other research methods

• many studies in this textbook used the multi-method approach which is a combination of all sorts of different techniques and methods to investigate the target behaviour e.g. Schaffer and Emerson
• systematic review: we have often mentioned review studies in this book where systematic assessment of other studies have been conducted e.g. we described a review by Cowan of studies of the capacity of STM + deMaat et al's review of psychotherapy studies was mentioned
• systematic review: a review of research involves identifying an aim and then searching for research studies that have addressed similar aims/hypotheses, this is done by looking through various databases which hold the details of research published in academic journals
• systematic review: a decision will be made about search criteria - deciding what kind of study will be included or excluded e.g. a review of attachment research might only include studies that have used the Strange Situation and/or only used infants under 1 year of age
• meta-analysis: in some reviews a method of analysing the data is used, called meta-analysis, this technique produces an effect size as the dependent variable in order to asses overall trends
• meta-analysis: we use effect sizes in our everyday lives e.g. a weight-loss programme may boast that it leads to an average weight loss of 30 pounds, this is the size of the effect
• meta-analysis: we looked at a meta-analysis of 53 studies related to the cognitive interview (CI)(Kohnken et al, 1999) which demonstrated the effectiveness of the CI compared w/ standard interviewing techniques
• meta-analysis: the effect size was 34% which means that all of the studies the CI technique improved recall by 34% when compared to using the standard interview technique
• case study: a case study involves the detailed study of a single person, institution or event, it uses information from a range of sources such as from the person concerned and also from their family and friends
• case study: many research techniques may be used - the people may be interviewed or they might be observed while engaging in daily life, psychologists might use the IQ tests or personality tests or some other kind of questionnaire to produce psychological data about the target person or group of people
• case study: they may use the experimental method to test what the target person/group can or can't do, the findings are organised to represent the individuals thoughts, emotions, experiences and abilities
• case study: case studies are generally longitudinal in other words they follow the individual or group over an extended period of time
• case study: we described the case study of HM a man who lost the ability to remember any new events due to damage done to his hippocampus, over a period of 50 years his abilities were tested and he was interviewed and observed in everyday life
• content analysis: a content analysis is what it says - the analysis of the content of something, e.g. a researcher might study the gender content of magazine advertisements and attempt to describe this content in some systematic way so that conclusions could be drawn
• content analysis: content analysis is a form of indirect observation, indirect because you are not observing people directly but observing them through artifacts they produce, these artifacts can be TV programmes, books, songs, paintings etc.
• content analysis: the process involved is similar to any observational study - the researcher has to make design decisions about the sampling method and the behavioural categories used
• content analysis: sampling method - what material to sample and how frequently (e.g. which TV channels to include, how many programmes, what length of time)
• content analysis: the behavioural categories to be used - e.g. in content analysis of songs the behavioural categories might be = romantic, humurous, seasonal, adolescence etc, (i.e. ways to categorise the type of song)
• evaluation of meta-analysis S: reviewing the results from a group of studies rather than from just 1 study can increase the validity of the conclusions drawn because they are based on a wider sample of participants
• evaluation of meta-analysis S: often a group of studies on a similar topic produce rather contradictory results (e.g. some studies may find no effect, some studies a small effect and others a larger effect), a meta-analysis allows us to reach an overall conclusion by having a statistic to represent the findings of different studies
• evaluation of meta-analysis L: the research designs in the different studies samples may also vary considerably which means that the studies are not truly comparable, putting them all together to calculate the effect size may not be appropriate and thus the conclusions are not always valid
• nevertheless a meta-analysis can provide more powerful information about trends and research evidence than a single study can
• longitudinal + other methods: when a study is conducted over a long period of time it is said to be a longitudinal study, the reason for such studies is to be able to observe long-term effects and to make comparisons between the same individual at different ages
• longitudinal + other methods: an alternative way to do this is to conduct a cross-sectional study, in this instance 1 group of participants of a young age is compared to another, older group of participants at the same point in time e.g. in 2008
• longitudinal + other methods: in some investigations participants are required to take on a certain role and then their behaviour can be observed as if it were real, e.g. to pretend that they are a prison guard as in Zimbardo's study, role play is a form of controlled observation
• longitudinal + other methods: in cross-cultural studies psychologists compare behaviours in different cultures, this is a way of seeing whether cultural practices are related to behaviours in different cultures
• longitudinal + other methods: it is a kind of natural experiment where the IV is e.g. childrearing techniques in different cultures and the DV is some behaviour such as attachment
• case study S: the method offers rich, in-depth data, so information may be overlooked using other methods is likely to be identified
• case study S: it is especially useful as a means of investigating instances of human behaviour and experience that are rare e.g. investigating cases of people w/ brain damage or how people respond to an event such as the London riots of 2011 (Reicher and Stott, 2011), it would not be ethical to generate such conditions experimentally
• case study S: the complex interaction of many factors can be studies in contrast w/ experiments where many variables are held constant
• case study L: it is difficult to generalise from individual cases as each one has unique characteristics
• case study L: case studies also often involve the recollection of past events as part of the case history and such evidence may be unreliable
• case study L: case studies are only identified after a key event has occurred (such as damage to the brain) and we can't be sure that the apparent changes observed were not present originally
• therefore while cases can provide rich, detailed data and unique insights they have limitations in terms of low reliability and generalisability
• content analysis S: content analysis is based on observations of what people actually do - real communications that are current and relevant such as recent newspapers or children's books in print, this give it high ecological validity
• content analysis S: when sources can be retained or accessed by others (e.g. back copies of magazines or videos of people giving speeches) findings can be replicated
• content analysis L: observer bias reduces the objectivity and validity of findings because different observers may interpret the meaning of the behavioural categories differently
• therefore content analysis has high ecological validity but may lack reliability and internal validity