RESEARCH METHODS

in Psychology
Terminology
 Variable - Any factor that can change or vary, a psychological
concept which is observable and measurable.

 All variables are either based on personal factors or

environmental factors (situational variables)

 Independent variable ( IV) - Variable the experimenter

manipulates (i.e. changes) – assumed to have a direct effect
on the dependent variable.

 Dependent variable (DV) - Variable the experimenter

measures. This is the outcome (i.e. result) of a study
 Try this
A researcher wanted to find out whether people
remember pictures better than words. She gives 10
participants a list of 10 words and another 10
participants a page of 10 pictures to memorize for 30
seconds, and then counts how many each person
remembers correctly.

Identify the IV and DV

Experimental terminology
 Ecological validity - The degree to which an investigation represents real-
life experiences.

 Experimenter effects - These are the ways that the experimenter can
accidentally influence the participant through their appearance or behavior.

 Demand characteristics - The clues in an experiment that lead the

participants to think they know what the researcher is looking for (e.g.
experimenter’s body language).

 Extraneous variable – Any variable other than the IV that could affect the
variable. EV’s should be controlled where possible

 Operationalizing variables – to clearly define how they will be measured

or tested.


Try this
A researcher wanted to find out whether people
remember pictures better than words. She gives 10
participants a list of 10 words and another 10
participants a page of 10 pictures to memorize for 30
seconds, and then counts how many each person
remembers correctly.

 Write down as many extraneous variables as you

can think of which could affect this experiment. Why
would they?
Hypothesis
 Alternative hypothesis - What the experimenter
predicts what the effect of the IV on the DV will be.
Is also called the research hypothesis or the
experimental hypothesis.

 Null hypothesis - Statement that the IV will have no

effect on the DV. 'There will be no significant
difference between ... and .... Any observed
differences will be due to chance factors' In
correlations 'There will be no correlation...'
 Three major research designs
Research Goal Advantages Disadvantages
design
Descriptive To create a snapshot of Provides a relatively Does not assess
the current state of complete picture of what relationships among
affairs is occurring at a given variables. May be
time. Allows the unethical if participants do
development of questions not know they are being
for further study. observed.
Correlational To assess the Allows testing of expected Cannot be used to draw
relationships between relationships between and inferences about the
and among two or more among variables and the causal relationships
variables making of predictions. Can between and among the
assess these relationships in variables.
everyday life events.
Experimental To assess the causal Allows drawing of Cannot experimentally
impact of one or more conclusions about the causal manipulate many
experimental relationships among important variables. May
manipulations on a variables. be expensive and time
dependent variable consuming.
Descriptive research methods

 Describe situations

 Don’t make accurate predictions

 Do not determine cause and effect

3 types of descriptive methods

 Observational method

 Case study method

 Survey method
Observational method
1. Naturalistic observation
 Viewing/observing participants in their natural

environments
 Provides descriptions of behavior

2. Laboratory observation
 Downsides

Naturalistic observations are great at

describing behavior , but they’re very
limited in explaining it.
 Case study method
 Definition: obtaining detailed information about an
individual to develop general principles about
behavior and its relationship to a phenomenon
 Use of interviews with the individual and family,
friends, medical professionals etc, direct
observation, psychological testing, or examination
of documents and records about the subject.
 Often expensive and time consuming
 Qualitative research is useful for case studies
Case study, at a glance
Advantages
Detailed in-depth information got of a
single case concerning a person, a family,
an organization or an event.
High ecological validity.
Sensitive to the individual, and sensitive
issues concerning the individual.
Give new insight into phenomena or
experience
Disadvantages
Cannot generalize results.
Replication impossible, to confirm earlier
results.
Reliability of information got by self-
report.
Interviewer / observer bias.
Lack of scientific validity: no cause-effect
conclusions can be made.
Example of a case study
Effects of isolation in young children

Mason (1947) The case study of Isabelle who had been kept in
isolation in a dark room with her mother who was deaf and without
speech gives insight into the development of children by an
extraordinary case. Isabelle had not been given an adequate diet
and had severe rickets. During her isolation she communicated with
her mother using gestures. The mother escaped from the isolation
when Isabelle was about six years old. On her admission to hospital
Isabelle behaved like a wild animal and only made croaking sounds.
After one week in the hospital she started to make speech sounds
and seemed to pass rapidly through the normal stages of speech.
After 18 months she had a vocabulary of over 2000 words, could
read and write, and could compose imaginative stories.
Survey method
Interviews and focus groups
Interviews used to collect self report research data that is highly structured

