Research Methods - Social Psychology Flashcards
What are self reports?
The most widely used method as they gather information from large numbers of participants.
How are self reports different from observations?
They get information direct from ppts about their behaviour or thoughts, in contrast to observations which are the researcher’s interpretations about the participant’s actions.
What are the two types of self report?
Interviews
Questionnaires (Surveys)
Describe self-reports.
They are non-experimental in design but can be used as part of an experimental design as a way of gathering information about the IV or DV
What are interviews?
Face-to-face conversations, although they can also take place over social media or telephone. They are different from questionnaires as the interviewer is contributing at the same time as the interviewee – the interviewee is also asking questions or the interviewer may have questions, clarifications or responses of their own.
What are unstructured interviews like?
Informal chats, which put the ppt at ease, proving natural responses but no two are the same (unreliable) but interviewer can stop and pursue interesting lines of conversations or go over unclear answers
What are structured interviews like?
These have pre-determined questions and don’t sound like normal conversations - more robotic with a specific sequence of questions, stilted and unnatural - but many ppts can be interviewed and their responses easily compared.
What are semi-structured interview like?
Containing predetermined questions, but also informal chats, they sound more realistic than structured interviews. They have the validity of unstructured interviews but the reliability of structured interviews but are difficult to do as interviewer have to be well-trained or quite experienced.
How do you use interviews as data?
They are recorded (audio-only or filmed) , can be transcribed later and analysed in detail.
What is a disadvantage of all interviews?
They all suffer from researcher effects: some may give directions through tome or body language or interviewees may feel hostile or intimidated by some researchers.
What are questionnaires?
They aren’t conducted face-to-face, and don’t communicate with respondents during their filling in. They are always structured but there are different types of questions that may be asked.
What are open questions?
Allow any type of answer, and the best have longer type answers (How/Why?). The respondent isn’t restricted by their means of answering but is harder to score and compare qualitative data.
What are closed questions?
They allow an answer from a list of responses, (Usually Yes/No) but more complicated ones may involve multiple choice. These are easier to score as quantitative data as all possible answers are known in advance but restrict the respondent in their answer.
What are the different types of closed questions?
Multiple choice
Ranked Scale
Likert Scale
Semantic Differential Scale
What type of data does multiple choice provide?
Nominal level data, in the frequencies that each option was ticked, to be expressed in percentages but an option can be forgotten.
What type of data does ranked data provide?
Interval/Ratio data in which each respondent get their own score (1-10)
What is the Likert Scale?
Invented by Renesis Likert, it provides a statement and respondent replies with their strength of agreement/disagreement in order to provide a score (1-5)which can be used to turn into nominal or interval/ratio level data.
What is the Semantic Differential Scale?
Similar to a Likert Scale, it allows respondents to place their level of attitude on a scale in order to obtain a score (scoring system can be hidden from respondents. These are used to turn into nominal or interval/ratio level data.
Why are questionnaires more common than interviews?
Large numbers can fill them in at any one time and researchers don’t require particular skills or training to supervise its completion. However socially sensitive research may require interviews instead as questionnaires can seem cold and disrespectful.
What is a particular type of questionnaire?
The psychometric test
What are psychometric tests used for?
Produces a score to measure psychological characteristics such as the IQ test. They produce quantitative data and measure several things at once ie. different personality traits.
What is a different approach to the psychometric tests?
Projective tests
What are projective tests like?
These have a more interview technique as respondent either describes images or draws images of their own before researcher interprets it.
What is an example of projective tests?
Rorschach Test - “Inkblot test” - inspired by Freud’s psychodynamic theory, it produced qualitative data as inner characteristics are revealed on your interpretation of the images shown
What are researcher effects?
Demand characteristics: Influences that spoil the outcome of the self-report process as the actual response is due to another aspect.
Why are researcher effects bad?
Unreliability - as some may respond and others not
Invalid results - as answers given may not be true due to researcher influence
What is the double-blind technique used for?
Is when the person asking the question doesn’t know the answer and so cannot give out hints as to what they’re looking for or help out the respondents
What are some subtle researcher effects?
When researcher is either attractive or intimidating - esp. with sensitive topics as this may make some more forthcoming or inhibit others - you can change this by matching researcher to respondent in terms of age, sex and race.
How do questionnaires suffer from researcher effects?
If researcher is present when questionnaire is being filled out, but this can be solved with postal surveys/ online questionnaires however location may also be a problem (hiding location leads to ethical questions with not letting people know who has their data).
What are the self report methods used within Biological Psychology?
Brendgan et al (2005) gave tachers a questionnaire to measure Social and physical aggression
Freud (1909) organised unstructured interviews with a 5 yr old (Little Hans) to explore his phobia of horses
What are the self report methods used within Cognitive Psychology?
Schmolck et al (2002) asked participants to complete memory tests and interviewed them about their thoughts at the same time -unstructured interview. Was recorded and scored by 14 raters for language problems