Research Methods - Scientific Processes (5-8)

Question 1

Discuss aims

Answer 1

A precise statement about the purpose of the study, and what it intends to find out
It should include what is being studied, and what the study is trying to achieve
E.g.
“An investigation into the effect that eating chocolate has on a person’s mood”

Question 2

Describe operationalisation of variables

Answer 2

Decide upon the independent variable (IV) and dependent variable (DV) and operationalise them

Operationalisation is defining the variables in such a way, as to make them easy to measure

E.g.
In a study into the effects of chocolate on mood the operationalised IV would be the type of chocolate and how much is consumed.
The operationalised DV could be participants rating of their mood on a scale from 1-10. (10 being very happy and 0 very unhappy).

Question 3

Describe a hypothesis
What must be done to it?
Talk abt changes in DV

Answer 3

A hypothesis is a precise, testable statement about the expected outcome of an investigation.

Differences in the DV resulting from manipulation of the IV are known as significant differences if it has been statistically shown that the differences are highly unlikely to be due to chance.

The hypothesis should also be operationalised. For example, ‘eating 250g of milk chocolate will mean that participants are significantly more likely to score between 7-10 on a mood scale from 1-10 than if they have not consumed chocolate.

Question 4

State and explain the kind of hypothesis

Answer 4

Null Hypothesis: This states that the IV will have no effect on the dependent variable (e.g. ‘eating chocolate will have no significant effect on a person’s mood’).

Alternative/Experimental Hypothesis: This predicts that the IV will have an effect on the DV, e.g. Chocolate will have an effect on mood
The alternative hypothesis falls into one of two categories.

Non-Directional Hypothesis: Two tailed. This does not state the direction of the predicted differences between conditions (e.g. ‘eating chocolate will significantly affect a person’s mood’).

Directional Hypothesis: One tailed. This states the direction of the predicted difference between conditions (e.g. ‘eating chocolate will increase a person’s mood’).

Question 5

What are the first three steps of conducting research?

Answer 5

• defining an aim
• operationalising variables
• defining a hypothesis

Question 6

Define the target population

Answer 6

• This describes the group who researchers are studying and want to generalise their results to. For example the target pop might be all females aged 20-30 that shop online.
• Sampling techniques are used to obtain a sample of the target population and are essential to avoid studying entire populations, which would take too long and be too expensive

Question 7

Describe an important characteristic of a sample

Answer 7

• A sample should be representative of the pop from which it is drawn and should therefore have the same characteristic as the population.
• if the female target population aged 20-30 consists of different social classes and ethnicities, then the sample should reflect this too.

Question 8

Describe random sampling

Answer 8

• Random sampling is when every member of the target population has the same characteristics of being selected.
• The easiest way to do this is to place all names from the target population in a hat e.g. 100 possible participants from the sixth form that study psychology and Maths.
• We then select our sample, e.g. the first 20 participants’ names that are drawn from the hat.

Question 9

What are the advantages of random sampling

Answer 9

1) If the target population is large and a large sample is drawn, then it is likely the sample will be representative and therefore results can be generalised from the sample to the target population.
2) There is no researcher bias when selecting the sample, this is because the sample have been chosen by chance without any conscious choice from the researcher. Everyone has an equal chance of being selected.

Question 10

What are the disadvantages of random sampling

Answer 10

1) It is sometimes difficult to get full details of a target population from which to select a sample. An example might be that it is not possible to get a full list of all of the women aged 20-30 in the UK as some women might not appear on the list due to being in prison, not being registered etc.
2) Not all members of the target population who are selected to take part will be available or willing to take part, making the sample unreliable. Some people might refuse to take part in a study. This could reduce your sample size dramatically too.

Question 11

Describe systematic sampling

Answer 11

Systematic sampling is a sampling strategy where participants are selected by taking every Nth person from a list. So for example, make a list of the total population of the sixth form that you wish to study, and then select every 6th person on the list. These people become your sample.

Question 12

What are the advantages and disadvantages of systematic sampling

Answer 12

Advantages:
1) Systematic sampling is far more simple than random sampling as it only requires a list of the target population, and then the researcher decides to select every nth person. Random sampling requires a lot more time and effort (gain the list of the target population, put all of the individual names on bits of paper, and then randomly select a number of people to form the sample)

Disadvantages:
1) The process of selection can interact with a hidden periodic trait within the population. If the sampling technique coincides with the periodicity of the trait, the sampling technique will no longer be reliable
2) Not all members of the target population who are selected to take part will be available or willing to take part, making the sample unrepresentative. Some people might refuse to take part in a study. This could reduce your sample size dramatically too.

