Methodologies

• Content Analysis

  • type of observational study.
  • written or verbal material such as magazines television programmes websites advertisements
  • sample is the artefact being analysed
  • researcher has to create a coding system which breaks down information into categories and a tally is taken each time the material fits a theme.
• Structured Interview

  • interviewer has a prepared set of questions asked in a fixed order
  • predetermiend wuestions are used to elicit a verbal response
  • similar to a questionnaire that is answered by participants
  • either face to face or over telephone there is no deviation from original questions
• Questionaire

  • set of written questions where answers are analysed by the researcher.
  • questionaire can produce quantitive or qualitative data or a mixture if both
  • tradionally they have been pen paper based but more recently psychologists are using online options
• Semi Structured Interviews

  • begins with general aim and few predetermined questions but subsequent questions develop based on answers given by the participants
  • sometimes called clinical interview because it’s a bit like the kind of interview you might have with a doctor
  • start with some predetermined questions but further questions are developed as a response to your answers
• Content analysis

  strengths : artefacts being analysed already exist so less chance of demand characteristics

  can be replicated by other as long as the artefacts are available to other people

  Weakness : cannot draw causal relationships because origin of artefacts are usually unknown

  • observer bias can affect validity of findings ; different observers might interpret meanings of the categories in coding system differently
• Structured interviews

  S : same questions are used every time which makes results say to analyse

  replicable so more reliable as same questions can be asked in the same way.

  W : can be restrictive because there is no chance to ask further questions

  doesn't allow for spontaneous questions whuch may mean the interviewer is less responsive to the participant
• Questionnaire

  S : can be used to assess psychological variable that may not be obvious by just observing someone

  • data can be collected from a large group of participants, more quickly than interviewing them

  W : no guarantee that participant is telling the truth

  • different participants may interpret same questions in different ways
• Semi Structured Interview

  S : More qualitative information can be gathered by the interviewer as they tailer questions to responders responses

  • high validity because participants have opportunity to fully express their true feelings/views
  • Weakness : same questions are not used every time , results are difficult to analyse and its difficult to identify patterns and trends
  • not replicable due to different questions asked each time therefore unreliable