Socio-cultural research methods

Which of the following is an example of method triangulation?

• A researcher carries out a series of interviews about attitudes toward foreigners and then observes the same participants in a situation where they have to interact with a stranger.

• The responses of two or more researchers are compared to make sure that they are both measuring a variable in the same way.

• An experiment uses two or more samples.

• When a study is replicated three or more times to establish that it has reliability.

Answer explanation

Method triangulation is when we use more than one method to guarantee that the results that we have obtained are not due to the method we chose.  By using another method and getting the same results, we increase the credibility (validity) of the results.

Which of the following is not a limitation of carrying out a naturalistic observation?

• It is not possible to control for confounding variables.

• It is difficult to replicate and establish reliability.

• The participants are being deceived.

• Participants may leave the study.

Answer explanation

The fact that a study is naturalistic does not mean that the participants are being deceived. This depends on whether the study is covert or overt.

What did Festinger conclude from his study of the Doomsday cult?

• The cult members had no clear idea of why they were joining the cult.

• Cult members rationalized their failure in order to protect their self-esteem.

• People are willing to forgive their leaders, as long as they feel that they did their best and made honest mistakes.

• People who are more religious are more likely to join cults.

Answer explanation

Festinger argued that this was an example of cognitive dissonance.  The cult members had to cope with the fact that as intelligent people, they had been led to believe that the world was going to end.  When it didn't, they look foolish.  To lessen this feeling of failure, they rationalized what happened - that is, they explained that they had actually saved the world through their prayers.

Which of the following is not an ethical concern of the Festinger study of the Doomsday cult?

• Deception.

• Not keeping the data anonymous.

• Researcher bias.

• Undue stress or harm.

Answer explanation

Festinger broke pretty much all ethical rules with this study.  He did not obtain consent, he deceived the participants, he did not keep their data anonymous, he did not debrief them and the publication of his book causes undue stress. Researcher bias is not an ethical consideration.  It is potentially a methodological problem.  Since Festinger recorded conversations sometimes several hours after they happened, it is possible that his own biases influenced what was remembered.

Which of the following is not an advantage of collecting qualitative data?

• It is a  more holistic approach to studying an individual.

• The data is very rich, giving a lot of information to the researcher.

• Qualitative data is easier to analyse than quantitative data.

• Qualitative data is often naturalistic, studying an individual in their normal social context. 

Answer explanation

Quantitative data has the advantage of easily being analysed through statistical analysis; for qualitative data, researchers must carry out content analysis to establish trends in the data.

Which of the following is not an assumption made by social psychologists?

• We have a personal self and several social selves.

• Our behaviour is influenced by others, even when we believe we are acting independently.

• Culture affects our behaviour.

• Animals may be studied in order to get a deeper insight into human behaviour.

Answer explanation

Animals may be studied....  is an example of an assumption from the biological approach.

Social psychologists believe that as the individual is affected by being part of a group, the individual can also affect behaviour in the group. What is the term used to describe this phenomenon?

• Reciprocal determinism

• Social Identity Theory

• Social determinism

• Bidirectional ambiguity

Answer explanation

Bandura's theory of reciprocal determinism says that our behaviour with a group is bidirectional - an individual affects a group's behaviour and the group influences an individual's behaviour.

What was the independent variable in Asch’s 1956 study?

• The unanimity of the response

• The rate of conformity - that is, whether they agreed with the confederates or not.

• The length of the lines

• The confederates' answer to the question

The Asch paradigm is highly standardized.  Why is this important?

• To increase the predictive validity of the study.

• For ethical reasons; it is important that all participants are treated equally.

• To increase the ecological validity of the study.

• To increase the reliability of the study.

Answer explanation

When a procedure is highly standardized it is possible to replicate the study.  Only through replication can the reliability of the results be established.

According to Asch, why did the participants conform?

• A combination of informational and normative social influence.

• Referential social influence

• Normative social influence

• Informational social influence

Answer explanation

There were some participants who claimed that they thought they didn't understand the directions.  In this case, they followed what others did - a case of informational social influence.  In addition, some said that they felt that they didn't want to look stupid.  In this case, it was normative social influence.