****Evaluation Paper 2 Flashcards
1
Q
Strength of using a random sample
A
- unlikely to be biased, because no control over who is in sample
- all menders have equal chance of being chosen
2
Q
Weakness of using a random sampling
A
- take a long time, especially if the target population is large
3
Q
Strength of using an opportunity sample
A
- convenient, as sampler selects people who are there
- quick and easy
- likely to be ethical
4
Q
Weakness of using an opportunity sample
A
- less representative, results are less generalizable
5
Q
Strength of volunteer sampling
A
- pps are motivated, less chance to withdraw
- quick and easy
- access to a wide variety of people that you normally would not have access
6
Q
Weakness of volunteer sampling
A
- mostly similar
- more likely to demonstrate demand characteristics
7
Q
Strength of a controlled observation
A
- standardised procedure,collects reliable results
- helps eliminate extraneous variables as the environment is controlled
8
Q
Weaknesses of a controlled observation
A
- demand characteristics, as they know they are being watched and tested
- lacks ecological validity, as artificial environment
- experimenter bias
- might lack reliability
9
Q
Strength of a naturalistic observation
A
- high validity, as observed in realistic situation, behaviours can be applied to real life
- will not miss any behaviour that is important, not restricted to the list
10
Q
Weaknesses of a naturalistic observation (control, researcher, covert overt)
A
- difficult to record all activities accurately and many may be irrelevant
- researcher needs to be trained to be able to recognise aspects of a situation that are psychologically significant
- overt observers produce less valid findings, as pps behaviours may be altered due to being watched
- covert observers causes ethical issues, because of deception, this could invade privacy and causes distress
11
Q
Advantage of using over observation
A
- ethical, fully informed
12
Q
Disadvantage of using overt observation
A
- demand characteristics
13
Q
Strength of using covert
A
- no demand characteristics
- high validity
14
Q
Weakness of using covert
A
- data collection is more difficult as hidden far away
- this potentially reduces validity and reliability
- ethical issue involved because pps can give informed consent, if work out experimenter’s role can be distressed
15
Q
Strength of using participant
A
- good for structured observation, more detail
- large variety of data
- longitudinal data can be produced
16
Q
Weaknesses of using participant observation
A
- may not be able to observe everything
- difficult to record information as you need to blend in
17
Q
Strengths for using non-participant observation
A
- less demand characteristics
- researcher wont be able to affect the results, less researcher bias, more objective
18
Q
Weaknesses for using a non-participant observation
A
- less valid, risk of missing out information
- less in depth observations
19
Q
5 strengths of using case study
A
- Ideal when it is difficult to gather a large sample, rare or unique behaviours can be studies in detail
- Participants can be studied over a long period of time, developmental changes can be recorded. This is longitudinal, it often means that data gathered are detailed
- Ecological validity is high, as studied as part of everyday life
- Sample may be self-selecting
- Rich and detailed data gathered
20
Q
4 weaknesses for case study
A
- May not produce enough quantitative data for statistical testing, means little more than anecdotal evidence
- Lacks objectivity, as involves quite intense relationship between the researcher and the participant
- Lacks generalisability
- Participants may be unique in some way, researchers may not know how to proceed, might draw false conclusion
21
Q
5 strengths for self report
A
- give opportunity to express a range of feelings and explain their behaviour
- open questions produce rich and detailed data
- closed questions are easier to analyze
- Large no of pps can be questioned quickly, increase representativeness and generalisability
- Questionnaires are easy to replicate
* *reductionist, answers restricted to a scale
22
Q
5 weaknesses for self report
A
- Social desirability
- Time consuming to analyze if open questions asked
- Closed questions do not give pps to say WHY
- Leading questions could affect validity
- Telephone interview can caused pps to withdraw easily, or may find difficult to understand questions
23
Q
2 weaknesses for correlation
A
- Conclusions do not necessarily reflect a causal relationship
- Third variable problem
24
Q
4 strengths for correlation
A
- Can study variables which cannot be practically manipulated
- Can study… cannot be ethically manipulated
- Whether two variables are correlated or not
- Quick and economical as no need to set up controlled environment and no variable being manipulated
25
2 weaknesses for lab experiment
1. Artificial
| 2. Demand characteristics
26
2 strengths for lab experiment
1. High control, control effect of extraneous variable
| 2. Easily replicated
27
2 strengths for field experiment
1. Less artificial than a lab
- e.g. children may play phone at home but not in lab
2. Demand characteristics
- e.g. the children would be less self conscious about being watched
28
2 weaknesses for field experiment
1. Less control, more extraneous variables
| 2. Ethics, might experience distress and often not debriefed
29
2 strengths for natural experiment
1. used in situations in which it would be ethically unacceptable to manipulate the independent variable, e.g. researching stress.
