Scribd
Upload
5 views15 pages

Social Psychology Research Methods Explained

The document discusses three methods of social psychology: observational methods like ethnography and archival analysis which describe social behavior but have limitations, correlation methods like surveys which predict behavior but do not prove causation, and experimental methods which use variables to determine causal relationships and answer causal questions.

Uploaded by

Karen Joy Jacinto Ello
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
5 views15 pages

Social Psychology Research Methods Explained

The document discusses three methods of social psychology: observational methods like ethnography and archival analysis which describe social behavior but have limitations, correlation methods like surveys which predict behavior but do not prove causation, and experimental methods which use variables to determine causal relationships and answer causal questions.

Uploaded by

Karen Joy Jacinto Ello
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

METHODS AND PROBLEMS

OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
-Peter Leonidovich Kapista-
• “Theory is good thing, but a good experiment
last forever”
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY:
EMPIRICAL SCIENCE
3 Types of Methods
• 1. Observational Method
- describing social behavior ( the
technique whereby a researcher observes
people and systematically records
measurements or impressions of their behavior)
a. Ethnography is a chief method of
cultural anthropology the study of human
cultures and societies
Interjudge reliability
• The level of agreement between two or more
people who independently obsrve and code a
set of data.
Archival Analysis
• A form of the observational method in which
the researcher examines accumulated
documents ( archives ).
Problems of the Observational Method
• Certain kinds of behavior are difficult to observe
because they occur only rarely or only in
private.
• With archival analysis, the original writers may
not have included all the information
researchers would need later.
• Social psychologists want to do more than just
describe behavior. They want to predict and
explain.
2. Correlation Method:
Predicting Social Behavior
- the technique whereby two or more
variables are systematically measured and the
relationship between them.
2 Types of Correlational
Positive Correlation Negative Correlation
• Increases in the value of • Increases in the value of
one variable are associated one variable are associated
with INCREASES in the value with DICREASES in the value
of the other variable. of the other variable.
Surveys
• Research in which a representative sample of
people are asked questions about their
attitudes or behavior.
• .A way of ensuring that a sample of people is
representative of a population by giving
everyone in the population an equal chance of
being selected for the sample. ( random
selection )
Problems of surveys
• 1. accuracy of responses
• 2. does not equal causation
3. Experimental method:

Answering Causal Questions


The only way to determine causality
is to use the experimental method
Variables
Independent Dependent
• vary to see if it has a causal • . Measure to see if is
effect affected
• Ex. Number of people • Ex. Number of people who
supposedly present when a try to help in the emergency
researcher pretends to have
a seizure
Experiments
Internal validity External validity
• . Making sure that nothing • .the extent to which the
besides the independent results of a study can be
variable can effect the generalized to other
dependent variable situations and to other
• .Random assignment to people
condition • Across situation
• . Probability level ( p-value) • . Across people
THANK YOU

by
ELVIE M. PORRAS

You might also like