Lecture 4Outline of Last LectureI. Research in Family and CultureA. Being a Sensible Consumer of InformationB. Nomothetic and Idiographic Needs, SamplesC. Correlation vs. CausationD. ConsiderationsOutline of Current LectureI. Research in Familya. Problems in Studying FamiliesII. Four Basic Methods for Gathering InformationA. DescriptionsB. Advantages and Disadvantages associated with eachCurrent LectureI. Research in Family- Effects more than just the family- Involves the Experiences of Family Members- Includes Society’s History- Valuable for individual knowledge as well as influencing public policyA. Problems with Studying Families- Need a random sample. This can be hard to get when you are trying to study a particular aspect of families and cannot rely on random participants.- Time lag; it takes 3-5 years before studies get published and by that time, information can already be irrelevant.- Distortion and Deception. When you are trying to study particular parts of the family that are generally private, people may change their behavior. This is because they are trying to appear socially acceptable,or they are uncomfortable being studied. Also, some people will directly lie to portray what they think you are looking for.II. Four Basic Methods for Gathering Information1. Surveys2. Clinical Studies3. Direct Observation4. Experimental ResearchSurveys- Most frequently used technique for getting information in marriages and families.- Done through questionnaires (questions assessing what you are trying to discover) and interviews.- This can be done face to face, over the phone, written or on the internet.A. Advantages- Surveys allow the participant’s identity to be kept a secret, creating the ability to be honest without judgment. FAS 370 1st EditionB. Disadvantages- Surveys do not allow for in-depth responses; yes and no answers cannot provide this.- It is hard to get a representative sample because:-Dishonest people-People sometimes lack the ability to understand how they are feeling and therefore cannot represent themselves or their situations accurately.-Surveys only measure information and the group level (nomothetic) and not the individual level (idiographic)Clinical/Case Studies- Studying an individual in depth. Focuses on individual rather than group. Example: Studying someone who is in therapyA. Advantages- Deep insight on a particular occurrenceB. Disadvantages- Research is limited by only studying one person or small group. Information learned cannot be generalized to a larger population because one person does not represent many people.Observation- Studying behavior while keeping a low profile. Sometimes referred to as naturalistic observationA. Advantages- Allows a researcher to observe actual behavior in a “real life” situationB. Disadvantages- People being observed may not act as they normally would just by noticing or knowing the presence of the researcher.- There is a low relationship with between observers see and what the “observees” actually report aboutthemselves. - There are variations between an inside vs. an outside view of the situation.Experimental Research- Randomly assigned sample- Can show cause and effect unlike other methods because it has a control group (or a group that is not manipulated in the study) to compare to.- It is rare in family research! Family research uses Quasi-Experiments. Quasi meaning “fake”, because there is no control group.A. Advantages- Can show cause an effect- Can be representative of a larger populationB. Disadvantages- Can be hard to randomly sample- Can be time consuming and