Research Methods Flashcards

Question

Confounding variable

Answer 1

any variable, other than the IV, that has not been controlled does affect the DV. Therefore we cannot be sure of the true reason for the changes to the DV / differences found

Answer 2

the researcher takes advantage of a naturally occurring IV and the effect it has on the DV the experimenter has no manipulated the IV directly; the IV would vary naturally whether or not the researcher was interested the researcher cannot randomly allocate participants to conditions and/or has no control over the IV this is not a 'true' experiment

Answer 3

natural, not necessarily the setting

Answer 4

provides opportunities for research that may not be otherwise conducted due to practical/ethical reasons e.g. does smoking when pregnant lead to behavioural problems in infants they have high external validity because they involve the study of real-life

Answer 5

a naturally occurring event may happen, rarely limiting generalisation to other situations participants may not be randomly, allocated to conditions

Answer 6

IV is not something that varies at all - it is simply a difference between people that exists the researcher records the effects of this 'quasi-IV' on the DV the researcher cannot randomly allocate participants to conditions and/or has no control over the IV This is not a 'true' experiment example, experiments where the IV is a variable such as age, gender

Answer 7

carried out under controlled conditions & share the strengths of a lab experiment

Answer 8

participants are aware of being tested - possible demand characteristics participants cannot be randomly allocated and therefore they may be confounding variables

Answer 9

lab > controlled > controlled field > natural > controlled quasi > controlled > naturally occurring natural > natural > naturally occurring

Answer 10

any variable other than the IV may have an effect on the DV if it is not controlled these variables can come from the participant (e.g. age, intelligence), the experimental situation (e.g. noise levels, temperature) or the experimenter (e.g. personality, appearance or conduct of the researcher)

Answer 11

participants are not 'passive' in experiments and they may work out what is going on and change their behaviour to please the experimenter or even act negatively demand characteristics occur when a participant may receive a 'cue' from a researcher or the situation so the participant changes their behaviour as a result

Answer 12

any effects of the investigator's behaviour (conscious or unconscious) on the research outcome (DV) , this may include everything from the design of the study, to the selection of and interaction with the participants during the research process

Answer 13

randomisation standardisation

Answer 14

extraneous variables confounding variables demand characteristics investigator effects

Answer 15

the use of 'chance' in order to control for the effects of bias i.e. in a memory experiment that may involve participants recalling words from a list. the order of the list should be randomly generated so that the position of each word is not decided by the experimenter

Answer 16

they can affect the credibility of research findings. psychologists must consider these when designing and conducting research and they are used to assess how good a piece of research is

Answer 17

how accurate and representative the results are the degree to which something measures what it claims to

Answer 18

internal validity external validity

Answer 19

concerns whether the results are due to the manipulation of the IV and not affected by confounding variables

Answer 20

refers to the extent to which the results can be generalised to other settings

Answer 21

temporal validity ecological validity

Answer 22

refers to how well we can generalise the results across different periods of time

Answer 23

refers to whether the experimental results can be generalised to other settings, particularly from artificial/controlled settings to real life environment

Answer 24

how consistent the results are if the experiment is repeated, will the same or highly similar results occur again?

Answer 25

internal reliability external reliability inter-observer reliability

Answer 26

refers to the extent to which a test is consistent within itself. for example, if someone was completing a questionnaire measuring high levels of obedience they should have the same score on the questionnaire for it to have internal reliability

Answer 27

refers to the extent to which a test is consistent over time. for example if someone achieved 120 on an IQ test if they were tested again in say 8 months time, we would expect them to achieve the same results. this would show the test to have external reliability

Answer 28

refers to the extent to which two or more observers are in agreement on the behaviours they observe. we check for inter-rater reliability by correlating the two or more sets of observations to see if they correlate positively. over or at 0.8 would be high inter-observer reliability and they have consistently observed the same behaviours

Answer 29

how the participants in an experiment will be used

Answer 30

independent groups repeated measures matched pairs

Answer 31

when two separate groups of participants experience two different conditions of the experiment

Answer 32

order effects are avoided (when participants become aware of or bored with an experimental procedure) there are less likely to be demand characteristics because participants only take part in one condition of the experiment and are therefore less likely to pick up on cues

Answer 33

individual differences between groups, otherwise called ''participant variables'', may affect the results ( what if one group has people who have a naturally higher IQ than people in the other group?) - to deal with this random allocation is used a larger amount of participants are needed in this experimental design

