Research Methods Key Words

Question 1

1. )Directional hypothesis

2. ) Non- directional hypothesis

Answer 1

1. ) A hypothesis suggesting the direction of the difference or relationship. A hypothesis predicts outcome of results. A directional hypothesis is a 1 tailed test.
2. ) A hypothesis not suggesting the direction result will go of difference or relationship but instead just suggests a chance will occur.

Question 2

Operationalise

Extraneous variables

Answer 2

1. ) Operationalising variable is how you define and measure specific variable in your studies providing a clear and objective definition eg. GCSE maths results.
2. ) An extraneous variable is any variable that you are not intentionally measuring in your study that could affect your results. They can prevent cause an effect between IV and DV and are known as nuisance variables. They don’t vary systematically with the I.V

Question 3

Confounding variables

Demand characteristics

Answer 3

1. ) Any variable other than I.v that has effect on D.V stopping you knowing true cause of change in D.V IT varies systematically with the D.V
2. ) A cue from the researcher about the purpose of the study which can cause p’s to change their behaviour

Question 4

Investigator effects

Random allocation

Answer 4

Any effect of investigators behaviour on the outcome of the study. This can include anything from investigators interaction with p’s or design

Tries to control effect of p’s variables in an independent groups design so each participant has the same chance of being in a condition as another. You number p’s eg.1-10 then random number generator or hats numbers for each group.

Question 5

Counterbalancing

Experimental design

Answer 5

Counterbalancing tries to control for the effects of order in a repeated measures design. Half the group does one condition first and half the group does the other condition first [AB, BA]

The different ways of asserting p’s / splitting participants into groups in an experiment eg . Repeated measures design, independent groups design etc.

Question 6

Thematic analysis

Qualitative data

Answer 6

A method of assessing/ analysing qualitative data that involves looking for themes/ patterns in data after they have been coded

Data that doesn’t usually involve numbers and instead uses words including questionnaires , interviews etc. Qualitative data is generally ore subjective than quantitative however it may produce more info about the participant. Qualitative data can be converted to quantitative.

Question 7

Quantitative data

Coding

Answer 7

Quantitative data is generally nominal data that can be expressed as numbers. It can be statistically analysed.

Content analysis stage where you analyse p’s communication then their behaviour/ communication is grouped into categories.

Question 8

Case study

Time sampling

Answer 8

In depth investigation, description or analysis by an individual, a group or an institution. They collect large amounts of data and often study unusual phenomenons.

Time sampling is a sampling method used in observation studies where p’s are observed by a researcher at specific, defined intervals such as every minute.

Question 9

Event sampling

Inter- rater reliability

Answer 9

Sampling method used in observational research to see how many times a specific event occurs in a time frame such as how may times a baby seeks proximity.It will collect nominal data.

Inter rater reliability is the amount / degree of agreement between raters/ researchers between their ratings.

Question 10

Content analysis

External validity

Answer 10

Content analysis is a method used to analyse qualititative data. It is useful when converting qualitative data into quantitative data (numerical data) and an example is coding.

External validity is the extent to which your results can be generalised to the whole population.

Question 11

Validity

Reliability

Answer 11

Is if the data we collected genuine and does it represent reality or has something interferes with our results. Internal val is inside study and external val is outside the study.

Reliability is the extent to which consistent results are achieved every time a test is carried out. For a result to be reliable we would have to get the same result if we carried out the test another day. It’s linked to replication

Question 12

Empirical method

Falsifiability

Answer 12

Empirical method is where objective, quantitative and systematic observations occur in a controlled environment which can be replicated. This helps to test if a theory is repeatable.

Falsifiability is proving a hypothesis is valid by proving that the null hypothesis is false or invalid

Question 13

Objectivity

Replicability

Answer 13

Something that’s not affected by personal feelings or experiences and researcher should stay value free or unbiased when carrying out research

Replicability means the same results should be able to be attained if the same experiment was carried out by the same or another researcher.

Question 14

Theory construction

Paradigm , paradigm shift

Answer 14

A theory is a general law or principle explaining events or behaviours. Theory construction occurs due to gathering evidence through direct observation or the empirical method. A theory to be trusted she be rigorously tested and gave experiments supporting it.

A paradigm is a clear, distinct concept accepted by most people in a scientific field. Paradigm shift is when an accepted paradigm is questioned due too lots of contradictory evidence which can cause a change of belief and of what is generally accepted.

Question 15

What’s a correlation?

How would you show a correlation?

Difference in appearance between negative and positive correlation?

What’s zero correlation?

What do correlation coefficients show?

Answer 15

Correlation is a relationship between 2 variables. It’s a statistical technique used for data analysis.

Scatter diagrams

Positive correlation shown by roughly forming line bottom left to top right. Negative correlation is bottom right to top left

No dots pattern shows zero correlation and no relationship at all.

Closeness of relationship is shown by correlation coefficient with 1 and -1 shoeing perfect correlations..

