Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM


Top Flashcards (Certified)
All Flashcards

Psychology 2A > Research Methods > Flashcards

Research Methods Flashcards

(61 cards)

Start Studying
1
Q

Operationalisation

A

Turning a construct into an operational variable with an objective measure

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

Reliability

A

the consistency and stability of a measure

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

Validity

A

The measure measures the construct it’s supposed to measure

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

Test-Retest Reliability

A

giving a participant the same test multiple times

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

Interrater Reliability

A

Agreement amongst raters observing behaviour

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

Internal Reliability

A

e.g. through split half reliability which splits items in measure randomly into two and calculates the scores for each half –> checks relationships between the two halves

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

Cronbach’s alpha

A

Average of all possible split half reliability scores

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

Internal validity

A

validity within the experiment

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

external validity

A

validity outwith the experiment, e.g. ecological, population, temporal

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

Face validity

A

intuitive sense of the experiment

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

content validity

A

the measure reflects the conceptual definition of the construct from the literature represented in the experiment

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

Criterion validity

A

the extent to which people’s scores on a measure are correlated with other variables that one would expect to be correlated with
including concurrent validity and predictive validity

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

concurrent validity

A

criterion and construct are measured simultaneously

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

predictive validity

A

the ability of a test or other measurement to predict a future outcome

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

convergent validity

A

correlates strongly with the measure of the same construct, different tests that measure the same thing

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

discriminant validity

A

correlates less with the measure of a different construct

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

Within Subjects design

A

All participants are exposed to all levels of the IV at different times

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

Between subjects design

A

Different participants are exposed to different levels of the IV

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

extraneous variables

A

any variable other than the DV or IV that could affect your outcomes

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
18
Q

confounding variable

A

an extraneous variable that varies systematically across levels of the IV

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Block randomisation

A

All the conditions occur once in the sequence before any of them is repeated

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Complete counterbalancing

A

equal number of participants complete each possible order of conditions

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
19
Q

Randomised control trial

A

experiments done in the field to investigate the effectiveness of a treatment/intervention

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
20
Q

random counterbalancing: Latin square

A

each condition appears exactly once in each position

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
21
Placebo effect
the mere expectation that there will be an improvement contributes to said improvement
22
Internal validity
Is there a causal relationship between the variables - quality of the research design
23
statistical validity
proper treatment of the data and the soundness of the researchers statistical conclusions
24
external validity
generalisability of the findings
25
mundane realism
participants and situation studied are similar to those the researchers want to generalise to
26
psychological realism
same mental process is used in both the lab and the real world
27
single factor two level design
studies the effect of only one IV on the response of a DV
28
single factor multi level design
studies the effect of multiple IVs on the response of a DV
29
Non-experimental design
looking at associations between variables with no random assignment, manipulation of IV or control group
30
Observational Research
Systematic observations in a non-experimental design
31
Naturalistic observation
field work, in the wild research disguised: participants are unaware of being studied -> avoids experimenter effects, higher validity but ethical issues undisguised: participants aware of researcher's presence -> reactivity - different due to observation? more ethical?
32
Participant observation
becoming part of the participants disguised: infiltration of group undisguised: disclosure of identity can be inorganic due to researcher's influence on group, and group's influence on researcher, high ecological validity, time consuming, ethical implications
33
Structured/controlled observation
Observations made in an artificial environment to observe specific behaviours
34
Behavioural coding
practice of formally and systematically defining overt (observable) behaviours
35
time sampling
method of collecting data in which you watch research participants for a specific amount of time at specific time intervals and record behaviour
36
event sampling
record each time a certain behaviour occurs
37
Quasi experimental Research
involves manipulation of IV but no random assignment of groups
38
Post test only design
IV is given to group and DV is measured afterwards
39
Pre-test-post-test design
DV is measured before and after treatment
40
Regression to the mean
extreme variables tend to level out if repeatedly measured statistical phenomenon that makes natural variation in repeated data look like real change
41
Non equivalent pre-test post-test design
different groups get different conditions
42
interrupted time series design
data is measured at multiple time points before and after the introduction of an intervention to examine effect of the intervention
43
Survey
Involves design, data collection (questionnaire or interview) and analysis and interpretation can be experimental or non-experimental, non-experimental most of the time
44
Stages of Survey construction
Aims and objectives of the survey, target group Question style Question Design (Brief Relevant Unambiguous Specific Objective)
45
Double Barrelled questions
A question that asks more than one questions e.g have you experienced depression AND anxiety in the last 2 weeks?
46
Leading Questions
A question that prompts or encourages a specific answer
47
Acquiescence Bias
Yay-saying (always agreeing) Nay-saying (always disagreeing) fence-sitting (always picking middle category) -> fix through reverse scoring items, even numbered rating scale
48
Piloting
testing an experiment on a small target population
49
representative sample
a subset of people that portray similar characteristics of the population that you are aiming to investigate
50
stratified random sampling
A population is divided into homogenous subpopulations, or strata, based on specific characteristics (race, gender, identity) each group is randomly sample
51
simple random sampling
every member of a population has an equal chance of being selected -> representative and unbiased -> needs info of entire population
52
cluster sampling
a population is divided into smaller groups or clusters and some clusters are selected randomly. used to study large population, usually pre-existing clusters (e.g. schools/cities) can be biased if clusters aren't representative
52
quota sampling
sample represents estimated numerical composition population - not randomly selected recruit until quota for subgroup is reached
52
systematic sampling
select members of the population at a regular interval (k) determined in advance. time efficient, fixed interval reduces bias, not recommended for periodically ordered groups
52
snowball sampling
start with a few participants and then continue to recruit people based on referrals from initial participants
52
convenience sampling
sampling those who are easy to contact, volunteers
52
purposive sampling
obtaining a sample with pre determined criteria, not meant to make statistical inference to whole population

Psychology 2A (5 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2025 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions