Discuss+how+and+why+particular+research+methods+are+used+at+the+socio-cultural+level+of+analysis

1) Laboratory Observation   a) Laboratory i) A controlled setting with many of the complex factors of the “real world” removed   b) Gives the psychologists more control over the experiment c) Drawbacks   i) Can’t conduct the experiment without the participants’ knowing they are being studied ii) Setting is unnatural and can cause participants to behave unnaturally   iii) People willing to go to the laboratory may eliminate diversity 2) Naturalistic observation   a) Observing behavior in real- world settings without manipulating or controlling the situation b) Mostly used to observe how people treat one another   i) In settings such as sporting events, day care centers, work settings, and malls 3) Surveys and interviews   a) Surveys are used to obtain people’s self- reported attitudes or beliefs b) Good surveys are clear and unbiased which allows for unambiguous answers   c) A problem with the method is that participants tend to answer questions in a way that they think is socially acceptable than telling the truth 4) Standardized test   a) Requires people to answer a series of written or oral questions or sometimes both b) Two features   i) Individual’s answers are tallied to yield a single score that reflects something about the individual ii) Individual’s score is compared with a large group of similar people to determine how the individual responded relative to others   iii) Advantage is they provide information about individual differences among people c) Advantage is they provide information about individual differences among people   d) Problems i) They do not always predict behavior in nontest situations   ii) Based on belief that a person’s behavior is consistent and stable, yet personality and intelligence can vary with situation iii) Cross-cultures cause a person to interpret something differently than someone form a different culture   5) Case Study a) In depth look at a single individual   b) Used when unique aspects of an individual’s life cannot be duplicated or tested in other individuals i) Provides information about a person’s fears, hopes, fantasies, traumatic experiences, famil relationships, and health   c) Cannot generalize from the information gained i) Case studies are unique   d) Involve judgments or unknown reliability 6) Correlational research   a) Describe the strength or the relationship between two or more events or characteristics i) Key method of data analysis   b) Correlation does not equal causation c) Reasons scientists use it   i) Running an actual experiment would be unethical ii) Investigation may be after the fact or historical   7) Experimental research a) Includes independent, dependent, and control variables   b) Cautions i) Experimenter bias   (1) Experimenter influence the outcome of the research    ii) Research participant bias (1) Behavior of research participants during the experiment may be influenced by how they think they are supposed to behave (2) Placebo effect (a) The participants’ expectations produce an experimental outcome (3) Double blind experiment (a) Neither the experimenter nor the control group are aware of which participants are in which group until the results are calculated