Research Methods Flashcards

Question

Test-retest reliability

Answer 1

same test used on same participants at a different time

Answer 2

A way of describing how accurate or true an experiment's findings are.

Answer 3

Findings have supporting evidence for a hypothesis.

Answer 4

When the study accurately measures what it set out to measure.

Answer 5

The extent to which results can apply to real life.

Answer 6

How accurately results can be generalized to the rest of the world.

Answer 7

The extent to which a study can accurately project future outcomes.

Answer 8

The accuracy of a test compared to other pre-established tests.

Answer 9

extent to which methods accurately measure IV

Answer 10

a measure of how a test performance predicts behaviours in real wolrd settings

Answer 11

apply findings to other setting/people

Answer 12

sample form larger group accurately represents characteristics of target population

Answer 13

specially designed artificial environment

Answer 14

All extraneous variables can be controlled. cause and effect ethical as they know they’re being studied and give consent

Answer 15

Lack of ecological validity demand characteristics as they are aware of taking part in the study

Answer 16

natural setting

Answer 17

High ecological validity. less risk of demand characteristics

Answer 18

Little control over variables. reduces cause and effect unethical - consent can’t be gained

Answer 19

independent variable occurs naturally and cannot be manipulated. natural or artificial e.g autism, ethnicity

Answer 20

Gains insight into behaviors that cannot be ethically manipulated.

Answer 21

Lack of control as independent variables can’t be controlled - lacks cause and effect lacks population validity as its unique cases

Answer 22

A small group of people taken from a target population.

Answer 23

The group of people that a researcher tends to study.

Answer 24

A sample in which any member of the population has an equal chance of being selected.

Answer 25

Unbiased; all members of the target population have an equal chance of selection.

Answer 26

Requires a complete list of the target population; time-consuming to contact selected members.

Answer 27

Sampling method where people respond to an advert for volunteers.

Answer 28

Access to a variety of participants, making the sample more representative.

Answer 29

Sample may be biased as participants are likely more motivated or have extra time.

Answer 30

Sampling method where participants are selected based on availability.

Answer 31

Easiest method; quick to locate participants.

Answer 32

Inevitably biased as sample is drawn from a small part of the target population.

Answer 33

A method used to locate groups of people by asking existing participants to refer others.

Answer 34

Enables researchers to locate difficult-to-access populations.

Answer 35

Sample is not likely to be a good cross-section of the population.

Answer 36

Gathering a sample according to predetermined quotas needed for research.

Answer 37

More representative than other methods due to proportional representation of subgroups.

Answer 38

Very time-consuming to identify and select participants.

Answer 39

Ensuring the amount of people from each category is proportional to the population.

Answer 40

Likely to be more representative than other methods.

Answer 41

Very time-consuming to identify subgroups and contact participants.

Answer 42

Selecting every nth person from a list of the target population.

Answer 43

Unbiased as participants are selected using an objective system.

Answer 44

Not truly unbiased unless the starting point is selected randomly.

Answer 45

participants take part in one condition of IV

Answer 46

less risk of demand characteristics - less chance to figure out aim of study

Answer 47

too many individual differences due to increase amount of participants less practical-need more participants

Answer 48

all participants take part in both conditions of the experiment

Answer 49

no individual difference as you’re comparing results of same people. practical- father less participants

Answer 50

high risk of demand characteristics - participants get full view of the study fatigue effects, practice effect due to increased work load

Answer 51

form of independent measures design. Participants can be matched on variables, whoch are considered relevant to the experiment. ## Footnote e.g pairs of participants may be matched for age, gender and scores for intelligence. how they are matched depends on whats being studied.

Answer 52

provides a more accurate picture of IV because you're measuring compatible people.

Answer 53

impractical and time consuming to match participants.

