Chapter 2 - Research Methods Flashcards
What are the three types of research design methods used to study social problems?
-Observational methods (description; qualitative or quantitative): describing behaviours
-Correlational methods (description; quantitative): describing the relation between variables
-Experimental methods (causality): only research methods that tells us cause and effect
What is the Observational Method?
-A technique whereby a researcher observes people and systematically records measurements of their behaviour.
What are some examples of observational methods?
-Case Studies: a detailed investigation of a single event, situation or an individual in order to explore and unearth complex issues;
-Ethnographies: the detailed and systematic study of people and cultures (looks at communities).
-Archival Analyses: an examination of the accumulated documents or archives of a culture such as novels, magazines and newspapers (not same ethics process);
-Non-Conscious Research: an examination of subconscious patterns of thought that are involuntary or unconscious (used to analyze attitude);
What is the difference between case studies and ethnographies?
Case studies:
-A case study is a detailed investigation of a single event, situation or an individual in order to explore and unearth complex issues.
-Focus on a single event, incident or individual.
-Aims to describe the nature of phenomena through detailed investigations of individual cases.
-May use interviews, observations, questionnaires, checklists, analysis of recorded data and opinionnaires.
-The researcher does not have to live in a particular community.
Ethnographies:
-An ethnography is the detailed and systematic study of people and cultures.
-Observes cultural phenomenon.
-Intends to uncover the tacit knowledge of culture participants.
-Use participant observations and interviews.
-The researcher has to spend a considerable amount of time inside that particular community.
What is the Correlational Method?
-A technique whereby researchers systematically measure two or more variables and assess the associative relation between them.
-The relation between variables is expressed as a correlation coefficient (how well we can predict one variable based on their relationship with the other; ranges from +1 to -1).
-Positive correlations indicate that an increase in one variable is associated with an increase in the other.
-Negative correlations indicate that an increase in one variable is associated with a decrease in the other.
What is the major limitation of the Correlational Method?
-Correlations do not tell the causal direction of the relationship (Correlation does not equal causation!); they only indicate if two variables are related.
What is the Experimental Method?
-The only way to determine causation is through experimentation.
-The researcher randomly assigns participants to different conditions and ensures that these conditions are identical except for the independent variable.
-The independent variable is the variable the researcher changes or varies to see if it has an effect on some other variable.
-The dependent variable is the variable a researcher measures to see if it is influenced by the independent variable.
-When conducting experiments in psychology, there is almost a trade-off between internal and external validity; i.e., between: having enough control over the situation to ensure that no confounding variable are influencing the results; and ensuring the results can be generalized to everyday life.
