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personal investigations Flashcards

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1
Q

State the variables you are assessing (age and sleep)

A
  1. Age. IV, self reported age of participants in years. Young=16-19 and older: 40+
  2. Sleep, Pitsburg sleep quality index. PSQI. Past month. 5 < Poor sleep quality
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2
Q

State an operationalised experimental hypotheses (age and sleep)

A

There will be a statistically significant differnce in self reported quality of sleep using PSQI scores. there will be a significant difference in scores between teenagers and older adults

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3
Q

Identify if your experimental hypothesis is directional or non-directional (age and sleep)

A

Non directional

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4
Q

Explain why you chose to use a directional or non- directional hypotheses (age and sleep)

A

Because previous research is mixed in who has a poorer qulity of sleep. Younger or older people

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5
Q

State a appropriate null hypotheses (age and sleep)

A

There will be no statistically significant differnce in self report quality of slepe between teenagers and older adults

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6
Q

Where was the research located (age and sleep)

A

In the field, with teachers and school students

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7
Q

Identify the main characteristics of your sample group (age and sleep)

A

50 people. 25 students 25 teachers. Old (18 females, 7 males) young. (20 females, 5 males).
All students/ teahcers

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8
Q

identfy the sampling method you employed to select your sample (age and sleep)

A

Oppurtunity

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9
Q

Explain at least 2 advantages of your choice of sampling technique (age and sleep)

A

-lots of students and teachers avaliable at the time of the study.
Reliability easy to do compared to a ranom sample, with a comprehensive list of all students and teachers to randomly select.

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10
Q

Explain at least 2 disadvantages of your sampling technique (age and sleep)

A

May be a sampling bias because may choose students/ teachers you think are tired or not tired ot fill out sleep quality procedures

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11
Q

Give a step-by step description of your procedure (age and sleep)

A

-Experimental design was independnt groups design.
-Write a consent form, write a literate review, write a hypothesis.
-Took copies of consent form and questionnaire form. Asked pp to fill in.
- Completed in the presense of the researcher
-All research retuned to the classroom to be analysed

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11
Q

Strength of independent design (age and sleep)

A

No order effects, less likely to work out the aim of the research study. Dont have to do a longitudal. 25 years to compare. If did repeated measures

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11
Q

weakness of indepent groups design (age and sleep)

A

Weakness of IGD, individual differences

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12
Q

Identify an appropriate descriptive statistic that could be used to describe the data collected (age and sleep)

A

Mean PSQI scores. Mean age

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13
Q

explain why oyur choice of descriptive statistic is appropriate (age and sleep)

A

because there were no extreme scores of PSQI. No extreme ages, most sensitive level of central tendancy because it takes everyones scores into consideration

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14
Q

Identify a appropriate graphical representation that could be used to describe the data collected (age and sleep)

A

Bar chart

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15
Q

Explain why your choice of graphical representation is appropriate (age and sleep)

A

Compare mean scores between groups clearly

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16
Q

Identify a appropriate infrential statistic that you used to display the data collected (age and sleep)

A

Mann Whitney

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17
Q

Explain why your choice of inferential statistic is appropiate (age and sleep)

A

It is a test of difference between 2 sets of data. Ordional data

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18
Q

Brifely summarise your findings (age and sleep)

A

Teachers did score slightly higher on the PQSE scale on a average of 3.75. Students were 2.5

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19
Q

What conclusions cna you draw from these findings (age and sleep)

A

We did not find any statistically significant differnece between the expected and observed results. As observed is more than expected, so we accept the null hypotheses.

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20
Q

Identify 2 issues of reliability you faced in this study and how they could be dealth with (age and sleep)

A
  1. Were people anwsering the questionnaires in the same way dealt with by giving pp the same instructions and questionnaires.
  2. Whether questionnaires were scored in the same way. dealth with by checking with eachother and test of inter-rate reliability
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21
Q

Explain how you assessed reliability in this study and justify why you chose this method (age and sleep)

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A

-split half, look at participants responses to the first half of the questionnaire, then 2nd, to see if they have consistent anwsers. Assess by doing inter rater reliability

22
Q

Identify 2 issues of valifity you faced in your study and how they could be dealt with (age and sleep)

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A

-Cofounding variables, teachers are more likely to consume more caffine which will impact sleep. (Caffine consumption).
Ask how much
- Lacks population validity, may not be generalisable to teenagers and adults not stressed, extend to ask parents and teens not in school.

