Methodology

Question 1

how do we decide which cultures to sample?

Answer 1

• If goal is to determine whether some cultural variable shapes some aspect of psychology
• • Pick 2 cultures that differ only in that variable (one is high, one is low)
• • Not true experiments - cannot make strong causal claims, but shows us that they’re related
• If the goal is to see universality of some aspect of psychology:
• • Pick 2 cultures that are maximally different
• • If you find that these cultures both exhibit the variable of interest, you have some evidence for the universality of that variable

Question 2

3 ways to generate ideas

Answer 2

• Deduction: going from theory → hypothesis → prediction (general to specific; top-down)
• Induction: going from observation → hypothesis → theory/general expectation (specific to general)
• Abduction: going from 1 specific observation → figuring out how to explain it (starting with specific, figuring out which pre-established general expectation matches it; not trying to create theory)

Question 3

theory vs. hypothesis vs. prediction

Answer 3

• overarching framework that organises and explains phenomena and data; generate hypotheses that you can test to discover the boundaries of the theory (most general)
• hypothesis: a tentative statement about about a relationship that may or may not be true
• prediction: specific statement regarding the expected outcome of the study you’re running (most specific)

Question 4

2 primary research designs (compare them)

Answer 4

• Quantitative vs. Qualitative:
• Type of data: qualitative = text, narrative, personal experience; quantitative = numerical data (ex. Likert scales)
• Goal: qualitative = to describe experience; quantitative = to identify social regularities
• Type of research: qualitative = typically inductive; quantitative research = typically deductive
• Methods: quali = unstructured (minimal prompting) or semi-structured; quanti = structured
• Sample size: quali = small; quanti = large
• Information per participant: quali = large quantity; quanti = variable quantity
• Type of analysis: quali = subjective, interpretive; quanti = statistical, summarization
• Ability to replicate: quali = low; quanti = high
• Generalizability: quali = low; quanti = high

Question 5

5 quantitative methodologies

Answer 5

• Explicit measures: asking participants to directly report their thoughts and emotions (ex. Self-report questions)
  – Psychological surveys usually done using number scales (Likert-type scales) → good for comparing within groups, but can be problematic comparing between groups
• Implicit measures: measures for attitudes over which participants have no conscious control (ex. Implicit Associations Test → you match things faster if they’re associated in your own mind - ex. black bad vs. good)
  Behavioural measures: actual behaviours related to conceptual dependent variable (ex. Amount of food eaten)
  Neurological measures: use neuroimaging techniques to determine neurological changes and role of neural structures (ex. fMRI)
  Physiological measures: body’s automatic reactions to stimuli, excluding changes in the brain (ex. Galvanic skin response)

Question 6

issues with psychological surveys

Answer 6

• response biases: systematic tendency to respond to questionnaire items on some basis other than the specific item content → threatens validity of cross-cultural responses
• reference group effect: how people respond to questions depends on the group they’re using for reference
• deprivation effects: when there is less of something in your society, you value it more

Question 7

solutions to reference group effect

Answer 7

• use objective measures rather than subjective → ex. Rather than asking “are you tall?”, ask “how tall are you?”
• use specific context-based behaviours or scenarios rather than abstract psychological concepts (ex. emotions, traits) → ex. Rather than asking “Are you conservative?”, ask “Do you believe it’s wrong to engage in premarital sex?”
• Using behavioural measures (ex. Measuring pace of life by watching how quickly people walk) or physiological measures

Question 8

deprivation effects

Answer 8

• when there is less of something in your society, you value it more (ex. If your culture has lower personal safety, you’ll value personal safety more than someone in a culture when they rarely have to think about it) → difficult to make inferences about cultures based on values people endorse
• • No way to truly avoid, but helpful to cross-check your results about values with the results from other studies

Question 9

qualitative methods: important considerations

Answer 9

• Understanding the cultures you’re measuring

- Methodological equivalence (are you methods equivalent in the cultures you’re studying?)

Question 10

qualitative methods: research considerations

Answer 10

• Researchers must understand norms and practices of other cultural environments (especially regarding the psychological phenomenon in questions)
• • Risk conclusions based on faulty information and assumptions
• • Accomplished through ethnographies and international collaboration
• Taking research beyond the lab → field research
• • Cultural psychologists/anthropologists go into the field to examine human psychology and collect data about research questions (ex. ethnographies)
• • Field = anywhere not in the lab
• Indigenous peoples’ research

Question 11

ethnographies

Answer 11

Comprehensive collection of data and knowledge about a particular cultural group through interviews, cultural immersion, etc.

