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Research Methods (Descriptive Methods (Case Studies (Weaknesses (Observer…

- - - - Spontaneous behaviors
      - Do not have to rely on people to report own experiences
    - - Researcher may interfere with behavior
      - Interesting behavior can be rare
      - Observer bias
      - Time consuming
  - - - Observer Bias
      - Single cases can be difficult to generalize findings
      - Can't reconstruct causes due to complexity of past events
    - - Source of hypotheses
      - Allows study of rare behaviors
    - - Phineas Gage was used to study behavior by showing that physical changes in the brain can affect the behavior of a person. Due to his injury, his frontal cortex was severed from his limbic system, changing his behavior and character. He was completely uninhibited and had no self control afterwards.
      - The field of social psychology learned that physical changes in the brain can change behavior and character. In the case of Phineas Gage the loss of his frontal cortex allowed the limbic system to fire its emotions uninhibited at him. His behavior became erratic and uncontrollable. He lost all self-control, balance and judgement. This led to his ability to interact with humans decreasing, and his special affinity for animals to take over.
      - Case Studies are an important method of research because they allow psychologists an opportunity to study rare cases that could not be recreated due to ethical, legal, and moral reason. This allows them to gain further intellect of behavior under strenuous and unordinary circumstances, that they can then try to generalize and apply to normal, everyday situations. With Phineas Gage, psychologist learned that physical changes to the brain can change a persons character, or in other cases, such as Genie the Wild Child, they learned that their is a certain period in which a person can learn and fully understand communication skills. Both are situations that could never be recreated in a laboratory but have shown valuable insight into the brain and how it functions.
  - - - Access to large amounts of prerecorded data
    - - Many interesting social behaviors aren't recorded
  - - - Participants may not be representative
      - Participants may be biased or untruthful
    - - Study of behaviors, thoughts, and feelings that can be difficult to observe
  - - - Can measure characteristics that are not easily observable
    - - May be unreliable
      - May be reliable but not valid
- - - - Manipulations may not naturally show relevant events
      - Responses may not be natural
    - - Cause-effect conclusions
      - Control of extraneous
        variables
  - - - Allows cause-effect conclusions
      - Natural responses
    - - Manipulations may not be natural
      - Less control of outside factors