mindful skepticism
- careful examination of information
- never hold onto something as absolute
- open minded
Research cycle
1. formulate a question
2. review existing literature
3. select a method
4. collect data
5. analyze data
6. report results
7. start cycle over
Variables
concepts of interest; thing thought to influence or influenced by something else
hypothesis
testable statement about relationship between two or more variables
operationalization
giving variables measurable attributes that must be exhaustive and mutually exclusive
exhaustive
thorough, complete, given every possibility
mutually exclusive
either or, can't be more than one
Nature of association between variables
correlation, causal, spurious relationships
Spurious relationship
variables are correlated but they do not have a causal relationship
Reliability
the degree to which measurements will produce the same results
validity
the degree to which a measure actually measures what it is intended to
generalizability
the degree to which research findings apply beyond the specific case examined
triangulation
many researchers using many methods to work on the same issue, trying to examine issue at different angles
What are key types of research methods?
surveys, experiments, observation, unobtrusive research
Surveys
series of questions asked of a number of people
Types of surveys
1. Interviews
2. Self-administered
Pros (2)/Cons (3) of Interviews
higher response rate, can clarify questions for interviewee. time consuming, miss certain populations, social desirability bias
Pros (6)/Cons of Surveys (3)
done faster, can get large N, less expensive, can get varied population, can get info that can't be observed, high generalizability. People who do surveys might be strongly opinionated, can miss certain populations, more validity problems due to different
field research
researcher directly observe individuals in their natural environments
Complete participant
researcher enters field research and participate in subjects' lives to observe without their knowledge
Participant observer
researcher starts to inform subjects that they are under observation
Complete observer
researchers not involved with subject group and observe without subjects' knowledge
Pros of field research (7)
natural setting, natural behavior, less expensive, first hand experience, empathetic understanding, good for subjects we know little about, can get populations hard to study
Cons of field research (6)
observer bias, too involved which means presenting participant's views without skepticism, too distant which means not presenting participant's views correctly, time consuming, Hawthorne effect, generalizability issues
Unobtrusive research
studying human behavior in ways that do not have an impact on the subjects
Unobtrusive research examples
artifacts (abandoned objects), content analysis (analyzing texts), some artificial statistics (not census because census asks people the questions)
Pros of Unobtrusive research (5)
no need for cooperation, no Hawthorne effect, less time consuming than field research, less expensive than surveys and experiments, official statistics are high quality
Cons of Unobtrusive (2)
official stats may not have needed info, can only study aritfacts and content analysis that leave traces
Experiments
controlled, artificial situations where researchers manipulate IV and observe effects on DV
Pros of Experiment (2)
see causality, highly reliable
Cons of Experiment (4)
artificial setting, validity and generalizability problems, expensive, experimenter bias