Research Methods Final

Front 1

Non-Experimental Research

Back 1

It's a description of naturally occurring behaviors
Survey Research
Observational Research
Case Study

Front 2

Disadvantages of Non-Experimental Research

Back 2

Demand characteristics
Can't do experiment to manipulate/ test everything (maybe due to ethics)
Resource intensive (time, money, planning)
Lose external validity

Front 3

Case Study

Back 3

Intensive investigation of a case
Usually only 1 person
Can be small group
Gives a descriptive account
~Very in depth at multiple levels
~Usually rare clinical/ neuropsychological cases

Front 4

Drawbacks of Case Studies

Back 4

"n of 1"
Causality issue: was the brain injury the cause of the behavior or something else?
Very difficult to reproduce

Front 5

Observational Research

Back 5

These are naturalistic observations based on naturally occurring behaviors

Front 6

Observational Research Based on Ethology

Back 6

Study of naturally occurring behaviors
Ethogram
Better in psych to observe to answer specific questions

Front 7

Ethograms are Used in Observational Research

Back 7

Relatively complete inventory of specific behaviors

Front 8

Why is Observational Research Better than Experiments Only?

Back 8

Helps to establish external validity from lab experiment
Also important with ethical/ moral consideration that are in experiments

Front 9

Important Considerations in Observational Research

Back 9

Coding-operationally define the action or movement
Have inter-observer reliability by having multiple coders for the same observation
Frequency of occurrence matters

Front 10

Controlled/Structured Observations

Back 10

Allow you to control the situation and use carefully arranged conditions

Front 11

Participant Observations

Back 11

Researcher makes themselves part of the action

Front 12

Reactivity in Observational Research

Back 12

Knowing someone is watching you changes you
Unobtrusive Observations
Unobtrusive Measures

Front 13

Unobtrusive Observation

Back 13

Researcher does not get in the way. Participants don't know they are being watched

Front 14

Unobtrusive Measures

Back 14

Indirect observations of behaviors that are a result of specific behaviors
ie: GPA, arrest record, mortality rate

Front 15

Marketing Research

Back 15

An example of observational research
observe products in use
observe license plates
socio-econoimic status
decision time to make a purchase

Front 16

Relational Research

Back 16

Attempt to determine how variables are related to one another
Does not involve manipulation
2 types:
~Contingency Table
~Correlational Research

Front 17

Contingency Table Research

Back 17

Tabular representation of all combinations of categories of 2 variables
2 rows X 2 columns (at least)

Front 18

Nominal Research

Back 18

Individuals can only be in one cell of contingency table
Analysis:
kai2 (squared) examines a relationship if one is present to determine if the 2 variables are independent of one another or not

Front 19

Correlational Research

Back 19

Research between 2 or more measures
The correlation tells us:
Magnitude (degree) of relation
Direction of relation

Front 20

Magnitude of Relation

Back 20

Indicated by the size of the absolute value
The distance form zero (negative or positive)
The stronger it is in either distance from zero, the stronger the relationship between variables

Front 21

Direction of Relation

Back 21

Indicated by sign
Either a positive or negative correlation

Front 22

Negative correlation

Back 22

If one goes up, the other goes down (opposite)

Front 23

Positive correlation

Back 23

If one goes up, the other goes up (same)

Front 24

Relation vs Relationship

Back 24

Relationship:
connection, association, or involvement between between PEOPLE
Relation:
Existing connection/ significant association between or among things
The stronger the relation, the closer to 1 or -1 the correlation is BUT this does NOT apply causation

Front 25

Pearson's Correlation Coefficient

Back 25

Pearson's r
-1, -.8, -.4, 0, .4, .8, 1
If all measures are on a straight line to the right, only 3 std dev. away from 0, they are all considered positive 1
If all measures are on a straight line to the left, only 3 std dev. away from 0, they are all considered negative 1
IMPORTANT: If there are scores greater than 3 std deviations away from the mean they are outliers, and must be removed

Front 26

Restricted Range (Trunkated Range)

Back 26

This kind of range can change correlation if it's restricted
Even if the data collected is not linear, it can still have relation, so be mindful of that

Front 27

Survey Research

Back 27

Most common type of research
Easy to do badly

Front 28

Types of Administration (Survey Research)

Back 28

Self-administered questionnaire
OR
Investigator-administered questionnaire
(phone or in person)
Usually computer aided
~CATI
~CACI
Answers can determine the next question that you get

Front 29

Choosing a Sampling Strategy (Survey Research)

Back 29

Census
Sampling Frame
Random Sampling
Convenient Sampling
Snowball Sampling

Front 30

Census

Back 30

Asking everyone in a population to take the survey
EG: US Census

Front 31

Sampling Frame

Back 31

How do you identify the population from which you want to survey?
List everyone in the population to pull sample from

Front 32

Random Sampling

Back 32

Take a stratified random sample to survey
Every member in the population has a chance to be sampled
(This is NOT simply random sampling)

Front 33

Convenient Sampling

Back 33

Convenient participants are surveyed
EG: the cosmo magazine surveys (dumb girls), Fox News polls (right sided), or CNN News Poll (left sided)

Front 34

Snowball Sampling

Back 34

Sample who receives the survey can and is encouraged to pass on the survey to ppl they know
EG: find one family with a child with downs... they tell you what other families have kids with downs so you can question them, ect..

Front 35

Nonresponse vs Response in Survey Research

Back 35

Volunteer problem
Those who answer may not represent the entire population
Volunteers-- more motivated, care more, more patient, or have more free time.
Might be more educated so that's why they care to respond

Front 36

What is Ideal for Survey Research

Back 36

Want to be able to generalize and only a true random sample can allow us to do so
Nonresponse biases may ruin sample and overall conclusion

Front 37

Polling vs Voting

Back 37

The amount of ppl who vote as compared to those who take polls are vastly different
Remember FDR vs Alf Landon example: Literary Digest Poll predicted Alf, sent out 10 mil surveys, got 2 mill back
Gallop predicted FDR, sent out only 50,000 surveys
FDR won
This happened because the Lit Digest may have sampled more ppl BUT Gallop surveyed from a more broad sample of fewer ppl

Front 38

Survey Design

Back 38

Fixed Alternative
Open-Ended

Front 39

Fixed Alternative Survey Design

Back 39

Yes/No
Multiple Choice
Likert Scale
These are reliable, but not as powerful due to restiction

Front 40

Open-Ended Survey Design

Back 40

No fixed answer
Difficult to score... How do you code?
May not be properly answered
More rich data