Research Methods

1. Case studies
2. Correlational research
3. Experimental research

**will need to know more detail than is in your

book about these topics
 Case Study
Murray (1938)
personology = need to understand the whole
person as a coherent entity (vs. just parts of
people)

in-depth study of one person

 Case Study
 Useful in several instances:
1. Rare or unusual situations
 Piano virtuoso
 Mass murderers
2. To demonstrate possibilities
 Hypnosis
3. To demonstrate a treatment
 PTSD treatment in child
4. As disconfirming evidence
 Shatter assumptions about abilities
 Case Study
 Strengths
 Depth and detail
 Capture complexity

 Weaknesses
 Problem of generalization: idiosyncratic subject
 Problem of generalization: experimenter biases and
subjective impressions
 Entangled relationships among variables
 Correlational Design
= a study that assesses the extent to which two
variables are related
 Defines the relationship in quantitative terms
 Correlational (“co-related”)

When one variable changes in value, what

happens to the other variable?
 Correlation Example
Is there a relationship between self-esteem and GPA?

1. Need to have different levels of my first variable:

self-esteem

Very high self-esteem -------- ?

Moderately high self-esteem--?
Average self-esteem -----------?
Moderately low self-esteem --?
Very low self-esteem ----------?
 Correlation Example
Raw Data:
Self-esteem score GPA
Tim 42 3.8
Bart 10 1.4
Kelsey 15 2.5
Kim 22 3.1
Etc.
 Correlation Example
See scatterplot of data

Self-esteem and GPA data

3.5

2.5
GPA

2 Series1

1.5

0.5

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
self-esteem
 Direction of Correlation
 Scatterplot showed a positive correlation
 As one variable increased, the second variable also increased
 As self-esteem goes up, academic achievement also goes up
 Think of some examples of positively correlated variables

 Negative (inverse) correlation

 As on variable increases, the second variable decreases (i.e. one gets
bigger, the other gets smaller)
 As amount of alcohol intake increases, motor control decreases
 Think of examples of negatively correlated variables

= direction of the correlation

 Strength of Correlation
How strongly related are the two variables of
interest?
 the “sloppiness” of association
 Degree of accuracy with which you can make a
prediction about 2nd variable given value of the
first variable
 Ranges from -1 to 1
 -1 and 1 are very strong (perfect) correlations
 0 is no correlation; no relationship
Correlation – strength and direction
 Correlation Example
 High Self-esteem and GPA

Does (A) lead to (B)? Or is the other way around? Or, are
there other factors that lead to both (A) and (B)?

 Two independent carefully conducted studies found that there

is no causal relationship between these two factors. They are
correlated because both of them are correlated to some other
factors: intelligence and family social status.

 **Correlations do NOT tell us that one variable CAUSES the

other variable.
A recent Morgan-Gallup Poll in the US of
1009 people asked:
“Does correlation imply causation?”
64% YES
38% NO
8% undecided
 Correlational research
 Strengths
 Can study a broad range of variables
 Can look at multiple variables at one time
 Large samples are easily obtained
 Weaknesses
 Relationships established are associational, not causal
 Individuals not studies in-depth
 Potential problems with reliability and validity of self-
report measures
 Experimental Design
Allows us to determine cause and effect

Defining characteristics:
1. Manipulation of variables
 Independent variable
 Dependent variable
2. Experimental control of other variables
3. Random assignment to groups
 Example
 Learned helplessness
 All subjects first hear a very loud noise
 3 groups:
 Can end the noise by pushing a button
 Cannot stop the noise
 Control group – doesn’t hear noise
 Put in 2nd situation where they could end a loud noise by
moving their hand. D.V. was response latency (how soon
did they move hand?)
 1st and 3rd groups learned quickly to move hand; 2nd group
sat passively and did nothing
 Experimental Design
 Strengths
 Can tease out cause and effect
 Allows for strict control of variables
 Weaknesses
 Many questions may not be able to be answered using this
method – i.v. cannot be varied (e.g. sex, age, birth order,
effects of child abuse)
 May be artificial and limited
 Causal effects may not hold when the complexity of actual
human behavior is considered
 Involves brief exposures and may miss important processes
that occur over time
Example from the news/class activity
 EXAMPLE 1:
 "MARRIAGE SLOWS CANCER DEATHS"
 Evidence that married people have a better
chance of surviving cancer than do singles
means that the unmarried might be good
targets for cancer-prevention programs.
Married people with cancer had a 23% higher
overall survival rate than the unmarried.
 Another example
 Example 2:
 Children who are aggressive tend to watch a
higher proportion of violent television than
children who are not highly violent or
aggressive
 What type of design?
 What can we conclude?
 Categorize
 I give students a questionnaire that measures
how much they like sensation seeking
activities. I then ask them about current drug
use. I find that students who are high in
sensation seeking engage in more drug use
than students low in sensation seeking.
 What type of study?
 What type of relationship?
 Categorize
 I randomly assign children with behavior problems to
two types of play groups: one group is structured and
organized and the other group has no rules. I measure
the number of aggressive behaviors in each group.
 What type of research is this?
 What are the independent and dependent variables?
 Does the type of research change if I look at children
with behavior problems and compare them to
children without behavior problems?
 Categorize
 Over the course of several years, I interview
three adolescents who live in poverty. I am
interested in the impact that poverty has on
their lives.
 What type of study?