Question 16

Strengths of correlation

Negatives

Answer 16

Allows investigators to measure relationships between variables without manipulation or control.
Significant correlations justify further research.
They can be repeated to justify findings.

Correlations very rarely perfect eg +1 or -1 therefore researcher will only find out if there’s a significant relationship. Correlation doesn’t mean causation. Intervening variables may explain why co- variables are linked.

Question 17

Case study definition

Why does it use objective and systematic methods.

How do they collect the data?

Are case studies longitudinal?

Answer 17

The detailed study of a single individual, group or event. Example of evidence based research where psychologists look at individual cases partially to look at unusual behaviour and partially to look in greater detail at any type of behaviour.

To make findings scientific

Psychologists may use use IQ tests or personality tests or some other type of questionnaire to produce psychological data. Findings then grouped into themes and may be shown in qualitative or quantitative fashion

Yes they follow a group over extended period of time.

Question 18

Strengths of case studies

Limitations

Answer 18

Provide a great amount of detail
Sometimes it’s only method you can use such as an example of rare behaviour.

Hard to generalise individual cases to whole population so not representative. There may be some elements of researcher bias if researcher becomes too involved. There are psychological issues like confidentiality, informed consent and psychological harm.

Question 19

What’s content analysis?

Researcher has to make decisions about following ?

Strengths

Weakness

Answer 19

Research looks at the content of something and then analyses it eg. In a book they may identify patterns.

Sampling method , coding the data + method of representing the data

Has high eco validity as if it’s based on observations of what people actually do. Content analysis also can be replicated to increase reliability/ validity

Observer bias may reduce objectivity and validity of findings as different researchers observe categories differently. Content analysis may also experience culture bias. Love

Question 20

How to summarise qualitative data?

Intentions of thematic analysis?

Answer 20

Look for common themes and analyse.
Quantitative can be prayers easily with graphs or measures of central tendency or dispersion.

To impose order on data that is representative instead of preconceptions. To summarise data, identify themes and allow conclusions too be made.

Question 21

Experimental designs are ways to allocate participants to different conditions in an experiment. These include:

1. ) ?
2. )?
3. )?

Answer 21

1. ) Independent groups design is where different participants are in different conditions. Can be done by random allocation
2. ) repeated measures design: p’s do both conditions. Order effect in this is limited by counterbalancing (AB, BA)
3. ) Matched Pairs uses different p’s however similar p’s are chosen eg. Similar p’s are grouped into pairs and one of each pair goes into an individual condition.

Question 22

Pros and cons of experimental designs:

Independent groups design

Repeated measures design

Matched pairs

Answer 22

1. ) helps avoid order effect although more people are needed than repeated measures design.
2. ) for repeated measures as same p’s are used it reduces p’s variables. Order effects however may occur - countered by counterbalancing
3. ) time consuming in matching pairs and may experience order effects.

Question 23

Pilot study

Peer review

Answer 23

Small trial version of a study that occurs before the actual study that helps check for any errors and make improvements. Can help test many things such as: validity of way of measuring.

Occurs before a paper is published to check the validity of research and quality and it also ensures that research contributes to its field. Research is checked by experts in the field

Question 24

Normal distribution -

Skewed distribution -

Answer 24

symmetrical data arrangement forming a bell shaped curve where mean, median and modes are in the middle at highest peak.

data frequency is not evenly spread and data is clustered at one end . Positively skewed then tail will go to the right and negatively skewed tail will go to the left. Positive skew= mean greater than median but negative skew median is greater than mean.

Question 25

Implications of psychological research on economy

Answer 25

Psychological research may contribute to prosperity economically. Better research into treatments means more efficient work force and less people missing work meaning more employment and less days missing jobs so less stress on taxpayer , NHS etc

Question 26

Types of experiment?

What is lab experiment?

What is a field

Natural experiment

Quasi

Answer 26

Lab, natural , field, quasi

Controlled environment where researcher manipulates I.V and sees effect on D.V. Extraneous variables are strictly controlled.

Researcher carried out experiment in natural setting and researcher manipulates IV and sees effect on DV

An experiment where change in the I.V naturally occurs and researcher records effect on the dependent variable.

Quasi is where- the independent variable is not manipulated by researchers and co-variables simply exist.

Question 27

Sampling

Systematic sampling?

Random

Stratified

Opportunity

Volunteer

Answer 27

A method of choosing a representative sample by choosing every nth number

Number p’s put numbers in hat and draw out or use random number generator.

Sampling method where groups of participants are selected due to their frequency in the whole pop to try and provide a representative sample.

Opportunity sample is where the most easily available people at the time are picked.

Volunteer sample - relies on people volunteering to take part.

Question 28

Type of observations

Answer 28

Naturalistic observations, covert, overt, participant and non participant

Naturalistic- watching and recording behaviour that would normally occur

Covert- Participant behaviour is recorded and watched without participant knowing

Overt- participant behaviour is recorded and watched with participants knowing