today we are going to take up the issue of
the methods that are adopted by psychologies
to arrive at certain conclusions all behavioral
studies at the end they would come forward
with certain type of findings once you realize
that there is a replication of finding ok
people theorize it so hypothesis that you
initially made ok once you realize that repeatedly
know the hypothesis gets proven these hypothesis
gets converted into theories
so all the major concepts that you would get
in the second week on wards sessions ah they
have been examined using one or the other
method that we are going to discuss today
so what we would do today is one by one we
would come across the important methods or
the major methods that are used in psychology
and once we are understand overall what are
the methods you would also go ahead with making
comparison know what are the advantages and
the limitations of each of this methods so
the first method that is ah the observation
method now observation as you can understand
as the name suggest that basically there is
an observer ok who would be looking at either
the individual or a phenomena so you can understand
that there could be two broad categories observation
method one where where the observer participates
in the process know so observer is in direct
contact with the group he or she is observing
so this is called as participant observation
ok
such type of for you know observations are
important when you ah engage in something
like say play activity like group therapy
ok you become part of the group and then you
observe it so this is called participated
observation the other type of observation
what is called as non participant observation
non participant observation where the observer
basically is not in direct contact with the
group that he or she is trying to observe
basically you would find in clinical set up
ok where know there is always one way glass
and one group is and other side of the class
where as the observer is behind the class
the group cannot see the observer the psychologist
but the observer psychologist can see the
group mostly you will always find in the clinical
set up even in educational set up sometime
in the industrial set up social community
another setting also you can find ah the non
participant method being used the other
now ah formats of observation method is what
is called as naturalistic observation so again
as the suggest this is the systematic study
of animal or human behavior in natural setting
ok you cannot say bring an animal to the lab
to understand the behavior that very animal
in their natural habit that
so you can not disturb the habit or so in
that case the only option left is that you
as an observer go the naturalistic surrounding
ok and then you ah make the observation the
second ah is the control observation where
the observer looks at the behavior under controlled
lab condition ok banduras bobo doll example
know is the very famous example of control
observation there is another format of observation
what is called as subjective observation in
this method the experimenter ok or the observer
carefully examines an reports his or her own
thoughts and feelings ok
so you are the participant who is taking part
in that experimentation process you carefully
re look at your own thoughts and feelings
and you report it now the psychologist judged
on the report ok and this is the subjective
observation method the other important method
that you would usually find being use is the
case study method both in the area of organizational
behavior in the chemical psychology you will
find this very method being used this is a
method where intense description and analysis
ah know is that of a single individual or
set of individuals so one single case and
you analyze it at length to describe it interpret
it the other could be that you have set of
people ok the activity and then you make an
intense description analysis of a act that
is called case study again survey you all
know its a very popular method it is basically
a kind of extensive and widespread study which
is designed to yield specific information
say if you have questionnaires with you ok
a set of items which intense to seek very
specific information regarding a particular
aspect of the behavior or when you conduct
a interviews from a selected group of people
to gather information ok and then what you
do you analyze it and you come forward with
certain type of findings lets see overall
this is how people respond overall this is
what people thing overall this is what is
the interpretation of people of this very
given situation these are the survey reports
one very popular type of research that you
find in psychology is the co regulation type
of research ah this type of a technique is
basically based on the natural occurrence
of relationship between ah two or more variables
so any two things ok ah which are inter related
in natural order ok now what happens there
are few things which you can very easily identify
that there is a natural connection between
the two say for instance ah if you have the
thunder sound and the lighting effect during
the rainy season you very easily correlate
that if x has taken place why is bound to
happen ok so you see the light first and then
after sometime ok you hear the sound ok and
understand that there is two things are correlated
they are outcome of the same process because
light travels faster therefore you see lighting
first and the sound you receive little later
now this is a natural occurrence relationship
in psychology one of the major problem is
that there are certain inherent relationships
that you have to decipher because it is not
so apparent so what happens the psychologist
they use co relational research they use this
very technique to find out relationship between
two or more than two things ok
so you have quantified constructs say for
example ah the simplest example could be that
if you are extremely intelligent ok your solipsistic
score should match with it know so if you
are a person who is very intelligent your
marks in certain subjects would be very high
if not all subject ok so there is a correlation
so if this is a high x is high y is also going
to be high this type of a relationship is
called as positive correlation that if there
is an increase in one variable the other variable
is also going to increase the reverse could
be there say like ah students who are very
studious they do not go to a sports field
this is the observation you say that if one
thing increases other thing decreases so if
your engagement in scholastic activities increases
