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Psychology > Research Methods > Flashcards

Research Methods Flashcards

1
Q

When would you use a Directional (one-tailed) hypothesis?

A

When previous research predicts a likely direction of the results

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2
Q

When would you use a Non-Directional (two-tailed) hypothesis?

A

When previous research gives confounding results

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3
Q

What is a Null Hypothesis?

A

States there will be no effect of an independent variable on the dependent variable

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4
Q

How do you draw a bar chart?

A

Rectangular squares however they do not touch each other

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5
Q

What is the independent variable?

A

The thing that you change

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6
Q

What is the dependent variable?

A

The thing that you measure

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7
Q

What is meant by the term operalisation?

A

Clearly define variables so they are testable/measurable

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8
Q

What is independent groups?

A

Involves different groups doing each condition

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9
Q

What is repeated measures?

A

Involves one group doing all conditions

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10
Q

What is matched pairs?

A

Where people are put together on similar aspects (such as age, gender, IQ) that are pre-tested and put in to separate groups. Each group experiences one level of the IV.

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11
Q

What are the advantages of independent groups?

A

Participants less likely to guess the aim and change their behaviour accordingly

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12
Q

What are the disadvantages of independent groups?

A

As the groups contain different people, their individual differences might influence the results

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13
Q

What are the advantages of repeated measures?

A

By using the same participants in all conditions, there are no individual differences to act as a confounding variable

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14
Q

What are the disadvantages of repeated measures?

A

By doing the experiment more than once in different conditions, the participants may be affected by order effects

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15
Q

What are the advantages of matched pairs?

A

By matching the groups in each condition on key participant variables, the influence of individual differences should be significantly reduced

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16
Q

What are the disadvantages of matched pairs?

A

Despite some control, it is impossible to remove all individual differences

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17
Q

What is counterbalancing?

A

Attempt to control order effects; group of participants split in two smaller groups, half participants do condition A then condition B and vice versa- this means effects of doing one condition after another in repeated measures design will be counteracted

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18
Q

What is a field experiment?

A

Takes place in participants’ natural environments- participants randomly allocated to conditions

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19
Q

What is a lab experiment?

A

Takes place in controlled setting- participants can be randomly allocated to conditions

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20
Q

What is a natural experiment?

A

Can take place in labs or natural settings- the IV is a variable which is controlled by someone other than the researcher; IV not manipulated

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21
Q

What is a quasi experiment?

A

The IV is not determined by the researcher, it is naturally occurring

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22
Q

What is informed consent?

A

Need to give participants info on what they’re doing and they have to agree

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23
Q

What is deception?

A

Participants should be aware of all elements of investigation before taking part, and should not be lied to during process of research- however, if telling patients everything will affect behaviour, then they can be deceived

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24
Q

What is confidentiality?

A

If taking part in research you should not have to use I.D., name etc. full privacy

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25
Q

What is protection from harm?

A

At all times protect participants from physical and psychological harm

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26
Q

Why can a debrief be used a method of dealing with all other issues?

A

As after the research the participants should be informed about exactly what the information is aiming to do. Debrief also allows participants an opportunity to ask questions or be offered support

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27
Q

What is the role of Peer Review?

A

It acts as a barrier, stopping flawed, fraudulent and foolish research becoming part of public understanding, however impossible to ensure all reviews are done in a totally unbiased way

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28
Q

What are demand characteristics?

A

When participants display characteristics that try to help the

researcher or deliberately mess it up

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29
Q

How can demand characteristics be controlled?

A

The researcher can deceive the participants by not telling them the aim of the research before they take part

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30
Q

What is meant by the term ‘double blind’ and why is it used?

A

When both participant and researcher are unaware of what condition of an experiment is being tested- so researcher cannot influence results

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31
Q

What is meant by the term ‘single blind and why is it used?

A

When only participants is unaware of which condition of experiment is being tested- so they do not produce demand characteristics

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32
Q

What is event sampling?

A

Everytime behaviour/event seen it gets tallied

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33
Q

What is time sampling?

A

Watch someone’s behaviour in time slots

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34
Q

What is a controlled observation?

A

Conducted under lab conditions and often involve researcher setting up situation for participants to interact with e.g. Strange Situation

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35
Q

What is a naturalistic observation?

A

Conducted in real world in location where behaviour being studied takes place

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36
Q

What is a covert observation?

A

Observation where participants do not know they are being observed

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37
Q

What is an overt observation?

A

An observation in which participants are aware they are being studied

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38
Q

What is a participant observation?