Answer 34

where all participants take part in both the conditions

Answer 35

participants variable problems are avoided because all participants take part in both conditions. therefore, it doesn't matter if they have different IQs or memory abilities because they are kept constant through both conditions this experimental design requires fewer participants because the same group is re-used

Answer 36

order effects are very likely to occur; participants may become bored, aware of the aims or tired because they carry out a task twice. they would need to control for this by using counterbalancing demand characteristics are more likely to occur because participants have been exposed to both conditions of the experiment and therefore may pick on cues or figure out the aim of the experiment the researcher will need to ensure they have different test materials for condition 1 and 2. for example, they would not be able to use the same list of words in a memory test for both conditions. to control for this they have to use a different set of words but make sure they are of similar difficulty

Answer 37

am attempt to control order effects in which half the participants take part in condition A then B and the other half take part in condition B then A For example Participant 1 = A - B Participant 2 = B - A Participant 3 = A - B and so on ...

Answer 38

order effects but attempts to balance out the effects of order between the two conditions

Answer 39

where pairs or participants are first matched on a key variable (i.e. IQ). then one member is assigned to condition A and the other assigned to condition B

Answer 40

the issue of participant variables is greatly reduced order effects are totally avoided demand characteristics are less likely

Answer 41

it is pretty much impossible to match people exactly on every characteristics unless maybe they are identical twins - and even then, it is usually just matching physical characteristics it is very time consuming to find lots of people that match each other so closely

Answer 42

bandura et al bobo doll in order to control for naturally occurring aggression levels in the children (so it would not confound the DV) he got the children's parents and teachers to rate their aggression on a 1-5 scale he then matched the children on their aggression levels so each condition had the same number of highly aggressive children (5), medium aggression (4-2) and non aggressive children (1)

Answer 43

interviews questionnaires

Answer 44

structured interviews are made up of pre-determined questions that are asked in a fixed order this is like a questionnaire but conducted face-to-face (or over the phone) in real time

Answer 45

many interviews are likely to fall somewhere between structured and unstructured there is a list of questions prepared in advance, but interviewers can follow up answers (like a job interview)

Answer 46

an unstructured interview is a lot like a conversation. there is no set questions, but there is an aim that a certain topic will be discussed the interview will be free-flowing. the interviewee is encouraged to expand on their answers

Answer 47

easy to replicate due to standardised format (increases reliability)

Answer 48

a problem is that it's difficult to deviate from the topic or for interviewees to expand on their answers (lacks depth and therefore validity)

Answer 49

much more flexible, an interviewer can follow up on points if and when they arise gaining more insight and understanding (increasing validity)

Answer 50

trying to analyse the data can be challenging often because open ended question are used (qualitative data) there is always the risk of interviewees being untruthful for reasons of social desirability

Answer 51

structured semi-structured unstructured

Answer 52

involve a pre-set list of questions (or items) to which the participants responds through written answers. these are used to assess a person's thoughts and/or experiences a questionnaire may be used as part of an experiment to measure the DV. there are different styles of questions that can be designed : open and closed questions

Answer 53

open and closed questions

Answer 54

can be given to a large sample of people and so large amounts of data can be gathered relatively easily. they can also be done without the researcher being present i.e. postal questionnaires

Answer 55

respondents wanting to show themselves in a positive light (social desirability) rather than beinf truthful. or respondents may show 'response bias' where they respond in a particular way i.e. always ticking 'yes' or answering '3' on a scale of 5

Answer 56

open questions do not have a fixed range of answers and respondents are free to answer in any way that they wish. open questions tend to produce qualitative data (rich in depth, but difficult to analyse) for example "Why do you enjoy psychology A level course?"

Answer 57

closed questions offer a fixed number of responses and produce numerical data by limiting answers respondents can give. they produce qualitative data (easy to analyse, but lack depth associated with open questions) For example "Do you watch more than 10 hours per week of TV?'... 'yes' or 'no' or respondents may be asked to rate how often they watch soap opera on TV on a scale of 1 - 5 1 2 3 4 5 1 = never 3 = sometimes 5 = everyday

Answer 58

repondents can expand on their answers, which increases the amount of detailed information collected open questions can reveal unexpected answers; therefore researchers can gain new insight into people's feelings and attitudes they also provide qualitative (non-numerical data) which although may be rich in information, it can be more difficult to summarise and/or detect patterns to draw conclusions

Answer 59

they have a limited range of answers and produce quantitative data (numerical data). this means the answers are easier to analyse using descriptive statistics (mean, mode, graphical representation) however, respondents may be forced to select answers that don't represent their true thoughts or behaviour, therefore data collected may lack validity

