Archival Research

1
Archival Research

• Data archives are data sets that have already
  been collected by someone
• Some data archives were collected to answer
  psychological questions
• Ex. National Longitudinal Study of Youth
• Some data archives were collected to answer other
  questions
• Ex. Census data
• National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

2
Archival Research (contd)

• Some data sets were initially collected for other
  reasons
• Ex. The Nun Study
• www.nunstudy.org
• www.mc.uky.edu/nunnet
• Some data sets were collected for other reasons
  entirely
• Ex. Peterson, Vaillant Seligman on explanatory
  style
• yearbooks

3
The Nature of Archival Data

• Fully documented, computer-accessible data
• GSS, NELS, NLSY
• Loosely organized data, requiring coding,
  synthesis
• example Peterson, Vaillant Seligman study
• Accessible information that can be used in a
  study
• example NIA Nun Study

4
Advantages of Archival Research

• Data are already collected
• Minimal IRB concerns Exemption from review
• Data may allow looking at variables that would be
  difficult or impossible to study directly
• life span development

5
Disadvantages

• Data may not be in a format that is easy to use
  to answer the question of interest
• Data may not include variables of interest
• Data may not include measures that compare to
  current literature

6
Archival vs. Library Research

• Archival research examines sources that provide
  raw data library research examines sources
  that summarize data
• A literature review is NOT archival research

7
Sources of Data Archives

• Governmental archives
• Census data (www.census.gov)
• National Health and Nutrition Examination Study
  (NHANES)
• National Center for Educational Statistics
• University centers
• Interuniversity Consortium for Political and
  Social Research (ICPSR) at University of Michigan
• Private collections

8
University Centers

• Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at
  University of North Carolina
• http//www.irss.unc.edu/
• Personality and Social Psychological Data
• The Odum Institute is the exclusive archive for
  data from the Computer-Administered Panel Study
  (CAPS), which collected demographic, personality,
  attitudinal, and other data from annual samples
  of UNC undergraduates from 1983 to 1988. Data are
  available for five samples of 100 students each.
  Over 250 measures are available for each sample.
  Many of the measures were repeated from year to
  year, so the samples can be combined. While the
  sample sizes are relatively small, the CAPS data
  are unique in offering a wide variety of measures
  asked of the same respondents.

9
How to Do Archival Research

• Develop a hypothesis
• What do you want to know?
• How might you test it?
• Identify an archival source
• What kinds of information do you need?
• Operationalize definitions
• What specific variables correspond to your
  hypothesis?

10
Forms of Analysis

• Data archives can be thought of as data mines
  through which one is searching for useful
  information
• Search goal is to discern relationships between
  one variable and another
• Correlational analysis
• Multiple regression
• Path analysis

11
An Example of How to DO Archival Research

• How does an individuals personality influence
  the trajectory of his or her life?
• Operationalize personality
• Need a measure that is reliable and valid
• Reliability is the consistency with which a
  measure is determined
• Validity is the degree to which one measure
  relates to another measure

12
Measuring Reliability

• Test-retest correlation
• Can the measure be reproduced when it is done by
  the same individual on multiple occasions
• Interobserver agreement
• Can the measure be reproduced when it is done by
  different individuals

13
Interobserver Agreement

• Cohens kappa
• for categorical data
• Pearsons r
• for continuous data

14
Q-Sort

• Rationale
• Comprehensive vocabulary with which to describe
  personality
• Vaguely (psycho)dynamic
• Observer based
• Indices
• Each item may be inspected
• Actual sort can be compared against a prototype
• Ego-resiliency "ability to modify one's behavior
  in accordance with contextual demands
• Experts sort items in CCQ according to this
  definition

15
The Big Five Dimensions of Personality

• Neuroticism--worrying vs calm, insecure vs
  secure, self-pitying vs self-satisfied
• Extraversion--sociable vs retiring, fun-loving vs
  sober, affectionate vs reserved
• Openness--imaginative vs down to earth,
  preference for variety vs preference for routine,
  independent vs conforming
• Agreeableness--soft-hearted vs ruthless, trusting
  vs suspicious, helpful vs uncooperative
• Conscientiousness--well-organized vs
  disorganized, careful vs careless,
  self-disciplined vs weak willed

16
Carving Up Personality Another Way

• Ego-resiliency
• ability to modify one's behavior in accordance
  with contextual demands
• Ego-control
• degree of impulse control and modulation

17
Forms of Data

• Coded data
• data have already been codified
• may need to be recoded
• Uncoded data
• data first need to be codified