PNB 2XB3 Lecture 4: research methods readings

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour
• Course: PNB 2XB3
• Professor: Daniel Goldreich

Document Summary

Survey research uses questionnaires and interviews to ask people to provide information about themselves- their attitudes and beliefs, demographics (age, sex, income, marital status, and so on) and other facts, and past or intended future behaviors. Researchers from both qualitative and quantitative approaches use surveys to collect data, though the questions asked and what researchers do with the data differ depednding on the approach. A multitude of surveys are being conducted all the time. Surveys provide us with a methodology for asking people to tell us about themselves. They have become extremely important as society demands data about issues rather than only intuition and anecdotes. These types of data are used to make public policies, used by government and schools to create effective policies and programs. In basic research, many important variables, including attitudes, current emotional states, and self-reports of behaviors, are easily studied using questionnaires or interviews.