2. High ecological validity because they study real life issues as they happen
3. less likelihood of demand characteristics affecting the results, as participants may not know they are being studied
30
2 weaknesses for natural experiment
1. They may be more expensive and time consuming than lab experiments
2. There is no control over extraneous variables that might bias the results.
- difficult for replication
31
2 strengths for structured interview
1. Can be easily replicated because questions are standardised
2. Easier to analyze than semi-structured because questions are predictable
32
2 weaknesses for structured interview
1. Answers may not be truthful because of leading questions or social desirability bias
2. Answers may be influenced by the way the interviewer ask the question
33
3 strengths for semi-structured interview
1. More detailed info can be gathered because interview can deal with incomplete answers
2. Can gain extra info cuz questions developed according to pps answers
3. More ecological validity cuz like a real conversation
34
3 weaknesses for semi-structured interview
1. More likely to be affected by interviewer bias
2. Required trained interviewers who can develop insightful, unbiased questions on the spot and avoid interviewer bias
3. Can be difficult to summarize data, or to make comparisons between pps, cuz questions may be different for each
35
1 strength for unstructured interview
1. More flexibility, because interviewers can follow points up as they arise
36
3 weaknesses for unstructured interview
1. hard to analyze, because a lot of data is not relevant
2. Answers may not be truthful due to social desirability bias
3. Requires trained interviewers who can develop unbiased questions on the spot and avoid interviewer bias
37
Strengths and weaknesses of using an independent group design
No order effects
- no one gets better through practice
Participant variables
- differences between people in each group might affect the results
Number of participants
- need twice as many pps to get the same amount of data, more time consuming and can be more expensive
38
Strengths and weaknesses of using a repeated measure design
Order effect
- pps can be practiced
Participant variables
- differences among individuals won’t affect the results
Number of participants
- fewer pps are required to get same amount of data, cheaper and less time consuming
39
Strengths and weaknesses of matched pair design
No order effects
- there are different people in each condition
Participant variables
- important differences are minimized through matching
Number of pps
-need twice as many, it will be time consuming to match pps
40
2 strengths of using mode
- quick and easy to calculate
| - shows the most important score
41
2 weaknesses of using mode
- not very useful when there are several modal value
| - tells us nothing about other scores
42
Strengths and weaknesses of using median
- quick and easy to calculate
- not affected by extreme scores
- not all scores are used
43
Strengths and weaknesses of using mean
- use all scores
- can be skewed by extreme value, can be misleading
- sometimes give unrealistic value (2.4 children)
44
Strengths and weaknesses of using range
- quick and easy to calculate
| - misleading if there are extreme scores
45
Strengths and weaknesses of using standard deviation
- all scores are taken into account, so more accurate than range
- not as quick and east to calculate as range
46
Disadvantage of using a likert-scale question
- individual differences
| - pps may interpret the 0-10 scale differently
47
Disadvantage of collecting data using open question
- subjectivity
- researcher’s interpretation of answers may differ from
their intended expression of happiness)
48
One advantage of random allocation
- reduce participant variable
| - e.g. not all ‘sleepy’ participant end up in one condition
49
One disadvantage of operationalisation using a likely-style
- individual difference
| - people may interpret the 0-10 scale differently
50
why interview is better than observation?
- in observation, pps cannot explain WHY they behaved in a particular way
