research methods Y13 Flashcards
what is content analysis
Research tool used to indirectly observe the presence of certain words, images or concepts within the media by quantifying and analysing the presence, meanings and relationships of words and then make inferences about the messaged within the media
It is usually carried out on secondary data that has already been published
how do you do content analysis
In order to do a content analysis you need to break down the thing you are analysing into manageable categories on a variety of levels and then examine them
evaluate content analysis
+ Turn qualitative data into quantitative data
+ cheap and easy
+ multimedia focusable
- Reducing qualitive data
- Subjective and there is low interrater reliability
- Researcher bias
- Time consuming
- Not considered strong enough of a tool on its own and needs to used with another
- Oversimplifies media and the meaning of things
what is themetic analysis
Looks for emergent themes in qualitive data, codes them and then interprets their meaning
evaluate thematic analysis
+ qualitive data
+flexible
- Lack of objectivity as bias may threaten findings
- Communication is studied out of context and may not be what the writer originally wanted to talk about
outline the features of science in psychology
Psychology is a science as it has assumptions, scientific methods used to test hypothesis and terminology
Falsification as psychology includes trying your hardest to disprove your own hypothesis to prove it is true
Predictive power as the theories in psychology provide general laws or principles to allow predictions
Scientific paradigms which psychology doesn’t have as there are multiple different approaches and not one unifying theory making it a social science and not a physical one
Ethical considerations we cannot isolate test variables without being cruel or unethical for example to test the nature vs nurture debate you would have to raise twins separately in completely different environments
what are some of the rules about writing up your research
Investigation must be written up in a scientific report and the pages must be numbered and the report must be written in 3rd person, it must be concise and precise
what are all of the things a psychological report must have
Title, contents page, abstract, introduction, procedure, results and discussion
