JWI - research methods

Question 1

what are the 7 parts of a psychological report

Answer 1

1. abstract
2. introduction
3. method
4. results
5. dicussion
6. references
7. appendices

Question 2

what is in the abstract

Answer 2

a summary of the study including aims, hypothesis, method(procedures), results, conclusions and implications. It allows the reader to determine if the rest of the report is worth reading

Question 3

what is the introduction

Answer 3

• review of previous research that are relevant to the current study
• should lead logically to your research so the reader is convinced why you’re doing the research
• ends with the researcher stating thei aims and hypotheses

Question 4

what is the method

Answer 4

a detailed description of what the researcher did. there should be enough detail for someone to precisely replicated the study

Question 5

what are the 5 different parts of the method

Answer 5

• design
• participants
• apparatus/materials
• procedures
• ethics

Question 6

what is in the results

Answer 6

• descriptive statisitcs- tables and graphs showing frequencies and measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion
  -** Inferential statistics **- calculated values, critical values, significance levels and a justification of which test has been chosen. There should also be a statement about whether the null hypothesis is accepted or rejected
• if the study uses qualitative research, then categories and themes are described with examples of each category/theme

Question 7

what is in the discussion

Answer 7

the research aims to interpret the results and consider their implications
- summary - results are breifly verbaly report
- relationship to previous research
- strengths and weaknesses of the methodolody (with improvements suggested)
- implications for theories and possible real-world application
- suggestions for future research

Question 8

what is in the references

Answer 8

the full details of any journal articles, book or websites that are mentioned

Question 9

what is in the appendices

Answer 9

where any materials and raw data are presented

Question 10

what are the three main purposes of peer review

Answer 10

1. allocation of research funding
2. publication of research in scientific journals and books
3. assessing the research rating of university departments

Question 11

why is peer reviewing important

Answer 11

• its a way to check the validity of research, the credibility of the research and assess the quality and appropriateness of the way that the study was designed
• peers can judhe how important the reserach is in the wider context of pyschology
• helps to prevent false or unscientific reserach being accepted as true.

Question 12

what is the peer review process

Answer 12

• the reviewers are sent work by a journal editor < – their task is to report on the quality of the research. There are usually three options for reviewers to recommend:
  1. the research should be published as it is
  2. research needs revising
  3. research should be rejected

Question 13

what is the usual form of a peer review and what is a potential issue

Answer 13

single blind review, which involves the names of the reviewers not being revealed by the researchers < – lead to anonymity and unbiased review
issue - rewviewers delaying their reviews so that they can published similar research and/or hide behind their anonymity to be overly harsh

Question 14

how to overcome the issue involving single-blind reviews

Answer 14

a double blind review can be used wehere both the reviewers and researchers are anonymous
this is intended to prevent bias against the researcher based on name,age,ethnicty etc.

Question 15

what is face validity

Answer 15

whether a test, scale or measure appears to measure what is is supposed to at first glace (‘on the face of it’)

Question 16

what is triangulation

Answer 16

the use of a number of different sources of evidence, it multiple qualitative findings cooroborate with one another, the findings triangulate. they support one another, adding to the validity of the findings

Question 17

what is concurrent validity

Answer 17

the concurrent validity of a particular test or scale is demonstrated when the results obtained are very close to or match those obtianed on another recognised and well-established test measuring the same concept/construct

Question 18

what is reliability

Answer 18

a measure of consistency. it refers to how consistent the findings from an investigation or measuring device are
a measuring device is said to be reliable if it produces consistent results everytime it is used

Question 19

what is test-retest reliability

Answer 19

adminstering the same test or questionnaire to the same person(or people) on different occassions
- if the test or questionnaire is reliable, then the results obtained should be the same, or at least similar each time they are adminstered.
- The two sets of scores are correlated using a appropriate statistical test wtih a significant positive correlation (+0.8)
- there must be sufficient time between test and retest

Question 20

what is interobserver (or inter-rater when used in studies that aren’t observations) reliability

Answer 20

• two or more observers watch the data, then discuss and agree beforehand their interpretation of the behaviourably categories
• they then watch the same event but record the data separately, using the same categories
• data colllected is then correlated using an appropriate statistical test, with a strong positive correlation (+0.8) indicating good reliability .

Question 21

how can the reliability of an observation be improved

Answer 21

• make sure behavioural categories are operationalised, measurable and self-evident
• categories should not overlap and all behaviours should be covered on the checklist