RESEARCH

TECHNIQUES:
OBSERVATION AND
CORRELATION
Chapter 2
 This technique involves
observing subjects in
their natural
environment. This type
of research is often
utilized in situations
where conducting lab
research is unrealistic,
cost prohibitive or
would unduly affect
NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION the subject's behavior.
 Are the vertical lines
NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION unequal or not?
 Ginsburg and Miller
(1982) on risk taking in
boys and girls shows
how prolonged careful
unobtrusive
observations can pay
off. Most people would
agree that young boys
seem to be more
NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION daring than girls
 One problem has to
do with delimiting
the choice of
behaviors to
observe.
Human observers
have a finite
capacity to perceive
and think about
NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION events.
 The second problem
concerns the
participant’s
reaction to being
observed. This
problem, called
reactivity, presents
problems in
conducting any sort
of psychological
NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION research
 ETHOLOGY
Naturalistic research
of interest to
psychologists seems
most prevalent in the
area of ethology, the
study of naturally
occurring behavior.
 ETHOLOGY
One way ethologists make
more systematic
observations is by
identifying different
categories of experience
for the organism under
study and then recording
the number of times the
organism engages in each
behavior.
 Obtaining accurate
records in a natural
habitat is difficult.
For example,
continuous vigilance
usually is
impossible, even
with automatic
recording
WHAT DO WE OBSERVE? apparatus.
 FLASHING
EYEBROWS
Eibl-Eibesfeldt did research
on human facial expressions.
In the process of examining
facial expressions associated
with people greeting each
other, Eibl-Eibesfeldt
discovered that most humans
give a brief eyebrow flash.
 FLASHING
EYEBROWS
The eyebrow flash is
a brief (one-sixth of
a second) raising of
the eyebrows,
accompanied by a
slight smile and a
quick nod of the head
 Two general
methods are
available to try to
guard against the
participants’
reactions ruining
observations: (1)
unobtrusive
observations and (2)
unobtrusive
REACTIVITY measures
 Eibl-Eibesfeldt
guarded against
participant
reactivity in his
research by using a
camera with a
special sideways
lens. This lens
permitted him to
aim the camera
away from the
UNOBTRUSIVE OBSERVATIONS subject 90 degrees
 UNOBTRUSIVE
OBSERVATIONS
In general, unobtrusive observations
of subjects are likely to reveal
more natural behavior than those in
which the subjects are aware of
being observed.
When the observer becomes an
active and intrusive participant in
the lives of the subjects being
observed, it’s called participant
observations.
 UNOBTRUSIVE
OBSERVATIONS
Fossey (1972)
studied
behaviors of
gorilla.
 UNOBTRUSIVE
MEASURES
Consist of indirect
“observations” of
behavior.
It is indirect because it
is the result of the
behavior, not the
behavior itself, that is
being studied.
 UNOBTRUSIVE
MEASURES
The critical difference,
then, between unobtrusive
observation and
unobtrusive measures rests
on whether the subject
and the observer are in
the same place at the
same time.
 UNOBTRUSIVE
MEASURES
Kinsey, Pomerey,
Martin (1953)
examined the graffiti
in public restrooms
 In a case study, nearly
every aspect of the
subject's life and history
is analyzed to seek
patterns and causes of
behavior. The hope is
that learning gained
from studying one case
can be generalized to
many others.
CASE STUDY
 In general, a case
study is the intensive
investigation of a
single case of some
sort, whether of a
neurotic patient, a
spiritual medium, or
a group awaiting
the end of the world
THE CASE STUDY
 An interesting
case study of
this last instance
was provided
by Festinger,
Riecken, and
Schachter
(1956)
THE CASE STUDY
 One chief
disadvantage is that
case studies usually
do not allow firm
inferences to be
made about what
causes what.
Typically, all one
can do is describe
the course of events
THE CASE STUDY
 Instead of small
numbers of
people, surveys
gather detailed,
self-reported
information from
a large number
of individuals
SURVEY
 SURVEY RESEARCH
One advantage of survey
research is that, given the
precise sampling
procedures now available,
a researcher can survey a
relatively small number of
people to generalize well
to the population at large
 SURVEY RESEARCH

Because the survey leads

to results that are
generally descriptive in
nature, this technique is
not particularly popular
with psychologists in
areas with a strong
experimental orientation
 SURVEY RESEARCH

