Forfatter av avsnitt: Danielle J. Navarro and David R. Foxcroft

Sammendrag

This chapter is not really meant to provide a comprehensive discussion of psychological research methods. It would require another volume just as long as this one to do justice to the topic. However, in real-life statistics and study design are so tightly intertwined that it is very handy to discuss some of the key topics. In this chapter, I have briefly discussed the following topics:

  • Introduksjon til psykologisk måling: Hva vil det si å operasjonalisere en teoretisk konstrukt? Hva vil det si å ha variabler og foreta målinger?

  • Målenivåer og variabletyper: Remember that there are two different distinctions here. There is the difference between discrete and continuous data, and there is the difference between the four different scale types (nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio).

  • Reliability of a measurement: If I measure the “same” thing twice, should I expect to see the same result? Only if my measure is reliable. But what does it mean to talk about doing the “same” thing? Well, that is why we have different types of reliability. Make sure you remember what they are.

  • Terminologi: prediktorer og utfall: Hvilke roller spiller variabler i en analyse? Kan du huske forskjellen mellom prediktorer og utfall? Avhengige og uavhengige variabler? osv.

  • Eksperimentelle og ikke-eksperimentelle forskningsdesign: Hva gjør et eksperiment til et eksperiment? Er det en fin hvit labfrakk, eller har det noe å gjøre med forskerens kontroll over variabler?

  • Validitet og dens trusler: Måler studien det du ønsker at den skal måle? Hvordan kan ting gå galt? Og er det bare noe jeg innbiller meg, eller var det en veldig lang liste over mulige måter ting kan gå galt på?

All this should make clear to you that study design is a critical part of research methodology. I built this chapter from the classic little book by Campbell and Stanley (1963), but there are of course a large number of textbooks out there on research design. Spend a few minutes with your favourite search engine and you will find dozens.