Lecture 3 Methodology
-
Upload
susana-brigas -
Category
Documents
-
view
265 -
download
0
Transcript of Lecture 3 Methodology
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
1/31
Methodology in
Social PsychologyLogics of inquiry
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
2/31
How to carry out scientific research given our understanding ofthe nature of knowledge.
Philosophy of Science clarifies why experimental, scientificpsychology adopts the practices that it does, but also thatthere are other models which can be adopted.
Experimental Social psychology informed by positivism
Critical social psychology informed by social constructionism
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
3/31
Social psychology is an empirical
endeavour that seeks to answer research questions
(framed in a variety of ways)
is empirical (collects data based onobservations of what people do/say)
is analytic (data gathered are analysed andinterpreted to answer these questions)
is directed (methods chosen asappropriate)
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
4/31
Reality, Knowledge & Science
Ontology
(the study of what actuallyexists)
Epistemology
(the study of what knowledge is, what we can know &what the limits of knowledge are)
Methodology
(the study of the ways in which the world can be studied).
ontological assumptions - affect epistemologicalassumptions - affect methodological assumptions.
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
5/31
Example in social psychology Ontological question:
Is the social world external to, and separate from,
human action? Epistemological question:
What kind of knowledge can we gain about theuniversal laws of human social behaviour?
Methodological question: How should we study the effects of
stereotypical attitudes on our behaviour?
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
6/31
How is philosophy of science relevant topsychology?
Addressing the question of is psychology ascience?
We need a flexible idea of what sciencemight entail.
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
7/31
Comte, Ayer and logical positivism
Positivism unity of science project
Vienna Circle 1920s - logical positivism
emphasis on theories & logical deduction
of hypotheses
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
8/31
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
9/31
Popper and disconfirmationKarl Popper (1902-1994) first major attack on
logical positivism.
verifiability encouraged confirmation of theoriesrather than genuine discovery.
consistent evidence is merely corroboration.
a good theory make predictions that could inprinciple be found to be false: falsifiability thehallmark of good science.
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
10/31
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
11/31
Kuhn and revolution
Thomas Kuhn (1922-96) - scientific
progress not a purely rational process.
peaceful interludes - normal science
where scientists share a paradigm -
punctuated by violent intellectualrevolutions.
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
12/31
Implications of Kuhn's ideas for how we
think about psychological research?
Relationship between evidence & theory
framed by paradigm in which research is
carried out.
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
13/31
Paul Feyerabend (1924-94)
rejected realism for a form ofrelativism=in principle all forms of theories are
worthwhile. argued fortheoretical pluralism
argued theories could not be compared -concept ofincommensurabilty
theories give meaning to facts, not viceversa
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
14/31
A form ofsocial constructionism emphasizing that theworld is not singular but plural.
Scientific inquiry constructs the objects it inquires into,
scientific objects are created by the very practice ofinvestigation itself.
Implications of Feyerabends ideas for how we think aboutpsychological research?
demystifies logical positivism. If no single correct method fordoing science for all problems at all time in all places, thenevery research project has to find its own method.
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
15/31
Evidence: Methods of enquiry Questions about the nature of research
How we justify using methods
How they are warranted
Research, not a technical exercise as an
aid to argument, but central to argument
itself
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
16/31
Research report starts withproblem/question, ends with
solution/answer via relevant evidence Research methods make evidence
plausible
Report = nested series of arguments
Overall argument = conclusion correct,given evidence
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
17/31
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
18/31
Social Psychology uses wide range
of different research methods, e.g., Descriptive research
Specially constructed situations/experiments
Participant or naturalistic observation
Set-up conversations
Interviews
Tests
Questionnaires
Surveys Text analysis (content discourse)
Settings: lab, field, survey face-to-face, phone, email
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
19/31
Quantitative - Qualitative
(organising principle)Numbers/measurement
description/interpretation, narrative
Continuum, 3 dimensions:
Naturalistic/ Controlled
Unstructured/ Structured
Specific/ Generalizable
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
20/31
3 main Data collection techniques
(ESP)Measures Definition Example
Observational Recording actionsdirectly relevant to the
research question
Length of direct eyegaze between people
when they are
interacting
Self-report Subjects responses to
questions
Questionnaire
responses, responses in
interviews
Implicit Recording actions that
imply an underlying
effect
Response times to
classifying items (e.g.,
not/belonging to category
attractive)
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
21/31
Research strategiesLab expt. Field expt. Surveys
Control High Medium Low
Realism Low High Irrelevant
Representativeness Varies Low High
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
22/31
Validity
Internal: confounding
Construct: social desirability effects,demand characteristics, experimenter
effects
External: volunteer/non-volunteer effects
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
23/31
Social Psychology as science
Assumes nature of social world no more
problematic than nature of natural world.
In principle open to discovery by clear
measurement and logical design.
Reliability, precision, validity
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
24/31
Social psychology from a
Constructionist standpoint No certainty
Not separate from what we research
Research not neutral
Experiment = social situation therefore
shapes behaviour
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
25/31
Participant Observation
Negative virtues avoid demand, volunteer &experimenter effects
Open/in-depth interviewing
Meaning within relationships as personallyand interpersonally constructed
Reflexivity examining research process itself
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
26/31
Discourse analysis: How people use discursive resources in
order to achieve interpersonal objectives in
social interaction. specific instances of language in use,
naturally occurring talk Language is the main symbolic system through
which people construct their social realities People deploy language purposefully and
strategically to achieve particular goals
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
27/31
Different levels of discursive practices Individual level e.g., when people have
arguments
Level of social groups e.g., when theydevelop their own slang
Level of culture & society e.g., a
particular worldview is so embedded intothe language that taken for granted
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
28/31
The map is not the territory
What we say about the world is an
abstraction from it, a conceptual
construction.
Other positions are possible.
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
29/31
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
30/31
Sylvie & Bruno Concluded
(Lewis Carroll 1939)What a useful thing a pocket-map is I remarked.
Thats another thing weve learned from yournation said Mein Herr,map-making. But weve carried it much further than you. What doyou consider the largest map that would be really useful?
About 6 inches to the mile.Only six inches exclaimed Mein Herr, we very soon got to 6 yards to
the mile. Then we tried 100 yards to the mile. And then came thegrandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country, on thescale of a mile to a mile!
Have you used it much? I enquired.
It has never been spread out, yet said Mein Herr, the farmersobjected, they said it would cover the whole country and shut outthe sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and Iassure you it does nearly as well.
-
8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology
31/31
Reading
[Hogg & Vaughan Ch 1, pp.6-16.]
[also 3 page handout from Theory & Social Psychology, Sapsford et al.].
Manstead, A.S.R. & Semin, G.R. (2001) (3rd ed.). Methodology in socialpsychology:Tools to test theories. In Hewstone & Stroebe. London:Blackwell.
Stainton Rogers, W. (2003) Social Psychology:Experimental & CriticalApproaches. OUP. Chapter 2. (Lecky 301.15p34 multiple copies).
Tuffin, K. (2005) Understanding Critical Social Psychology. London:
Sage. Chapters 1, 2,3.
Wilson, T.D. (2005) The message is the method: Celebrating & exportingthe experimental approach. Psychological Inquiry, 4, 185-193.