Question 13

Describe stratified sampling

Answer 13

Stratified sampling involves classifying the population into categories and then randomly choosing a sample which consists of participants from each category in the same proportions as they are in the pop
The population are divided into strata in terms of characteristic e.g. age, gender etc. A sample is then selected that reflects these characteristics, e.g. 51% female and 49% male. Data about the sample in the UK can be gained from the Census. Stratified samples can ensure that the sample is representative.

Question 14

What are the advantages and disadvantages of stratified sampling?

Answer 14

Advantage:
1) The strength of stratified sampling is that all groups within a population are included, therefore the sample should be representative of the population.

Disadvantage:
1) Stratified sampling can be very time consuming as the categories have to be identified and calculated. If you do not have details of all the people in your target population or the relevant strata, you would struggle to conduct a stratified sample.

Question 15

Describe opportunity sampling

Answer 15

Opportunity sampling involves selecting participants who are readily available and willing to take part.
This is sometimes known as convenience sampling. This involves selecting participants simply because it is convenient to do so. Psychologists might have easy access to a group of people that they know well or have regular contact with. It might therefore be convenient to approach these people to ask them to take part in their research.

Question 16

What are the advantages and disadvantages of opportunity sampling?

Answer 16

Advantage:
1) This is the easiest and most popular method of ensuring large samples especially when compared to stratified sampling which might be very time consuming and expensive to carry out.

Disadvantage:
1) There is a high chance that the sample will not be representative of the target population. Sometimes people feel obliged to take part in research (especially if someone they know is conducting the research, they might find it hard to say no) even when they do not really want to, this is unethical

Question 17

Describe volunteer sampling

Answer 17

Volunteer sampling involves people volunteering to participate in a study. The researcher will usually advertise for people to take part in their research. Researchers can advertise by using leaflets, posters, radio or TV broadcasts. These forms of communication means that people take notice of the information and can then decide if they would like to take part in the research and volunteer their time.

Question 18

What are the advantages and disadvantages of volunteer sampling

Answer 18

Advantage:
1) This method saves the researcher time and effort. The researcher needs to construct some kind of advertisement for the study and then just needs to wait for the participants to come to them to volunteer their time and involvement. This is better than other sampling methods where the researcher needs to ask people to take part and needs their full commitment.

Disadvantage:
1) A certain type of person tends to volunteer (enthusiastic, interested in your topic) and this means that there is a very high chance that the sample obtained will be unrepresentative and will not accurately reflect the target population (volunteer bias).

Question 19

Describe a pilot study

Answer 19

A pilot study is an initial run-through of the procedures to be used in an investigation; it involves selecting a few people and trying out the study on them. It is possible to save time, and in some cases, money, by identifying any flaws in the procedures designed by the researcher.

Question 20

What do pilot studies do (research methods)

Answer 20

• A pilot study can help the researcher spot any ambiguities (i.e. unusual things) or confusion in the information given to participants or problems with the task devised.
• Sometimes the task is too hard, and the researcher may get a floor effect, because none of the participants can score at all or can complete the task – all performances are low. The opposite effect is a ceiling effect, when the task is so easy that all achieve virtually full marks or top performances and are “hitting the ceiling”.

Question 21

When using self-report measures what is important to check as part of the pilot study?

Answer 21

• The participants understand the questions and are prepared to answer them
• That closed questions offer suitable options
• Whether open questions are also needed to elicit unpredictable responses
• Whether the reporting method is appropriate, e.g. if a face-to-face interview is too intimidating should it be changed to a questionnaire?

Question 22

In observations it is important to check what?

Answer 22

• Observers agree on operational definitions of behavioural categories
• Inter-observer reliability – do the researchers need practice observing the behaviours?
• The behavioural categories include all the important behaviours
• The behavioural categories do not overlap
• Whether the participants are affected by the observers – should they be covert?

Question 23

What is experimental design?
What are the types of experimental design?

Answer 23

The experimental design of a study is how the participants are organized within the experiment. There are three main types of experimental designs:
Independent groups
Repeated measures and
Matched pairs.

