Research Methods 1&2 Flashcards

Question

Random Sample

Answer 1

all ppts have an equal chance of being selected

Answer 2

clear and detailed outline the purpose of the study

Answer 3

a question

Answer 4

to make measurable

Answer 5

all conditions groups/ comparisons prediction .....will be should be directional or non-directional operationalised

Answer 6

are we measuring what we intend to measure ,only thing effecting DV is IV

Answer 7

heat time of day order effects e.g. two tests in a row might be fatigued or might get better, solution is splitting group and having one do the test in AB order and the others in BA order

Answer 8

mood IQ anxiety concentration

Answer 9

double blind deign, both the ppt and conductor are blind to the aims of hypothesis experimenter may be unaware which variable the ppt is involved in inter-rater reliability, independent raters rate same behaviours and then check agreement

Answer 10

deliberately try to hinder the experiment

Answer 11

single blind design - the ppt is unaware of which condition they are in or the researcher aims, this prevents the ppts from seeking clues about the aims and reacting to them deception - lying about the aims of the study and/ or using distracting questions

Answer 12

when extraneous variables are not controlled by the experimenter, they become confounding variables that can damage validity of the experiment

Answer 13

avoids order effects (such as practice or fatigue) as people participate in one condition only avoids demand characteristics as people are less likely to guess aims

Answer 14

more people are needed than with the repeated measures design (more time consuming + expensive) differences between participants in the groups may effect the results, for example variation in age, gender, social behaviour

Answer 15

as the same ppts are used in each condition ppt variables are reduced fewer people needed

Answer 16

there may be order effects, this limitation can be controlled using counterbalancing demand characteristics, ppts guess aims and change behaviour

Answer 17

reduces ppts variables because the researcher has tried to pair us the ppts so that each condition has people with similar abilities and characteristics avoids order effects

Answer 18

if one ppt drops out you lose two ppts data very time consuming to find closely matched pairs impossible to match people exactly even identical twins

Answer 19

lab, field, natural, quasi

Answer 20

conducted in highly controlled environments (not always a literal lab) could be in a classroom in which conditions have been controlled in

Answer 21

uses a standardised procedure and is easy to replicate high control of extraneous variables, allows cause and effect to be established highly controlled makes accurate measurements possible

Answer 22

settings may not reflect real life and therefore no ecological validity demand characteristics could be an issue ppts know they are being studied which could pose a problem because of the Hawthorne effect could be time consuming and expensive compared to other methods

Answer 23

when the researcher takes advantage of a naturally occurring independent variable iv would have occurred despite if the experimenter were interested or not setting for this type does not have to be natural

Answer 24

this type of study might be especially useful in studying phenomena that would be unethical to manipulate

Answer 25

can only be used when IV occurs naturally ppts cannot be randomly allocated to these groups, there is strong likelihood of confounding variables researcher has no control over IV as it will have occurred in everyday life

Answer 26

has an IV based on an existing difference between people, it has not been manipulated it just exists experimenter does not control IV can occur in lab conditions

Answer 27

often conducted in controlled conditions and so shares the strength of a lab study

Answer 28

can only be used when IV varies naturally ppts cannot be randomly allocated to these groups, there is strong likelihood of confounding variables

Answer 29

conducted in a real, every day setting in the real world experimenter still manipulates IV in this type of experiment

Answer 30

high ecological validity because it is done in the ppts environment if study is covert much less chance of DC happening

Answer 31

more difficult to control extraneous variables in this type of experiment making it harder for other researchers to replicate

Answer 32

ideally the sample that is drawn will be representative of the target population so that generalisation of findings becomes possible difficult to achieve due to diverse nature of individuals

Answer 33

need a list of whole target population 1 - put these names/ numbers in a hat 2 - random name generator choose relevant number or name

Answer 34

is free from researcher bias (no influence over whose selected)

Answer 35

time consuming and can be difficult to conduct no guarantee they are representative

Answer 36

those people who are available at the time and are willing to take part

Answer 37

it is a quick and easy/ convenient way of choosing ppts

Answer 38

researcher bias - could approach people who look helpful unrepresentative of target population