Advantages
 Yields a lot of information
 Provides a good way to generate hypotheses
Limitations
 Subjective in nature
 Provides information about the behavior that cant be observed directly
 Relies on self report data which can be misleading, can be inaccurate due to outright lying
 Misunderstanding of the question
 Can give incomplete information
 The way the question is asked
Strong/forceful words

BAN

Limit

Not Allow
 Wording of questions

Do you believe in aliens and UFO’s?

Do you think that there is intelligent life

somewhere in the universe?
 Correlational research
 Determines the degree of a relationship between two events, measures or
variables

 Positive Correlation:–Increases in one variable are matched by increases in

the other variable
e.g. high school grades and college grades

 Negative Correlation:–Increases in one variable are matched by decreases

in the other variable
e.g. hours playing video games and grades

 Correlation does not demonstrate causation:

Just because two variables are related does NOT mean that one variable
causes the other occur to occur
Correlations predict the possibility of
cause and effect relationships, but
they cannot prove them
Experimental research
• Experimental research is defined as
“Observations under controlled conditions”

• Cause and effect is established

• In experimental design the researcher is an active

agent rather than a passive observer.
Experimental research
 Manipulation of the independent variable and
measurement of the dependent variable
 Independent variable - the causing variable that is
created (manipulated) by the experimenter.
 Dependent variable - a measured variable that is
expected to be influenced by the experimental
manipulation
 Manipulation
Manipulation refers to conscious control of the
independent variable by the researcher through
treatment or intention to observe its effect on the
DV.

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE MEDICATION

DEPENDENT VARIABLE PAIN LEVEL

 Control
 Control refers to the use of control group and
controlling the effects of extraneous variables on
the dependent variable in which the researcher is
interested.

 The subjects in the control and experimental groups

are similar in number & characteristics, but the
subjects in the control group do not receive
experimental treatment or any intervention.
Types of experiments in psychology

 Laboratory /controlled experiments

 Field experiments

 Quasi /natural experiments

Laboratory/controlled experiments
 Strength: It is easier to replicate (i.e. copy) a laboratory
experiment. This is because a standardized procedure is
used.
 Strength: They allow for precise control of extraneous and
independent variables. This allows a cause and effect
relationship to be established.
 Limitation: The artificiality of the setting may produce
unnatural behavior that does not reflect real life, i.e. low
ecological validity. This means it would not be possible to
generalize the findings to a real life setting.
 Limitation: Demand characteristics or experimenter effects
may bias the results and become confounding variables.
 Field experiments
Independent variable still deliberately manipulated by the researcher

 Strength: Behavior in a field experiment is more likely to reflect real life

because of its natural setting, i.e. higher ecological validity than a lab
experiment.

 Strength: There is less likelihood of demand characteristics affecting the

results, as participants may not know they are being studied.

 Limitation: There is less control over extraneous variables that might bias
the results. This makes it difficult for another researcher to replicate the
study in exactly the same way.
Natural/ quasi experiments
Conducted in the everyday (real life) environment of the participants.

 Strength: Behavior in a natural experiment is more likely to reflect real life

because of its natural setting, i.e. very high ecological validity.
 Strength: There is less likelihood of demand characteristics affecting the
results, as participants may not know they are being studied.
 Strength: Can be used in situations in which it would be ethically
unacceptable to manipulate the independent variable, e.g. researching
stress.
 Limitation: They may be more expensive and time consuming than lab
experiments.
 Limitation: There is no control over extraneous variables that might bias the
results. This makes it difficult for another researcher to replicate the study in
exactly the same way.
The experimental process
Four basic steps of the process are:

 Forming a hypothesis

 Designing a study and collecting data

 Analyzing the data and reaching conclusions

 Sharing the findings

 Activity

Do humans solve problem faster

when given caffeine?
 Hypothesis

Adults given caffeine will navigate a

maze faster than adults not given
caffeine
Independent and dependent variable

IV – Caffeine dosage

DV – the speed at which the subject

navigates through this maze
 Design the experiment

 Control group – Decaf

 Experimental group 1 – Low dose of caffeine 100

mg

 Experimental group 2 – 500 mg

 Psychological testing
 Researchers use psychological tests to collect
information about personality traits, emotional states,
aptitudes, interests, abilities, values, or behaviors.

