CHD4630 Methods of Studying Families Children 01 29 2015 o Four processes Observing o Selective observation only choosing to identify things that match up what we hold true ignoring other o Inaccurate observation inaccurately observing something and defining that in a social process o We see a happy chimp and overgeneralize that all chimps Generalizing are happy Reasoning and illogical reasoning o Process when we take info and we are quick to jump with that info typically in an illogical way and we draw conclusions Reevaluation o Reluctant to change our ideas even in the midst of new data Ego based commitments Easier to make statements that conform to our needs Hard to admit we are wrong Excessive devotion to tradition Uncritical agreement with authority o How does social science address these errors in observation Social Science o Uses scientific methods to investigate individuals families o Ex Of reading an article First paragraph identifies the problem Second paragraph problem statement and gist of the Lit review all the rational and reasoning on what the study study is Overview of the study tells exactly what the study is what it s doing gist of the whole entire study Methods describes measures and participants End of methods section first paragraph of results section analyses Results the author will move into a discussion of the results they outline the results Discussion interpretation of results First paragraph of discussion outlines all the results significance of the study After discussion section about limitations Conclusion and implications this shows where they need to go next what our research questions should be Pseudoscience o An area presented as science but there s no evidence to support it or its plausibility o Ex Astrology chiropractic o Basic Science Goal is to increase the knowledge base Basic scientists seek to discover new knowledge and info without the primary concern of how the knowledge they create might be used Example Research Questions RQ o How does teen motherhood o Applied Science Focus on using knowledge to solve specific problems Ex RQ Does providing free daycare improve teen mother s rates of high school graduation o Four Different Types of Research 1 Exploratory o Area where we seek to understand something o Broad focus and rarely provides definite answers to specific research issues o Ex How do teen mothers use social support o Inductive process starts with the data and the data leads to informed theory o Often no hypotheses 2 Descriptive o Describes a phenomenon o No independent variables o Just describing not looking at relationships o Ex What types of social supports are available to teen mothers 3 Explanatory o Serves purpose of stimulating future research o Relationship between variables o There is manipulation o How a phenomenon varies in response to variations in some o Ex Do positive peer mentors reduce risk for future teen other phenomenon pregnancies o Typically a Deductive process stats with theory used theory to develop hypothesis then have data to test the hypothesis o Can be inductive too 4 Evaluation o Focuses on evaluating interventions or programs o Ex RQ does the mom to mom mentoring program reduce teen mothers rates of unprotected sexual contact o Social learning theory We often learn through social observation Ex Child see parents using violence during conflicts Hypothesis children exposed to violence in relationships leads to more interpersonal violence IV what we manipulate proposes an influence o Exposure to interparental violence DV what we are measuring o More interpersonal violence the IV effects the DV Direction of Association If Then statements o to or to positive relationship correlation o to or to inverse negative relationship o Control variables factors that might influence the outcome but that you want to control to see the real contribution of IV o Extraneous variable factors not included in your study but could impact your outcome unpredictably o Moderators affects the relationship between an IV X and a DV Y explains for who and under what conditions does a X exert an effect on Y Ex Gender o Mediators help explain how X exerts its influence on Y o Quantitative Explores phenomena through the use of numbers or ordered attributes o Qualitative Focuses on capturing the experiences of phenomena without attempting to quantify data words statements o Exists within explorative research o Mixed Methods or triangulation The use of multiple methods to study one research question o Types of Validity Measurement Internal Val o Exists when a measure measures what we think it measures o Exists when a conclusion that A leads to or results in B is correct could there be an alternative cause that explains my results Externals Val o Exists when a conclusion holds true for the population group setting or event that we say it does given the conditions that we specify Authenticity o Is when the understanding of a social process or social setting is one that reflects fairly the various perspectives of participants in that setting o Reliability replication Ability to replicate a study in a manner that the methods are the same but we are also getting the same type of outcome derived in the fist study o Population a group we wish to generalize to o Sample group from the population findings used to generalize to the larger population o What is a RQ A question about the world that can be answered thru the collection and analysis of empirical data Seeks to create knowledge about processes and patterns in populations not individuals A good research questions will o Guide your lit review o Link together to help construct a coherent argument o Help you narrow the scope of your research o And will be clear and precise o Developing a RQ 1 select a topic o We start broad a general topic area of study Ex Why are some couples more forgiving in relationships than others o Then we narrow topic down More specifically Does perception of forgiveness in parents relationships impact a persons forgiveness in their own relationship ID the questions for study o Existing lit Should serve as a guide which means you need to be actively reading in your area of interest Where would you look Limitations within a body of lit great way to develop research questions Recent reviews and or decade reviews Interest in in testing a particular theoretical assumption Would this be deductive or inductive o Theory Deductive starting with theory that leads to hypothesis