Answer 60

overuse of jargon emotive language and leading questions double barrelled questions and double negatives

Answer 61

technical terms that only those familiar with the field will understand

Answer 62

guiding the respondent to a particular response

Answer 63

two questions in one; respondent may agree with one half of the question but not the other and therefore would not know how to respond the question could be hard to decipher and could be written in a much clearer way

Answer 64

self-report method

Answer 65

qualitative data than questionnaires, but certain types of interview will lead to quantitative data being gathered

Answer 66

an interview schedule recording effective interviewer no ethical issues

Answer 67

a list of questions the interviewer intends to cover. this should be standardised for each interviewee to reduce investigator bias

Answer 68

the interviewer may take notes throughout the interview (although this may interfere with listening skills). Alternatively, the interview may be audio recorded or videoed

Answer 69

one of the strengths of interviews over questionnaires is that the presence of the interviewer who is interested in the interviewee may increase the amount of information provided. this is because it allows a rapport to be built with interviewee the interviewer needs to be careful with their non-verbal communication - not sitting with arms folded for example. Behaviour needs to be welcoming and encouraging i.e. head nodding & leaning forward. A further consideration for the interviewer is listening skills - an experienced interviewer will know when and how to speak i.e. not interrupting or using negative language

Answer 70

respondents should be reminded that their answers will be treated confidentially. this is especially important if the interview includes topics that may be personal or sensitive

Answer 71

self-report method they are usually used to produce quantitative data for statistical analysis, but can also be used to collect qualitative data

Answer 72

clarity - clear questions that are easy to understand for respondent (reader) bias - questions do not lead respondents to give a particular answer assumptions - avoid making assumptions about respondents e.g. about sexuality non-intrusive - avoids questions that are too personal checked - questionnaire is piloted to make sure questions are understood and interpreted correctly

Answer 73

naturalistic and controlled observations overt and covert observations participant and non-participant observations

Answer 74

takes place in the participant's natural environment. for example it would not make sense to study how employees and managers from Primark behave by dragging the workforce into an artificial lab setting. it would be better to study their 'interaction' in their normal working environment. this means the researcher does not interfere in any way with what's happening

Answer 75

they are different in a natural experiment there is an IV whereas in an observation there isn't

Answer 76

naturalistic observations provide a realistic picture of behaviour therefore have a high external validity (findings can be generalised to everyday life). Although this may be less so if participants are aware of being observed.

Answer 77

one of the issues is due to the lack of control there may be uncontrolled extraneous variables that may actually influence the behaviour observed also, naturalistic observations tend to be one off situations and makes replication of investigation challenging

Answer 78

takes place in a controlled environment provided by the researcher e.g. the strange situation in this set up the researcher can at least control for some variables but it does reduce the 'naturalness' of the environment and behaviour being studied

Answer 79

means the researcher can focus on particular aspects of behaviour and also being controlled means extraneous variables are less of a problem and replication becomes easier

Answer 80

making an environment more controlled can sometimes impact on how the participants behave. this may be less natural because of the environment

Answer 81

in both naturalistic and observations participants may be aware they are being observed, this is called an overt observation since this is likely to have an effect on the 'naturalness' of the participants behaviour, observers try to be as obtrusive as possible. the participants would have given their informed consent beforehand

Answer 82

overt observations have an ethical advantage to covert observations because participants are aware of what is going on and have given consent

Answer 83

the slight disadvantage is that having this awareness could mean participants behave differently to normal and behaviour is not as natural (weakens internal validity)

Answer 84

the participants are totally unaware they are the focus of a study and their behaviour is observed in secret, say from across the room or from a balcony participants are made aware after the study of what took place observations can take place through a 2 way mirror (participant's cannot see the observer)

Answer 85

good internal validity because the participants are unaware of the observations, the behaviour will be natural (less likely to suffer from demand characteristics)

Answer 86

ethics of these studies may be questioned, as people may not wish their behaviour to be studied without their initial consent

Answer 87

sometimes it may be necessary for the observer to become part of the group they're studying, this is participant observation for example, a researcher may join the workforce at Primark (as mentioned earlier) to get first-hand account of the relations between staff and managers

Answer 88

can provide real insight into participants being studied and this richness may not be gained in any other way (increases internal validity)

Answer 89

there is a danger the observer may identify too strongly with those they're studying and as a result lose their objectivity

