07 Research Methods

Question 1

Define peer review.

Answer 1

Peer review is the process by which psychological research papers are subject to independent scrutiny by other psychologists in a similar field by considering the validity, significance and originality of the research.

Question 2

What are the purposes of peer review?

Answer 2

1. Allocation of research funding

2. Publication of research in journals and books
Provides scientists with the opportunity to share results of their research

3. Assess research of university departments

• All university science departments are expected to conduct research
• Assessed in terms of quality through peer review

4. To uphold the reputation of the field

• Validates quality and relevance of research
• Assessed for quality and accuracy
• Suggest amendments or improvements

Question 3

Drawbacks of peer review.

Answer 3

Publication bias

• Peer review favours publication of positive results
• Editors want research that has important implications to increase standing of journal

Preserving status quo

• Peer review is about maintaining or confirming what existiing research has shown
• One element to slow down change on scientific theories
• Buries findings of ground-breaking research

Question 4

Evaluate the use of correlations.

Answer 4

• Act as a useful preliminary tool for further research: they assess the strength and direction of a relationship; they provide a precise and quantifiable measure of how two variables are related - acts as a starting point to assess possible patterns
• Quick and economical to carry out - no need for controlled environment or manipulation of variables
• Third intervening variable e.g. high temperatures and crime rates are influenced by more people going out so more incidents for crime to occur
• Exaggerated in the media - negative effects for certain groups; correlation between single parent families and crime; research data misused

Question 5

Describe positive skew distributions.

Answer 5

Curve skewed to the left (floor effect)
Mode < Median < Mean

Question 6

Describe negative skew distributions.

Answer 6

Curve skewed to the right (ceiling effect)
Mean < Median < Mode
Mode is always at the peak

Question 7

Discuss meta-analysis.

Answer 7

Meta-analysis is a statistical process by which data from a large number of studies which share a similar research question and methods of research are combined to provide conclusions about the whole body of research/
ADV: Generalisation as you are using a large sample, allows us to view data with more confidence and results generalised across a greater population

DIS: Publication bias bc researchers may not select studies with negative or non-significant results; so meta-analysis is biased as it only considers some relevant data and incorrect conclusions can be drawn

Question 8

What are implications for research into attachment and the role of the father for the economy.

Answer 8

• Bowlby first announced that a child can only form a lasting and secure monotropic bond with their mother
• More recent research shows importance of multiple attachments
• Also both parents are equally capable of providing emotional support for healthy psychological development
• Norm now is that both parents work and balance childcare responsibilities across working week
• More equipped to maximise income and contribute more to the economy

Question 9

What are implications for research into treatments of mental illness for the economy.

Answer 9

• Absence from work costs the economy £15 billion per year
• Mental illness (mild to moderate) and stress make up a third of these absences
• Research into depression, anxiety and stress has led to development of treatments such as SSRIs and anti-anxiety medication
• Also psychotherapies like SD, flooding and CBT
• So sufferers are able to manage their condition and return to work, contributing to the economy

Question 10

Outline the implications for research into memory for the economy.

Answer 10

• Psychological research into way that memory works has led to development of the cognitive interview
• Improved amount of accurate information from eyewitnesses
• Reduced amount spent on wrongful arrests and wasted police time is vastly reduced

Question 11

Define content analysis.

Answer 11

A technique for analysing qualitative data of various kinds by either placing data into categories and counting instances or analysing data in themes.

Question 12

Evaluate content analysis.

Answer 12

• High ecological validity as it is based on observations of what people actually do e.g. newspapers or books
• Easy to test for reliability - sources can be accessed by others so content analysis can be replicated
• Bias in creating coding units - reduces reliability and validity as different researchers interpret meaning of categories differently
• Cultural differences - inconsistent interpretation of behaviour coding as language may be translated and interpreted differently - validity questioned as it may not measure what it intends to with accuracy

Question 13

Define case studies.

Answer 13

A case study provides a detailed analysis of an individual, establishment or real-life event often when there is a rare behaviour investigated. e.g. HM, Phineas Gage, Little Hans, Little Albert

Question 14

Evaluate case studies.

Answer 14

ADV 1: Unique insights

• Opportunity to unveil rich, detailed information about a situation
• Unique insights are often overlooked in situations where there is only the manipulation of one variable to measure effect on other

ADV 2: Ethical

• Can be used in circumstances which would not be ethical to examine experimentally
• e.g. case study of Genie allowed researchers to understand long-term effects of failure to form attachment

DIS 1: Difficulties in generalisation

• Only studying an individual, isolated event or small group makes it difficult to generalise findings to the wider population as results are unique
• Lacks external validity
• Low population validity

DIS 2: too subjective

• Freud developed a whole theory based on his observations
• No scientific or experimental evidence to support theories
• Causes research bias and subjectivity can interfere with validity or findings

Question 15

Define reliability.

