to be the sole responsibility of the mother, preventing many women from being able to work.
More recent research has questioned Bowlby and has shown the importance of the father role.
Both parents are equally capable of providing the emotional support necessary for healthy psychological development.
It is now normal for households to have flexible working arrangements. Some mothers who earn more go to work and the father stays at home, other couples share the child care evenly.
This means that modern parents are better equipped to maximize their income and contribute more effectively to the economy.
Psychology + the economy - mental health
The McCrone Report estimated that the direct cost of mental health issues on the economy in England is £22.5 billion a year – that includes spending in health and social care, as well as a variety of other agencies, but not the indirect cost of lost employment.
Absence from work costs the economy £15 billion a year and a third of all absences are caused by mild to moderate mental health disorders, e.g depression, anxiety, and stress
Evidence based research on effective drug therapies has been essential in reducing the cost of mental illness to the economy and returning people to work.
Psychological research findings into psychopathology may lead to improvements in psychological health/treatment programmes which may mean that people manage their health better and take less time off work. This would reduce costs to the economy.
Psychological research findings may lead to better ways of managing people who are prone to mental health issues whilst they are at work which could improve their individual productivity, again boosting the economy overall.
‘Cutting-edge’ scientific research findings into treatments for mental health issues carried out in UK may encourage investment from overseas companies into this country which could boost the economy.
However, providing effective treatments might be a significant financial burden to an NHS service already under huge financial strain.
Research might discover that new treatments are more effective than older therapies, but these new therapies could be more expensive.
What are the 3 types of data
Nominal (discrete)
Ordinal (continuous)
Interval (continuous)
Nominal data
Data are in separate categories
E.g grouping people according to their favourite television show, or eye colour.
The data is placed in categories and a person can only be placed in one category and not another.
Ordinal Data
Data are ordered in some way
E.g asking people to make a list of music genres in order of liking.
Data could be ordered and placed in rank order, e.g. who scored the highest to the lowest in an IQ test.
Interval Data
Data is measured using units of equal intervals e.g miles or centimeters.
Many psychological studies use their own interval scales (e.g. how stressed are you on a scale of 1-10) where the intervals are arbitrarily determined and we cannot therefore know for certain that there are equal intervals between the numbers.
Quantitative Data definition
Data that represents how much there is of something.
Data is measured in numbers of quantities.
This type of data is easy to analyse but may oversimply matters.
Quantitative data includes:
- Closed questions in questionnaires collect quantitative data.
- A tally of how many times a behavioural category is seen in an observation is quantitative.
Advantages and disadvantages of quantitative data
Advantages:
1) Easier to analyse than qualitative data, so that comparisons, trends and patterns between groups can be easily drawn
2) Data is more objective and less open to bias than qualitative data
Disadvantages
1) It lacks validity and means we might not be measuring the key variables identified in the aim
2) Lacks meaning and just consists of numbers or yes/no answers. It does not tell us the “why” in terms of what causes behavior
Qualitative data definition
Data that cannot be counted or quantified.
This is data in the form of information which is lengthy and has lots of detail.
Interviews, observations and open ended questions can all generate qualitative data. Qualitative data can also be found in: books, pictures, diaries, reports and newspapers etc.
Qualitative data is normally collected on the basis on how people think or feel.
Advantages and disadvantages of qualitative data
Advantages:
1) Can gain lots of detailed data which will help you to appreciate the complexity of human behaviour
2) The data is high in validity and usually measures the concepts and ideas stated in the aim (and whether the IV is really having an effect on the DV)
Disadvantages:
1) Data is usually unreliable, so if the study was to be repeated in the future, it would be unlikely that the same results would be gained.
2) You may be quite subjective when you analyse the detail and of course it may be difficult to generalise and make conclusions.
Primary data
Information observed or collected directly from first-hand experience.
In the case of psychological research it is data collected by the researcher for the study currently being undertaken.
Primary data provides the exact type of data the researcher is looking for, but takes a lot of time and effort to collect.
Secondary data
Secondary data is information that was collected for another purpose.
The researcher could use data collected by another psychologist/researcher but for a different study.
A researcher might make use of government statistics, such as mental health statistics collected by the NHS.
When the desired research already exists there is no need to conduct more research, a psychologist can just use the data that has been pre collected. However, there is substantial variation in the quality and accuracy of secondary data and it can be hard for researchers to know how reliable secondary data is.
Meta analysis
This refers to the process of combining results from a number of studies on a particular topic to provide an overall view.
Researchers collect and collate a wide range of previously conducted research on a specific area.
Collated research is reviewed together as a collective. E.g The Strange Situation has been conducted many times over the years and some researchers have taken the data from all these studies, put it together and analysed it.
Meta-analysis allows us to view data with much more confidence and results can be generalised across much larger populations. However, meta-analysis may be prone to publication bias; the researcher may choose to leave out studies with negative or non-significant results.