Answer 90

in most cases, the observer is merely watching (or listening) to the behaviour of others and remains separate from the participants in the study. This is non-participant observation

Answer 91

observers are more likely to remain objective because they aren't part of the group being studied

Answer 92

they may lose valuable insight into the participants because they are too removed from the people and behaviour (decreased validity)

Answer 93

the researcher records all relevant behaviour, but has no system. they may simply write down everything they see ...clearly there may be too much to record as well as recording behaviour that may not be that important

Answer 94

it is preferable to use these observations; they aim to be objective and rigorous the researcher uses a pre-determined list of behavioural categories and sampling methods

Answer 95

for structured observations researchers need to be very clear on exactly what behaviour they're looking for. it is operationalising - breaking up the behaviour in a set of components so it can be measured

Answer 96

objective - the researcher should not have to make guesses about behaviour. The categories must be observable no waste basket - in other words all possible behaviours are covered and avoiding a 'waste basket' category, in which loads of different behaviour is thrown in because it's unclear where the behaviour should be categorised independent of each other - categories should not overlap, meaning that the researcher has to mark two categories at one time

Answer 97

event sampling - this involves the times a particular behaviour (event) occurs in an individual or target group time sampling - this method records behaviour within a particular time frame. for example noting what an individual is doing every 30 seconds, or some other time frame

Answer 98

structured v unstructured - structured are designed to use behavioural categories that make the recording of behaviour easier, data is likely to produce quantitative data which means analysing and comparing the behaviour observed is straightforward unstructured tend to produce qualitative data, which may be harder to analyse, also higher risk of 'observer bias' as behavioural categories aren't used. researchers may record behaviour that simply 'catches their eye' and could also miss important behaviours behavioural categories - having categories can make data collection easier, adds structure and they're objective but they need to be very clear avoiding 'waste basket' category sampling - event sampling is useful when the target behaviour or even happens infrequently and could be missed if time sampling was used however if the event is too complex the observer may overlook important details if using event sampling time sampling, effective in reducing the number of observations that have to be made however those instances when behaviour is sampled might be unrepresentative of the observation as a whole

Answer 99

in-depth information, can lead to greater internal validity due to richness of information gathered. people being studies are normally pretty unique and are studied with the aim of answering difficult or important questions that cannot be investigated experimentally might include medical records, attitude tests, school records and reports, interviews with family members or colleagues, tests of clinical symptoms

Answer 100

rich in detail - provide great depth and understanding about individuals the only possible method to use - case studies allow psychologists to study unique behaviours or experiences that could not have been studies any other way. the method also allows 'sensitive' areas to be explored, where other methods would be unethical, like the effects of sexual abuse useful for theory contradictions - just one case can contradict a theory

Answer 101

not representative - as no two case studies are alike, results cannot be generalised to others researcher bias - researchers conducting case studies may be biased in their interpretations or method of reporting, making findings suspect reliance on memory - case studies often depend on participants having full and accurate memories

Answer 102

a way psychologists can measure the strength between two or more co-variables (things that are measured)

Answer 103

scattergram positive correlation - where one co-variable increases and so does another negative correlation - where one co-variable increases and the other decreases no correlation - the variables have no relationship

Answer 104

predict a relationship between two variables not a difference (like in experiments), and therefore are worded differently to experimental hypotheses

Answer 105

states whether the relationship will be a positive or a negative correlation example - there will be a significant positive correlation between temperature and ice-cream sales

Answer 106

simply states that there will be a correlation example - there will be a significant correlation between average time spent reading per week and scored on an I.Q test

Answer 107

the strength of the correlation the sign tells you the direction of the correlation, positive or negative the number tells you the strength : closer to 1 means stronger, closer to 0 means weaker

Answer 108

-1.0 perfect negative correlation between -1.0 and -0.8 is moderate negative between -0.8 and -0.5 moderate negative between -0.5 and 0 weak negative 0 = no correlation between 0 and 0.5 is weak positive between 0.5 and 0.8 is moderate positive between 0.8 and 1.0 is strong positive and at 1.0 perfect positive correlation

Answer 109

the strength and direction of a relationship between two variables

Answer 110

the weaker the correlation

Answer 111

the stronger the correlation

Answer 112

correlations are useful as a tool of research as they provide a strength and direction of a relationship between variables and can be used as a starting point to assess the relationship between variables before committing to an experimental study they allow researchers to look at the relationship between variables that you would not be able to experimental investigate e.g. obesity and junk food consumption they are also quite quick and economical to carry out because there is no needs for a controlled environment and no manipulation of variables is required, so they are less time consuming than the planning and execution of setting up an experiment they can also use secondary data (data collected by others) which means they are less time consuming

