Psychology Master: Social Influence - Applying Research Methods - Summary of all articles

Applying Research Methods – Summary of all articles – ’23-‘24



Table of Contents
Week 1 ..................................................................................................................................................... 3
Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). Most people are not WEIRD. Nature, 466(7302),
29-29.................................................................................................................................................... 3
Shaughnessy et al. (2015). Research methods in psychology: Sampling in survey research (p. 138-
144)...................................................................................................................................................... 3
Perugini, M., Gallucci, M., & Costantini, G. (2018). A Practical Primer To Power Analysis for Simple
Experimental Designs. International Review of Social Psychology, 31(1), 20. (p. 1-4) For the exam,
you will only be asked about the first 3 pages of this article (up till: 'How to do a power analysis').
............................................................................................................................................................. 4
Week 2 ..................................................................................................................................................... 6
Biggerstaff, D. (2012). Qualitative research methods in psychology. In: Rossi, Gina;
(ed.), Psychology: selected papers (pp. 175-206), Rijeka, Croatia, InTech.......................................... 6
Erlingsson, C., & Brysiewicz, P. (2017). A hands-on guide to doing content analysis. African Journal
of Emergency Medicine, 7(3), 93-99 ................................................................................................... 8
Week 3 ................................................................................................................................................... 10
Muller, D., Judd, C. M., & Yzerbyt, V. Y. (2005). When moderation is mediated and mediation is
moderated. Journal of personality and social psychology, 89(6), 852. ............................................. 10
Privitera, G. J. (2013). Research methods for the behavioral sciences. Chapter 9. (pp. 277-295). .... 10
Week 4 ................................................................................................................................................... 15
Nezlek. J. B. (2008). An introduction to multilevel modeling for social and personality psychology.
Social and Personality Psychology Compass, pp. 842 – 846.............................................................. 15
Field. A. (2013). Discovering statistics using SPSS, chapter 20 (Multilevel linear models), pp. 815 –
818 ..................................................................................................................................................... 15
Kievit, R. A., Frankenhuis, W. E., Waldorp, L. J., & Borsboom, D. (2013). Simpson's paradox in
psychological science: a practical guide. Frontiers in Psychology, volume 4, article 513 .................. 17
Week 5 ................................................................................................................................................... 19
Adjerid, I., & Kelley, K. (2018). Big data in psychology: A framework for research
advancement. American Psychologist, 73, 899–917. ........................................................................ 19
Yarkoni, T., & Westfall, J. (2017). Choosing prediction over explanation in Psychology. Perspectives
on Psychological Science.................................................................................................................... 19
Ashokkumar, A., & Pennebaker, J. W. (2021). Social media conversations reveal large psychological
shifts caused by COVID-19's onset across US cities. Science Advances, 7(39), 1-12. ........................ 20
Jensen, E. A. (2017). Putting the methodological brakes on claims to measure national happiness
through Twitter: Methodological limitations in social media analytics. PLoS ONE ........................... 20
Week 6 ................................................................................................................................................... 22
Shaughnessy et al. (2015). Research methods in psychology. Survey methods: Internet surveys (p.
148-150) ............................................................................................................................................ 22



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,Applying Research Methods – Summary of all articles – ’23-‘24


Shaughnessy et al. (2015). Research methods in psychology. Survey-research designs;
Questionnaires; Thinking critically about survey research (p. 151-171) ........................................... 22
Tourangeau, R., Rasinski, K. A., Bradburn, N., & D'Andrade, R. (1989). Belief accessibility and
context effects in attitude measurement. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 25(5), 401-421
........................................................................................................................................................... 27
Oppenheimer, et al. (2009). Instructional manipulation checks: Detecting satisficing to increase
statistical power. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(4), 867-872. ................................. 28




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, Applying Research Methods – Summary of all articles – ’23-‘24


Week 1
Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). Most people are not
WEIRD. Nature, 466(7302), 29-29.
96% of journals use WEIRD samples, whereas this is only 12% of the population and therefore not
generalizable to the rest of the population. For example, there are differences in cognitive processes
between Americans and non-Westerners.

Researchers and policy-makers should recognize that populations vary considerably in the extent to
which they display certain biases, patterns and preferences in economic decisions.

We offer four suggestions to help put theories of human behaviour and psychology on a firmer
empirical footing.

1) Editors and reviewers should push researchers to support any generalizations with evidence;
2) Granting agencies, reviewers and editors should give researchers credit for comparing diverse
and inconvenient subject pools;
3) Granting agencies should prioritize cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural research;
4) Researchers must strive to evaluate how their findings apply to other populations.

There are several low-cost ways to approach this in the short term: one is to select a few judiciously
chosen populations that provide a ‘tough test’ of universality in some domain, such as societies with
limited counting systems for testing theories about numerical cognition

A crucial longer-term goal is to establish a set of principles that researchers can use to distinguish
variable from universal aspects of psychology. Establishing such principles will remain difficult until
behavioural scientists develop interdisciplinary, international research networks for long-term studies
on diverse populations using an array of methods, from experimental techniques and ethnography to
brain-imaging and biomarkers.



Shaughnessy et al. (2015). Research
methods in psychology: Sampling in survey
research (p. 138-144)
Survey → representative sample of population →
generalize findings

Sample chosen from sampling frame (= a list of the
items or people forming a population from which
a sample is taken).

Selection bias occurs when the procedures used
to select a sample result in the
overrepresentation or underrepresentation of
some segment(s) of the population.

Population, sampling frame, sample element ➔

A sample is representative of the population to
the extent that it exhibits the same distribution of
characteristics as the population.

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