Answer 39

ppts put themselves forward to be part of the sample

Answer 40

easy and requires minimal input, so less effort and time consuming for reseacher

Answer 41

volunteer bias - type of person

Answer 42

every nth person of the target population is selected to take part

Answer 43

avoids researcher bias, once system has been established the researcher has no influence over who is chosen

Answer 44

difficult to achieve, time consuming no guarantee it will be truly representative

Answer 45

the researcher identifies the different types of people that make up the target population and work out the proportion needed for the sample to be representative

Answer 46

avoids researcher bias designed to be representative of the population

Answer 47

stratification is not perfect difficult to have complete list of general population

Answer 48

most representative to least representative stratified, random, systematic, opportunity, volunteer most time consuming to least time consuming stratified, systematic, random, volunteer, opportunity most biased to least biased opportunity, volunteer, stratified/ random/ systematic

Answer 49

the British Psychological Society is the representative body for psychology and psychologists in the UK, and is responsible for the proportion of excellence and ethical practice in science, education, practical applications of the discipline the principles are: respect, competence, responsibility, integrity if researchers break code of conduct they face losing their job

Answer 50

informed consent right to withdraw privacy confidentiality protection from harm deception

Answer 51

involves making ppts aware of the aims of the research, the procedures, their rights and also what their data will be used for, only then can the ppts make an informed judgement of whether they wish to participate

Answer 52

this is available for ppts after they find out everything about the investigation and are completely informed

Answer 53

ppts have the right to control information about themselves, this is the right to privacy

Answer 54

if privacy is invaded then confidentiality should be protected, it refers to our right to have any personal data protected

Answer 55

ppts should not be placed at any more risk than they would be in their daily lives, and should be protected from psychological and physical harm

Answer 56

means deliberately misleading or withholding information from ppts at any stage of the investigation

Answer 57

what will they be asked to do and why things they may experience how there data will be used time duration remind them of right to withdraw give options check box for participation give opportunity to ask questions signature, name, date over 16 can sign it under has to be parent

Answer 58

presumptive consent - ask a similar group of people if agreed, consent of ppts is presumed prior general consent - ppts agree to take part in study they are consenting to being deceived retrospective consent - asked after having already taken part

Answer 59

ppts offered a full debrief of experiment, contains true details of experiments, aims, conditions, what data will be used for and given right to withdraw data, ppts may require therapy researcher should provide

Answer 60

case studies are in depth investigations of a single person, group event or community, typically data is gathered from a variety of sources and by using several different methods

Answer 61

provides detailed information provides insight for further research permitting investigation of otherwise impractical or unethical situations

Answer 62

providing little bias for generalization of results in the wider population researchers own subjective feelings may influence the case study difficult to replicate time-consuming and expensive

Answer 63

a pilot is a small scale run of the actual investigation and may involve only a few ppts they are run for: experiments, self-report measures, observations

Answer 64

used to test the experiments effectiveness and make improvement before the real thing allows them to identify issues early then rectify them saving time and money any part of the study could be measured e.g. validity, how long it takes, if instructions are too complicated

Answer 65

takes place in the setting or context the target behaviour would usually occur

Answer 66

there is some control over variables to observe effects and also control extraneous variables

Answer 67

the observer joins in the scenario being observed

Answer 68

the observer is separate from scenario being observed

Answer 69

the ppts dont know that they are being observed

Answer 70

the ppts know that they are being observed

Answer 71

ecological validity - naturalistic because it happens in a natural setting high EV extraneous variables - controlled, less variables replicability - can be replicated in controlled setting

Answer 72

ethics - in overt situations people know they are being filmed DC - covert you wouldnt know you are being observed therefore behaviour wouldnt change

Answer 73

more insight - participant, would understand ppts feelings objectivity - non-participant, will be more objective

Answer 74

when a target behaviour is categorised into components that are observable and measurable, something you can see no interpretation categories must be exclusive and not overlap

Answer 75

count every time a behaviour occurs during observation

Answer 76

count behaviours that occur in smaller time frames e.g. every five minutes count for 1 minute

