PSYCO104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Naturalistic Observation, Alf Landon
22 Jun 2018
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PSYCO 104 - Lecture 2
●Research Method
○Descriptive Research
■Describes behaviour
■Qualitative work, just observations and taking down notes
○Case studies
■In-depth analyses of an individual, group, or event
■Advantages:
●Affords the opportunity to study a rare phenomenon that you
might not otherwise have (i.e. in an experimental context)
●Can challenge the validity of a theory or widely held scientific
belief
●Can be a source of new ideas/hypotheses
●Can illustrate effectiveness of experimental programs for
particular populations
■Disadvantages:
■Observers may not be objective in gathering/ interpreting the data
(researcher bias)
■Cannot establish cause and effect
●May not generalize to other people/groups
■Case studies can be used to test patients who already have damage to
specific areas of the brain
■This can provide opportunities to investigate effects of things that would
not be ethical to manipulate in the lab (e.g. damaging particular regions
of the brain in human subjects)
■Used in conjunction with brain imaging techniques, case studies have
contributed greatly to the study of localization of function
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Document Summary
Qualitative work, just observations and taking down notes. In-depth analyses of an individual, group, or event. Affords the opportunity to study a rare phenomenon that you might not otherwise have (i. e. in an experimental context) Can challenge the validity of a theory or widely held scientific belief. Can be a source of new ideas/hypotheses. Can illustrate effectiveness of experimental programs for particular populations. Observers may not be objective in gathering/ interpreting the data (researcher bias) Case studies can be used to test patients who already have damage to specific areas of the brain. This can provide opportunities to investigate effects of things that would not be ethical to manipulate in the lab (e. g. damaging particular regions of the brain in human subjects) Used in conjunction with brain imaging techniques, case studies have contributed greatly to the study of localization of function.