A

Involves researchers becoming part of group being observed

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39
Q

What is a non-participant observation?

A

When researcher is watching from outside group being observed

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40
Q

What is inter-rater reliability?

A

When two people observe something and get similar/same results

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41
Q

What is qualitative data?

A

Looking at why people might behave in certain way, interested in subjective experiments- can’t apply statistical analysis

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42
Q

What is quantitative data?

A

How many times something has been done, deals with numbers etc.

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43
Q

Example of qualitative data?

A

Self-reports such as interviews and questionairres

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44
Q

Example of quantitative data?

A

Correlations and numerical data e.g. observations

45
Q

What is a pilot study and why is it used?

A

Used for carrying out small scale version for bigger research- used to be able to see problems with behavioural categories, questions etc.

46
Q

What is a self-report questionairre?

A

Consist of a series of questions, and require participants to give a written answer

47
Q

What is an open questionairre?

A

Allow participant to answer in anyway chosen with no limit to possible responses, qualitative data

48
Q

What is a closed questionairre?

A

Limit the possible responses by providing tick boxes or offering a scale to indicate agreement- quantitative data

49
Q

What are the advantages of a closed questionairre?

A

Easy to analyse

50
Q

What are the advantages of an open questionairre?

A

You get detailed response

51
Q

What is a correlation?

A

A way to look for a relationship that may exist between two measured variables- a way of analysing data rather than a research method

52
Q

What are the variables in correlation referred to as?

A

Co-variables as they are not casually linked- instead they may or may not be related to one another

53
Q

What are correlations conducted on?

A

They can be conducted on secondary data, and provide a useful starting point for psychological research

54
Q

What is the correlation coefficient?

A

Strength of a correlation can be measured by calculating the correlation coefficient, number between -1 and +1

55
Q

What are the strengths of correlation?

A

Correlations can be conducted quickly using second data as way to investigate whether may be a relationship between two variables

56
Q

What are the weaknesses of correlation?

A

-Cannot give you information about cause and effect only that a relationship exists not how or why

57
Q

What do case studies do?

A
  • Aim to gather detailed information about case, such as an individual, specific group of people or event
  • Data can be qualitative or quantitative
58
Q

Positives of case studies?

A
  • Data gathered is detailed and in-depth so more valid conclusions can be drawn
  • Method can be used to investigate events and behaviour that are rare or would be unethical to investigate by other means
59
Q

What are negatives of case studies?

A
  • These studies can take a lot of time

- Sample is limited and not representative of wider population

60
Q

What is content analysis?

A
  • An indirect observation using pre-existing communications such as magazine article or TV programme
  • Involves systematic examination of material
61
Q

What are the positives of content analysis?

A
  • Quite ethical as no people being used in order to gather data
  • High in ecological validity as analyses real communications
62
Q

What are the weaknesses of content analysis?

A
  • Data collection may be subjective as relies on researchers interpretation
  • Method describes what is seen but not causes of it
63
Q

What is thematic analysis?

A
  • Technique used to summarise key ideas from qualitative data gathered from all methods
  • Process where analysis of the data leads to the development of categories or themes that emerge from it
64
Q

What are the steps for thematic analysis?

A

1) -Researcher gets familiar with material, finds categories/themes and creates code for analysis
2) -Then they re examine the data and code it according to the themes
3) -Review the themes by checking against the data
4) -Data is summarised by its themes and supported with data drawn from transcript
5) -Then written up as data analysis

65
Q

When is a sample used?

A

It’s impossible to study every individual in target population so sample is drawn to represent them

66
Q

What is random sampling?

A

Every member of target population has equal chance of being selected for research e.g. picking names from a hat

67
Q

What is opportunity sampling?

A

The sample consists of whoever happens to be available at the time study is happening

68
Q

What is stratified sampling?

A

Target population broken down into key demographic components e.g. male and female and then selected randomly from there

69
Q

What is systematic sampling?

A

Researcher picks people according to a system e.g. every fourth person is chosen

70
Q

What is volunteer sampling?

A

Sample consists of people who choose to respond to requests for participants

71
Q

Positives of sampling?

A

Do not take too much time or effort

72
Q

What are the negatives of event sampling and time sampling?

A

Event sampling: Can be difficult to do accurately when there is a lot of action to record reducing reliability of data

Time sampling: Possible to miss important events as they happen outside time frame

73
Q

What should researchers do to keep reliability of data collection?

A

Conduct a pilot observation to make sure categories are easy to identify and nothing is missing and inter-rater reliability

74
Q

What are the four types of validity?