Question 12

indigenous peoples’ research

Answer 12

• methodologies make heavier use of qualitative methodologies than current mainstream academia (ex. Storytelling, conversations)
• • Cultural practice of oral tradition → greater familiarity with expressing ideas qualitatively
• • Because of mainstream psychology’s reliance on quantitative methodologies, indigenous knowledge receives little recognition (many psychologists are not trained in interpreting qualitative data and results) → makes it difficult for Indigenous researchers to thrive, which means that there aren’t enough people producing Indigenous knowledge (or what exists is ignored)

Question 13

Amalgamating methods

Answer 13

Forms of communication, created by people within a cultural environment, that reflect the overall psychology of the people in a cultural environment

Question 14

challenges in translating materials for research

Answer 14

• Certain nuances are lost
• Words/syntax may not carry over
• Have to decide between conveying exact sentence or general idea of the sentence
• Certain psychological concepts don’t carry over (ex. self-esteem)

Question 15

ways to translate research

Answer 15

• Have a bilingual collaborator that can decide whether translated materials are appropriate
• • Challenge: perhaps that person’s understanding of the methods/words is idiosyncratic
• Back-translation: translator 1 translates from original language to target language → translator 2 translates materials back to original language → original and back-translated materials are compared and discrepancies are resolved
• Consensus method: multiple bilingual speakers arrive at consensus

Question 16

structure of a questionnaire

Answer 16

• Some concepts have “factors” in their structures
• structural/construct equivalence: structure underlying psychological construct is comparable across cultures
• • Factor analysis: statistical analysis that determines how many factors can be separated in data → can use this to figure out the best solution (1-factor, 2-factor, etc.)
• – Analysis generates a “fit index” to determine which solution fits the data best

Question 17

structural/construct equivalence - once you have it, what do you do?

Answer 17

• Identify and keep questions that appear to be understood in similar ways across cultural environments
• Identify and eliminate questions that appear to seem to be understood differently cross-culturally

Question 18

issues with equivalence

Answer 18

• Researchers also need to watch for methodological equivalence:
• • Ensure methods are understood in identical ways across cultures
• • Some cultures may not understand process of completing psychological surveys
• Researchers may need to use slightly different methods with different cultures (especially dramatically different ones) → causes problems for making direct comparisons, but less problematic than asking participants to do things they don’t understand

Question 19

3 types of research designs

Answer 19

• experimental
• correlational
• quasi-experimental

Question 20

experimental designs

Answer 20

• Researcher manipulates the study conditions that participants will be placed in
• Each condition is a randomly assigned group
• Researcher has complete control over the IV, can determine cause/effect

Question 21

correlational design

Answer 21

• Researcher measures all (continuous) variables they’re interested in
• No “groups” (unless it’s also part-quasi-experimental and has 2 groups that have inherent order → more than 2 groups cannot calculate meaningful correlational coefficient)
• Researcher has no control over any of the variables, can only look at relationships

Question 22

quasi-experimental designs

Answer 22

• Researcher measures dependent variable as a function of groups
• Groups are naturally-occurring (ie. culture), no random assignment
• Researcher has no control over groups; can only look at relationships
• By nature, cultural studies are quasi-experimental designs

Question 23

2 kinds of IV manipulation

Answer 23

• Between-groups manipulation: different groups of participants receive different levels of the IV (require random assignment, classic experiment)
• Within-groups manipulation: each participant receives more than 1 level of the IV (no random assignment, participants experience all conditions); careful of order effects here

Question 24

types of response biases

Answer 24

• moderacy bias
• extremity bias
• acquiescence bias
• socially desirable responding bias

Question 25

moderacy bias & extremity bias

Answer 25

- moderacy: always choosing the middle/neutral item (aka: fence-sitting) - - More common amongst those with Asian cultural background, especially if questions seem controversial - extremity: only picking the most extreme items (strongly agree/strongly disagree) - - More common amongst hispanic and African-American populations

Question 26

how to avoid moderacy and extremity biases

Answer 26

- doing yes/no questions or forced-choice questions - - Issues with these: eliminates subtle differences/nuances that might be really important - Can also be avoided by standardizing scores so you can compare how much each one deviates from the participant’s personal average

Question 27

acquiescence bias (and prevention)

Answer 27

- always saying strongly agree (aka: yay-saying) - - More common amongst those with Asian backgrounds; common when people don’t fully understand the question - - This bias can be eliminated using reverse-scored items

Question 28

socially desirable responding bias (and prevention)

Answer 28

- answering in ways that make us look good - - to avoid: - -- Providing anonymity - -- Using neutral items to describe both positive and negative characteristics (ex. “I am comfortable talking to people I don’t know well” vs. “I am friendly” - -- Use separate measures to assess participants’ tendency to engage in socially desirable responding (ie. Socially desirable responding scales: socially desirable responding occurs due to two different motivations → self-deception and image management; example: Paulhus Deception Scale → true/false, items like “I never swear”, “I sometimes speed” etc.)