In an experiment there might be two different conditions that the psychologist might want to compare.

Question 24

What is the experimental condition?

Answer 24

This involves a group of people who are exposed to the independent variable e.g. chocolate or noise.

Question 25

What is the control condition?

Answer 25

This group receives no treatment and are used as a base line level to compare results against e.g. the group that receive no chocolate (no treatment)

Question 26

What are some controls?

Answer 26

Randomisation
Standardisation
Random allocation

Question 27

Describe randomisation

Answer 27

• The use of chance in order to control for the effects of bias when deciding the order of conditions.
• Randomisation is used in the presentation of trials in an experiment to avoid any systematic errors that might occurs as a result of the order in which the trials take place.
• This is especially important if you are using a repeated measures design and the same participants are taking part in two different conditions.

Question 28

What is standardisation

Answer 28

Using exactly the same formalised procedures and instructions for all participants in a research study – this improves the reliability of the study (the ability to repeat the study again and get the same findings)

Question 29

Describe random allocation

Answer 29

An attempt to control for participant variables in an independent groups design which ensures that each participant has the same chance of being in one condition or the other

Question 30

Describe independent group design

Answer 30

In this design, different participants are used in each of the conditions.
Therefore each group of participants are independent from one another.
Participants are usually randomly allocated to each condition to balance out any individual differences.
An example might be that we put 20 participants’ names in a hat. We draw out the first name and they will go into group 1, the second person goes into group 2, the third person goes to group 1 etc.

Question 31

What are the advantages of independent groups design?

Answer 31

1) Order effects will not occur as there are different participants in each condition. Order effects are when the sequence in which participants take part in conditions influences their performance or behaviour. For example, in a memory test participants may get better with practice and perform better in the second condition compared to the first condition. Participants may also get tired or bored when being asked to take part in more than one condition.

2) The chance of demand characteristics is reduced as participants take part in only one condition each and so have less chance to guess the aim of the study which could affect their behavior and the data collected.

3) Participants are not lost between conditions/trials because they only take part in one condition only and then leave the experiment/study. However in a repeated measures design where participants are used for two conditions, there is a higher risk of participants being lost between conditions.

Question 32

What are the disadvantages of independent groups design?

Answer 32

1) More participant are needed for this experimental design compared to a repeated measures design. In an independent groups design there are usually 2 experimental conditions (or more) with different participants in each group

2) There is always a chance that the different results gained between the two conditions are due to individual differences rather than manipulation of the independent variable. This is because two separate groups of people are used and they might be very different.

Question 33

Describe repeated measures design

Answer 33

In the repeated measures design each participant is tested in all conditions of the experiment. For example one group might be tested today to see what effect chocolate has on their mood. The same group of people are tested again next Friday to see the effect of chocolate on their mood.

Question 34

What are the advantages of repeated measure design?

Answer 34

1) As the same people are used in all of the conditions, there are no individual differences between the conditions. Therefore the study is more valid as we are really only measuring the effect of the IV on the DV.

2) Half as many participants are needed in this design compared to an independent groups design. This is because one group of participants e.g. (20) are used in condition 1 and again in condition 2. However an independent groups design would need 20 participants in condition 1 and 20 participants for condition 2.

Question 35

What are the disadvantages of repeated measure design?

Answer 35

1) Order effects may affect the results (see over the page). One way to avoid order effects is counterbalancing, this is when half the participants do condition A first and then condition B second and the other half of the participants do condition B first and condition A second. Changing the order of the tasks helps to reduce order effects and negative impacts on data collection.

2) Demand characteristics are more likely to occur using repeated measures design as participants are involved in the entire study and take part in two conditions. They might guess the aims of the study and therefore this might affect their behavior and the data collected

Question 36

Describe matched pairs design

Answer 36

In the matched pairs design, different participants are used in all of the conditions, just as with the independent groups design.
However, participants in the two groups are matched on characteristics important for that study, such as age, gender, level of education etc. Identical twins are often used in matched pairs designs.

Question 37

What are the advantages of matched pairs design?

Answer 37

Advantages:
1) There is less risk of order effects using a matched pairs design as participants only take part in one conditions only (compared to repeated measures design).

2) Individual differences are less likely to occur as the groups have been closely matched on specific characteristics (less likely to occur compared to independent groups design).