you are activity in the sports field diminishes
so increase in one variable is associated
with decrease in the other variable this is
called negative correlation
and the third possibility is that the two
construct that you are trying to study they
are not at all related to each other ok say
for instance if i am a residing in a hostel
in my hall of residence my hostel if there
are seven dogs in the premise and they burg
in the evening hours and realize that it is
the evening hours then i can sit concentrate
on my studies now concentration on the books
the text that i am referring to and the barking
of dog they might takes place at the same
time ok but it has no correlation ok so ideally
what should happen the things which are dissociated
things which do not have an association ok
when you compute the correlation the statistical
technique to compute this relationship you
realize that these two things would be disconnected
this this should be ah zero correlation between
the two experimentation of course is the most
popular method now what happens in experimental
research there are certain conditions that
are arranged and controlled ok ah just for
ah a purpose full manipulation of one variable
to draw inference so that you can draw a larger
picture
so what happens people take one group what
they call as experimental group and they take
the second group what they call as the control
group usually in a experimental research what
happens this very group the first group the
experimental group is exposed to changes in
the variables and these variables little later
will come to it they are called independent
variables ok so say for example if i am trying
to study ah the effect of intelligence ok
on that time taken on certain task and then
accuracy of response and that is specific
task now what will happen these two things
the time taken and the accuracy they become
the dependent variable and my intelligence
is the independent variable ok so effect of
this variable on that variable ok this is
what is done in the case of experimental research
and when you have two groups one group which
is exposed to changes in the independent variable
is called the experimental group the other
group where the independent variable doesnt
undergo any change ok is called the control
group and what you see is basically the difference
in the performance of the first and the second
group the experimental and the control group
so this is know what is ah done in the experimental
research
now in lab experiments what happen you have
a controlled environment ok but there could
be cases where you still have a better control
over the environment but it is not real lab
set up actually ok but experimental method
basically it gives you accurate an objective
measurement and the second that the researcher
has a big control over place time circumstances
and participants as well as process of this
experiment are usually very very standardized
ok so experimental method of course has ah
ah very very ah what i should say experimental
method is basically one of the very robust
methods of ah deriving findings out of your
research
now there could be field experiments as well
ok so field experiment would be ah those type
of experiments which are conducted in natural
environment of the participants ok where situations
are artificially created so the circumstances
that the individual experiences they are artificially
induced there but the participant is not removed
from the natural habitat is not brought to
the labs center
now here also the experimental basically manipulates
the independent variable but this manipulation
done in real life set of ok and the experimental
does not have a actually the real control
over certain extraneous variables
so these are the variables which you do not
control over you can think of independent
variables you can plan your dependent variables
you assume that there would be a relationship
between the independent and the dependent
variable but then there could be some other
types of variables what are called as a extraneous
variables which you do not have control over
now independent variables basically are the
conditions that are varied in the experiments
dependent variables are basically the changes
that takes place as a consequence of changes
in the independent variable and then we have
the inter winning variables now the extraneous
variables so these are those variables which
affects the relationship between the independent
and the dependent variable ok and if you can
predict them of course there are methods of
controlling them and there is also chance
that there could be certain variables which
you did not predict but then does effect the
relationship usually you will find that people
compute correlation so direct correlation
between the independent and the dependent
variable independent variable ah on the screen
you will find it in a i v and the dependent
variable which you find written d v ok you
would also find some variables which basically
know ah somewhere highly influences the relationship
between the independent and the dependent
variable one form of relationship is what
is called as mediation effect
so mediation means what you find written here
as a m v the independent variable ok influences
the dependent variable and it goes through
the mediating ah variable ok the other type
of effect is what is called as the moderation
effect where the independent variable effects
the dependent variable but then there are
certain other factors as well which effects
this relationship between the independent
and the dependent variable so this called
moderation effect because this is a know introductory
psychological course i will not go into the
details of ah the mediation and the moderation
effect ok but broadly for understanding we
have the independent the dependent and the
extraneous variables ok you can also for your
purpose of analysis you can consider one set
variable either mediating variable or the
moderation variable so variables are basically
know those concepts which are quantified ok
different values are assigned t them and in
terms of the numbers that you assign ah variables
also know understood plus continuous or discrete
variables so those variables which can be
basically ah assume any numerical value with
be in a specific range ok they are called
as continuous variables
ah say for example if you look at a scale
ok you find you know that there are ah two
points say say zero one two three but between
zero and one also you will find intend different
lines on this scale also so there is continuity