Answer 77

could miss infrequent behaviours less effort for researcher

Answer 78

can catch infrequent behaviours more effort for researcher

Answer 79

set of written questions - designed to collect information can discuss what people think or feel always pre-determined can be quantitative or qualitative used to asses DV

Answer 80

numerical - closed

Answer 81

non-numerical - open

Answer 82

clarity - do not use double negatives jargon - refers to technical terms that are only familiar to those in a specialised area bias - do not use leading questions which make one answer more attractive than the other analysis - questions need to be written so they are easy to analyse (open questions - hard to analyse, closed questions - easy to analyse)

Answer 83

respondents can indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree with a statement, usually five levels

Answer 84

a means of assessing attitudes or experiences by asking a respondent to rate statements on a scale of 1 to 3 to 5

Answer 85

questions with pre-determined number of answers

Answer 86

once you have designed a questionnaire you can use them for lost of people cheaply and quickly respondents may feel comfortable to reveal personal information can be completed without the investigator being present reduces experimenter bias which can be found in interviews no special experience needed to hand out questionnaires questionnaires with open questions can provide unexpected answers which can lead to further research

Answer 87

can only be filled out by those who read and write questionnaires using closed questions, limit response however easier to summarise social desirability bias - answering questions in a way so you are deemed socially acceptable dont have to be honest acquiescence bias when a ppt just ticks and agrees with all questions

Answer 88

has pre-determined questions, face to face questionnaires no deduction from original questions

Answer 89

new questions developed during the course of the interview interview may begin with general aims more like a conversation

Answer 90

many interviews fall in between job interview is semi-structured list of questions worked out in advance but interviews are also free to ask follow up questions when they feel appropriate

Answer 91

+ can be easily repeated because questions are standardised + different people can be compared due to the standard questions + answers are easier to analyse due to being predictable - comparability if interviewer is different or behaves differently - interviewer bias

Answer 92

+ more detailed information can be obtained - requires interviewer with more skills to develop questions - questions may lack objectivity due to quick creation - more expensive due to need for experienced interviewer - interviewer bias

Answer 93

record interviews to make sure all information taken down, visually or audially schedule standardised for ppt to reduce effect of interviewer bias an interviewer can effect answers by asking leading questions or hinting at the answers body language - open interested, closed uninterested

Answer 94

presence of an interviewer who is interested in the ppts answers may increase amount of information provided and vice versa

Answer 95

they show patterns and trends in data

Answer 96

average - mean/median/mode

Answer 97

spread - range/standard deviation

Answer 98

they tell us of the likelihood that iv affected the dv p < 0.05 this is the conventional levels, 5% or less likely that a chance factor affected dv 95% or more likely iv affected dv

Answer 99

in drug trails it can be p < 0.01

Answer 100

test of difference (experiment between two conditions) or association - correlation

Answer 101

experimental design independent groups - unrelated matched pairs - related repeated measure - related

Answer 102

level of data you are using nominal/categorical ordinal data - can be ranked difference between rankings is not standardised interval - ranked with standardised gaps, published scale e.g. height, weight, temp

Answer 103

mann-whitney

Answer 104

unrelated t-test

Answer 105

related t-test

Answer 106

milk - mann-whitney will - wilcoxon spoil - spearmans unless - unrelated t-test refrigerated - related t-test properly - pearsons

Answer 107

error of optimists accept experimental, reject null when p value is too big false positive

Answer 108

error of pessimists accept null, reject experimental when p value is too small e.g. p<0.01 false negative

Answer 109

internal reliability external reliability

Answer 110

the extent to which something is consistent within itself, we asses internal reliability by using the split half method where we compare scores from one half of the test with scores on the other half

Answer 111

the extent to which a test is consistent over several different occasions if the same interview was conducted with the same people one week and the next the outcome should be the same

Answer 112

testing the same group of patients on more than one occasion and checking that there is significant positive correlation between the two sets of scores, sufficient time must be allowed between tests so that the ppts dont remember the answers

Answer 113

establishing reliability in observational research by using more than one observer to rate or code the different types of behaviour, two observers making recordings at the same time avoids research bias

Answer 114

in an experiment make sure that the conditions are the same, everyone receives standardised instructions, everyone does the same task, all extraneous variables are controlled. this is to ensure that the research can be replicated