A

1) -Face validity: Seeing if the test is what it claims to be
2) -Concurrent Validity: Uses already validated measures for variable being tested and correlates measures from test with measures using another
3) -Ecological Validity: If results can be generalised and applied to real-life settings
4) -Temporal Validity: Compares results of time by retesting and if findings are still valid

75
Q

What is another way to improve reliability?

A

The test re-test method; Give test to same participants on two (or more) occasions and correlate results, reliable if they are the same

76
Q

What are operationalised variables and what do they do?

A

It helps increase objectivity e.g. defining aggression to pushing/kicking

77
Q

What are the seven features of science?

A

Empirical methods, Objectivity, Theory Construction, Hypothesis Testing, Replicability, Falsifiability, Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts

78
Q

What are empirical methods?

A

Data-collecting techniques based on actual evidence rather than thoughts

79
Q

What is objectivity?

A

Achieved when data and interpretation are free from bias

80
Q

What is replicability?

A

Researchers must be able to replicate procedure and get same results

81
Q

What is theory construction?

A

A theory seeks to explain observed phenomena which enable predictions that are then tested and the results are used to refine the theory

82
Q

What is falsifiablity?

A

Theories should generate testable predictions which can be proven wrong so data should be objective e.g. Freud cannot be falsified as not objectively tested

83
Q

What is hypothesis testing?

A

A testable prediction based on a theory

84
Q

What is a paradigm?

A

A paradigm is a shared set of assumptions about the content and methods of a particular discipline e.g. An early behaviourist paradigm was that behaviour can be explained in terms of learning from environment and this can be tested scientifically

85
Q

What is a paradigm shift?

A

Occurs when dominant paradigm is replaced with a new one e.g. simple stimulus-response learning challenged by Social Learning Theory

86
Q

What are the sections of a scientific report?

A

Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, References

87
Q

What is the abstract?

A

Summarises research so other researchers can decide if it is relevant without wasting time- briefly outlines entire investigation

88
Q

What is the introduction?

A

Outlines why the study was done- beginning is general, summary of research on topic next, outlines aims of study with hypothesis at end

89
Q

What is the method of report?

A

Details what was done- identification of variables, includes sample size, sampling method, apparatus used etc.

90
Q

What are the results of report?

A

Summarised data in tables and charts supported by conclusions drawn from data

91
Q

What is the discussion?

A

Links findings and conclusions of study to background theory and research, also explores limitations of researches and outlines implications for future research

92
Q

What are the references?

A

Comes at the end, references cited in writing of report so all sources of info here

93
Q

What is a meta-analyses?

A

Secondary Data Method that combines data from several studies that allows conclusion to be drawn

94
Q

What is an example of qualitative data?

A

Interviews and Questionairres

95
Q

What is an example of quantitative data?

A

Inferential statistics

96
Q

Strengths and Weaknesses of mean?

A

Strength- Likely to be most representative as all scores used
Weakness- Affected by extremes

97
Q

Strengths and weaknesses of median?

A

Strength- Unaffected by extremes

Weakness- Does not use all scores so less representative

98
Q

Strengths and weaknesses of mode?

A

Strength- Unaffected by extremes

Weakness- Does not use all scores

99
Q

How can you see the normal distribution of a graph?

A

The shape of the line on the graph is bell shaped

100
Q

What is a positive skew of distribution?

A

Results from scores that are mainly below the mean- more scores concentrated to left of graph

101
Q

What is a negative skew of distribution?

A

When most scores fall above the mean and peak of chart is to the right

102
Q

What is nominal data?

A

Frequency data e.g. number of people who finish half a marathon

103
Q

What is ordinal data?

A

Continuous data that represents scores along a scale e.g. position people came in marathon

104
Q

What is interval data?

A

Scale of measurements exact and equal intervals e.g. time taken by competitors in marathon

105
Q

What is a type 1` error?

A

A false positive leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis- occurs when significance level too high e.g. p<0.10

106
Q

What is a type 2 error?

A

A false negative leading to the rejection of the null hypothesis again- occurs when significance level too low e.g. p<0.01

107
Q

What is a significance level?

A

Standard significance level accepted in psychology is 0.05

108
Q

What does below 0.05 significance level show and above 0.05?

A
  • Below 0.05 shows that you should accept there is a genuine effect
  • Whereas above 0.05 (5%) you should reject that there was an effect as it is too risky to tell and reject the null hypothesis
109
Q

What are confounding variables?

A

Variables that are found to have influenced the results of the research

Psychology (6 decks)

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