Answer 113

correlation doesn't provide a cause and effect relationship: we cannot conclude that one variable is causing the other to change. this can sometimes lead to correlations being misinterpreted or misused although correlations can tell us the strength and direction of variables, they cannot tell us why the variables are related it may also be the case that another untested variable is causing the relationship between the two co-variables, this is known as the third variable problem

Answer 114

a type of observational research technique in which people are studied indirectly via the communications they have produced the forms of communication that may be subject to content analysis are wide -ranging and may include spoken interaction such as conversations or presentations, written communications texts or emails, broader examples from the media books magazine tv programmes or films

Answer 115

categorising of information into meaningful units, needs to be done because often the data set to be analysed can be extremely large may involve counting the number of times a particular word or phrase appears in the text to produce a form of quantitative data may also involve gathering qualitative data

Answer 116

process of coding and identification of themes are closely linked as themes may only emerge once data has been coded a theme in content analysis refers to any idea, explicit or implicit, that is recurrent (reoccurs often), these are likely to be more descriptive than coding units once the researcher is satisfied that the themes they have developed cover most aspects of the data they are analysing, they may collect a new set of data to test the validity of the themes and categories

Answer 117

high in external validity because the data is obtained from real life experiences e.g. journal entry content analysis is flexible in the sense that it may produce quan. and qual. data depending on the aims of the study

Answer 118

communication that people produce is normally analysed outside of the context within which it occurred. this is a limitation as the researcher may attribute opinions and motivations to the speaker or writer that were not originally intended can be difficult to decide on appropriate categories/codes/themes and time-consuming to carry out it may suffer from a lack of objectivity, especially when more descriptive forms of thematic analysis are employed

Answer 119

large group of individuals that a particular researcher may be interested in studying

Answer 120

target of people but also subset of the general population too large to study therefore the researcher selects a sample of this target population

Answer 121

a group of people who take part in research and is taken from the target population

Answer 122

the findings can be generalised

Answer 123

bias can occur if certain groups may be over or under represented within the sample selected, this limits the extent to which generalisation can be made to the target population

Answer 124

the extent to which the findings and conclusions from a study can be applied to the population, this is made possible if the sample of participants is representative of the population

Answer 125

where a researcher decides to select anyone who is available and willing to participate in their study. students are often used in psychological research for this reason

Answer 126

convenient as it saves time, effort and is less costly

Answer 127

the sample is likely to be unrepresentative of the target population as it's drawn from a specific area such as one street in one town the researcher has complete control over the selection of participants, they may simply avoid people they don't like the look of (researcher bias)

Answer 128

a form of sampling in which all members of the target population have an equal chance of being selected to select a random sample, firstly a complete list of all members of the target population is obtained secondly all the names are assigned a number thirdly the sample is generated through the use of some lottery method (computer-based randomiser or picking numbers from a hat/container)

Answer 129

it is free from researcher bias. the researcher has no influence on who is selected therefore selecting people who people who they think may support their hypothesis

Answer 130

very difficult and time-consuming to conduct, a complete list of the target population may be extremely difficult to obtain participants selected may refuse to take part (resulting in further bias)

Answer 131

a form of sampling with every nth member of the target population is selected a sample frame is produced which is a list of people in the target population organised into, for instance, alphabetical order. the researcher then works through selecting every 5th, 3rd, 9th person etc

Answer 132

avoids researcher bias, once the system for selection has been established the researcher has no influence over who is chosen it is usually fairly representative

Answer 133

process of selection can interact with hidden 'traits' within the population. if the sampling technique coincides with the frequency of the trait, the sampling technique is neither random, no representative. for example if every fourth property in a street is a flat occupied by a young person, then selecting every fourth property will not provide a representative sample

Answer 134

a sophisticated form of sampling. from the wider population, a sub-group is created (strata) based on age, social class etc. , then the population is randomly sampled within each strata to carry out a stratified sample the researcher first identifies the different strata that make up the population the proportions needed for the sample to be representative are worked out finally the participants that make up each strata are selected randomly the way its done for random sampling

Answer 135

technique avoid researcher bias, once the target population has been sub-divided into strata, the participants that make up the numbers are randomly selected this method produces a representative sample because it's designed to accurately reflect the population, which means generalisation of the findings becomes possible

Answer 136

requires a detailed knowledge of the population characteristics, which may not be available can be very time consuming dividing a sample into a strata and then randomly selecting from each

Answer 137

also known as self-selected sample where participants select themselves to be part of the study a researcher may place an advert online or newspaper or noticeboard for example, and people respond wanting to take part in the study

Answer 138

requires little effort from researchers (other than producing an advert) as the participants volunteer themselves

Answer 139

sample will be bias and unrepresentative as volunteers tend to be a certain 'type' of person. this makes results difficult to generalise to a target population volunteers are eager to please, which increases the chance of demand characteristics, for example participants giving the answer they think is required

Answer 140

small-scale trial run of the actual investigation, takes place before the real investigation is conducted its aim is to check that the procedures and materials work, and the instructions to participants are clear allows the researcher to make any changes if necessary before the investigation is carried out

Answer 141

not restricted to experiments, can be used for self-reports like questionnaires or interviews: in this case it may be useful to try out question in advance and remove and replace words or questions that may be confusing also with observational studies, a pilot study would be a good way to check the behavioural categories are effective before the real observation takes place

Answer 142

conflicts arise between the rights of participant in research studies and the goals of researchers to produce valid data the BPS code of ethics is a legal document instructing psychologists in the UK about what behaviour is and is not acceptable when dealing with participants

Answer 143

deception informed consent protection from harm privacy (confidentiality) right to withdraw

Answer 144

deception means deliberately misleading or withholding information from participants. despite this, there are occasions when deception can be justified if it doesn't cause undue distress for example, Milgram deceived his participants by telling them it was a study on 'learning' not obedience

Answer 145

participants should be aware of what they're doing. informed consent is making participants aware of the aim of the research, the procedures and their rights. they can make an informed decision on whether they want to take part For example, Loftus didn't tell participants the true aim of the study (to investigate the effect of anxiety on EWT)

Answer 146

participants should not be placed in any physical or psychological risk (i.e. feeling embarrassed, inadequate or placed under undue stress) For example, participants in Zimbardo's study were subject to psychological harm. The study was stopped after 8 days because of this

Answer 147

participant's data should not be disclosed to anyone unless agreed in advance. Numbers should be used instead of names. Participants shouldn't be able to identify themselves either. For example, important case studies in memory are often referred to by initials HM, KF

Answer 148

participant should be aware they can leave a study at any time, and even withdraw their data after the study is finished for example, Milgram's study participants were made aware that they could leave the study at any time but due to the nature of the research participants felt they did not have this right

Answer 149

british psychological society

Answer 150

The BPS has its own ethical guidelines. psychologists have a professional duty to observe these guidelines. the guidelines are closely matched to the ethical issues above and attempt to ensure all participants are treated with respect and consideration during a piece of research

Answer 151

participants should be issued with a consent letter/form detailing the relevant information that may affect their decision to take part assuming the participant agrees, then the consent form is signed. for investigations involving children under 16, a signature of parental consent is required

Answer 152

presumptive consent - rather than getting consent from the participants themselves, a similar group of people are asked if the study is acceptable. if the group agree, then consent of the original participants is 'presumed' prior general consent - participants give their permission to take part in a number of different studies - including one that will involve deception. By consenting, participants are effectively consenting to be deceived retrospective consent - this involves asking participants for consent after they have participated in the study (debriefing). they may not have been aware of their participation. However they may not consent and have already taken part

Answer 153

at the end of the study, participants should be given a full debrief. this means they should be told the true aims of the research, the various conditions of the research, and what their data will be used for. they should be told they can withhold their data if they wish

Answer 154

if personal details are held these must be protected. however, it's more usual for researchers to use numbers rather than names

Answer 155

before a piece of research can become part of a journal it must be rigorously checked the research is scrutinised by a small group of usually two or three experts (peers) in the particular field. these experts should be objective and unknown to the author. this helps any research intended for publication is of high quality

Answer 156

allocation for research funding - research is paid by various charitable bodies for research that is seen as worthwhile, overall budget for science set at £5.8 billion in 2015 - 2016 assess the quality and relevance of research - all elements of the research is assessed for quality and accuracy: if the hypotheses, research method, statistics and conclusions are appropriate and relevant suggesting improvements - peer reviews may suggest minor changes to the work to therefore improve the report that's been submitted. in extreme circumstances they may conclude the work is inappropriate for publication and should be withdrawn assessing the research rating of university departments - the funding universities get depends upon the good rating they receive from the peer review process

Answer 157

finding an expert - it isn't always possible to find an appropriate expert to review a research proposal (research to be done) or report (research already done) anonymity - the process can be done so that the 'peer' remains anonymous, so that an honest and objective appraisal can be achieved. However it's not unheard of where a minority or reviewers may use their anonymity as a way of criticising rival researchers who may have crossed them in the past. nowadays, peer reviews may be 'open' which is where both the author and reviewer know each other's identity publication bias - the editors of journals want to publish significant 'headline grabbling' findings to increase the circulations of their publication. this means they may prefer to publish research with significant (positive) results. this could mean research that doesn't reach these criteria could be ignored - This creates a false impression of the current state of Psychology if editors are being selective/bias in what they publish burying ground breaking research - the peer review process may supress ground breaking research that may contradict the views of the reviewer. established scientists are the ones likely to be chosen as reviewers, but this may mean results of research that coincide with current opinion are more likely to be passed than new, fresh and innovative research that poses a challenge to the established order

Answer 158

is expressed in words, rather than numbers or statistics. it may take the form of a written description of the thoughts, feelings and opinions of participants. For example, a transcript from an interview, an extract from a diary or notes

Answer 159

data expressed numerically, this form of data usually gathers numerical data such as individual scores from participants such as the numbers of words a person was able to recall in a memory experiment. data is open to being analysed statistically and and can be expressed using graphs, charts etc

Answer 160

can be difficult to analyse, it does not lend itself to being summarised statistically so that patterns and comparisons can be drawn a consequence of this is that conclusions may rely on subjective interpretations of the researcher which may be subject to bias

Answer 161

it offers the researcher more richness and detail which can provide unexpected insights upon behaviour. this is due to the fact the participants have more license to develop their thoughts, feelings and opinions on a given subject. the data does have more internal validity

Answer 162

as the data is numerical, its objective and less subject to bias. it is also far easier to analyse and draw conclusions

Answer 163

however, it is much narrower in scope and meaning than quantitative data and therefore not fully representative of real-life

Answer 164

data that has been gained directly from the participants, it would be specifically related to the aims and/or hypothesis of the study. the data conducted from participants doing an experiment, questionnaire, interview or observation would be classed as primary

Answer 165

data collected by someone other than the person conducting the study. this may be data that already exists before the psychologists begin their research examples would be data in journal articles, books, websites, government statistics etc.

Answer 166

meta-analysis

Answer 167

a type of research method that uses secondary data the researcher uses the data from a large number of studies, which have involved the same research questions and methods. the results of all these studies are analysed to give an overview and conclusion the researcher may simply discuss the findings/conclusions - which is a qualitative analysis. or they may perform a statistical analysis on the combined data. this may involve calculating the effect size

Answer 168

gives an overall statistical measure of the difference or relationship between variables across a number of studies

Answer 169

the researcher has control of the data in that it can be designed to fit the aims and hypothesis of the study

Answer 170

requires time, effort and can be expensive conducting an experiment, for instance requires considerable planning, preparation and resources, considering secondary data which can be accessed within a matter of minutes

Answer 171

inexpensive and easily accessed the data has probably already been statistically tested and peer reviewed

Answer 172

the content of the data may not exactly fir the needs of the study. it may be incomplete or out-dated and therefore not match the researcher's objectives there may be substantial variations in the quality and accuracy of secondary data

Answer 173

ways of summarising and analysing quantitative data in order to draw meaningful conclusions measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion, graphs

Answer 174

'averages' which give us information about the most typical values in a set of data three to consider: mean, median, mode

Answer 175

the most sensitive as it includes all the scores/values in the data set within the calculation due to the above point, it's more representative of set of scores

Answer 176

easily distorted by extreme values

Answer 177

not affected by extreme scores once arranged in order the median is easy to calculate

Answer 178

it is not as sensitive as the mean, as not all scores are included

Answer 179

very easy to calculate unaffected by extreme values

Answer 180

not very useful if there are several modes

Answer 181

how 'spread out' the data is how far scores vary and differ from one another range and standard deviation

Answer 182

an incredibly easy measure of dispersion to calculate most useful when assessing how representative the median is a typical score this is because the median only takes into account the one score in the middle of the set

Answer 183

the higher the range, the less representative the median is because it would indicate that the scores are spread widely from that figure

Answer 184

sophisticated measure of dispersion. a single value tells us how far all scores deviate (move away from) the mean

Answer 185

suggests a greater spread of scores around the mean. for example in an experiment looking at the amount of words recalled after an interference task, a large standard deviation would suggest not all participants were affected by the IV in the same way, because the data is widely spread

