Transcript Descriptive Research

Chapter 1
Psychological Science
Descriptive Research
Types of Psychological Research
 Descriptive
Research
 Correlational Research
 Experimental Research
Types of Psychological Research
 Descriptive
Research
 Correlational Research
 Experimental Research
Types of Psychological Research
 Descriptive
Research
 Survey
 Case
Study
 Naturalistic Observation
 Correlational
Research
 Experimental Research
Description

Survey

Commonly used in both descriptive and
correlational research
 technique for gathering the self-reported
attitudes or behaviors of people
 usually by questioning a representative, random
sample of people from a defined population
Aspects of A Survey

Population


all the cases in a group, from which samples may be
drawn for a study
Sampling


How respondents are selected may affect the
outcome of a survey
A Random Sample is a sample that fairly represents a
population because each member has an equal
chance of inclusion
Aspects of A Survey

Wording Effect


How a question is worded and framed may
affect the outcome of a survey
False Consensus Effect

tendency to overestimate the extent to
which others share our beliefs and
behaviors
When wording effect attacks!
End Women’s Suffrage!
Since 9% said that Nader was the only
candidate worth voting for, one would have
expected
to getstatistic
at leastbecause
9% of the
vote in
There
was him
a biased
the
the 2000
election.
He only
got from
aboutthe
3%. What
sample
wasn't
randomly
drawn
happened? A disproportionate number of
population.
Nader supporters participated in the poll in
order to make him appear more viable as a
candidate.
Solution:
The airlines
 Can weNo.
conclude
that
that
had the
most
United,
American,
and
complaints also had the
Delta are the worst
most passengers.
airlines and Alaska,
Southwest, and
Continental are the
best?
Solution:
This clipping
from USin
The difference
the
abuse
rates
probably
News
and
World
stems
from
Report
ondifferent
1/29/01
definitions for abuse in the
suggests that
various states. For example,
Alaskans
are terrible
Alaska
(the "worst"
state)
parents.
Is this
says
that a child
is true?
abused if
his or her health or welfare is
harmed or
threatened. Pennsylvania
(the "best" state) defines it as
a recent act or failure to act.
Solution:
No. Drunk
drivers
have a fatality
 Can we conclude
risk 7.66 times the
from
the non-drunk
following
norm,
while
drivers
havethat
a risk
diagram
it's safer
only about .6 of the
to drive
norm.
Onlywhile
a veryunder
small
thepercentage
influence?of
drivers in New York
City drive while under
the influence, but they
account for a
disproportionate
number of accidents.
Solution:
The following
No. As the
following
graph
shows,
the
statistics
suggest
that
reason
16-year-old
16-year-olds
areand
safer
octogenarians appear to
drivers than people in
be safe drivers is that they
theirdrive
twenties,
don't
nearly and
as much
octogenarians
asthat
people
in other age
are very safe. Is this
groups.
true?
Surveys
Description
Case Study

Psychologists
study one or
more individuals
in great depth in
the hope of
revealing things
true of us all
Is language uniquely human?
Description

Naturalistic
Observation

observing and
recording behavior
in naturally
occurring situations
without trying to
manipulate and
control the situation