case studies
involve careful analyses of the experiences of a particular person or group
case sudies benefits
- usually first step in research on a topic
- uncovers general psychological principles
- involves people with rare conditions
- studies experience that would be difficult or impossible to recreate in the lab
case studies drawbacks
- cannot test causality or use statistical analysis
- limits in external generalizability
single-variable studies
designed to describe some specific property of a large group of people
- largely descriptive questions rather than theoretical
- cannot be used to test causality
two types of single-variance research
census
survey research
census
body of data collected from every (virtually) member of a population at interest
population surveys
use random sampling to identify a sample of people to be surveyed
cluster sampling
still a population survey, but it uses a modified version of random selection
sampling error
- reflects the likely discrepancy between the results one obtained from the entire population
- called margin of error
epidemiology
the scientific study of the causes of disease
research on public opinion
research to determine the attitudes and preferences of specific populations
limitations to the use of population surveys
- require wide variety of sampling issues
- the US public has become skeptical of unsolicited surveys
- the researchers have to be prepared to deal with a wide variety of research participants
- the diversity of the population survey research setting
correlation methods
researchers are interested in identifying the variables that are responsible for their observations
person confounds
occur when a variable seems to cause something because people who are high or low on this variable also happen to be high or low on some individual difference variable that is associated with the outcome variable of interest
person confounds example
people with depression also suffer from anxiety as well
experimental confounds
refer to situational rather than personal variables
experimental confounds ex
stressful life events might cause people to become more depression while simultaneously lowering people’s self-views
operational confounds
occur when a measure designed to assess a specific construct inadvertently measures something else as well
archival research
refers to research where investigators examine a naturally existing public record to test a theory or hypothesis
observational research
occurs when researchers record the real behavior of people in their natural environments