Answer 186

not all participants were affected by the IV in the same way, because the data is widely spread

Answer 187

suggests the scores are clustered close to the mean. we could imply from this that participants responded in a similar way. this would indicate that mean is more representative as a typical score. this is because a low score indicates a low average distance between each score and the mean

Answer 188

- A correlation regards an investigation of an association between two variables, known as co-variables - We do NOT refer to these things as independent variables and dependent variables because when looking at correlation, nothing has been manipulated. Therefore, both are DVs and wee can also not say that it is cause and effect - Statistical test calculate the correlation coefficient - Correlations are always presented on a scatter graph

Answer 189

correlation coefficient

Answer 190

scatter graph

Answer 191

no correlation

Answer 192

Researchers cannot conclude cause-and-effect between XY as correlation does not mean causation and although they might correlate, they could be a number of factors that affect… Like…

Answer 193

Coefficient is a number that represents the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables

Answer 194

Coefficients are always between Sarah and one. Closer to one, the stronger the relationships +0.5 is just as strong as -0.5

Answer 195

Perfect negative correlation

Answer 196

Perfect positive correlation

Answer 197

It is the only form of research that can establish cause and effect Experiments allow the researcher precise control over the variables

Answer 198

Experiment are often artificial Some experiments cannot be conducted due to ethical concerns

Answer 199

Be able to predict things easier

Answer 200

Doesn’t mean they affect each other they could just be two random things as correlation is not causation This can be found through experiment since an experiment isolates and manipulates the Ivy to observe its effects on the DV, and controls the environment in order that extraneous variables may be eliminated Correlation does not automatically mean that the change in one variable is the cause of the change in another The reason it does not prove causation may be due to a third variable involved The reality is that lots of variables have curvilinear relationships because you can only see the straight line you can’t see the data past it

Answer 201

An in-depth investigation, description and/or analysis of a single individual, group of similar cases, institution or event

Answer 202

Relating to the study or discovery of particular scientific facts and processes, as distinct from general laws

Answer 203

Can relate to a lot of people

Answer 204

When you use multiple methods of collecting data and combine all of them

Answer 205

The quality or state of being universal (= existing everywhere, or involving everyone)

Answer 206

Record of a persons background or medical records

Answer 207

An observational study where you indirectly observed behaviour A kind of observational study in which behaviour is observed indirectly in written or verbal material. You are not observing the people but instead the arts they produce the aim is to summarise the communication so a conclusion can be drawn.

Answer 208

Aim and hypothesis Sampling (What media are you going to use?) Coding Thematic analysis (type of content analysis - optional but common second step) Conclusion Assess for reliability – Pearson’s R Publication

Answer 209

The initial stage of a content analysis in which the communication is analysed by identify every time and identified, operationalise behavioural category (also known as Covid unit) is mentioned. This starts the qualitative data quantitive.

Answer 210

Qualitative approach diagnosis pose, identify implicit or explicit ideas within the data. Themes (also known as ideas) often emerge once the data has been coded. This summarises into a condensed qualitative form. These are more descriptive that coding categories. Turned back into qualitative data but more condensed

Answer 211

Common themes in the cases are neglecting hobbies and interest as well as having low self-esteem People don’t have a lot of confidence in themselves They also don’t have enough energy to do daily necessities like make breakfast Most have either too much sleep or are unable to sleep and restless

Answer 212

Validity is not finding out that hypothesis was correct Validity is not finding the same result multiple times Validity is the extent to which an observed effect from the IV and DV is genuine

Answer 213

Every time you put the cat on the scales, it reads 10 kg. This is reliable – consistentcy However, you find out the scales are broken. This 10 kg is not valid – not accurate Every time you measure your head, it produces the same result. This is reliable – consistency. However, this cannot be used as a measure of intelligence – invalid, not accurate

Answer 214

Findings of certain as the changes of the DV are due to the IV

Answer 215

Findings from a research study can be generalised to other settings

Answer 216

Generalising research methodology to specifically real-life tasks and behaviours

Answer 217

Refers to whether you can reasonably generalise the findings from your sample to a larger group of people

Answer 218

Findings from a research study can be generalised to other times and eras

Answer 219

Test looks like it matches what it is supposed to measure

Answer 220

Measure is in agreement with another pre-existing measurement. Correlation must exceed +0.8

Answer 221

Concurrent validity ain’t great unless it’s +0.8

Research Methods Flashcards

(253 cards)