PSY3213C Study Guide for Exam 2 Chapter 6 Surveys and Observations Describing What People Do Recognize the strengths weaknesses associated with different question formats on surveys Yes No Questions Questions that can only be answered with a yes or no response o Strengths These can give very specific direct information or be used to prime the participant for a later question Forced Choice AKA Forced Alternative Questions the participant must choose between two alternative responses Often it is not an option to say they are not sure or have no option They must respond either agree or disagree o Weaknesses These questions only give two radical solutions to a question and do no present the moderate responses in between Multiple Choice Questions The respondent must select the most suitable response from among several alternatives example How often do you visit the library Daily weekly monthly yearly or I ve never been to the library o Weaknesses These questions don t allow for more than a few options Piggybacking off of the example above how do the individuals who visit the library frequently only during exam weeks or during finals week answer the question Open Ended Questions A question is asked to which the respondent must construct his or her own answer If participants are given other as an option leave a blank for them to fill it in o Strengths The information provided in open ended questions is more complete o Weaknesses In open ended questions the participant may not understand what the researcher is looking for and summarizing the data is difficult How should all the different answers be categorized What is a Likert Type Scale Likert Type Scales The individual answers a question by selecting a response alternative from a designated scale A typical scale might be the following 5 strongly agree 4 agree 3 undecided 2 disagree or 1 strongly disagree o Anchors the labeled opposite extremes and sometimes middle especially if it is to represent neutral This reduces ambiguity What is a response set and what are ways that you can design a survey to reduce the likelihood of it Response Sets a type of shortcut respondents can take when answering a survey They do not cause many problems for answering a single stand alone survey question But when answering a set of related questions some people might adopt a consistent way of answering all the questions that has little to do with their sincere opinions o Yea Saying Nay Saying occurs when people say strongly agree or strongly disagree to every item instead of thinking carefully about each one A way to avoid this is by writing reverse worded items Reverse worded items can slow people down so that they answer questions more carefully They can also help distinguish yea sayers from true believers o Fence Sitting When participants consistently answer survey questions in the middle of the scale as a way of playing it safe A way to jostle people out of this tendency is to take away the neutral option What is socially desirable responding and how can you reduce it What is an implicit measure Socially desirable responding when survey respondents give answers that make them look better than they really are o Anonymity ensure participant that their responses are anonymous o Filler Items Mask the true purpose of the survey with various unrelated items such as racial attitudes gender roles and education o Implicit Measures Computerized measures to evaluate people s implicit opinions about sensitive topics Example Pairs two things together and asks you to sort them by pressing two different keys For example the word good and the face of a white individual might be paired while the word bad and the face of a black individual might be paired Then the items will be swapped around If the individual sorts faster for the condition where the word is good and is paired with white faces this person has a preference for white individuals It does not necessarily mean they are racist Remember this measures implicit beliefs that we are not aware of Be able to recognize different examples of observer bias Observer Bias Observers record what they want to see or expect to see rather than what is really happening It is a potential threat to construct validity o Example Mental health professionals watch a video of a young man talking to an older man about feelings and experiences Some individuals were told the man was a patient Some individuals were told the man was job applicant They were then asked to report the kind of young man they saw in the video o The group who was told he was a patient said he was tight defensive and frightened of his own impulses o The group who was told he was a job applicant said he was attractive innovative and candid Chapter 7 Sampling Estimating the Frequency of Behaviors Beliefs What is the difference between a sample and a population Population The complete set of individuals or events that we want to represent o Example all children in day care children in daycare in a particular city etc Sample The group selected to represent the population o Types of Samples Random Sample The ideal type of sample that does not often occur Nonrandom sample A sample from a specialized population example college students Biased sample a sample that is not representative or contains too many people unusual compared to the population of interest Occur by Sampling only those who are easy to contact Sampling only those one is able to contact Sampling only those who invite themselves Internet Based samples because of the anonymity people may be likely to go through a particular survey quickly without really reading the questions or over exaggerate their responses Be able to differentiate between the different types of both random and nonrandom sampling Stratified Random Sampling the researcher selects particular demographic categories on purpose and then randomly selects individuals within each of the categories o Problem May lead to over or under representation over or under sampling of certain segments of the population Proportionate Sampling Like stratified sampling but the proportions of different groups in the population are reflected in the samples from the strata Convenience Sampling samples are chosen merely on the basis of who is easy to access Snowball Sampling When samples are hard to obtain and a researcher might ask each participants to recommend a few acquaintances for the study Simple Random Sample population o With replacement a member is
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