content analysis

• content analysis is a method used to analyse qualitative data and put it into quantitative form. It is used to determine the presence of certain words, themes or concepts in qualitative data which can then be transformed into quantitative data by using a tally
• example

  Manstead and McCulloch (1981) interested in the way males and females were portrayed in adverts.

  they watched 170 adverts in one week and observed which gender was the leading role of each advert. e.g. household and cleaning adverts are usually females
• thematic analysis is a type of content analysis but is more likely to be descriptive than coding units
• validity - does it measure what we want it to measure
• ecological validity - is it relatable to real life
• reliability - how dependent we can be on the study

  do the study again or have a second person analysing data as well to ensure the study is reliable
• case studies - an in depth study that gather a lot of in depth detail about one person or a small group of people

  typically data is gathered by a variety of several different methods

  the research might be a longitudinal study (over several years). this allows for development throughout the study
• triangulation - multiple sources to gather information

  • interviews
  • questionnaires
  • experiments
  • secondary data
  • case history
• Phineas Gage

  • an iron bar was shot through his skull, it didn't kill him but it went through the part of his brain that is responsible for personality. after this has happened, friends and family had reported back that he had become very childish
  • he later died of an epileptic seizure in 1960
  • it taught psychologists that different parts of the brain were responsible for different things
• advantages of case studies

  • very in depth so high ecological validity
  • very detailed qualitative data
  • less superficial than lab experiments, lab are often fake
  • avoids practical and ethical issues
  • case studies are real life
• disadvantages of case studies

  • subjectivity and bias can lower validity. the researcher might only find out information for their conclusion
  • lacks generalisability to the wider world because its one person/ a small group and there are individual differences
  • lack of replication
  • time consuming and is often a longitudinal study