Difficult Flashcards
(37 cards)
Lab experiment
= controlled conditions & participants are aware they’re in an experiment
+ no extraneous variables due to controlling all variables
- demand characteristics
Field experiment
=normal environment but experimenter manipulates some variables
+ participants act normally
+ increased mundane realism
- less control over variables which affects results
- ethical issue: participants don’t know they’re being observed
Natural experiment
= participants in their everyday environment & experimenter has no control
+ high ecological validity
+ high mundane realism
- ethical issue: don’t know they’re being observed
- no control over variables = not sure if IV caused DV
Quasi experiment
= IV is naturally occurring like gender but the DV is measured in a lab
+ no extraneous variables
+ allows comparisons between different natural variables
- cannot show a causal relationship as there’s no manipulation
- not sure if confounding variables haven’t affected results due to no manipulation
Coding & Content analysis
Coding: how qualitative data is put into categories or themes to represent data
Content analysis: analysing qualitative data in a systematic way with no preconceived ideas of what to expect so conclusions can be drawn
- data is placed into quantitative categories or analysed in qualitative themes - includes: books, films, texts
1) observe recorded behaviour
2) identify potential categories from the data
3) watch recording again and count the examples that fell into each category to provide quantitative data
+ easy to obtain
+ cheap
Thematic analysis
= psychologists have preconceived ideas to look for in the data so they identify the themes and report their findings using quotes from the data to explain each theme
Pilot studies
= small-scale test before the actual experiment to see whether what they’re doing works
+ ensures high validity
issues:
- check participants understand instructions
- check materials are correct
- test there are no extraneous variables
- valid results
- tackle problems to save time and money for the actual one
Behavioural categories
= in an observation, the experimenter looks for a specific behaviour but it cannot be measured so it’s operationalised by breaking it down so it can be classified by psychologists
- data is recorded by different psychologists which assures inter-rate reliability: agreement between raters on the recording of the event & a correlational analysis will be completed
- behaviour is recorded in 2 ways:
Event sampling: recording takes place throughout the whole time period every time behaviour occurs
Time sampling: recording takes place at specific time intervals
e.g. aggression = punching, shouting
( self report) Questionnaires
= pre-written questions
provides quantitative and qualitative data through:
open questions: pp respond freely
closed questions: pp have limited responses
Designing questionnaires:
- questions are clear and get the needed answers
- avoid asking embarrassing questions on private matters
- pp may present themselves in a positive light
strengths:
+ easy to use & experimenter doesn’t need special training
+ distributed to more people so more data is gathered
+ contains qualitative and quantitative but quantitative is easier to analyse
limitations:
- pp not as honest in questionnaires compared to face to face
- pp may not understand questions so they can’t ask compared to interviews
- questions may limit answers & pp may not be able to explain what they mean
Variables: IV, DV, CV, extraneous and how to control these
Independent variable: manipulated (changed) by the experimenter
Dependent variable: what is measured/observed by the experimenter due to effects of IV
Confounding variable: related to the IV and can impact the DV
Extraneous variable: not accounted for by the experimenter which can affect the experiment:
- order effects: if pp repeat a similar conditions, they will be better the next time, affects results
- pp variables: personal characteristics (intelligence)
- situational variables: where and when the experiment takes place (time of day)
- investigator effects: behaviour of experimenter affects how pp respond
Control extraneous variables:
- Counterbalancing: split pp so half do condition A and other half do condition B so the data will average itself out & controls boredom and fatigue, reducing order effects
- Standardised procedures: specific set of instructions to perform specific acts at specific times so behaviour is replicable
- Double blind experiment: pp not experimenter know the aims of the experiment & cannot influence the result
Issues with experiments and how to control them
Demand characteristics: pp try to guess the aim and change their behaviour to what they think the experimenter wants
Investigator effects: researcher may unconsciously behave in a way that brings about their prediction
Practice effects: pp already completed something before and will be better the next time which changes the results
Control these:
- Single blind technique: pp don’t know the condition nor hypothesis
- Double blind technique: pp not experimenter know the hypothesis or condition so someone else carries out the data collection
- Counterbalancing: in a repeated measures design to avoid practice effects, half pp complete one test & other half do the second test
- Random allocation: pp are randomly allocated to conditions to avoid bias
Peer review
= other psychologists from a similar field check research before being published and scutinise validity & significance & assess appropriateness of methods used & the manuscript must be accepted then the editor accepts or rejects research based on the reviewer
Importance of peer review:
