(9-9-16)
- Observational Research (also called “descriptive research”: “systematic observation involves watchin people and carefully recording what they say or do” (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2015, p. 18). Two commonly discussed types of observations research are “naturalistic observation” and “structured observations”
- naturalistic observations are conducted of people’s ongoing behavior in real life settings (e.g., malls, parks, lunch rooms)
- for example, we might record instances/percentages/what ever of students’ cell phone use in the hall ways after class or on the ISU quad
- observing couples in a resturant
- structured observations are conducted in settings constructed by the researcher
- for example, a focus group provides structured observations of a groups’ opinions about a movie, a political candidate, or some other event
- a self-report inventory and opinion polling could be thought of as a structured observations
- archival research could also be thought of as a type of structured obervation (incident reports from a nursing home’s log)
- naturalistic observations are conducted of people’s ongoing behavior in real life settings (e.g., malls, parks, lunch rooms)
- Do we know what to look at? Can we identify clearly the phenonenon we are interested in?
- Observational research may be exploratory
- clinical evaluation and case studies
- focus groups and identifying the issues
- Observational research may be exploratory
- The quality of our observations and records?
- defining behavior objectively can be challenging
- suppose you are interested in conflict in intimate relationships: what count’s as “conflict”? Calm disagreements on which movie to see tonight? Unhappiness about sharing housekeeping duties? Shouting at each other about who to vote for in the upcoming election? Physical fighting (what about tickling?, what about unwanted tickling?)
- When to watch:
- all at once: cross-sectional research: looks at populations of different ages at a given point in time
- How many 60-year-olds use social media?, how many 20-year-olds?
- over time: longitudinal reearch: longitudinal research follow a population as they age
- How does the use of social media change as a group of 20-year-olds age through the next decade of their life?
- mixture: sequential research: mix of cross-sectional and longitudinal designs
- all at once: cross-sectional research: looks at populations of different ages at a given point in time
- observations (date collection in some form) provide the basis for all empirical research. Any study is going to provide some type of observation. Doing this in a manner that gives us confidence in the meaning of the information we gather is what begin to identify the activity as research.
- Interpretation of observational/descriptive data
- tabulations, graphs, percentages
- measures of central tendency: mean, mode median
- interpretations:
- population statistics
- sample statistics
- To generalize to a different (usually larger) group than the group we studies, several questions must be considered:
- How representative is our sample?
- How large is our sample (affects degree of error)?
- To generalize to a different (usually larger) group than the group we studies, several questions must be considered:
Correlational Research
- identifying patterns and relationships: correlational research looks at the patterns that occur between naturally occuring events in life, what events seem to “go together” or “not go together”
- correlational research takes some body of observations data and applies a technique to quantify the degree of association between to variables; we an specify the strength of the relationship between two vairable; i.e., How much does know about one variable tell us about the second variable?
- Are variables associated?
- measuring the strength of an association
correlations, negative and positive
-1 -.5 0 +.5 +1
- measuring the strength of an association
- Third body problems and the search for causes
Experimental Research (casual explanations, cause and effect)
- Experimental research seeks to answer questions about “cause”, how one event in the world affects other events in the world. We are often interest in experimental research because we until want to know how to achieve some desirable outcome in life.
- Variables: What are we interested in?
- Dependent variable: the qualities we are interested in understanding (effect)
- Independent variable: the qualities we manipulate to see what effect occurs with the dependent variable (cause)
- How can we know if the Independent Variable affects the Dependent Variable?
- measure
- treat
- measure
- (ABA design)
- questions?
- Are our results reliable?
- measure treat measure
- measure treat measure
- measure treat measure
- Are our results valid?
- Threats to validity:
- Internal validity: do our results demonstrate what we believe (wish) these results to demonstrate?
- External validity (generalizability): do our results apply to anyone beyond the group we worked with?
- Issues in internal validity:
- alternative explanations for our results
- Control Groups
- random assignment (why selection studies are not experimental)
- measure1 treat measure1
measure2 don’t treat measure2
- measure1 treat measure1
- random assignment (why selection studies are not experimental)
- detection of differences
- real differences might be small (and likely to be missed)
- real differences (valid) may also be trivial (relatively unimportant in the real world)
- significance testing
- power
- measurement error
- quality of our measure
- sample size
- significance testing
- Issues in external validity
- sampling: Is the group we studied representative of the population we wish to draw conclusions about?
- coundounding: “any situation in which one cannot determine which of two or more effects is responsible for the behaviors being observed” (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2015, p. 21)
- How are populations described?
- age (“Age effects reflect differences caused by underlying processes, such as biological, psychological, or sociocultgural changes.“(Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2011, p. 23)
- other demographic characteristics
- “young adult”, “mean age 22.5 years”
- cohort (Cohort effects are differences caused by experiences and circumstances unique to the generation to which one belongs.” (Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2011, p. 23)
- other historical characteristics
- “baby boomers”, “Vietnam Vets”
- status (“Time-of-measurement effects reflect differences stemming from sociocultural, environmental, historical, or other events at the time the data are obtained from participants.” Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2011, p. 23)
- other situational characteristics
- “college students”, “recently unemployed”
- age (“Age effects reflect differences caused by underlying processes, such as biological, psychological, or sociocultgural changes.“(Cavanaugh & Blanchard-Fields, 2011, p. 23)
- design of data collection
- longitudinal studies
- selective attrition: loss of subjects may not be random
- age may be confounded with cohort and time-of-measurement
- cross sectional studies
- cohort effects
- age may be confounded with cohort and time-of-measurement
- mixed designs (sequential designs)
- factor out confounds be combining longitudinal, cross section, and time-of-measurement factors
- “most efficient design”
- longitudinal studies
- Ethics in developmental research
- sources of ethical guidance in research
- laws
- government regulations governing grant funding
- ethical standards of professional associations
- institutional policies
- conscience and personal morality
- What makes research ethical?
- Informed consent of participants
- voluntary
- freedom from coercion
- negative coercion (threat, bullying, intimidation)
- positive coercion (excessive positive rewards)
- freedom to withdraw
- freedom from coercion
- voluntary
- informed
- risk
- clear communication of risks
- procedures for identifying and dealing with untoward consequences
- purpose
- deception research
- debriefing responsibilities
- freedom to withdraw and consequences
- risk
- Informed consent of participants
- Quality of research
- unbiased, objective, clearly conceptualized
- makes a contribution to our shared knowledge and understanding
- potential benefits outweigh potential risks
- results communicated accurately and responsibly
- honesty in reporting results
- data/methods made available to others for replication
- issues of intellectual property, proprietary rights, copyrights, patients, and profit
- Who owns science? Who pays for science? Who show benefit from science?
- The authors of CITI (Collaborative Institiutional Training Initiative) training feel that “bad” research (poorly designed) is unethical because it wastes resources
- unbiased, objective, clearly conceptualized
- Integrity of researcher
- public acknowledgement of potential conflicts of interest
- disclosure of financial entanglements
- source of funding
- accurate acknowledgment of contributions of others
- credit for contributions to the research: authorship
- credit for contributions to conceptualization: references
- plagiarism
- public acknowledgement of potential conflicts of interest
- sources of ethical guidance in research
- Thought/suggestion for Friday: spend some time outside this weekend, preferably around things that are naturally green, brown, blue (grass, trees, bushes, grass, water). Is there someplace you could go where you would not see any immediate or prominent sign of human influence (trail, park, open field)? How does it affect you to spend time away from the activities of other people for a little while?