23
Explain how you assessed validity in your study and justify why you chose this method (age and sleep)
-face validity, ask pp what they thought the study was about and when pp say 'sleep quality'= yes it is valid
24
Identify at least 2 ethical issues that concerned you before the research (age and sleep)
-Confidentiality -participant harm, perception. Aim of the study is withheld didnt say we were comparing. Debrief
25
Explain what you did to deal with these ethical issues (age and sleep)
-All data confidential and anonymous. Given iD number rather than name/initial. No identifiable features were used. -All pp ensured data is confidential, pp can contact lead researcher if upset
26
Explain at least 2 ways in which you could improve your research (age and sleep)
-Larger sample size, moe pp. More divrse sample -Compare with another group, perhaps with non teachers and non students
26
State the co-variables you are assessing ( stroop and screen time)
1. stroop test performace, time taken, to correctly complete the incongruent condition of the stroop test. 2. mean daily screen time, in minutes, as indicated in pp mobile phone settings
27
State an operationalised alternative hypotheses ( stroop and screen time)
there will be a statisitically significant relationship between stroop performance (operationalsied as the time taken in seconds, to complete the incogruent condition of the stroop test) and mean daily screen time indicated on pp mobile phone.
28
Is your experimental hypotheses directional or non directional ( stroop and screen time)
-Non-directional
29
ustify/Explain why you chose to use a directional or non-directional hypothesis: stroop and st
Justify/Explain why you chose to use a directional or non-directional hypothesis: Previous research has been inconclusive regarding the relationship between screen time and Stroop performance. Some research has suggested that capacity to filter information out is being affected by prolonged social media usage. However, not all research has found this. Some research suggests that online gaming increases executive function with increased attentional skills.
30
State an appropriate null hypothesis: st and stroop
There will be no………………. ; any relationship will be due to chance.
31
Identify the main characteristics of your sample group: st and stroop
Number: 50 Gender: 28 identifying as female, 22 identifying as male Other significant feature(s) (e.g. all students) All sixth form students (post 16yrs)
32
Identify the sampling method you employed to select your sample: st and stroop
oppurtunity
33
Explain at least two advantages of your choice of sampling technique: st and stroop
ame as Personal Investigation #1 but ensure you contextualise to students available to complete a Stroop test (and have a phone!)
34
Explain at least two limitations of your choice of sampling technique:
Same as Personal Investigation #1 but ensure you contextualise it to students available to complete a Stroop test (and have a phone!)
35
Give a step-by-step description of your procedures: st nd stroop
Literature review Hypothesis Consent form and instructions Search corridors study areas and common room etc Approach 6th form students (as indicated by uniform) 1 student tested at a time Students agreeing to take part given standardised instructions Congruent condition tested Incongruent condition tested and time taken recorded Participants asked to provide data on mean daily screen time Thanked and debriefed Returned to classroom to collate and analyse data
36
Location of research st and stroop
Field (school corridors/sixth form common room/playground areas Strengths / limitations…
37
Correlation Strengths/Weaknesses:
Good preliminary research to spot trends and easily repeated. CANNOT conclude causality. Other intervening variables could be affecting both covariables. [Don’t forget to contextualise answers ‘Stroop scores’ ‘Students’ etc
38
dentify an appropriate descriptive statistic that could be used to describe the data collected: st and stroop
Standard Deviation – diversity of amount of time spent on screen and time taken to complete Stroop.
39
xplain why your choice of descriptive statistic is appropriate: screen time and stroop
There were some ‘extreme’ outliers in screen times 21 hours! So range would be skewed measure of dispersion making it look more diverse than in reality. St dev able to accommodate etc…
40
Identify an appropriate graphical representation that could be used to describe the data collected: screen time adn stroop
scattergraph
41
Explain why your choice of graphical representation is appropriate: scrren time and stroop
Appropriate to clearly see the strength and direction of the relationship between mean daily screen time (in minutes) and time taken to complete incongruous Stroop task (in minutes)
42
Identify an appropriate inferential statistic that you used to display the data collected: ST AND STROOP
Spearmans Rho
43