- publication cannot be taken back and may be used by other researchers so it’s important false research is stopped before being published
- funding is allocated to universities & if false research is published, this generates greater funding then peer review stops funding being allocated to the wrong places
- false research would increase uni research rating so peer reviews stop this from happening
- published work is required to be original
- findings are reliable and valid adding knowledge to the field
+ ensures quality of publication to ensure there’s trust in research and has beneficial economic impact
- time consuming and expensive process
Psychological research affecting the economy
1) psychological treatments are developed and investigated for effectiveness which ensures quick recovery so they return to work sooner & less money is required for sick pay and treatments
2) impacts finances of government and employers: development of treatments and benefits to working environments encourages greater productivity at work & people spend less time off work costing less to the employer. Also, valuable research may encourage investment overseas which boosts the economy
3) Research shows scientific benefits of treatment and behaviour so people will purchase that product & benefits economy through the sale of products
4) People think irrationally about themselves and follow advice from published information which increases sales in these products & impacts economy
5) Availability heuristic is when people follow information readily available so products are bought for the wrong reasons without people checking
Objectivity (features of science)
= any findings, explanations, theories must be based on observable phenomena & not influenced by emotions or personal prejudice
Empirical methods (features of science)
= this is one way to examine behaviour which involves collecting large amount of data then study this data to create a theory or conclusion = e.g. with experiments, we manipulate the IV and control other variables & this can determine cause and effect to establish results
Replicability (features of science)
= (repeatability) an original study must be published including procedure, data and results = judged reliable when it has consistent results when it’s replicated
Falsifiability (features of science)
= possibility for theory or hypothesis to be proven wrong
Theory construction (features of science)
= theories are created when research is completed by making an inference about the structure of processes of humans from empirical findings so it’s a collection of general principles that explain observations
+helps us understand and apply findings to real world
+make accurate predictions of the future
Hypothesis testing (features of science)
= we make predictable statements to assess if the findings are generalisable & through the process of falsification, we try to prove theories wrong by questioning the hypothesis to examine the validity = if we cannot prove it wrong, we assume it’s correct
Paradigms & Paradigm shifts (features of science)
= Kuhn says the views of science change in revolutions instead of gradually changing from one view to another which is the paradigm shift - two stages:
- normal science: view is maintained as it’s the current way of thinking despite opposing research
- revolutionary shift: opposing evidence becomes overwhelming and cannot be ignored so the current theory is overthrown by the new one
Reporting psychological investigations: scientific report
Abstract: a summary about the research giving a general idea of what happened
Introduction: gives reasons why this research is being conducted with theoretical and experimental backing and a scientific foundation - gives general ideas of the topic, relevant research then current research
Methodology: ensures replicability in research so every detail must be reported about what happened - detailed on the design used & hypothesis; sampling participants; equipment used; procedure & instructions; ethics met
Results: breakdown of findings - descriptive statistics about measures to show differences between groups and graphs to illustrate
Discussion: interpret findings and how research links to the introduction, wider psychological field, real-world context - structure: summary of results, relationship findings to previous research, criticisms of own methodology, implications, suggestions for future research
References: check the veracity of previous research and see where previous ideas have come from - structure for journal/book: author,name, data, title of article/book, publication, page numbers
Distributions: normative, positive skew, negative skew
= shows the average of characteristics about the population
Normative distribution: bell-shaped & mean, median and mode are the same & standard deviation is used to show how far away the scores are from the mean
Positive skew: mode is the highest on the left then median and mean so majority of scores are on the lower end of the data
Negative skew: mode is the highest on the right then median and mean so majority of scores are at the upper end of the data set
Correlation & correlation co-efficient
Correlation: an association between two variables - there’s positive, negative and zero correlations and define every one as strength and correlation e.g. strong negative
Correlation co-efficient: a number that represents the strength of a correlation and its direction - scores range from -1 to 1
- negative score represents negative correlation
- positive score represents positive correlation
Type 1 error
= accept alternative & reject null hypothesis when you should have accepted the null and reject the alternative - the percentage chance is less than 5%