 Researchers usually standardize these tests (creating

uniform procedures for giving and scoring them.)

 When scoring a test, researchers often compare

subjects’ scores to norms
 Reliability and Validity

Reliability – the consistency of a measure. A test is

considered reliable if we get the same result
repeatedly.

A test is valid if it actually measures the quality it

claims to measure. There are two types of validity:
 Primary or secondary data
Depends on the objective of why the data is being
collected.

 Primary data - direct observation, surveys,

interviews, questionnaires, experiments, and logs.
 Secondary data is data from an external source,

that someone else has already collected.

Example : newspapers, government agencies,
archival material
What is a Sample?

DEFINITION
A subset of the population being
studied from which data is actually
collected.
 Sampling techniques
Sampling techniques are the processes by which the
subset of the population from which you will collect
data are chosen.

There are TWO general types of sampling

techniques:
1) PROBABILITY SAMPLING
2) NON-PROBABILITY SAMPLING
Non- probability sampling
DEFINITION
The process of selecting a sample from a
population without using (statistical)
probability theory.
NOTE THAT IN NON-PROBABILITY SAMPLING

 each element/member of the population DOES NOT have

an equal chance of being included in the sample, and

 the researcher CANNOT estimate the error caused by not

collecting data from all elements/members of the
population.
Sampling methods
Non – probability sampling

 Convenience sampling

 Purposive sampling

 Quota sampling

 Snowball sampling
Convenience/ opportunity sampling

DEFINITION
Selecting easily accessible
participants who are available at the
time.
For example, asking people who live in your
dorm to take a survey for your project or
shoppers at a single mall.
Convenience sampling

(+) (-)
Saves time, money and No accurate way to
effort assess
representativeness of
Easy data collection samples
through a known group
or class Possible restrictions of
generalizations about
the study findings.
 Quota sampling
DEFINITION
Selecting participant in numbers proportionate
to their numbers in the larger population, no
randomization.

For example you include exactly 50 males and 50 females

in a sample of 100.
 Quota sampling

(+) (-)
Each group is The result might be
generally at risk that the
represented sample would not be
typical of the
Useful when time is desired sample
limited and the quality
research budget is
very thin Time consuming
Purposive sampling
 Where participants are chosen based on specific
characteristics

For example
 They are all smokers
 Debate team members with red hair
 Purposive sampling

(+) (-)
Samples are chosen Biased selection of
well , based on a samples may occur
certain criterion
Time consuming
There is assurance of process
quality responses
 Snowball sampling
DEFINITION
Selecting participants by finding one
or two participants and then asking
them to refer you to others.

For example, meeting a homeless person,

interviewing that person, and then asking
him/her to introduce you to other homeless
people you might interview.
 Snow ball sampling

(+) (-)
Very good for Heavily reliant on
locating people of a the skill of the
specific population individual

Can quickly find A time consuming

people who are process
experts on a field
Dangers of purposive and snowballing

 People could have MORE in common than just the

trait being studied (because they are probably
friends).

 This makes the group REALLY not diverse and less

generalizable.

 Helps with trust when interviewing people

 Probability sampling
Random sampling

 Means that every subject has an equal chance of being assigned to

experimental or control group

 This is called random assignment of subjects

 The process involves random assignment of groups.

Could be done by drawing straws or pulling names from a hat.

Weaknesses Strengths
 Time consuming. Likely to be unbiased and representative
 Availability of people
 Research Biases
 Sampling bias - when the sample studied in an experiment
does not correctly represent the population the researcher
wants to draw conclusions about

 Subject bias - Research subjects’ expectations can affect

and change the subjects’ behavior

 Experimenter bias - when researchers’ preferences or

expectations influence the outcome of their research

 Social desirability bias – the tendency of some research

subjects to describe themselves in socially approved ways
Common biased questions found in
qualitative research

 Leading questions bias

 Misunderstood question bias

 Unanswerable question bias

 Question order bias