Download Research Methods

Research Methods - Descriptive
Case studies
• Examines one
individual in depth
• Provides fruitful
ideas
• Cannot be used to
generalize
Naturalistic
observations
• Records behavior
in natural
environment
• Describes but
does not explain
behavior
• Can be revealing
Surveys and
interviews
• Examines many
cases in less depth
• Wording effect
• Random
sampling
• Utilizes random
sampling of
population for
best results
Indicate whether each of the following statements describes a
positive correlation or a negative correlation.
• 1. The more children and youth used various media, the less happy
they were with their lives (Kaiser, 2010).
• 2. The more sexual content teens saw on TV, the more likely they
were to have sex (Collins et al., 2004).
• 3. The longer children were breast-fed, the greater their later
academic achievement (Horwood & Ferguson, 1998).
• 4. The more income rose among a sample of poor families, the
fewer symptoms of mental illness their children experienced
(Costello et al., 2003).
Experimentation
• With experiments, researchers can focus on
the possible effects of one or more factors in
several ways.
– Manipulating the factors of interest to determine
their effects
– Holding constant (“controlling”) other factors
•
•
•
•
Experimental group
Control group
IV = what you manipulate/change
DV = what you measure / result
Experimentation
• Double-blind procedure: Eliminating bias
– Neither those in the study nor those collecting the
data know which group is receiving the treatment.
• Placebo effect
– Effect involves results caused by expectations
alone.
Match the term on the left with the description on the right.
1.
Double-blind procedure
2.
Random sampling
3.
Random assignment
a. helps researchers generalize from a
small set of survey responses to a
large population.
b. helps minimize preexisting
differences between experimental and
control groups.
c. controls for the placebo effect;
neither researchers nor participants
know who receives the real treatment.
Why, when testing a new drug to control blood
pressure, would we learn more about its
effectiveness from giving it to half the
participants in a group of 1000 than to all 1000
participants?
How are human research participants
protected?