research methods Flashcards
strengths/weaknesses of lab experiment
strengths:
- high level of control leading to high internal validity
- high level of control leads to greater reliability and easier replication
Weaknesses:
- artificial setting lacking generalisability and ecological validity
- demand characteristics
strengths/weaknesses of field experiment
Strengths:
- higher mundane realism and ecological validity
- reduction in demand characteristics
Weaknesses:
- less control of extraneous variables (lower internal validity)
- lower replicability and generalisability
strengths/weaknesses of natural experiment
strengths:
- higher ecological validity
- reduction in demand Characteristics
Weaknesses:
- confounding variables leading to low internal validity
- difficult to replicate
strengths/weaknesses of Quasi-experiment
strengths:
- allows investigation in areas where manipulation of variables would be unethical/impossible
- comparisons can be made between people
Weaknesses:
- Participants are not randomly allocated
- Causal relationships not demonstrated
What is a correlational analysis and what are the strengths/weaknesses?
- a statistical technique to analyse data to measure the strength of the relationship between two variables resulting in a number between +1 and -1
- neither variable is manipulated by the experimenter
strengths:
- identifies relationships between variables and the strength and direction of this
- can use secondary data so no collection of data involved
Weaknesses:
- can’t be used to establish cause and effect
- cannot be used to study non-linear/curvilinear relationships
What is an interview?
- a self-report technique involving a live encounter where a researcher askes a series of questions to assess an individual’s thoughts and experiences
- can be structured or unstructured
What is a questionnaire and what are the strengths/weaknesses?
- a self-report technique where a set of written questions/statements is used to assess a person’s thoughts/experiences
Strength:
- allows collection of large amounts of data (cost-effective)
- reduced investigator effects
Weaknesses:
- social desirability bias
- response bias
What is content analysis and what are the strengths/weaknesses?
- a research technique that enables the indirect study of behaviour by examining communications that people produce
- the aim is to summarise and describe the communication so that conclusions can be drawn
- coding: categorising the information - produces quantitative data
- thematic analysis: identifying explicit or implicit ideas that recur in the information - produces qualitative data
Strengths:
- can produce both sets of data
- circumvents ethical issues because information is already public
Weaknesses:
- material analysed out of context
- lack of objectivity
Strengths/weaknesses of closed questions
Strengths:
- easier to analyse
Weaknesses:
- responses are restricted
Strengths/weaknesses of open questions
- responses aren’t restricted
- difficult to analyse
process of designing interviews
- interview schedule
- quiet room
- Rapport
- Ethics
what is a pilot study?
- small-scale trial run of a research design using a small number of participants
- aims to find out if certain things don’t work so you can correct them before spending time and money on the real thing
Strengths/weaknesses of Qualitative data
- richness in detail
- difficult to analyse
Strengths/weaknesses of Quantitative data
- easier to analyse
- narrower in meaning
Strengths/weaknesses of primary data
- directly relevant
- requires time and effort
Strengths/weaknesses of secondary data
- cheaper
- quality may be poor
What is a meta-analysis and what are its Strengths/weaknesses
- a type of secondary data that involves combining data from a large number of studies
- increases validity of conclusions
- publication bias
Strengths/weaknesses of using the mean
- sensitive measure
- may be unrepresentative
Strengths/weaknesses of using the median
- less affected by extreme scores
- less sensitive than the mean
Strengths/weaknesses of using the mode
- relevant to categorical data
- an overly simple measure
Strengths/weaknesses of using the range
- easy to calculate
- does not account for the distribution of the scores
Strengths/weaknesses of using standard deviation
- more precise than the range
- it may be misleading
what are the aims of peer review
- funding: allocate research funding
- validation of the quality and relevance of research
- improvements and amendments are suggested
Strengths/weaknesses of peer review
- protects quality of published research
- Anonymity may be used to criticise rival research
- Publication bias
- Ground-breaking research may be buried