and there is equal gap between the lines there
you know in real life term say for example
age is a continuous variable there are few
variables which are discrete discrete means
those variables for which the individual value
falls on the scale ok only with certain gap
and the gap is very distinct say for example
if you are collecting demographic details
and you ask someone how many family remembers
do you have or if you ask somebody how children
you have ok the number would varying and this
would be basically discrete variable ok
now coming back to the methods that we have
discussed we try to look at the advantages
and the limitations of these methods correlation
method has a beauty it clarifies a relationship
between the variables which usually cannot
be examined using other methods ok so it allows
you to predict behavior the limitation of
correlation research of course is the fact
that it does not permit you to draw the conclusion
regarding the cause and effect relationship
whether this did lead to that or not that
you cannot write all you can say that there
is relationship between two experimental method
on the other hand the greatest advantage is
that it has a strict control of variables
ok and you can draw conclusion about the cause
and effect relationship something is missing
in correlation research ok that you can do
in experimental research the major limitation
of a experimental research of course is a
artificiality of the setting and if you make
changes in the setting it might influence
behavior second and important thing is that
the unexpected and uncontrolled variables
sometime to confound the result ok and passing
out the effect of the confounding variable
is again a major challenge in experimental
research
naturalistic observation we discussed it has
a big advantage it provides you a great deal
of firsthand behavioral information ok and
it is likely to be a more accurate but the
problem is that the presence of observer sometime
may affect the behavior secondly the observers
preexisting bias it might also influence the
inference that one id drawing and it is often
unclear whether observation can be generalized
to other settings and to other participants
other subjects that is again big limitation
of naturalistic observation surveys again
it has big advantage ok you know look at the
behavior in the more natural spontaneous and
varied fashion the biggest advantage is the
it enables the large amount data to be gather
ok and by enlarge it is now list expensive
of all the methods usually ok but then you
have a voluminous data and you can draw inference
out of it the problem of course with the survey
technique is that sampling bias sometime can
skew the result now
so if you have not drawn your sample which
is a representative of the population then
you are findings might be very biased second
because your using certain questions therefore
if you construct poor questions it might result
into ambiguous type of answers and therefore
accuracy depends upon the ability in willingness
of the participant both as well as how good
is the construction of the items that you
are using in your survey case studies of course
they have advantage they yield great deal
of detailed descriptive information you can
go for in depth investigation of the individual
of group of the event or of the community
you also have rich qualitative data ok which
has very high ecological validity
so case study has all those ah advantages
the limitation is that you may not now actually
come across representative sample because
you have come across one individual or a small
set of individuals so you because you do not
representative samples so usually you know
generalization is a big problem it is also
very time consuming sometime very expensive
and once again the bias of the observer might
influence findings of case studies in terms
of the tools that psychologist use interview
which could be ah [vocalized-noise] unstructured
format could be in structured format so in
the unstructured format of the interviews
you go ahead with informal interviews where
you have no fixed questions you have the opportunity
to raise topics and issues that you consider
to be relevant ok and you can ask them in
one way and this would lead to you know very
rich qualitative data for interpretation you
have the option of structured interview where
you conduct in a formal set up where you set
your questions before hand so you have a predetermined
set of questions ok and the question s that
you ask to every participant is common so
you do not change the question the interviewer
of course maintains their role and social
distance from the interviewee ok and then
you go ahead with this very interview all
this tools are you know popular and you will
find then being used questionnaires very popularly
used it can either face to face it could be
done telephonically it would sent by post
questions usually can be open ended or it
could very tightly structured type of questions
you could have choice of answers from given
alternatives or you have the choice of question
know which is ah important because you want
to take get rid of biases ambiguity and you
do not want to commit often to respondent
to participant so questionnaire gain is a
very popular tool and besides this you find
whole lot of operators being used in psychology
ok
nowadays computer assisted ah you know tests
are there there are old models know memory
drum ah muller lyer operators ah traditional
ah department laboratories would have whole
range of operators there many operators now
you would find which are ah more computer
centric now ok there are specialized software
where you can write your own program or design
your own experiment ok
so this is you know overall the tools the
techniques are used by psychologists ok to
understand one or the other human phenomena
it is psychological underpinning cam be very
easily be understood out of it ok all of this
methods ok are extensively used all of them
and as discussed towards the end they have
their advantages and they have their limitations
and therefore when you read the literature
you would realize that some study they use
one methods some study they use other method
but remember one thing that irrespective of
the method that you use irrespective of the
technique that you use basically you are attempting
to understand the inter play of various factors
what are called as variables here ok and therefore
you analyze the process the mental process
the behavioral process the psychological process
so this is all about the methods in psychology
