Research Methods in Psychology 3rd edition Edited by Glynis M. Breakwell, Sean Hammond, and Jonathan A. Smith isage Publications Los Angeles London New Delhi Singapore
Contents LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS PREFACE HOW TO USE THIS TEXTBOOK AND COMPANION WEBSITE xiv xviii xxii Ö PART 1 THE BASES OF RESEARCH 1 1 THEORY, METHOD AND RESEARCH DESIGN 2 Glynis M. Breakwell and David Rose 1.1 THEORY BUILDING AND THEORY TESTING 4 1.2 MATCHING METHODOLOGIES TO THEORY 17 1.3 INTEGRATING FINDINGS FROM DIFFERENT METHODOLOGIES 22 1.4 FURTHER READING 23 2 PRACTICAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN PLANNING RESEARCH 24 Martyn Barrett 2.1 INTRODUCTION 26 2.2 FORMULATING RESEARCH QUESTIONS 26 2.3 ASSESSING THE PRACTICAL FEASIBILITY OF THE RESEARCH 33 2.4 ASSESSING THE ETHICAL FEASIBILITY OF THE RESEARCH 38 2.5 CONSIDERING THE POSSIBLE OUTCOMES OF THE RESEARCH IN ADVANCE 43 2.6 APPLYING FOR RESEARCH FUNDING 43 2.7 CONCLUSION 47 2.8 BPS AND APA ADDRESSES AND WEBSITES 48 2.9 FURTHER READING 48 3 LEVELS OF MEASUREMENT 50 3.1 INTRODUCTION 52 3.2 CLASSIFYING MEASUREMENTS 53 3.3 DISCRETE VERSUS CONTINUOUS VARIABLES 58 vii
3.4 MEASUREMENT ERRORS 59 3.5 CHOICES OVER LEVELS OF MEASUREMENT 60 3.6 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEVEL OF MEASUREMENT AND STATISTICS 61 3.7 CONCLUSION 63 3.8 FURTHER READING 63 THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD IN PSYCHOLOGY 64 Alyson Davis and Gavin Bremner 4.1 INTRODUCTION 66 4.2 EXPERIMENTATION AND THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD 66 4.3 WHAT IS AN EXPERIMENT? 67 4.4 CAUSALITY AND EXPERIMENTATION 69 4.5 VARIABLES 69 4.6 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY 73 4.7 EXPERIMENTAL MANIPULATION AND CONTROL 74 4.8 BASIC EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS 74 4.9 EVALUATING THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD 85 4.10 CONCLUSION 86 4.11 FURTHER READING 87 QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL DESIGNS 88 5.1 INTRODUCTION 90 5.2 PRE-EXPERIMENTS 90 5.3 QUASI-EXPERIMENTS 92 5.4 NON-EQUIVALENT CONTROL GROUP DESIGNS 93 5.5 TIME SERIES DESIGNS 96 5.6 TIME SERIES WITH NON-EQUIVALENT CONTROL GROUP DESIGNS 98 5.7 MODIFICATIONS TO THE BASIC DESIGNS 102 5.8 CONCLUSION 103 5.9 FURTHER READING 103 SURVEYS AND SAMPLING 104 Patrick Sturgis 6.1 INTRODUCTION 106 6.2 STATISTICAL INFERENCE: FROM SAMPLE TO POPULATION 106 6.3 NONRESPONSE 111 6.4 SAMPLING STRATEGIES 113 6.5 SURVEY MODE 118 6.6 SMALL-SAMPLE ISSUES 119 6.7 CONCLUSION 121 6.8 FURTHER READING 121 viii
