Doing Social Psychology Research

by Breakwell, Glynis M.

• ISBN13: 9781405108126
• ISBN10: 1405108126
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-02-13
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This practical text introduces students to all the principal data collection methods and data analyses used in social psychology. Each chapter describes a particular method and shows how it can be applied to a research question. Methods presented include conducting surveys, constructing questionnaires, facilitating focus groups, running interviews, and using archival recordings. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis are detailed where appropriate. Topics used to illustrate these methods include identity processes, attribution, stereotyping, attitude change, social influence, communication, and group dynamics. Throughout, step-by-step exercises for students and notes for course leaders support the teaching and learning process.

Author Biography

Glynis M. Breakwell is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bath. She is a social psychologist specializing in research and identity processes, risk communication, and military cultures. Her previous publications include Coping with Threatened Identities (1986), Interviewing (1990) and Research Methods in Psychology (with Sean Hammond and Chris Fife-Shaw, 1999).

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	vii
1 Introduction: Approaches to I)al.a Collection and Data Analysis
Glynis M. Breakwell
2 Experimental Research Designs
Lorne Hulbert
3 Measuring Optimistic Bias
Chris Fife-Schaw & Julie Barnett
4 A Quasi-experimental Study of Stereotyping	75	(18)
Adam Rutland
5 The Design and Analysis of Quasi-experimental Field Research	93	(35)
Eamonn Ferguson & Peter Bibby
6 The Impact of Social Value Orientation on Decision Making in Social Dilemmas: A Survey Exercise	128	(26)
Mark Van Vugt & Richard H. Gramzow
7 On Using Questionnaires to Measure Attitudes	154	(20)
Geoffrey Haddock
8 Modelling Identity Motives Using 'Multilevel Regression	174	(31)
Vivian L. Vignoles
9 The Analysis of Equivocation in Political Interviews	205	(24)
Peter Bull
10 Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis	229	(26)
Jonathan A. Smith & Mike Osborn
11 Cognitive Mapping: Generating "Theories of Psychological Phenomena from Verbal Accounts and Presenting them Diagrammatically	255	(34)
Tom Farsides
12 The Multiple Sorting Procedure	289	(16)
Julie Barnett
13 The Laddering Technique	305	(39)
Susan Miles & Gene Rowe
14 Focus Groups	344	(33)
Sue Wilkinson
Index	377