Methods & Ethics Paper 3 Flashcards

Question

ethical consideration (Dp)

Answer 1

Deception: - Deception by omission, commission - Partial deception - Justified if no other way to investigate aim - research application form submitted to an ethics committee to ensure the deception is acceptable If DECEPTION occured: - ppt. explained justification 4 deception - ppt. directly informed abt right to withdraw data, as ppt. may not know as they had initially given consent. - ppt informed how their data will be used - ppt given researcher contact info 2 safeguard potential psychological harm.

Answer 2

Right to withdraw - ppt know right withdraw from the study at any time, - ppt informed of right to withdraw use of their data at any time during debrief - ppt can contact researchers after study to be able to withdraw data later on - ppt sent copies of final report before publication to be able to decide whether they want to withdraw - given the opportunity to check the accuracy of the conclusions made by the researchers about their data before publication.

Answer 3

Informed consent - giving ppt. consent forms b4 start of the study, which follows ethical guidelines for psychology research, ensuring ppt. agreed to participate - before study is conducted explicit informed consent is obtained - consent sheet includes the aims and objectives of the experiment - & informs participant of rights—right to withdraw, privacy, confidentiality - underaged ppt. need parental consent forms as ppt. cannot consent completely w/o understanding the implications

Answer 4

Protection from harm (physical and psychological) (anxiety, stress, pain or discomfort) - materials used in a study/experiment are ethically neutral, & not aggravating to participants exposed - e.g. sensitive issue which could stress participants, & unknown personal relations to stimulus, thus after the study the appropriate measures should be taken to ensure no psychological harm was caused - participants which show signs of distress after an experiment or interview should be offered psychological support after the study - If a study (interview) consists of sensitive issues, researchers should inform the participants beforehand to protect them, and also give them the right to privacy by refusing to answering personal questions which may be distressing and invasive - Incentives (e.g. course credit) to recruit participants for a study coerce participation those that do not which to participant should not be disadvantaged, instead offered a comparable alternative to receive the same credits.

Answer 5

Confidentiality/Anonymity - Confidentiality & anonymity ensured before, and after experiment - ensuring ppt. data/results cannot be connected to their identity - not naming ppt. in final report - researchers must store ppt. data in secure manner to prevent data being connected to ppt. - researchers need to explain how & when the ppt. data will be destroyed - difficulty for interviews & focus groups if ppt. interact w/ each other & researchers may personally know ppt. since smaller no. ppt - mitigated by giving ppt. pseudonyms in final report & during focus group interviews - difficult during experiment w/ ppt. in proxmitiy - thus to ensure ppt. must be experimented individually (contextual if the ppt. data less personally relevant, & difficult to identify ppt. from data maybe less important)

Answer 6

Debriefing includes: - fully informed abt ex. after - how ppt. data will be used - ensures ppt. same psych. condition prior 2 study - informed rights to withdraw data - ways to contact researchers to ask questions and their data

Answer 7

- importance of generalisability - strengths & limitations inherent to research method on generalizability - sign posting generalisation definition - extent to which conclusions from findings of a study can be applied to the real-world (external validity). The possibility of generalizing findings include: (SERVOS) Sample Representativeness - Sample Size (50+ samples have more reliable results as less affected by outliers) - Sampling Method (random samples more representative of target population) - Diversity of the Sample (a wide range of demographic factors is more likely to reflect general population) External Validity - Ecological Validity (higher means study better resembles real-world settings) - Population Validity (degree to which sample population represents target population) Reliability and Validity of Measures - Reliability (consistency /replicability of study's results) - Internal Validity (accurate measurement of DV, and control of confounding variables) Operationalization of Variables - How variables are defined and measured (operationalized) - unusual measures makes results harder to generalize to studies using different measures of the same concept. Statistical Power and Effect Size - larger effect demonstrated in results have higher statistical power thus are more likely to be generalisable

