57732 Chapter 8
chapter
eight
SURVEY AND
CORRELATIONAL
RESEARCH DESIGNS
You have probably made or heard the popular comment “Is it just me, or [fill in the blank here]?” This question is really a survey that asks others to indicate their level of agreement with some viewpoint—for example, “Is it just me, or is it hot in here?” or “Is it just me, or was this exam difficult?” We largely ask such questions to gauge the opinions of others. Many examples likely occur every day, from completing a customer satisfaction survey to asking your friends what they plan to order at a restaurant to get a better idea of what you might want to order. Really, we could survey people to measure all sorts of constructs including love, attachment, personality, motivation, cognition, and many other constructs studied by behavioral scientists.
We can also identify how constructs such as love, attachment, personality, motivation, and cognition are related to other factors or behaviors such as the likelihood of depression, emotional well-being, and physical health. In everyday situations, you may notice relationships between temperature and aggression (e.g., the hotter it is outside, the more often you see people fighting at a sports stadium) or between class participation and grades (e.g., students with higher grades tend to also participate more in class). Hence, there is a natural tendency for us to engage the world under the assumption that behavior does not occur in isolation. Instead, behavior is related to or influenced by other factors in the environment.
It is therefore not uncommon at all for humans to observe the world by asking people to answer questions about themselves or by observing how human behavior is related to other factors such as health and well-being. The same is true in science. In this chapter, we describe how we can use the scientific method to evaluate or survey participant responses and identify relationships between factors.
Chapter 8: Survey and Correlational Research
eight
SURVEY AND
CORRELATIONAL
RESEARCH DESIGNS
You have probably made or heard the popular comment “Is it just me, or [fill in the blank here]?” This question is really a survey that asks others to indicate their level of agreement with some viewpoint—for example, “Is it just me, or is it hot in here?” or “Is it just me, or was this exam difficult?” We largely ask such questions to gauge the opinions of others. Many examples likely occur every day, from completing a customer satisfaction survey to asking your friends what they plan to order at a restaurant to get a better idea of what you might want to order. Really, we could survey people to measure all sorts of constructs including love, attachment, personality, motivation, cognition, and many other constructs studied by behavioral scientists.
We can also identify how constructs such as love, attachment, personality, motivation, and cognition are related to other factors or behaviors such as the likelihood of depression, emotional well-being, and physical health. In everyday situations, you may notice relationships between temperature and aggression (e.g., the hotter it is outside, the more often you see people fighting at a sports stadium) or between class participation and grades (e.g., students with higher grades tend to also participate more in class). Hence, there is a natural tendency for us to engage the world under the assumption that behavior does not occur in isolation. Instead, behavior is related to or influenced by other factors in the environment.
It is therefore not uncommon at all for humans to observe the world by asking people to answer questions about themselves or by observing how human behavior is related to other factors such as health and well-being. The same is true in science. In this chapter, we describe how we can use the scientific method to evaluate or survey participant responses and identify relationships between factors.
Chapter 8: Survey and Correlational Research