Scientific Methods Flashcards
Pre-Scientific Methods?
Astrology
- Personality assessment based on birth date
Physiognomy
- Personality assessment baed on shape of body, particularly the face
Phrenology
- Personality assessment based on morphology (shape) of skull
4 major types of descriptive methods?
LOTS of data!
Life history data
Observer-reports
Test data
Self-reports (surveys)
Self-Report?
Asking people questions about their beliefs and behaviours
- Provided by the participant
- Responses to questionnaires
Ten-Item Personality Inventory-(TIPI)?
I see myself as: (rate on a likert scale)
1. _____ Extraverted, enthusiastic
2. _____ Critical, quarrelsome.
3. _____ Dependable, self-disciplined.
4. _____ Anxious, easily upset.
5. _____ Open to new experiences, complex.
6. _____ Reserved, quiet.
7. _____ Sympathetic, warm.
8. _____ Disorganized, careless.
9. _____ Calm, emotionally stable.
10. _____ Conventional, uncreative.
Self-Report Data, advantages and disadvantages?
Advantages
– Allows study of difficult-to-observe behaviors,
thoughts and feelings
* Who knows better?
– Easy to distribute to large groups
Disadvantages
– Respondents may not be representative
(convenience sampling is tempting)
– Responses may be biased or untruthful
Observer report?
Observing behaviour of others
Observer Reports:
Who are the Observers?
- Parents, friends, teachers
– Usually collected by questionnaire or rating
form - Trained observers
– Systematic observations of behavior - Untrained, participant-observers
– Class ratings of Trudeau
Observer report, advantages and disadvantages?
Advantages
– Capture spontaneous behaviors
– Avoid bias of self-reports
Disadvantages
– Researcher interference
* How naturalistic (vs. artificial) is the observation?
– Rarity of some behaviors
* Research on criminality
– Observer bias & selective attention
– Time consuming
Test Data?
Assessing an individual’s
abilities, cognitions, motivations,
or behaviors, by observing their
performance in a test situation
Tests may be written,
physical (e.g.,
cardiogram),
experimental, or
physiological
Examples of Kinds of Test Data?
Questionnaire tests
– E.g., IQ
Experimental tests
– Megargee (1969) study of dominance
* Does trait dominance (high vs. low) or gender
predict leadership?
* Paired high and low dominant men and women in
“box repair” task
* 4 kinds of groups:
(1) high dom ♀, high dom ♂
(2) high dom ♀, low dom ♂
(3) low dom ♀, low dom ♂
(4) low dom ♀, high dom ♂
Test data, advantages and disadvantages?
*Advantages
* Allows measurement of characteristics
not easily observable, or known to the
participant
Disadvantages
* Must infer that the test measures what
you think it measures
– Validity issue
Life history (Case studies)
Intensive examination
of a single person or
group
Case Study Methods?
- Obtained from life history (interviews,
autobiography) - Other life records (Life Outcome Data)
– School grades
– Criminal records
– Work record
– Facebook page, tweets, instagram, etc.
Case study, advantages and disadvantages?
- Advantages
– Rich source of hypotheses
– Allows for studies of rare behaviors - Disadvantages
– Observer bias
– Difficult to generalize (N = 1)
– Difficult to reconstruct causes from complexity
of past events
Reliability?
Extent to which scores on the measure
are stable and replicable, vs. amount of
error or randomness in the measure
