Lecture
Psychological data may be regarded:
1) as the results of applying particular empirical methods (observation, experiment, psychodiagnostics, etc.);
They depend on the structure of the method and on the type of technique (as a technique for collecting data, a means of eliciting basic processes).
Example: observation data, correlational study data, etc.
2) as indicators recorded by means of one technique or another.
Example: data obtained as a result of studying a person's emotional-motivational sphere, cognitive sphere, etc.
Psychological variables are recorded as primary indicators, which, during processing, are structured within various schemes of comparison. Experimental data are secondary indicators.
Types of data can be distinguished from the point of view of the research goal.
Goals of assessment: diagnosis, the experimental-clinical method;
Goals of research.
A type of data can be distinguished from the point of view of the possibilities of actually obtaining it.
Cattell's classification.
L – data – life record
T – data - test
Q – data - questionnaire
L – data are life documents (e.g., a case history). It does not matter by which methodological procedure they were obtained. These are testimonies of the past, and therefore, in interpreting them, the psychologist must apply the standards of document analysis.
T – and Q – data are obtained in the current study, i.e., the psychologist can exercise forms of control in obtaining and recording them.
T – data are the results of tests in which certain achievement indicators are recorded.
A feature of these data is their differential-psychological character. The comparison of the achievements of some participants with those of others.
The type of data and the criterion of reproducibility, i.e., the possibility of repeated studies yielding the same phenomena and regularities. The problem of the reliability of data and their intersubjectivity (the possibility of being obtained by different researchers).
The criterion of the objectivity of data (Teplov). The correspondence of the selected techniques to the hypothesis and the goal of the study. The assessment of representativeness.
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