unit 2: approaches to research Flashcards
Explain quantitative research.
- Correlational studies
- Shows relation of two variables
- Experiments in controlled conditions show if a variable affects another
- May lack ecological validity
Explain qualitative research
- Interviews where psychologist asks participant questions
- Observational studies where behavior is recorded in a natural setting
- Examples: case study of a unique individual or group, survey
- No cause and effect relationship found, but rich source of data
What are questions to ask about studies centering around process details?
→ Aim
→ Group focused on
→ Obtaining participants
→ Representation of population
What are questions to ask about studies centering around results?
→ Findings
→ Applications
→ Validity
What are questions to ask about studies centering around ethics?
→ Consent
→ Deception
→ Withdrawal
→ Confidentiality
→ Debrief
→ Harm
What word do we never use in psychology? What to use instead for theories/hypotheses and results?
- Prove
- Theories/hypotheses are SUPPORTED or DEMONSTRATED, results are SHOWN or OBTAINED
What are confounding variables?
Variables that interfere with the action of the IV on the DV.
Name the rat study, and explain it.
Pedersen et al. (2006)
Aims:
understand how oxytocin influences mothering behavior
Experiment:
- Lab rats
- Division of rat mothers and offspring into three groups
- Dose of oxytocin, oxytocin antagonist, or salty water
Results
- Mothers with reduced oxytocin groomed less
- Mothers with increased oxytocin spent more time grooming
Conclusions
- Oxytocin influences mothering behavior in rats
- Similar influence on human mother-infant bonding (released during childbirth/breastfeeding)
What are the strengths and limitations of experiments?
Strengths:
- C/E established
- Stats present to analyze data
- Replication possible
Limitations
- Ecological validity low
- Demand characteristic (CV)
- Internal validity low
What are the strengths and limitations of a field experiment?
Strengths:
- Ecological validity
Limitations:
- Lack of control over variables, uncertainty over C/E
Name the subway victim study and explain it.
Aims:
- understand why people do/don’t offer help to a stranger in need
Setting:
- NY underground
Experiment:
- 450 people on subway
- Victims differed (men around same age)
→ Drunk vs ill
→ Black vs white
→ Group size
→ Model presence
- Confederate collapses on train, Con #2 acts as model if no others help
Results:
- Ill person gets more help than drunk
- Men help more
- Same race, more likely to help
Conclusions:
- Arousal: Cost - Reward model
→ People want to help in an emergency due to unpleasant arousal
→ They weigh costs of helping vs not
Explain natural experiments.
- Take place under natural conditions
- Differ from field in that no manipulated IV
- IV is a naturally occurring variable
What are the two essential differences between quasi experiments and experiments and the result of those differences?
- Non-equivalent groups: Quasi experiments don’t randomly allocate participants to groups, participants are self-selecting.
- The research does not always have full experimental control over the IV.
As a result, a quasi experiment cannot show a C/E, just a correlation.
Name the noise learning experiment and explain it.
Bronzaft and McCarthy (1975)
Aims:
- Find out whether noise makes learning more difficult.
Setting:
- NYC elementary school built close to elevated train line
Experiment:
- Examine the learning of students on the noisy side of school vs students on the quiet side
Results:
- Mean reading of classes on noisy side lagged three to four months behind quite side
Conclusions:
- Study justified the implementation of noise reduction initiatives.
Name the strengths, and limitations of natural and quasi-experiments
Strengths:
- Used in situations where it would be ethically unacceptable to manipulate IV
- Less chance of experimenter bias or demand characteristics interfering with results
- Allows researchers to take advantage of naturally occurring events to better understand consequences.
Limitations:
- IV not controlled by researchers
- No control over participant groups (not equivalent)
Explain correlational studies.
- Test relationship between two variables of interest
- Expressed as number between -1 and +1 (correlation coefficient)
- Correlation coefficient of 0 = no correlation
- Information gathered through observation of existing dynamics
- Correlation DNE causation
Name the children parent-time correlation study and explain it.
Lam et al. (2012)
Aims:
- Figure out how the time that parents spend with their children impacts their children’s self esteem
Experiment:
- Mothers, fathers, first-born, and second born children from white families interviewed
Results:
- Social time between parents and children declines across adolescence
- Second-born children’s social time decreases more slowly than first-born
- Kids who spend more one-on-one time with their fathers have higher self-esteem scores
What is a common correlational study used to investigate heritability?
Kinship studies
What are the strengths and limitations of correlational studies?
Strengths:
- Conducted easily
- Allow researchers to study variables that cannot be manipulated (e.g. gender and culture)
Limitations:
- Can’t show C/E relationships (a correlation can be explained in many different ways)
Explain observations and the different ways that researchers observe.
They’re used to collect data, and target a specific behavior or set of them.
Ways:
- Overt (participants know they’re being studied)
- Covert (participants don’t know they’re being studied)
- Participant (joins in)
- Non-participant (just watches)
- Naturalistic (usually NP, takes place where target behavior occurs
- Controlled (usually NP, researcher constructs/controls situation)
Name and explain the ADHD study.
Miranda et al. (2002)
Aims:
- Evaluate effectiveness of a program for treating ADHD carried out by teachers
Experiment:
- Direct observation of behavior in the classroom
- Some teachers were trained in ways to reduce ADHD symptoms, other teachers were not and taught the control group
Results:
- Increased academic scores and better classroom behavior observed in the group of children with trained teachers
What are the strengths and limitations of observations?
Strengths:
- Give researchers ideas for research
- High ecological validity: Behavior can be studied in detail, often in natural circumstances
- Triangulation of methods (using more than one method) can use observations
- Several different observers can increase reliability and validity
Limitations:
- Demand characteristics
- Researcher bias (observers see what they want to see
- Can be unethical (would people be angry if they knew they were being observed?)
Name and explain the Genie case study.
Curtiss (1977)
Subject background:
- Discovered at 13
- Cruelly neglected, physically and verbally abused
- Walked awkwardly, made very little sound (beaten for making a noise)
- She may have had developmental problems in infancy
Aims:
- Assess the linguistic development of Genie
Experiment:
- Information collected from her behavior and the few comments she made
- Medical reports and recordings made
- Psychological testing used with observations / language tests
- Testing of “Critical Period Hypothesis”: humans can’t learn grammar correctly after early childhood due to lateralisation of brain
Results:
- Initial progress, but Genie never recovered completely from her privation
- Inability to develop normal language is evidence of CPH
What are the strengths and limitations of case studies?
Strengths:
- Constructs full and detailed picture of an individual, group, or org
- Can be longitudinal and provide a development/historical perspective
- Triangulation of methods leads to higher validity
- Can generate new psychological theories and provide evidence for existing theories
Limitations:
- Lack academic rigor compared to controlled experiments
- Create an extensive amount of data that can be unwieldy/time-consuming to analyze
- Over-involvement from researcher
- Limited generalisability
- Difficult to replicate–less reliability
