research methods

1. Non-experimental methods
Qualitative research
• Interested in how people
explain everyday experiences.
• In natural setting.
• Aim- get insight into
psychological processes.
• Usually guided by one or more
research questions.
• Difference between
hypothesis and a research
question.
• Goal is not to identify cause-and-
effect relationships.
Inductive Reasoning

2. Quantitative versus qualitative research
• Both participants and
researcher interpretation-taken
into account.
• Qualitative researcher actively
engaged- subjectivity.
• Experimental method-objectivity.
• Description and analysis-quantitative
in experimental
research.
• Qualitative- interpret
meaning- no definite answers.
Deductive reasoning
Theory
Hypothesis
Tested against
empirical evidence
Accepted or rejected

3. Interviews
• Most common way of gathering qualitative data.
• Usually face to face, but not always
• Interviews are not time specific.
• Importance of interview schedule.
• Tight interview schedule- structured questions.
• Informal conversational.
• Interviewers require interpersonal, positivity, non-verbal and
verbal skills.
• Guard against interviewer effects/ participant bias/ social
desirability bias.

4. Types of Interviews
Structured- state exact questions
highly controlled procedure
interviewer may provide guidance
data is easy to analyze and compare
may appear somewhat artificial
Unstructured- only specifies the topic and available time.
is open to interest and motivation of respondent.
may reveal more of themselves.
data more difficult to analyze.
Semi-structured- most preferred in modern psychology
appears more conversational
consists of closed and open-ended questions

5. Student task
You have been commissioned to carry out research using
interviews on one of the following issues.
1. Positive and negative experiences in CAS projects.
2. Teenagers in drug use and abuse.
3. Prejudice in the classroom.
4. What it is like to live in a foreign country.
Choose from the list and consider the following questions.
How would you carry out the research?
How would you obtain your sample?
What potential difficulties do you anticipate in carrying out the
interview?

6. Strengths and limitations of Structured interviews
Strengths
1. Structured interviews are easy to
replicate as a fixed set of closed
questions are used, which are easy
to quantify – this means it easy to
test for reliability.
2. Structured interviews are fairly
quick to conduct which means that
many interviews can take place
within a short amount of time. This
means a large sample can be
obtained resulting in the findings
being representative and having the
ability to be generalized to a large
population.
Limitations
1. Structured interviews are not
flexible. This means new questions
cannot be asked impromptu (i.e.
during the interview) as an interview
schedule must be followed.
2. The answers from structured
interviews lack detail as only closed
questions are asked which generates
quantitative data. This means a
research will won't know why a
person behave in a certain way.

7. Strengths and limitations of unstructured interviews
Strengths
1. Unstructured interviews are more flexible
as questions can be adapted and changed
depending on the respondents’ answers. The
interview does can deviate from the interview
schedule.
2. Unstructured interviews generate
qualitative data through the use of open
questions. This allows the respondent to talk
in some depth, choosing their own words. This
helps the researcher develop a real sense of a
person’s understanding of a situation.
3. They also have increased validity because it
gives the interviewer the opportunity to probe
for a deeper understanding, ask for
clarification & allow the interviewee to steer
the direction of the interview etc.
Limitations
1. Can be time consuming to conduct
the unstructured interview and
analyze the qualitative data.
2. Employing and training
interviewers is expensive, and not as
cheap as questionnaires. For
example, certain skills may be
needed by the interviewer. These
include the ability to establish
rapport & knowing when to probe.