Advanced Methods for Conducting Online Behavioral Research

Samuel D. Gosling, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. He has been using the Internet to collect data since the mid 99 s, when he created a questionnaire to collect personality ratings of pets by their owners. Since then, he has published numerous articles that make use of data collected on the Internet these articles focus on such diverse topics as personality change over the life span, the links between music preferences and personality, geographic variation in psychological traits, and perceptions of others based on their Web sites and their online social networking profiles (e.g., Facebook). His 2 4 American Psychologist article focused on evaluating the pros and cons of Internet methods.  Dr. Gosling's substantive research has focused on animal personality and on how human personality is manifested in everyday contexts like bedrooms, offices, clothing, Web pages, and music preferences. The latter topic was summarized in his book, Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You (2 8).  Dr. Gosling is a recipient of an American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution.  John A. Johnson, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the Pennsylvania State University, DuBois. He also serves as the consultant for the International Personality Item Pool, a Web-based repository for psychological measures in the public domain. He entered the field of computer-assisted psychological research in 98 , when he wrote microcomputer programs for scoring and interpreting the Hogan Personality Inventory. When the World Wide Web emerged in the 99 s, he transported concepts from these programs to the Web. He has published research on assessing the validity of data collected on the Internet and on sharing data through Web-based collaboratories.

• ContributorsI. Getting StartedHow to Use This Book -John A. Johnson and Samuel D. GoslingAn Overview of Major Techniques of Web-Based Research -Michael H. BirnbaumII. Considerations When Designing Web PagesDesign and Formatting in Internet-Based Research -Ulf-Dietrich ReipsUsing Graphics, Photographs, and Dynamic Media -John H. Krantz and John E. WilliamsDrag amp amp Drop: A Flexible Method for Moving Objects, Implementing Rankings, and a Wide Range of Other Applications -Wolfgang NeubarthIII. Studying Internet BehaviorCollecting Data From Social Networking Web Sites and Blogs -Elizabeth MazurUsing Automated amp quot Field Notes amp quot to Observe the Behavior of Online Subjects -Sonja UtzAutomatic Text Analysis -Matthias R. Mehl and Alastair J. GillIV. Transporting Traditional Methodologies to the WebInternet-Based Ability Testing -Ulrich Schroeders, Oliver Wilhelm, and Stefan SchipolowskiWeb-Based Self-Report Personality Scales -John A. JohnsonOnline Collection of Informant Reports -Simine VazireConducting Online Surveys -Tracy L. TutenConducing True Experiments on the Web -Ulf-Dietrich Reips and John H. KrantzV. Cross-Cutting IssuesUsing Lotteries, Loyalty Points, and Other Incentives to Increase Participant Response and Completion -Anja S. G amp ouml ritzSecurity and Data Protection: Collection, Storage, and Feedback in Internet Research -Olaf Thiele and Lars KaczmirekEthical Issues in Psychological Research on the Internet -Tom Buchanan and John E. WilliamsIndexAbout the Editors