Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Observation Chapter 4

Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Descriptive Observation Methods Simply describing behavior No experimental manipulations No determination of causality 4 Types: –Naturalistic observation –Case study –Survey –Meta-analysis

Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Naturalistic Observation Description of naturally occurring events without intervention on the part of the investigator –Scientific observation, not just casual interest –Need to limit our interests (when in a natural setting, there are potentially unlimited observations) –Ethology: study of naturally occurring behavior Often in the wild (in the participants’ setting)

Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Naturalistic Observation (2) Ethogram –A data sheet providing categories for making naturalistic observations Set up detailed categories of behavior, then count how often behaviors in each category of occur Interobserver reliability –Test of agreement between two or more observers simultaneously observing the same behavior –Will discuss the statistical procedure later, but often are correlations ( )

Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Naturalistic Observation (3) Types of behaviors observed: –Mostly animals in wild settings Can compare mating patterns in the wild to patterns in captivity – implications? –Can be human observations Eyebrow flash (greeting) Door holding Neonates – too young to ask questions, so observe in a scientific, controlled manner

Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Case Study Intensive investigation of a particular instance, or cases, of some behavior –Does not allow inferences of cause and effect but is merely descriptive –Very common technique in therapeutic context –Incredibly in-depth –Deviant-case analysis Investigation of similar cases that differ in outcome in an attempt to specify the reasons for the different outcomes Example: Twin studies (one schizophrenic, one not)

Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Archival Research –Using previously compiled information –Statistical records/databases Baseball stats to study temperature and aggression Content analysis refers to the process of making inferences based on objective coding of archival data. Quantitative analysis refers to classifying events and behaviors into categories to count their frequency of occurrence. Qualitative analysis refers to subjective judgments about the content in an archival record.

Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Survey Research Technique of obtaining a limited amount of information from a large number of people, usually through random sampling –Random sampling: Everyone in the target population has an equal likelihood of appearing in the sample –Not that common in psychology, but we do often use questionnaires within our research Difference b/w survey research and a questionnaire

Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Survey Research (2) Sampling issues –Probability sampling vs. nonprobability sampling –Stratified sample Population is divided into smaller units and random sampling is done from the smaller units –Convenience sample

Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Meta-Analysis A study of studies A relatively objective technique for summarizing across many studies investigating a single topic –Published research –“File-drawer” or “Desk-drawer” studies

Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Advantages of Descriptive Excellent description of a problem or phenomenon Naturally occurring behaviors Ecological function: the role that various behaviors play in adapting to the environment (Function)

Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Problems with Descriptive Cannot assess relations among events –No manipulation, therefore no determination of causality Anthropomorphizing –Attributing human characteristics to animals Reactivity –Unnatural responding due to perceived role –Participant roles: participants’ perception of the research setting and how they react to it –Demand characteristics: cues available to participants

Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Problems with Descriptive (2) Naturalistic Observation –Unobtrusive observations hide –Participant observation Blend in –Unobtrusive measures No direct contact or observation of the participants

Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Problems with Descriptive (3) Case Studies –Retrospective in nature –Motivated forgetting (actively reconstruct past experiences) Surveys, Interviews –Response style (habitual way of answering) Response acquiescence (yea-saying) Response deviation (nay-saying) Social desirability

Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Problems with Descriptive (4) Surveys –Forced choice vs. open ended –Volunteer problem Volunteers differ from non-volunteers More intelligent, better educated, more cooperative

Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Types of Validity Predictive validity –Can you predict an outcome based on some criterion? Construct validity –Does the experiment measure what you intend it to measure? External validity –Can you generalize from your sample results to the population? Internal validity –Do you have causal relationships between your IV’s and DV’s?

Southern Methodist UniversityPSYC Reliability –Consistency of the measures of behavior Test-retest reliability –Give same test twice over a short period of time Parallel forms –To avoid practice effects, you can employ alternate forms of the same test Split-half reliability –Correlate scores from two halves of a test