Psychology 2800E Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Response Bias, Factor Analysis, Terri Schiavo Case

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2800E
• Professor: Patrick Brown

Document Summary

In a practical survey, if your work has direct application in the world outside the lab, qualities like representativeness become important. In survey research, the purpose is to test a theory, so usually any sample will do: unlikely to use survey results to make a decision that will materially affect someone"s life. Two distinct forms of survey research: exploratory: used in new research areas where little theory has developed. This is typically descriptive research: explanatory: looking for evidence of cause-effect relationships among variables, a correlation does not prove causation, but you can test a hypothesis about cause by looking for the correlation. Procedure: survey research involves asking people questions using a formal procedure, a formal procedure includes everything the researcher does, from creating the questions to administering the survey. It yields data that tell us about the people surveyed, not the researcher.