Research methods year 2 - Flashcards
What is content analysis?
A kind of observational study in which behaviour is usually observed indirectly in visual, written or verbal material.
Researcher has to make decisions on sampling method, coding and method of representing.
It can either be represented a quantitative analysis = count instances, or qualitative = describe examples in each category.
Coding can be done through a thematic analysis = process of identifying themes from a large amount of qualitative data. Themes are then used to represent data.
Evaluation of content analysis?
+ high ecological validity - based on observations on what people actually do.
+ easily replicated - reliable.
- observer bias - reduces objectivity and reliability.
- culture biased - interpretation affected by language and culture.
- reductionist - converting qualitative to quantitative looses complexity.
What are case studies?
A research method that involves the detailed study of a single individual, group or event. - used to look at unusual behaviours and anything in greater detail.
Many techniques may be used - interviews, observations, questionnaires, experiments.
They are longitudinal as they follow the target over a period of time.
Example of important case studies?
Clive Wearing - memory damage.
Phineas Gage - loss of brain matter.
People’s Temple Full Gospel Church - mass suicide of cult.
Genie - isolation
Evaluation of case studies?
+ rich in-depth information
+ can be used to investigate cases which are rare and unethical to artificially create.
- difficult to generalise - unique characteristics.
- ethical issues - confidentiality, informed consent, psychological harm.
What is reliability and how can it be assessed and improved?
Consistency of results overtime.
Assessed through: inter-rater reliability - this can be worked out as a correlation coefficient.
Improved by behavioural categories clearly operationalised.
How can you assess and improve the reliability of a self - report technique?
Assess: test-retest reliability = the same test is given to the same participants on two occasions to see if the same results are obtained.
Inter-rater reliability
Improved: reduce ambiguity (make more clear).
How do you improve the reliability of experiments?
Make procedure more standardised (same procedures).
What is validity?
The trustworthiness of results.
What can affect internal (5) and external (3) validity?
Internal: investigator effects, demand characteristics, confounding variables, social desirability bias, poorly operationalised behavioural categories.
External: population validity, temporal validity, ecological validity.
How do you assess validity?
Face validity = does it look like it measures what it intends to measure.
Concurrent validity = compare a current method with a previously validated one on the same topic.
How do you improve validity?
Face validity = questions should be changed so they relate more to topic.
Concurrent = remove questions which seem irrelevant.
Internal/external = improve research design (double blind)
What are the features of science?
CORE
- Control = objectivity, standardisation.
- Objectivity = no expectations from researcher, systematic, controlled.
- Replicability = repeatable, valid, standardised.
- Empirical methods = information gained through scientific methods, direct testing, proof.
What is falsifiability?
Karl Popper - brought about major way in which scientists found proof.
Not possible to confirm and theory, only to disconfirm it = only way to prove theory correct is to seek disproof (falsification).
Therefore we start with a null hypothesis and prove it wrong to prove something.
What is a paradigm?
Thomas Kuhn said it is “a shared set of assumptions about the subject matter of a discipline and the methods appropriate to its study”.