Answer 15

Reliability is a measure of consistency

Question 16

How can you test reliability?

Answer 16

Test-retest Method

• The same person or group of people are asked to undertake the research measure e.g. questionnaire or survey etc. on different occasions
• Scores on both instances are correlated
• If correlation is significant >+0.8 then there is good reliability

Inter-observer reliability

• inter-observer is the extent to which two or more observers are observing and recording data in a consistent way

Question 17

How can you improve reliability?

Answer 17

Questionnaires

• Identify questions that have biggest impact on reliability e.g. leading questions
• Rewrite them to reduce potential for incorrect interpretation
• e.g. open to closed q to reduce ambiguity

Interviews

• Use same interviewer to minimise researcher bias
• Training for interviewer
• Change from unstructured to structured

Experiments

• Use standardised instructions and procedures
• Lab experiments

Observations

• Use behavioural categories to reduce subjectivity
• Categories must be operationalised
• Clear and specific and no overlap leaving no need for personal interpretation

Question 18

Define validity.

Answer 18

Validity refers to whether a measuring instrument or study measures what it claims to measure i.e. if it is true or legitimate

Question 19

How can you test validity?

Answer 19

Face validity

• Does the study or test appear to measure what it claims to
• Conducted by a specialist in the area
• If specialist believes instrument is valid, it is a good indication of validity

Concurrent validity

• Performance of test is compared to a test already recognised and trusted in the same field
• Results of both tests should be correlated and if coefficient is higher than 0.8, high validity

Question 20

How can you improve validity?

Answer 20

Questionnaires

• Use a lie scale to check consistency of responses
• e.g. ‘I generally sleep well at night’ and ‘My sleeping has gotten worse’
• Ensure to pps that their responses are anonymous to reduce social desirability bias

Experiments

• Control group
• Single blind and double blind to reduce demand characteristics and researcher bias
• Standardised instructions minimised investigator effects
• Less likely for pps to have different interpretations of what they are required to do

Observations

• Covert observations reduce demand char
• Behavioural categories by reducing observer bias
• However, qualitative data has higher ecological validity, it is also more subjective lowering internal validity

Question 21

Define internal validity.

Answer 21

Measure of whether results obtained are solely affected by changes in the independent variable in a cause effect relationship.

Question 22

Define external validity.

Answer 22

Measure of whether data can be generalised to other situations outside research environment

Question 23

Define ecological validity.

Answer 23

A type of external validity referring to extent that researchers can apply their findings to everyday life settings.

Question 24

Define temporal validity.

Answer 24

A form of external validity referring to the extent to which research findings can be applied across time e.g. Asch (1951) study into conformity

Question 25

Define population validity.

Answer 25

Form of external validity which refers to the extent that research can be applied to different groups of people apart from the group used in the study e.g. Asch (1951) only used males

Question 26

Outline empirical methods as a key feature of science.

Answer 26

• Empirical methods involve the use of objective, quantitative observation in a systematically controlled, replicable situation in order to refine or test a theory.
• Refers to idea that knowledge is gained from direct experiences in an objective, systematic and controlled manner to produce quantitative data
• Suggests that any theory should be empirically tested and verified to be considered scientific
• Adopting this approach reduces opportunity for researchers to make unfounded claims about phenomena based on subjective opinion

Question 27

Describe falsifiability as a key feature of science with an example.

Answer 27

• Falsifiability is the notion that scientific theories can potentially be disproved by evidence through proving a hypothesis wrong
• Traditional sciences have theories which are constantly challenged but the theories are not usually proven to be incorrect or false because they are strong
• e.g. Oedipus complex - if a male individual refutes this idea that he went through this stage of psychosexual development in his youth, psychodynamic theorists would counter this with the supposition that they are in denial (defence mechanism)
• Hence a circular argument is created to the initial claim from being refuted or falsified
• Hence regarded as a pseudoscience

Question 28

What is theory construction as a key feature of science.

