Vignette (psychology)
Encyclopedia
A vignette in psychological
and sociological
social psychology experiments presents a hypothetical situation, to which research
participants respond thereby revealing their perception
s, values
, social norms or impressions of events
.
Peter Rossi and colleagues developed a framework for creating vignettes by systematically combining
predictor variables in order to dissect the effects of the variables on dependent variables
. For example, to study normative judgments of family status, "there might be 10 levels of income; 50 head-of-housedhold occupations,and 50 occupations for spouses; two races, white and black; and ten levels of family size". Since this approach can lead to huge universes of stimuli - half a million in the example - Rossi proposed drawing small random samples
from the universe of stimuli for presentation to individual respondents, and pooling judgments by multiple respondents in order to sample the universe adequately. Main effect
s of predictor variables then can be assessed, though not all interactive effects.
Vignettes in the form of sentences describing actions have been used extensively to estimate impression formation
equations in research related to affect control theory
. In this case, different respondents are presented with each sentence, and some are asked to rate how the actor seems during the event, others rate the object of action, and other respondents rate how the overall action makes the behavior seem. Subgroups of respondents receive different sets of event sentences, and the subgroup data are pooled for final analyses.
Vignettes enable controlled studies of mental processes that would be difficult or impossible to study through observation or classical experiments. However, an obvious disadvantage of this method is that reading a vignette is different from experiencing a stimulus or action in everyday life
.
Social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. By this definition, scientific refers to the empirical method of investigation. The terms thoughts, feelings, and behaviors include all...
and sociological
Social psychology (sociology)
Social psychology , known as sociological social psychology, and sometimes as psychological sociology, is an area of sociology that focuses on social actions and on interrelations of personality, values, and mind with social structure and culture...
social psychology experiments presents a hypothetical situation, to which research
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
participants respond thereby revealing their perception
Perception
Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...
s, values
Value (personal and cultural)
A personal or cultural value is an absolute or relative ethical value, the assumption of which can be the basis for ethical action. A value system is a set of consistent values and measures. A principle value is a foundation upon which other values and measures of integrity are based...
, social norms or impressions of events
Impression formation
Impression formation in social psychology refers to combining simultaneous experiences into emergent states that relate complexly to the sources. Research focuses mainly on impressions of individuals involved in social actions...
.
Peter Rossi and colleagues developed a framework for creating vignettes by systematically combining
Factorial experiment
In statistics, a full factorial experiment is an experiment whose design consists of two or more factors, each with discrete possible values or "levels", and whose experimental units take on all possible combinations of these levels across all such factors. A full factorial design may also be...
predictor variables in order to dissect the effects of the variables on dependent variables
Dependent and independent variables
The terms "dependent variable" and "independent variable" are used in similar but subtly different ways in mathematics and statistics as part of the standard terminology in those subjects...
. For example, to study normative judgments of family status, "there might be 10 levels of income; 50 head-of-housedhold occupations,and 50 occupations for spouses; two races, white and black; and ten levels of family size". Since this approach can lead to huge universes of stimuli - half a million in the example - Rossi proposed drawing small random samples
Sample (statistics)
In statistics, a sample is a subset of a population. Typically, the population is very large, making a census or a complete enumeration of all the values in the population impractical or impossible. The sample represents a subset of manageable size...
from the universe of stimuli for presentation to individual respondents, and pooling judgments by multiple respondents in order to sample the universe adequately. Main effect
Main effect
In the design of experiments and analysis of variance, a main effect is the effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable averaging across the levels of any other independent variables...
s of predictor variables then can be assessed, though not all interactive effects.
Vignettes in the form of sentences describing actions have been used extensively to estimate impression formation
Impression formation
Impression formation in social psychology refers to combining simultaneous experiences into emergent states that relate complexly to the sources. Research focuses mainly on impressions of individuals involved in social actions...
equations in research related to affect control theory
Affect control theory
In control theory affect control theory proposes that individuals maintain affective meanings through their actions and interpretations of events...
. In this case, different respondents are presented with each sentence, and some are asked to rate how the actor seems during the event, others rate the object of action, and other respondents rate how the overall action makes the behavior seem. Subgroups of respondents receive different sets of event sentences, and the subgroup data are pooled for final analyses.
Vignettes enable controlled studies of mental processes that would be difficult or impossible to study through observation or classical experiments. However, an obvious disadvantage of this method is that reading a vignette is different from experiencing a stimulus or action in everyday life
Everyday Life
Everyday Life is the first solo album made by Life MC of the British Hip Hop group Phi Life Cypher....
.