Explain why your choice of inferential statistic is appropriate: ST and stroop
Time in minutes (mean daily screen time) and time in seconds (stroop test completion) is ratio data as seconds/minutes are fixed interval with a true zero point. So, at least ordinal. It is a test of correlation, to see if screen time and stroop completion time are correlated for participants (so related)
44
briefly summarise your findings. st and stroop
Scattergraph displayed a moderate positive correlation between screen time and stroop etc… Correlation coefficient of +0.299 suggests Critical value for a two tailed test, at the 0.05 level with a sample size of 50 participants = 0.279 As the calculated Spearman’s value was 0.299 we accepted our alternative hypothesis: There will be a statistically significant relationship between Stroop performance (operationalised as the time taken in seconds, to complete the incongruent condition of the Stroop test) and mean daily screen time indicated on participants mobile phone
45
What conclusion(s) can you draw from these findings: screentime and stroop
We accepted our alternative hypothesis: There will be a statistically significant relationship between Stroop performance (operationalised as the time taken in seconds, to complete the incongruent condition of the Stroop test) and mean daily screen time indicated on participants mobile phone. People who spend more times on their phones, may have reduced capacity to filter out unnecessary information
46
Identify two issues of reliability you faced in this study and how they could be dealt with: screentime and stroop
Students may inconsistently report their mean daily screen time due to how they are defining and recording screen time. Researchers adjusted screen time definitions after a small-scale pilot study of classmates’ ‘screen time’. Students were provided with clear definitions and examples of what constitutes screen time (e.g., gaming, social media, video streaming) to help participants use the same criteria. Variability in how the ‘incongruous’ Stroop test is administered (e.g., instructions given, timing accuracy) can affect the reliability of the test. Standardize the administration of the Stroop test as much as possible. Ensure all participants receive identical instructions and are tested under similar conditions (e.g., quiet environment, consistent lighting). Use validated protocols and scripts for administering the Stroop test to minimize procedural variations that could influence test outcomes.
47
xplain how you assessed reliability in this study and justify why you chose this method: st and stroop
Inter-rater reliability to ensure all researchers were recording screen time and stroop time with the same protocol
48
Identify two issues of validity you faced in your study and how they could be dealt with: st and stroop
Screen time’ as recorded by phone may not be a valid measure of ‘viewing time’… We were using stroop test completion time as a measure of executive function… Just used 6th form students… In a school setting with uncontrolled variables weather etc… Follow up questions about ‘viewing’ media rather than being left on in background Testing non-students Could repeat without extraneous distractions in controlled lab conditions
49
Explain how you assessed validity in your study and justify why you chose this method: st and stroop
Content validity – checking other research sources for Stroop Test as a valid measure of executive function. Other research has validated it alongside other measures (fMRI studies) (therefore, concurrent as well!
50
dentify at least two ethical issues that concerned you before the research: st and stroop
Lack of valid consent. After initial briefing (students aged 16-19) were not informed that scores would be correlated with screen time (reduce demand characteristics etc). This only happened after test completion. Failure to protect from harm (psychological). Students aged16-19 may be embarrassed/stressed by revealing screen time or difficulty with Stroop task.
51
Explain what you did to deal with these ethical issues: st and stroop
Presumptive consent. Asked other students (16-19 at school) if they were told the true aims would they be happy to take part. If ‘yes’, presumed consent of participants. Debriefing. Participants reassured that screen time is not out of the ordinary and not necessarily associated with cognitive dysfunction (nor is Stroop task, which is used to demonstrate normal difficulty with filtering unnecessary information.
52
Explain at least two ways in which you could improve your research st anf stroop
1.More control of variables? Environment? More trials of Stroop? More emotive words? 2.More diverse sample? Whatever you go for, don’t forget to explain WHY it would improve research! More accurate measurement of screen time, generalisability etc…

Psychology research methods (2 decks)

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