Answer 115

checks for variation in measurement taken by a single person with a single measurement tool for the same type of behaviour if the correlation between the two sets of scores is high then the measurement tool has good retest reliability

Answer 116

taking more than one measurement from each ppt and calculating an average score pilot studies - these ensure that the measure works and that all concerned can use the apparatus training researchers properly: particularly when a number of researchers are collecting data, this improves inter-rater reliability, a pilot study can also help standardise procedures and data recording techniques operationalising terms precisely so that all observers categorise behaviours in the same way

Answer 117

does it measure what it is meant to measure

Answer 118

external validity - ecological validity internal validity

Answer 119

can the results be generalised from the setting in which they are obtained

Answer 120

do the results reflect a persons real life behaviour, research carried out in a artificial environment like a lab does not

Answer 121

does the experiment really measure the effects of the iv on the dv

Answer 122

social desirability bias, investigator effects, order effects

Answer 123

consent, not informed consent (deception), independent groups design

Answer 124

face validity concurrent validity predictive validity

Answer 125

do the questions look like they measure what the researcher intended to measure, are they obviously related to the topic

Answer 126

check for this with a new research tool against an established tool, if the new research tool gives similar results than it has concurrent validity

Answer 127

check for this by assessing two sets of data at different times e.g. look at the correlation of an initial diagnosis of mental state compared to the actual state over time, if the predicted behaviour at the initial diagnosis has occurred, the diagnosis has validity

Answer 128

experimental research questionnaires observations qualitative methods

Answer 129

a study may be reliable but not valid however if a measurement is not reliable then it can not be valid

Answer 130

title, abstract, introduction, aim, hypothesis, experimental/alternative hypothesis, method, procedure, results, discussion, references, appendix

Answer 131

this is always written last because it is a summary of the report about 150 words, abstracts provide an efficient way of gaining information without having to read an entire study, they contain all the essential information that a researcher would need to know about replicating the study

Answer 132

this tells everyone why the study is being carried out and the commentary should form a funnel of information, first there is a broad coverage of the background research, then the general research has been covered, the focus becomes much narrower finishing with the main researcher/research area you are hoping to refute. this then leads to the aim and the hypothesis

Answer 133

this covers exactly what it is you are hoping to find out and how

Answer 134

this is a short testable statement, the independent variable must be operationalised and the dependent variable measurable, justification must be given for whether the test is to be directional or non-directional

Answer 135

going against the normal hypothesis

Answer 136

this section is split inro sub-sections design: experimental, non-experimental method used -laboratory/field/natural or correlation or survey method design type - independent groups, related measures, matched pairs, correlation, observation, interview, IV, DV, EV, use of counterbalancing/ measures taken to avoid bias ethical issues, participants, relevant details of target population - age/socio-economic status, gender, etc relevant details of sample population, sampling method used, allocation to conditions, report of those who dropped out, materials, description of equipment used and how to use it

Answer 137

this is a step by step guide of how the study was carried out - when, where, how, including details of how variables were operationalised, instructions to ppts must be standardised to allow replication

Answer 138

this ection contains only a summary of the data, all raw data and calculations are put in the appendix, this generally starts with a section of descriptive statistics - measures of central tendency and dispersion. graphical representations of the data must also be clear and properly labelled and referred to in the text. one the summary statistics have been explained, there should be an analysis of the results of any inferential statistics, including observed values, how these related to the critical table value, significance level and whether the test was one or two tailed, this section finished with the rejection or acceptance of the null hypothesis

Answer 139

begins with a statement of the findings and how these relate to the original hypothesis, all results are reported even if they do not fit in the hypothesis or science would not progress, all studies have flaws, so anything that went wrong, or the limitations of the study are discussed together with suggestions of how it could be improved if it were to be repeated . suggestions for alternative studies and future research can also be explored, the discussion ends with a paragraph summing up what was found and assessing the implication of the study and any conclusion that can be drawn from it

Answer 140

every researcher cited in the text must be fully refernced using the harvard system, referncing is time consuming but is important in order to prevent plagarism

Research Methods 1&2 Flashcards

(171 cards)