PART 2 DATA GATHERING 123 7 OBSERVATIONAL METHODS 124 Rudi Dallos 7.1 INTRODUCTION 126 7.2 WHAT IS OBSERVATIONAL RESEARCH? 126 7.3 LEVELS OF OBSERVATION: BEHAVIOUR AND TALK 132 7.4 OBSERVATION AND THEORETICAL LENSES 133 7.5 DECIDING WHAT TO OBSERVE - CODING SCHEMES 134 7.6 INTERPRETATIVE ORIENTATION TO OBSERVATION 138 7.7 PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION RESEARCH 139 7.8 VALIDITY 144 7.9 CONCLUSION 145 7.10 FURTHER READING 145 8 PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGICAL METHODS 146 Paul Sowden and Paul Barrett 8.1 INTRODUCTION 148 8.2 THE PRINCIPAL AREAS OF PHYSIOLOGICAL DATA ACQUISITION 149 8.3 QUANTIFYING BIOSIGNAL DATA 156 8.4 CONCLUSION 159 8.5 FURTHER READING 159 9 PSYCHOPHYSICAL METHODS 160 David Rose 9.1 INTRODUCTION 162 9.2 PRINCIPLES OF ABSOLUTE THRESHOLDS 162 9.3 FORCED-CHOICE TECHNIQUES 167 9.4 METHODS FOR MEASURING ABSOLUTE THRESHOLDS 168 9.5 DIFFERENCE THRESHOLDS 174 9.6 SENSATIONAL MEASUREMENTS 175 9.7 SOME GENERAL TIPS ON RUNNING EXPERIMENTS 178 9.8 CONCLUSION 181 9.9 FURTHER READING 181 10 USING PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS 182 Sean Hammond 10.1 INTRODUCTION 184 10.2 TYPES OF PSYCHOMETRIC TEST 185 10.3 CLASSICAL TEST THEORY 189 10.4 THE PROBLEM OF VALIDITY 199 10.5 ITEM RESPONSE THEORY 203 10.6 CONCLUSION 208 10.7 FURTHER READING 209 ix
11 QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN 210 11.1 INTRODUCTION 212 11.2 WHAT INFORMATION DO YOU WANT? 212 11.3 OPEN VERSUS CLOSED RESPONSE FORMATS 214 11.4 COMMON RESPONSE FORMATS 215 11.5 COMMON WORDING PROBLEMS 218 11.6 TYPES OF INFORMATION GLEANED FROM QUESTIONNAIRES 223 11.7 EXISTING SCALES AND MEASURES 228 11.8 QUESTIONNAIRE LAYOUT 228 11.9 CONCLUSION 231 11.10 FURTHER READING 231 12 INTERVIEWING METHODS 232 Glynis M. Breakwell 12.1 INTRODUCTION 234 12.2 THE INTERVIEW STRUCTURE 235 12.3 PILOTING THE INTERVIEW 240 12.4 CONDUCTING THE INTERVIEW 241 12.5 MEDIUM OF THE INTERVIEW 243 12.6 INTERVIEWING CHILDREN 244 12.7 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF INTERVIEW DATA 247 12.8 ANALYSING INTERVIEW DATA 250 12.9 REPORTING INTERVIEW RESEARCH 252 12.10 CONCLUSION 253 12.11 FURTHER READING 253 13 USING SELF-RECORDING: DIARY AND NARRATIVE METHODS 254 Glynis M. Breakwell 13.1 INTRODUCTION 256 13.2 WHAT ARE DIARY TECHNIQUES? 256 13.3 WHAT SORTS OF DATA ARE SUITABLE FOR DIARIES? 258 13.4 THE PROS AND CONS OF THE DIARY APPROACH 259 13.5 GETTING THE BEST OUT OF DIARY TECHNIQUES 263 13.6 WHAT ARE NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES? 266 13.7 ELICITING THE NARRATIVE 267 13.8 ANALYSING DIARY AND NARRATIVE RECORDS 269 13.9 CONCLUSION 271 13.10 FURTHER READING 272 14 FOCUS GROUPS 274 Lynne J. Mlllward 14.1 INTRODUCTION 276 14.2 THE APPROPRIATENESS OF THE FOCUS GROUP METHOD 277 x
14.3 WHAT TYPE OF EVIDENCE DO FOCUS GROUPS YIELD? 278 14.4 THE FOCAL STIMULI 281 14.5 FOCUS GROUP DESIGN AND PLANNING 283 14.6 FOCUS GROUP IMPLEMENTATION 286 14.7 RECORDING THE DATA 291 14.8 TRANSCRIPTION 291 14.9 ANALYSIS OF FOCUS GROUP DATA 291 14.10 FEEDBACK OF RESULTS/FINDINGS 296 14.11 FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS IN FOCUS GROUP RESEARCH 296 14.12 CONCLUSION 297 14.13 FURTHER READING 298 15 ETHNOGRAPHIC AND ACTION RESEARCH 300 David Uzzell and Julie Barnett 15.1 INTRODUCTION 302 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 WHAT IS ETHNOGRAPHY? PROBLEMS IN ETHNOGRAPHY