- Naturalistic observation: observation of behavior in its natural setting.
+ Advantages: this research approach provides a glimpse into how people behave in their natural settings, the greatest benefit of naturalistic observation is the validity, or accuracy, of information collected unobtrusively in a natural setting.
+ Disadvantages: people's privacy is invaded, affect people's feeling which make them act abnormal.
- Case
studies: collect a great deal of information from one individual in order to
better understand physical and psychological changes over the lifespan.
+ Advantages: This particular approach is an excellent way to better understand individuals, who are exceptional in some way, but it is especially prone to researcher bias in interpretation, and it is difficult to generalize conclusions to the larger population, have a very deep understanding of the individuals and the particular phenomenon
being studied.
+ Disadvantages: scientists waste a lot of time spending their entire careers studying some individuals, case studies provide enormous amounts of information, but since the cases are so specific, the potential to apply what's learned to the average person may be very limited.
- Surveys: are lists of questions to be
answered by research participants, and can be delivered as paper-and-pencil questionnaires, administered electronically, or conducted verbally.
+
Advantages: collect information from a larger sample of people, the data we collect from the survey can be generalized to the larger
population with more certainty than the information collected through a case study.
+ Disadvantages: given the greater number of people involved, we are not able to collect the same depth of information on each person that would be collected in a case study, people don't always give accurate responses. They may lie, misremember, or answer questions in a way
that they think makes them look good.
- Correlation: relationship between two or more variables; when two variables are correlated, one variable changes as the other does (such as ice cream consumption and crime). We can measure correlation by calculating a statistic known as a correlation coefficient.
- Correlation coefficients are interpreted: is a
number from -1 to +1 that indicates the strength and direction of the relationship between
variables. The correlation coefficient is usually represented by the letter r. The closer
the number is to 1 (be it negative or positive), the more strongly related the variables are, and the more predictable changes in one variable will be as the other variable changes. The closer the number is to zero, the weaker the relationship, and the less predictable the relationships between the variables becomes.
- Correlation does not guarantee causation: correlation is limited because
establishing the existence of a relationship tells us little about cause and effect. While variables are sometimes correlated because one
does cause the other, it could also be that some other factor, a confounding variable, is actually causing the systematic movement in our variables of interest. (For example, in the ice cream/crime rate example mentioned earlier, temperature is a confounding variable that could account for the relationship between the two variables.)
Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, Being
13th EditionMichael R Solomon
449 solutions
Social Psychology
10th EditionElliot Aronson, Robin M. Akert, Samuel R. Sommers, Timothy D. Wilson
525 solutions
Social Psychology
10th EditionElliot Aronson, Robin M. Akert, Timothy D. Wilson
525 solutions
Myers' Psychology for AP
2nd EditionDavid G Myers
900 solutions
Recommended textbook solutions
Myers' Psychology for the AP Course
3rd EditionC. Nathan DeWall, David G Myers
955 solutions
Myers' Psychology for AP
2nd EditionDavid G Myers
900 solutions
Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having, Being
13th EditionMichael R Solomon
449 solutions
HDEV5
6th EditionSpencer A. Rathus
380 solutions