Research Methods & Design in Psychology

Research Methods & Design in Psychology Lecture 1 Introduction to Survey Research Lecturer: James Neill

Overview • Purpose • Goals • Types • Topics • Advantages • Disadvantages

Purposes of Research – Information gathering e.g., polls, customer satisfaction, attitudes

Purposes of Research – Theory testing and theory building e.g., social psychological theories • often surveys do a bit of info gathering and a bit of theory testing

Survey Research Goals - Explanatory • e.g., “What psychological issues are being faced by Asian Tsunami survivors?”

Survey Research Goals - Descriptives • e.g., “Working conditions (hours, pay, etc.) of psychologists”

Survey Research Goals - Explanatory • e.g., “Are extraverts happier?”

Survey Research Goals - Predictive e.g., “Does a couple’s length of time together prior to having children predict relationship satisfaction after having children?”

Types of Research - Experimental • Control over extraneous variables • Random assignment

Types of Research – Quasi-experimental • Control over some extraneous variables • Non-random assignment

Types of Research - Non-experimental • Minimal control over extraneous variables

Survey Research Characteristics • Surveys are widely used in non-experimental social science research • Often use interviews or questionnaires • Involve real-world samples • Often quantitative, but can be qualitative

Common topics in survey research • Demographics • Attitudes and opinions • Behaviours • Motivation and personality • Emotion, satisfaction, stress, etc.

Advantages of survey-based research • Ecological validity • Access to wide range of participants • Potentially large amounts of data • May be more ethical (than experiments)

Disadvantages of survey-based research • Lack of control - less internal validity • Self-report data only • Potentially low compliance rates

Research Methods & Design in Psychology