explain case studies
- analysis of unusual events
- usually involving qualitative data
- tend to be longitudinal
- individual can be subject to psychological testing (quantitative data)
evaluate case studies
STRENGTHS:
- rich, detailed insight into atypical behaviour
- contributes to understanding of normal functioning
LIMITATIONS:
- issues with generalisation
- subjective interpretation of the researcher
- memory decay for personal accounts
explain content analysis
- observational, indirect research
- coding is categorising data sets into meaningful units (quantitative data)
- thematic analysis is identifying recurrent themes and then collecting a new set of data to test the themes
evaluate content analysis
STRENGTHS:
- no issue with obtaining permission (public data) so navigates around ethical issues
- high in external validity
LIMITATIONS:
- researcher bias as data is subject to interpretation or may be taken out of context (requires reflexivity)
explain what reliability is
- measure of consistency (can produce same results twice)
what are the 3 ways of assessing reliability
- test retest involved administering same test/questionnaire to ppts on different occasions
- inter observer reliability is having more than one observer to remove subjectivity bias
- measuring reliability with a correlation coefficient ( must exceed +0.80 )
how can we improve reliability in questionnaires
- test retest method should produce a coefficient of >+0.80
- if not, questions should be rewritten to not be ambiguous etc
how can we improve reliability in interviews
- use the same interviewee for each participant
- if not, ensure they are trained to not ask leading/ambiguous questions (fixed w/ structured interviews)
how can we improve reliability in observations
- operationalise behavioural categories
- different observers interpret observations, and if reliability is low, further training or altering of categories may be necessary
how can we improve reliability in experiments
- procedure must be consistent every time
- standardised procedures must be used
explain what validity is
- measure of whether observed effect is genuine
what is internal validity
- whether the effects observed in an experiment are due to IV manipulation, not another factror, eg. demand characteristics
what is external validity
- the ability to generalise findings to other settings, populations and eras
- eg. ecological validity measures mundane realism
what is temporal validity
- whether particular findings/theories will hold true over time
how can we assess validity
- face validity (eyeballing measurements) or passing it by an expert to check
- concurrent validity is when results match a similar, well established test (>+0.80)
how can we improve validity in experiments
- use a control group
- standardised or single/double blind procedure to reduce participant reactivity and investigator bias
how can we improve validity in questionnaires
- lie scale in test to look for social desirability bias and assess consistency in responses
how can we improve validity in observations
- behavioural categories may be too broad/ambiguous
- covert observations make research authentic
how can we improve validity in qualitative research
- include direct quotes from participant
- asses interpretative validity of researchers conclusions (reflexivity)
- triangulation (mu