Question 38

What are the disadvantages of matched pairs design?

Answer 38

1) Twice as many participants are required compared with a repeated measures design. Researchers need to gain access to a large number of participants, as different participants will appear in each condition, therefore this can be problematic in order to locate and use enough people to take part in the study.

2) The matching process is incredibly difficult and time consuming; even two closely matched individuals have different levels of motivation and fatigue at any given time. Therefore individual differences cannot be completely controlled and removed.

Question 39

What is reliability?
What are the two kinds?

Answer 39

Reliability refers to the consistency of a research study especially when a study is repeated again and the same results are gained on both occasions.

External reliability
Internal reliability

Question 40

Describe external reliability

Answer 40

This is whether a test and the results gained are consistent over time.
The test-retest method can be used to assess external validity. A research study is conducted once, and then it is conducted again in the future. If the results gained from the both tests are similar then the study can be said to be reliable.

Question 41

Describe internal reliability

Answer 41

This is whether a test and the results gained are consistent within itself.
The split-half technique assesses the internal reliability of questionnaires.
The questionnaire is split in half and if participants score similarly on both halves of the questionnaire then the questions are measuring the same factors and the questionnaire has internal reliability.

Question 42

Define validity

Answer 42

Validity means that a study is measuring what it intends to measure when referring to the aims of the study.

Question 43

What is external validity

Answer 43

This is the extent to which the findings of a study can be generalised to other settings.

Question 44

What is participant validity

Answer 44

The results from the participants used in the study can be generalised to the target population

Question 45

What is temporal validity

Answer 45

The results from the study can be generalised to people in today’s contemporary society

Question 46

What is internal validity

Answer 46

This is when the outcome of the study is a direct result of the manipulation of the independent variable (IV) upon the dependent variable (DV) and has not been affected by extraneous variables (EV).

Question 47

Describe Control of Extraneous Variables
What are three categories of extraneous variables.

Answer 47

In order to ensure that a study has internal validity, extraneous variables must be well controlled

A. Participant variables
B. Situational variables
C. Experimenter variables

Question 48

Describe participant variables

Answer 48

These are characteristics of the participants which may affect the DV (e.g. intelligence, age, gender, personality etc.). Choosing an appropriate experimental design can help to try and overcome these type of extraneous variables. Matched pairs and repeated measures design can help to avoid participant variables.
However, repeated measures can lead to order effects, so counterbalancing should be used to avoid this. Random allocation of participants to conditions (e.g. by drawing names out of a hat) should also ensure that groups are not biased.

Question 49

Describe situational variables
What’s one way to resolve this issue

Answer 49

These are factors in the environment where the experiment is conducted that could affect the dependent variable (e.g. temperature, time of day, lighting, noise etc.).
A way to resolve this issue is to use standardisation (i.e. making sure that all the conditions, materials, and instructions are the same for all participants).

Question 50

Describe experimenter variables
What can be used to remedy this

Answer 50

These are factors to do with the experimenter which can affect the dependent variable, for example personality, appearance, and conduct of the experimenter. Standardised instructions should ensure that the experimenter acts in a similar way with all participants and follows a script and speaks to everyone in the same manner and tone.

Question 51

Describe investigator effects
How can it be overcome?

Answer 51

Investigators may inadvertently influence the results of their research. Certain physical characteristics of the investigator, such as age, gender, and ethnicity can influence the behaviour of participants which therefore affects the data that is collected from the research.

If investigators know the hypothesis they may also inadvertently be biased in their interpretation of the results. Observer bias and interviewer effects are a type of investigator effects.

Investigator effects can be overcome by the double blind technique. This is when neither the participants nor the investigator knows the aim of the study and hopefully this will mean the data collected will be more valid.

Question 52

Describe demand characteristics
How can they be overcome

Answer 52

One common extraneous variable is demand characteristics. There are many features of research studies that may enable participants to guess the main aim of the research and what is expected of them. This can lead to the participant trying to please the experimenter by giving the results they think the experimenter wants. Or participants might try to annoy the researcher by giving incorrect results, acting unnaturally out of nervousness, or acting unnaturally out of social desirability.

Demand characteristics can be overcome by the single blind technique. This involves making sure participants do not know what the aim of the study is so that hopefully this will not influence their behaviour unduly. This is more difficult to accomplish in a repeated measures design.