Answer 28

• A theory is a collection of general principles that explain observations and facts OR framework for describing a phenomenon
• Theories are constructed via hypothesis testing and re-testing
• Deductive reasoning: observation, propose theory, create testable hypothesis, conduct a study to test the hypothesis, draw conclusions
• Inductive reasoning: observation, create testable hypothesis, conduct a study to test hypothesis, draw conclusions, propose a theory

Question 29

Describe paradigm shifts as a key feature of science with an example.

Answer 29

• A paradigm is a shared set of assumptions and agreed methods that are found within scientific disciplines
• Social sciences like psychology lack a universal acceptance of paradigms like traditional sciences
• Paradigm shift is where there is a significant change in a dominant unifying theory of a scientific discipline
• e.g. In the sixteenth century believed that the Earth was at the centre of the universe however Copernicus found that the sun is actually the centre of the universe.

Question 30

What are the sections of a psychological report?

Answer 30

1. Title
2. Abstract
3. Introduction
4. Method
5. Results
6. Discussion
7. Referencing

Question 31

Define title in a report.

Answer 31

Provides a clear focus of the study and involves key variables that you are investigating - should not be too vague or too specific e.g. An investigation to study the relationship between health and stress levels

Question 32

Define abstracts in a report.

Answer 32

A 150-200 word long clear and concise summary of the entire investigation including: aims, hypotheses, research methods, experimental design, sample used, brief account of findings and conclusions.

Question 33

Define introductions in a report.

Answer 33

Introduction is about justifying the need for conducting research. Includes:

• Previous research - review of related studies
• Clear rationale as to why you wish to study this area
• General discussion of topic area
• State and aim

Question 34

What are the sections in the method section of a report in detail?

Answer 34

1. Design

• Experimental design e.g. independent measures
• Independent and dependent variables + confounding
• Controls e.g. random allocation or counterbalancing

2. Sample

• Details of sample e.g. age, background, gender
• Sampling method used and why

3. Apparatus/Materials

• Concise list of materials required to carry out the study

4. Procedure

• Bullet-pointed steps to carry out research
• Written in sufficient depth and detail for easy replication

5. Ethics

• Consider ethical issues that arose in the study
• How they were addressed

Question 35

Describe the results section of a report.

Answer 35

• Descriptive statistics e.g. tables, charts and raw data - central tendency and measures of dispersion
• Inferential statistics - stat tests used and why; significance levels and calculated values
• Categories and themes for qualitative data
• State if experimental or null hypothesis is accepted

Question 36

Outline the discussion section and its subsections of a report.

Answer 36

1. Summary of results = report results in brief format with an explanation of what they mean

2. Relationship to background research

3. Limitations of methodology and modifications

4. Implications and suggestions = real life applications and suggestions for further research

Question 37

Define chance.

Answer 37

Something that has no real cause - it just happens

Question 38

Define level of statistical significance.

Answer 38

The level at which the decision is made to reject the null hypothesis and accept the experimental hypothesis. States how sure we are that the IV is having an effect on the DV and this is not due to chance

Question 39

What is a Type 1 error?

Answer 39

Rejecting the null hypothesis and incorrectly accepting the experimental hypothesis.
FALSE POSITIVE

Question 40

What is a Type 2 error?

Answer 40

Incorrectly rejecting the experimental hypothesis and accepting the null hypothesis.
FALSE NEGATIVE

Question 41

Describe the three levels of measurement.

Answer 41

Levels of measurement are used to categorise data in three types of select the most appropriate statistical test:

Nominal = categorical, discrete data
Ordinal = data that is ranked in some way and the intervals between data is not equal e.g. first and second place in a race (the difference between them can be a lot of time or little)
Interval = data that is ordered in some way but we are confident intervals between each value are equal in measurement e.g. temperature in Celsius

Question 42

Difference between parametric and non-parametric tests.

Answer 42

Parametric tests are more robust and powerful - they rely on actual data rather than the rank order of the data; more likely to detect if data is significant or not; requires:

• Interval level of measurement
• Normal distribution
• Similar variance of data or spread of scores

Question 43

Abbreviation for statistical tests.

Answer 43

Carrots Should Come
Mashed With Swede
Under Roast Potatoes

Chi-squared, Sign Test, Chi-squared
Mann Whitney U, Wilcoxon, Spearman’s Rho
Unrelated T test, Related T test, Pearson’s R

Question 44

Which tests state significance if the calculated value is less than or equal to the critical value.

Answer 44

Sign Test
Mann Whitney U
Wilcoxon

Question 45

Which tests state significance if the calculated value is greater than or equal to the critical value.

Answer 45

Chi-squared
Spearman’s rho
Unrelated T test
Related T test
Pearson’s R