Lecture 4.1

Question 1

What is primary research?

Answer 1

Research collected directly by researchers with data collected directly from the sources to address a specific hypothesis/question of interest.

Question 2

What is secondary research?

Answer 2

Research conducted on already collected data, often involving synthesis or interrogation of existing datasets to answer a specific hypothesis/question of interest.

Question 3

What is randomisation?

Answer 3

A process where effects can’t be due to pre-existing differences.

Question 4

What are experimenter effects?

Answer 4

The influence of researchers on participants and the interpretation of results.

Question 5

What do statistics influence?

Answer 5

How the data is analysed will impact on what conclusions we’re able to draw from studies.

Question 6

What is the placebo effect?

Answer 6

When an improvement in symptoms is observed despite a participant taking a non-active treatment.

Question 7

What is involved in conditioning?

Answer 7

Associate a behaviour with a specific response.

Question 8

How do expectations play a role in drug trials?

Answer 8

Prior expectations influencing perceptions of effects.

Question 9

What are no blinding trials?

Answer 9

Both experimenter and participant know.

Question 10

What are single-blind trials?

Answer 10

Experimenter knows, but participant doesn’t.

Question 11

What are double-blind trials?

Answer 11

Neither the experimenter or participant know.

Question 12

What are triple-blind trials?

Answer 12

No one involved knows.

Question 13

What is the orienting reflex?

Answer 13

Novelty alters your response.

Question 14

What is the Hawthorne effect?

Answer 14

Being observed in an experimental environment changes your response.

Question 15

What is responder bias?

Answer 15

Saying what you think the researchers want to hear.

Question 16

What are errors?

Answer 16

Going ‘off script’. Recording data and data entry. Analysing data using statistics or other methods.

Question 17

What is a Type I error?

Answer 17

Corrections made to the critical value to account for the number of comparisons for a variable of interest.

Question 18

What are the 2 main categories of methods in obtaining knowledge?

Answer 18

Primary and secondary.

Question 19

Descriptive research informs what?

Answer 19

The ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘where’.

Question 20

What can descriptive research not explain?

Answer 20

‘Why’.

Question 21

What does descriptive research help in identifying?

Answer 21

Trends in data.

Question 22

What is anecdotal research used for?

Answer 22

Explaining observations, often based on personal experience.

Question 23

Is anecdotal subjective or objective and why?

Answer 23

Subjective, where observations are based on the self or based on observation of others.

Question 24

What is the major limitation of anecdotal research?

Answer 24

It cannot address causation and is not representative of the population of interest.

Answer 25

Anecdotal research.

Question 26

What does case study research do?

Answer 26

Helps learn as much as possible about the cases in question and provides a conclusion about what happened in the context it's investigated in.

Question 27

What does case study research help us learn about?

Answer 27

Individual or small group.

Question 28

What is the major limitation of case study research?

Answer 28

It cannot address causation and is not representative of the population of interest.

Question 29

When is survey research used?

Answer 29

To understand individual or group perspectives about a concept or topic of interest.

Question 30

What are the 3 main things that survey research helps with?

Answer 30

Gaining a better understanding about different populations. Identifying problems or concerns respondents have. Gauging general trends or perspectives about a topic.

Question 31

Which research approach is more considered and why?

Answer 31

Survey, in that each question is designed to obtain a specific piece of information.

Question 32

What are the strengths of survey research?

Answer 32

Can remove subjectivity. Larger samples. Reduces error variance. Makes results more representative/generalisable. Linked with clear hypotheses. Identifies subtle trends.

Question 33

What are the 2 major weaknesses of survey research?

Answer 33

Cannot determine causation and shows associations between variables but not which direction they flow in.

Question 34

Experimental research is what determines what?

Answer 34

Causation.

Question 35

What are the 2 main confounds of interest?

Answer 35

Experimenter effects and statistics.

Question 36

What are the considerations under experimenter effects?

Answer 36

Placebo effects. Efficacy. Blinding. Orienting reflex. Hawthorne effect. Responder bias. Errors.

Question 37

What are the considerations under statistics?

Answer 37

Multiple comparisons. Data sources.

Question 38

Placebo effects may occur as a result of what?

Answer 38

Conditioning and Expectations.

Question 39

Is placebo response rate usually high or low?

Answer 39

High.

Question 40

Why are placebos crucial to psychopharmacological research?

Answer 40

They're far more psychologically equivalent to treatment than psychotherapy.

Question 41

In blinding, if there's no knowledge of which treatment is which (subconscious or not), …?

Answer 41

…any effects should be the same for treatment and placebo conditions.

Question 42

What areas of research is blinding particularly important for?

Answer 42

All aspects of research, including subject management, data collection, data analysis (statistics), adverse events.

Question 43

What are the 4 types of blinding?

Answer 43

No blinding. Single blind. Double blind. Triple blind.

Question 44

When should blinding happen in a drug trial?

Answer 44

Once participants are enrolled in the trial.

Question 45

Preparing for if something may go wrong, what are some protocol considerations?

Answer 45

Decision to break the blind. Maintaining blinding. Unblinding protocols.

Question 46

What premise are multiple comparisons founded on?

Answer 46

That two groups of scores will (almost) always differ, even by a small amount.

Question 47

What error should be considered in multiple comparisons?

Answer 47

Type I error.

Question 48

What are examples of data sources?

Answer 48

Individual studies. Narrative reviews. Systematic reviews. Meta-analyses.

Question 49

What are the pros and cons of individual studies?

Answer 49

} Pros: depth of understanding of study. } Cons: bias / not transparent / not representative.

Question 50

What are the pros and cons of narrative reviews?

Answer 50

} Pros: data summary / allows evaluation of methods, inconsistencies, etc. } Cons: bias / not transparent.

Question 51

What are the pros and cons of systematic reviews?

Answer 51

} Pros: transparent / good data summary. } Cons: requires simplistic approach (losing depth of and incommensurate data).

Question 52

What are the pros and cons of meta-analyses?

Answer 52

} Pros: transparent / good data summary / stats interpretation. } Cons: requires simplistic approach (losing depth of and incommensurate data).