Answer 8

- importance of transferability - strengths & limitations inherent to research method on transferability - sign posting transferability definition - extent to which conclusions from findings of a study can be applied to other, more-specific contexts which the research is based off The possibility of transferability findings include: (DiVReT) Depth of Contextual Information: - detailed understandings of the participants contexts will allow better assessment on whether results can be transferred to another context depending on similarity Validity - lack of biases (self-reporting, researcher) (authenticity of participant data) - validity (data triangulation / multiple sources of data to confirm findings to increase credibility) - replication/congruency of results - statistical significance (effect size & sample size) - Sample of those with insights relevant to aim of study strengthens transferability - Diversity of Sample w/ range of perspectives covered in the findings, enhancing transferability to similar but varied contexts - Sample size Reflexivity - Researchers’ acknowledgment of their own biases and perspectives (reflexivity) contributes to transparency and helps understanding degree to which findings may be transferable - describing the data collection & analysis process in detail providings information about how the findings of study emerged, which allows the validity of the study to be evaluated and the ability of the study to be transferred to be evaluated Theoretical generalization - qualitative findings may provide conceptual insights that can offer a framework that can be transferred to other studies and contexts - If findings address ubiquitous experiences, results are more likely to transfer to different settings, even if the specific details differ.

Answer 9

- importance of credibility - strengths & limitations inherent to research method in achieving credibility - sign posting credibility definition - degree to which conclusions of a study accurately reflect psychological phenomenon being researched QN Credibility is important in ensuring the internal validity QL Credibility is important for establishing trustworthiness affected by: - same factors as transferability/generalisability AND biases Researcher bias - mitigated QL by data triangulation, data collection & analysis transparency, reflexivity, ppt. reviewing study b4 publishing - mitigated QN by statistical validity tests, double blind procedures Demand characteristics (QN) - mitigated by double blind procedures as participants cannot guess Ensured By - inter-rater reliability test (other researchers evaluating data) - reliability / replicability of results - better samples - elimnation/minimisation of bias - internal validity (controlled variables) - test re-test reliabilty (QN) (re-tested at later date) - Reflexivity (QN) researchers’ examining biases to better interpret data. (e.g., keeping a journal, discussing biases) - Researcher documenting the research process; collection, analysis; interpretation of data allows examination of whether researcher bias occurred.

Answer 10

- importance of avoiding bias - strengths & limitations inherent to research method in containing biases - sign posting biases can distort results, leading to incorrect conclusions and greater invalidity thus reducing the credibility and possibility of extrapolating results (RISP) Researcher Bias - researcher reflexivity for qualitative studies helps reduce researcher interpretation bias - reflexive journals to reflect on and acknowledge their own biases, by writing out why each step in the study was taken to allow more objective data analysis - pilot studies & pretesting questionnaires allows researchers to identify areas of bias before full-scale studies (e.g. identifying leading questions from researchers) - also allows confounding variables to be identified to be prepared to control these in the full-scale test - effective operationalisation of variables which avoids ambiguity that could introduce researcher bias in data analysis. Also uses valid & reliable methods to measure DV making results accurate (higher internal validity) Interpretation Biases - double-blind design (neither participants nor researchers know who is in control vs experimental group) reducing participant and researcher bias - independent researchers also conducting data analysis that are unaware of hypothesis thus less likely to be influenced by confirmation bias - reliability checks (e.g. test-retest reliability where participant is retested after some time) & (inter-rater reliability) prevents biased data interpretation Participant Bias - randomisation of participant assignment to groups - minimising demand characteristics with ethical deception at discretion of ethical committees - self-reporting bias can be mitigated through increasing sample size Sampling Bias - increasing sample size makes results more reliable thus less prone to outliers from demand characteristics - diverse sample size avoids gender/cultural bias - random sample is more representative preventing selection bias

Answer 11

demand characteristics as people become more aware of what the researchers are studying

Methods & Ethics Paper 3 Flashcards

(35 cards)