Lecture 3 Methodology

8/6/2019 Lecture 3 Methodology

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Methodology in

Social PsychologyLogics of inquiry


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How to carry out scientific research given our understanding ofthe nature of knowledge.

Philosophy of Science clarifies why experimental, scientificpsychology adopts the practices that it does, but also thatthere are other models which can be adopted.

Experimental Social psychology informed by positivism

Critical social psychology informed by social constructionism


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Social psychology is an empirical

endeavour that seeks to answer research questions

(framed in a variety of ways)

is empirical (collects data based onobservations of what people do/say)

is analytic (data gathered are analysed andinterpreted to answer these questions)

is directed (methods chosen asappropriate)


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Reality, Knowledge & Science

Ontology

(the study of what actuallyexists)

Epistemology

(the study of what knowledge is, what we can know &what the limits of knowledge are)

Methodology

(the study of the ways in which the world can be studied).

ontological assumptions - affect epistemologicalassumptions - affect methodological assumptions.


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Example in social psychology Ontological question:

Is the social world external to, and separate from,

human action? Epistemological question:

What kind of knowledge can we gain about theuniversal laws of human social behaviour?

Methodological question: How should we study the effects of

stereotypical attitudes on our behaviour?


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How is philosophy of science relevant topsychology?

Addressing the question of is psychology ascience?

We need a flexible idea of what sciencemight entail.


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Comte, Ayer and logical positivism

Positivism unity of science project

Vienna Circle 1920s - logical positivism

emphasis on theories & logical deduction

of hypotheses


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Popper and disconfirmationKarl Popper (1902-1994) first major attack on

logical positivism.

verifiability encouraged confirmation of theoriesrather than genuine discovery.

consistent evidence is merely corroboration.

a good theory make predictions that could inprinciple be found to be false: falsifiability thehallmark of good science.


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Kuhn and revolution

Thomas Kuhn (1922-96) - scientific

progress not a purely rational process.

peaceful interludes - normal science

where scientists share a paradigm -

punctuated by violent intellectualrevolutions.


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Implications of Kuhn's ideas for how we

think about psychological research?

Relationship between evidence & theory

framed by paradigm in which research is

carried out.


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Paul Feyerabend (1924-94)

rejected realism for a form ofrelativism=in principle all forms of theories are

worthwhile. argued fortheoretical pluralism

argued theories could not be compared -concept ofincommensurabilty

theories give meaning to facts, not viceversa


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A form ofsocial constructionism emphasizing that theworld is not singular but plural.

Scientific inquiry constructs the objects it inquires into,

scientific objects are created by the very practice ofinvestigation itself.

Implications of Feyerabends ideas for how we think aboutpsychological research?

demystifies logical positivism. If no single correct method fordoing science for all problems at all time in all places, thenevery research project has to find its own method.


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Evidence: Methods of enquiry Questions about the nature of research

How we justify using methods

How they are warranted

Research, not a technical exercise as an

aid to argument, but central to argument

itself


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Research report starts withproblem/question, ends with

solution/answer via relevant evidence Research methods make evidence

plausible

Report = nested series of arguments

Overall argument = conclusion correct,given evidence


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Social Psychology uses wide range

of different research methods, e.g., Descriptive research

Specially constructed situations/experiments

Participant or naturalistic observation

Set-up conversations

Interviews

Tests

Questionnaires

Surveys Text analysis (content discourse)

Settings: lab, field, survey face-to-face, phone, email


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Quantitative - Qualitative

(organising principle)Numbers/measurement

description/interpretation, narrative

Continuum, 3 dimensions:

Naturalistic/ Controlled

Unstructured/ Structured

Specific/ Generalizable


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3 main Data collection techniques

(ESP)Measures Definition Example

Observational Recording actionsdirectly relevant to the

research question

Length of direct eyegaze between people

when they are

interacting

Self-report Subjects responses to

questions

Questionnaire

responses, responses in

interviews

Implicit Recording actions that

imply an underlying

effect

Response times to

classifying items (e.g.,

not/belonging to category

attractive)


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Research strategiesLab expt. Field expt. Surveys

Control High Medium Low

Realism Low High Irrelevant

Representativeness Varies Low High


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Validity

Internal: confounding

Construct: social desirability effects,demand characteristics, experimenter

effects

External: volunteer/non-volunteer effects


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Social Psychology as science

Assumes nature of social world no more

problematic than nature of natural world.

In principle open to discovery by clear

measurement and logical design.

Reliability, precision, validity


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Social psychology from a

Constructionist standpoint No certainty

Not separate from what we research

Research not neutral

Experiment = social situation therefore

shapes behaviour


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Participant Observation

Negative virtues avoid demand, volunteer &experimenter effects

Open/in-depth interviewing

Meaning within relationships as personallyand interpersonally constructed

Reflexivity examining research process itself


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Discourse analysis: How people use discursive resources in

order to achieve interpersonal objectives in

social interaction. specific instances of language in use,

naturally occurring talk Language is the main symbolic system through

which people construct their social realities People deploy language purposefully and

strategically to achieve particular goals


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Different levels of discursive practices Individual level e.g., when people have

arguments

Level of social groups e.g., when theydevelop their own slang

Level of culture & society e.g., a

particular worldview is so embedded intothe language that taken for granted


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The map is not the territory

What we say about the world is an

abstraction from it, a conceptual

construction.

Other positions are possible.


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Sylvie & Bruno Concluded

(Lewis Carroll 1939)What a useful thing a pocket-map is I remarked.

Thats another thing weve learned from yournation said Mein Herr,map-making. But weve carried it much further than you. What doyou consider the largest map that would be really useful?

About 6 inches to the mile.Only six inches exclaimed Mein Herr, we very soon got to 6 yards to

the mile. Then we tried 100 yards to the mile. And then came thegrandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country, on thescale of a mile to a mile!

Have you used it much? I enquired.

It has never been spread out, yet said Mein Herr, the farmersobjected, they said it would cover the whole country and shut outthe sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and Iassure you it does nearly as well.


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Reading

[Hogg & Vaughan Ch 1, pp.6-16.]

[also 3 page handout from Theory & Social Psychology, Sapsford et al.].

Manstead, A.S.R. & Semin, G.R. (2001) (3rd ed.). Methodology in socialpsychology:Tools to test theories. In Hewstone & Stroebe. London:Blackwell.

Stainton Rogers, W. (2003) Social Psychology:Experimental & CriticalApproaches. OUP. Chapter 2. (Lecky 301.15p34 multiple copies).

Tuffin, K. (2005) Understanding Critical Social Psychology. London:

Sage. Chapters 1, 2,3.

Wilson, T.D. (2005) The message is the method: Celebrating & exportingthe experimental approach. Psychological Inquiry, 4, 185-193.

Lecture 3 Methodology

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