PSY 2105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Observer-Expectancy Effect, Jean Piaget, Albert Bandura

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 2105
• Professor: Alastair Younger

Document Summary

Types of research methods: descriptive methods, correlational, experimental. Descriptive methods: can involve interviewing or observing kids and recording the info; describing our observations of them, observational methods can be, naturalistic observation: carefully observing children in their natural environment, ex: playgrounds, schools, daycare, home. Might ask questions like how are they treated by their peers? , how do parents treat kids who are younger vs siblings who are older, etc? . Advantages of this: it"s a good way to see how kids actually behave in their natural environment a. k. a ecological validity (tells us info that is relevant to people in their natural setting) Disadvantages: the researcher"s expectations could influence what they see (a. k. a observer bias) ex: gender bias. *observer bias: you are primed to see certain things over others: the behaviour of the children might change if they know they"re being observed, a. k. a observer influences. Why: to study infrequent behaviours and standardize the environment.