Sunday, May 2, y WEEK 5 - Research Methodology PSYC 307 Big Picture - we all engage in introspection, how does our cultural outlook affect the way we see other peoples cultures? - How do we decide which culture is the sample? . Most cultural psychology research is done on Japan and US taking samples - when determining whether some cultural variable shapes some aspect of psychol- ogy, compare · Culture high in variable to culture low in variable, but are otherwise similar . Then look at the differences - To identify universality: · compare groups that are as different as possible · Ex. Kinship present in vastly different cultures -> good evidence of universality of kinship Generating ideas · Idea generation occurs via three ways: · Deduction - going from general to specific (from theory to prediction) - If A -> B, A therefore B · induction - begins with an observation which leads to a hypothesis which can be incorpo- rated into a theory - can potentially lead to faulty reasoning · abduction - logical thinking in the absence of theory 1
Sunday, May 2, y - start with an observation -> interested in explaining that specific observa- tion (I.e. what happened, what caused this specific instance) - of all the general established connections that are plausible, which is the best one? Also known as guessing - If A -> B, B therefore A - Key terms · theory: overarching framework that organizes and explains phenomena and data, generates hypotheses that test the boundaries of the theory . Hypothesis: a tentative statement about a relationship that may or may not be true · Prediction: specific statement regarding the expected outcome of a study primary methodologies - Qualitative verses quantitative - qualitative · type: text narrative, or personal experience · goal: to describe · research type: typically inductive · methods: interviews, structured or semi-structured · Sample: small · info per person: a lot · analysis: subjective, interpretive · ability to replicate: low · generalizability: low - quantitative · data: numerical, structured · Goal: too identify social regularities · research type: typically deductive · Methods: structured - explicit measures, implicit, neurological, physiological, behavioural 2
Sunday, May 2, y - Explicit: direct reporting of thoughts and emotions (self-report), subject to bias - Implicit: measures attitudes via an indirect route which is less subject to bias · designed so that people cannot control their answers - behavioural measures · actual behaviours related to conceptual variable that you are assessing · Ex. eating behaviours, how much food people were eating - neurological measures · neuroimaging techniques · detection of signal change in the brain - physiological measures · body's automatic reactions · heart rate, respiratory rate, galvanic skin response · Explicit measures · Most of psychological research - self report · uses scales on a number line - likert type scale · variety of numbers with anchors (labels) like "strongly agree" · people have response biases - they respond a certain way regardless