Lovelance and Twohig

(1990) surveyed healthy
elderly Americans and
found that 68 percent
claimed that an inability
to remember names was
an annoying memory
problem.
 Because a
researcher has to
intrude on a
person to obtain
survey data, the
possibility of
reactivity by the
respondents is
SURVEY RESEARCH always present
 Sussman and
associates (1993) used
naturalistic observation
to study adolescent
tobacco use. Their
observations led them
to conclusions different
from those they
derived from results of
an earlier survey.
SURVEY RESEARCH
 ADVANTAGES AND
DISADVANTAGES
The primary problem
unique to naturalistic
observation is that it is
simply descriptive in nature
and does not allow us to
assess relationships among
events.
 Relational research
attempts to
determine how two
(usually) or more
variables are
related to each
other. A variable is
something that can
be measured or
THE RELATIONAL APPROACH manipulated.
 Typically, relational
research does not
involve manipulation
of variables, so the
data that are
related are called
ex post facto data,
which means “after
the fact.”
THE RELATIONAL APPROACH
 Correlation is a
statistical
technique that
can show
whether and
how strongly
pairs of
variables are
CORRELATION related
 Correlational
research, which
allows the
researcher to
determine
simultaneously the
degree and
direction of a
relationship with a
CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH single statistic.
 CORRELATIONAL
RESEARCH
One typical example
of the correlational
approach is the
exploration of the
relationship between
cigarette smoking and
lung cancer.
CORRELATION COEFFICIENT
A correlation coefficient measures the
degree and direction of the
relationship between two variables.
There are several different types of
correlation coefficients, but almost all
have in common the property that
they can vary from -1.00 through
0.00 to +1.00.
 The magnitude of
the correlation
coefficient indicates
the degree of
relationship (larger
numbers reflecting
greater
relationships), and
the sign indicates the
direction of the
CORRELATION COEFFICIENT relationship, positive
or negative.
 Several different types of correlation
coefficients exist, and which type is
used depends on the characteristics of
the variables being correlated. We
consider one commonly used by
CORRELATION psychologists: Pearson’s product-
COEFFICIENT moment correlation coefficient
 Do the brain
size data mean
that brain size
causes
differences in
cognitive
INTERPRETING CORRELATION ability?
COEFFICIENT
 INTERPRETING
CORRELATION
COEFFICIENT
An important warning is
always given in any
discussion of correlation: The
existence of even a sizable
correlation implies nothing
about the existence of a
causal relationship between
the two variables under
consideration.
 Correlation does not
prove causation. On
the basis of a
correlation alone,
one cannot say
whether factor X
causes factor Y,
factor Y causes
factor X, or some
underlying third
INTERPRETING CORRELATION factor causes both.
COEFFICIENT
 In correlational
studies, we cannot
conclude that any one
factor produces or
causes another,
because there are
likely to be a number
of factors that vary
simultaneously with
INTERPRETING CORRELATION the one of interest.
COEFFICIENT
 INTERPRETING
CORRELATION
COEFFICIENT
A confounding variable is
an “extra” variable that
you didn’t account for.
They can ruin an
experiment and give you
useless results. They can
suggest there is
correlation when in fact
there isn’t.
INTERPRETING CORRELATION COEFFICIENT
In other cases, the relationship
between two factors may seem to
allow a causal interpretation, but
again this is not strictly permitted.
Some studies have shown a positive
correlation between the number of
handguns in a geographic area and
the number of murders in that area
 As a final example of the pitfalls of the
correlational approach, consider the
negative relationship mentioned
previously between cigarette smoking
and grades. More smoking has been
INTERPRETING related to poorer grades.
CORRELATION
COEFFICIENT Does smoking cause poorer grades?
DRAWING CONCLUSIONS
A correlational relationship cannot
automatically be regarded as implying
causation.
Statistical analysis can show us whether
two variables are correlated, but the
analysis itself cannot tell us the reasons
why they are correlated
 DIRECTION OF THE RELATIONSHIP
Positive
High scores on one variable
(which we call x) tend to be
associated with high scores
on the other variable
(which we call y);
Conversely, low scores on
variable x tend to be
associated with low scores
on variable y.
DIRECTION OF THE RELATIONSHIP
Negative
High scores on one variable are associated with low scores
on the other variable.
Zero
Zero relationships are where there is no linear (straight-line)
relationship between the two variables.
 THE STRENGTH OR MAGNITUDE OF RELATIONSHIP
The strength of a linear relationship between
the two variables is measured by a statistic
called the correlation coefficient, also known
as r, which varies from 0 to -1, and from 0 to
+1.
The most widely used are Pearson’s r (named
after Karl Pearson, who devised the test) and
Spearman’s rho
The full name of Pearson’s r is Pearson’s
product moment correlation; this is a
parametric test
LABORATORY – SURVEY RESEARCH
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