PS101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Observer-Expectancy Effect, Naturalistic Observation, Meta-Analysis
Document Summary
Chapter 2: the research enterprise in psychology: qualitative research method is more interested more in the meaning of a specific experience. Rather than working with variables they get meaning from the collected data. Qualitative researchers make empirical observations of the work and report these observations as narratives and words: quantitative methods are designed primarily to examine cause-and-effect relationships where variables may be defined ahead of time. Quantitative research involves empirical observations of the world reported as numeric quantities. Description: usually the first step in understanding behaviour or mental processes. It answers what questions: we get the answer through observing, recording and generating data, naturalistic observation & laboratory observation, case study. Explanation: researcher try to understand the causes of the behaviour/ mental processes, answers why something occurs, requires testing, re-testing, confirmation. Prediction: when researchers can specify conditions which will likely cause the behaviour or cognitive process to occur, answers the when question, cause and effect-experiment/ quasi-experiment.
