Dse212 Tma01
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- Category: Science
- Date Submitted: 08/19/2012 12:53 PM
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TMA 01 part 1
Psychology is an evidenced based science and this has led to many differences of opinion over what constitutes reliable evidence and how that evidence should be interpreted. The types of evidence
Different psychological methods and theories have gained and lost popularity over the last century, for example, the problems of acquiring reliable and comprehensive data from the method of eliciting subjective self reports of cognitions from people in ‘introspectionism’, led to ‘behaviourism’, the objective study of externally observable behaviours, being a favoured method, and then on to ‘cognitive psychology’ which, without returning to introspectionist methods, have included internal cognitive processes in their gamut of research aims, through mainly objective experimental methods. More recently, there has been a move towards the increased credence being given to subjective accounts from individuals. This essay will describe two of these methods, the Twenty Statements Test and Semi Structured Interviews along with an analysis of how these methods have developed our understanding of identity.
The first of these methods is the Twenty Statement Test developed by Kuhn & McPartland in 1954 (Phoenix 2007, p47).
In this method, participants are allowed 12 minutes to write down twenty statements in answer to the question “Who am I?”. The qualitative data collected is then analysed and responses are assigned to categories created by the researcher, designed to produce useful data toward the intended outcomes of the study. Examples of the types of responses are, physical characteristics, social or group roles, personality, interests, beliefs and current feelings or emotions. (Phoenix 2007, p47)
Benefits of this method are firstly that it is very quick, the results can be analysed rapidly and it can be scaled up easily to a study of any size The method also encourages disclosure of more than...
Psychology is an evidenced based science and this has led to many differences of opinion over what constitutes reliable evidence and how that evidence should be interpreted. The types of evidence
Different psychological methods and theories have gained and lost popularity over the last century, for example, the problems of acquiring reliable and comprehensive data from the method of eliciting subjective self reports of cognitions from people in ‘introspectionism’, led to ‘behaviourism’, the objective study of externally observable behaviours, being a favoured method, and then on to ‘cognitive psychology’ which, without returning to introspectionist methods, have included internal cognitive processes in their gamut of research aims, through mainly objective experimental methods. More recently, there has been a move towards the increased credence being given to subjective accounts from individuals. This essay will describe two of these methods, the Twenty Statements Test and Semi Structured Interviews along with an analysis of how these methods have developed our understanding of identity.
The first of these methods is the Twenty Statement Test developed by Kuhn & McPartland in 1954 (Phoenix 2007, p47).
In this method, participants are allowed 12 minutes to write down twenty statements in answer to the question “Who am I?”. The qualitative data collected is then analysed and responses are assigned to categories created by the researcher, designed to produce useful data toward the intended outcomes of the study. Examples of the types of responses are, physical characteristics, social or group roles, personality, interests, beliefs and current feelings or emotions. (Phoenix 2007, p47)
Benefits of this method are firstly that it is very quick, the results can be analysed rapidly and it can be scaled up easily to a study of any size The method also encourages disclosure of more than...