SOCECOL 10 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Naturalistic Observation, General Idea, Confounding
Document Summary
Naturalistic observation: simply watch the phenomenon and get a general idea of what is involved in the process. (e. g. ) people-watching. Passive between groups approach (aka natural experiment): researchers seek to determine whether two (or more) naturally-occurring groups (e. g. , men vs. women) differ on some variable (e. g. ) variables could be stress, gpa, etc. Experimental methods: compare experimentally induced groups, begin to interact with the phenomenon, (cid:862)if i do this, (cid:449)hat (cid:449)ill happe(cid:374)? (cid:863) Modeling: establish a model capable of performing operations similar to the topic being studied (e. g. ) take a computer model of memory and apply it to human memory (is storage of data similar to storage of memory?) Qualitative methods: emphasize the subjective state of the person under study: to describe the personal, individual experience of a particular group or person, probably naturalistic observation pictures and words. Quantitative methods: an emphasis on behavior, as opposed to experience. In terms of numbers, laws, or patterns that describe behavioral processes (e. g. )