MEASURING QUALITY IN ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH ACTION RESEARCH DISTINGUISHING CRITERIA OF ACTION RESEARCH CONCLUSIONS FURTHER READING 302 305 309 311 315 319 320 PART3 DATA TREATMENT 321 16 INTERPRETATIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS 322 Jonathan A. Smith and Virginia Eatough 16.1 INTRODUCTION 324 16.2 IPA AND PSYCHOLOGY 325 16.3 SUITABLE RESEARCH QUESTIONS FOR IPA 326 16.4 HOW MANY PARTICIPANTS? 327 16.5 DATA COLLECTION METHODS 329 16.6 STAGES OF ANALYSIS 332 16.7 WRITING UP AN IPA STUDY 338 16.8 CONCLUSION 340 16.9 FURTHER READING 340 17 GROUNDED THEORY 342 Karen Henwood and Nick Pidgeon 17.1 INTRODUCTION 344 17.2 EMERGENT DESIGN, FLEXIBILITY AND ITERATION 346 17.3 THE ORIGIN POINT AND USE OF THE PRIOR LITERATURE 348 17.4 THEORETICAL SAMPLING 350 17.5 STORAGE: THE RESEARCH RECORD 352 17.6 OPEN CODING AND CONSTANT COMPARISON 353 xi
17.7 THEORETICAL MEMOS 357 17.8 CORE ANALYSIS I: REFINING AND SATURATING CATEGORIES 358 17.9 CORE ANALYSIS II: BUILDING THEORY AND MODELS 359 17.10 WRITING AND EVALUATING GROUNDED THEORY STUDIES 361 17.11 CONCLUSION 363 17.12 FURTHER READING 364 18 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 366 Adrian Coyle 18.1 INTRODUCTION 368 18.2 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: ASSUMPTIONS, APPROACHES AND APPLICATIONS 368 18.3 SAMPLING DISCOURSE 374 18.4 TECHNIQUES OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS 375 18.5 WORKING WITH DATA 377 18.6 EVALUATING DISCOURSE ANALYTIC WORK 382 18.7 PROBLEMS IN DISCOURSE ANALYTIC WORK 384 18.8 CONCLUSION 386 18.9 FURTHER READING 387 19 PRINCIPLES OF STATISTICAL INFERENCE TESTS 388 19.1 INTRODUCTION 390 19.2 SOME BASIC DEFINITIONS 390 19.3 WHAT ARE BIVARIATE STATISTICAL ANALYSES? 393 19.4 CLASSICAL BIVARIATE DESIGNS 393 19.5 THEORIES AND HYPOTHESES 396 19.6 TYPE I AND TYPE II ERRORS 397 19.7 PROBABILITY 398 19.8 PARAMETRIC VERSUS NON-PARAMETRIC TESTS 406 19.9 CHOOSING A STATISTICAL TEST 407 19.10 CONCLUSION 413 19.11 FURTHER READING 413 20 INTRODUCTION TO MULTIVARIATE DATA ANALYSIS 414 Sean Hammond 20.1 INTRODUCTION 416 20.2 EXAMINING DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GROUPS 416 20.3 MAKING PREDICTIONS 424 20.4 EXPLORING UNDERLYING STRUCTURE 430 20.5 THE SPECIAL CASE OF CATEGORICAL DATA 440 20.6 CONCLUSION 441 20.7 FURTHER READING 442 xii
21 INTRODUCTION TO STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELLING 444 21.1 INTRODUCTION 446 21.2 THE IDEA OF MODEL FITTING AND MODEL COMPARISON 447 21.3 MEASUREMENT MODELS AND CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS 450 21.4 STRUCTURAL MODELS 458 21.5 ANALYSIS STRATEGY 460 21.6 OTHER THINGS THAT CAN BE DONE WITH SEM 461 21.7 CAUTIONARY NOTES 463 21.8 CONCLUSION 464 21.9 FURTHER READING 464 22 META-ANALYSIS 466 David O'Sullivan 22.1 INTRODUCTION 468 22.2 QUANTIFYING THE REVIEW PROCESS 469 22.3 STEPS IN CONDUCTING A META-ANALYSIS 473 22.4 CONCLUSION 480 22.5 FURTHER READING 481 REFERENCES 482 INDEX 510 xiii