PSYC 005: Research Methods
Review Sheet: Chapter 6 – Non-Experimental Research
| 1. Describe the characteristics of non-experimental research. How can we tell the difference between experiment and non-experimental research? | ||
| Non-experimental research is a type of research that does not use experiments. This type of research is used to study how people or groups behave, rather than how substances or materials react. Non-experimental research can be divided into two types: correlational and qualitative.
Non-experimental correlational research uses statistical methods to examine the association between variables (Bryman, 2016). The researcher will collect data from a sample of participants and then analyze the data using statistical techniques such as correlation and regression analysis. Correlational studies cannot show cause and effect relationships because they only show associations between variables (Bryman, 2016). For example, if you wanted to find out whether people who like chocolate also like coffee you could conduct a correlational study by asking participants about their preferences for both foods and then analyzing the results. You would find that those who liked both foods also liked each other but this does not mean that liking one causes you to like the other (Bryman, 2016). Qualitative non-experimental research uses observation as its method of inquiry (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2015). Qualitative researchers do not use quantitative methods such as statistics in their….. |
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| 2. When is non-experimental research used? Identify at least 3 situations when non-experimental research is useful. | ||
| Non-experimental research is used to test causal hypotheses. In other words, non-experimental research is useful when we want to know whether a particular treatment will have an effect on a dependent variable.
Non-experimental research can be used in situations where it would be unethical or impractical to randomly assign participants into groups. For example, if you wanted to find out whether giving free samples of your product would increase sales, you would not want to do an experiment because it could potentially harm the participants’ health or cause them distress. Instead, you would use non-experimental research because this type of study allows researchers to collect data from real people without harming them in any way. Non-Experimental Research Study 1: The Marshmallow Experiment The marshmallow experiment was conducted by Walter Mischel at Stanford University (Kuhn & McArdle, 2018). The purpose of the study was to see how long children could wait for a reward before they gave in and ate the marshmallow (Mischel & Oden, 1958). Children were given one treat and one task that required patience; they had 15 minutes for each activity before being allowed another….. |
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| 3. In the spaces below, write a description and example of cross-sectional, longitudinal, and cross-sequential/sequential studies. Design your own studies, do not use examples from the book or the internet. | ||
| A study is a research project that seeks to answer a question or solve a problem. A study may be conducted on an individual, group, organization, or community. A cross-sectional study is one that looks at the same people at different times to see if there are any differences between them. It can also be called a snapshot of the population. For example, you could take X-rays of all your patients’ feet and then compare them to see if there are any differences in their condition between those who have had an operation and those who haven’t. This would be considered a cross-sectional study because it looks at the same people at different times (before and after) and compares them to see if there are any differences in their health status (before/after). Another example would be doing X-rays on children before they have their tonsils removed and then again after they have had the operation so that you could see whether or not having your tonsils out made any difference to your child’s health. This would also be considered a cross-sectional study because it looks at the same people at different times (before/after… | Description | Example |
| Cross-Sectional | ||
| Longitudinal | ||
| Cross-Sequential/Sequential | ||
| 4. What type of validity usually decreases when a variable is not manipulated in a study? Why does that validity decrease?
Validity is the ability to demonstrate that an instrument measures what it claims to measure. In other words, validity refers to whether or not an instrument measures what you think it does (i.e., your intended construct). A valid measurement tool should have good evidence of reliability and content validity. Content validity refers to the extent that an instrument’s items are representative of the target construct within its own context (i.e., internal consistency). Internal consistency refers to how consistent a test score is across different occasions or times (e.g., test-retest reliability). The greater the internal consistency, the more likely it is that you are measuring what you think you’re measuring (i.e., your intended construct) rather than some other variable which may correlate with that construct but isn’t actually related to it in any meaningful way (i.e., measurement error). Measurement error occurs when people give answers based on their beliefs rather than their knowledge about something; therefore, these responses aren’t accurate because they don 5. What type of validity usually increases when a variable is not manipulated in a study? Why does that validity increase? |
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| 6. Design a correlational study at least one nominal/categorical variable. Describe the research question. Describe the nominal/categorical variable and the levels. Describe the dependent variable. | ||
| 7. Interpret, as best you can, the following Pearson’s r values. | ||
| Strength of Relation(weak, moderate, strong) | Direction of Relation(positive or negative) | |
| r = .89 | ||
| r = -.12 | ||
| R = -.71 | ||
| 8. What is qualitative research? What is its purpose? Design a simple qualitative study and describe it. | ||
| 9. Describe an example of a situation when you would want to use qualitative research instead of quantitative research. Explain why qualitative research is a good choice for the situation. | ||
| In this situation, I would want to use qualitative research because it is more in-depth and gives you a better understanding of the situation. Quantitative research only gives you a general idea of what is going on but with qualitative research, it allows you to get an actual feel for the situation. You can actually hear and see things that are happening in the situation through qualitative research. With quantitative research, you have to rely on someone else’s account of what is going on instead of being there yourself.
In this scenario, I would not want to use quantitative research because it does not allow me enough time to properly investigate the situation. In this scenario, I need as much time as possible so that I can fully understand everything that is happening and how people are feeling about it all. If I used quantitative research in this scenario, then my investigation would be cut short which could potentially lead me down a wrong path or cause me not to find anything out at all due to lack of time spent investigating the issue. This could be very detrimental for everyone involved in this case study as they may not receive proper care or attention due to their mental health state at that point in |
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| 10. What are interviews? Describe various levels of structure that interviews may involve. | ||
| 11. What are focus groups? Identify one limitation of information gathered through focus groups. Describe an example of a topic that would work well for focus groups. Which topics lend themselves best for focus groups? | ||
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