PSY 121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Unconscious Mind, Psychobiography, Dear Abby
Document Summary
Focuses on specific behaviors that can be quantified. Rarely modifies instruments (if there is a spelling error they will keep it) Preferred when time and money are limited. Preferred when little is know about a topic. Often conducted in a natural setting during an extended period of time and the researcher does not like to manipulate behaviors. Participation: should the researcher be a participant or no participant. Should the experimenter also drink at the bar or not drink. Concealment: should the experimenter conceal their purpose from the people in the setting. When people know they are being watched they act differently. Usefulness:can not be used to study all issues, more useful for studying social settings, less useful for studying well defined hypotheses. Difficult to conduct: time consuming, difficult to schedule, aggression in bar studies. Complicated analysis: sort through a great deal of data, develop hypothesis to explain data, make sure all data is consistent.
