Social Psychology Methods Flashcards
(37 cards)
What is self report data
Any method that relies on the individual own report of their views/symptoms/attitude etc
What are the different types of self report data in social psychology
Interviews
Questionnaires
What are researcher effects
Where the characteristics of the researcher impact the results, due to age gender religion etc
Different types of interviews
Structured
Semi-structured
Unstructured
What are the advantages of a structured interview
Easily repeated and the same for everyone improving reliability
Much quicker than semi-structure or unstructured
Do not need trained researchers
What are the disadvantages of a structured interview
Not necessarily valid as the pp are restricted in their answer and so they may not answer completely accurately
What are the advantages of semi-structured interview
More valid than a structured interview
Higher reliability than an unstructured interview
Allowing for a decent degree of both reliability and validity
Disadvantages of semi-structured interviews
Less valid than unstructured interview and less reliable than structured
Advantages of unstructured interviews
High validity
Deeper understanding
Disadvantages of unstructured
Require trained researchers
Not reliable as the interview could be different for all pp
What are the two types of questions
Open and closed
Describe open questions
Allow the pp to have freedom in their answer allowing them to expand
Describe closed questions
Where the pp is restricted in their answer and can only respond via a yes/no or ranked scale option
What is the alternative hypothesis
The hypothesis that states there will be a relationship between the two variables you are studying and if accepted rejects the null hypothesis
Can be directional or non directional
Different types of sample selection
Random
Stratified
Volunteer
Opportunity
Opportunity sampling
Choosing whoever is available at the time and fits your description
Volunteer sampling
Where pp self select themselves to be part of a study
Stratified sampling
Where the target population is split into groups that represent the target population
The researchers sample should then be representative of the target population
Random sampling
Where everyone has an equal chance of being selected for the study
Advantages of opportunity sampling
Researcher has more control over who is asked
Gather sample relatively quickly
Disadvantages of opportunity sampling
More chance of bias as researcher could select participants they feel will support their hypothesis
Might not be representative of the target population
Advantages of volunteer sampling
Gather sample quickly
Easier to do
Could potentially choose from your volunteers and don’t have to select all of them
Disadvantages of volunteer sampling
They could all be similar and share similar characteristics as they all chose to select themselves, impacting generalisability
They could also be more interested and so trying to guess what the study is about potentially leading to demand characteristics
Advantages of stratified sampling
Each group of the target population is represented, making the sample more representative and so improving generalisability