Answer 54

Participants are observed in real life settings | e.g on a street

Answer 55

* participants are in usual environment so will act normal - increases ecological validity

Answer 56

* observer doesn't have a high level of control over observation which decreases internal reliability

Answer 57

participants are observed in an artificial environment

Answer 58

* researcher has high control and can control necessary variables which increases cause and effect

Answer 59

* participants may act differently as they aren't in their usual environment

Answer 60

when the researcher joins the group being researched

Answer 61

* researcher gets an accurant and representative view of behaviour as they are highly involved

Answer 62

* researcher has a high risk of participating in unethical behaviours if engaging with participants

Answer 63

when the researcher stands back and doesn't get involved with the group

Answer 64

* researcher can focus on the behaviour they are researching which creates valid results

Answer 65

* participants may act differently as they are being observed (observer effect)

Answer 66

when the participants don't know they are ebing observed

Answer 67

* participants aren't aware they are being observed so act normally creating internal validity

Answer 68

* unethical because participants haven't been told they're being observed - lack of consent, deception,no right to withdraw

Answer 69

when participants are aware they're being observed

Answer 70

* ethical as participants aren't are aware they are being observed and can give full consent

Answer 71

* participants may act differently as they are being observed (observer effect)

Answer 72

Behaviour is observed in time slots | e.g every 5 minutes

Answer 73

Behaviour is observed over a period of time and behaviours get tallied up

Answer 74

when the participants change their behaviour because they know they are being observed

Answer 75

lie to maintain a positive reputation

Answer 76

Self-report method consisting of a series of questions decided prior to research that are answered in writing.

Answer 77

* gain insight to areas of individuals taht aren't observable (thoguhts,feelings) * adaptable and provides qualitative data * distributed to a lot of people - large sample sizes increases reprisentativeness, validity and reliability

Answer 78

* social disreliability if participants don't thin answers are annonymous. results lack validity * may not answer correctly or in enough detail. lacks validity * researcher may not always be present to clarify confusion in questions. leads to flase answers and low validity.

Answer 79

a question which requires an extended response

Answer 80

a question which requires a short one worded answer

Answer 81

Self-report method that is in real time and face to face and responded to verbally.

Answer 82

* gain insight into unobservable/sensitive to put into a questionnare. also insight into feelings and experiences. * researcher is present to clarify. increases validity * high quality and rich data - high validity * high chance of protecting participant from psychological harmas interviewer can stop interview at any time and offer relevant services.

Answer 83

* social desireability - low validity * interviewer must be highly trained/skilled to get best answers-costly, time consuming if untrained

Answer 84

predetermined questions and no deviation from them

Answer 85

predetermined questions but may deviate to find more information on a topic/answer given by participant

Answer 86

researcher knows the topic of the interview , no predetermined questions, flow like a conversation

Answer 87

* small sample involving a unique person * carried out in participants natural environment * includes other methods to gather data (interviews and observations) * qualitative data

Answer 88

* rich in depth qualitative data over long period of time - increases validity * conducted in real-life environment - increases ecological validity

Answer 89

* small samples means findings are unrepresentative and lack generalisability + population validity * participants natural environment makes it difficult to repeat - lacks external reliability

Answer 90

a study carried out over a long period of time to study the chnages in the same participants

Answer 91

* van identify changes over time which could lead to cause and effect between variables * can detect subtle changes over time which may be noticible when looking back at the time period as a whole

Answer 92

* they are very expensive and time consuming to complete * participants may drop out which will impact data (decreases validity and reliability) - when this is done it is known as attrition

Answer 93

when participants drop out halfway through study

Answer 94

when people you are studying all have a shared experience due to common characteristics | e.g race or gender

Answer 95

a type of research where a group of people observed or certain information is collected at a single point in time or over a short period of time ## Footnote studies are observational studies that analyze data from a population at a single point in time

Answer 96

* can provide a broad overview of the population at a moment in time * capture data from a brief and often rare moment in time.

Answer 97

* timing of study my not accurately represent the whole picture

Answer 98

* understanding events, individuals/behaviours by studying materials produced by others - usualy mass media or other documents * interviews,conversations,newspaper articles, speeches * a form of direct observation and can produce qualitative data into quantitative data. ## Footnote a research method that examines the presence, meaning, and relationships of words, themes, or concepts in a given set of data

Answer 99

a study that looks to establish whether there is a relationship between two co-variables. no cause and effect only whether there is a link.

Answer 100

both co-variables are increasing /

Answer 101

as one co-variable increases, the other decreases \

Answer 102

co-variables are increasing and decreasing at different rates

Answer 103

a number between -1 and +1 that tells the researcher the type of correlation that is found and how strong or weak it is * **above 0**-positive ,**lower than 0**-negative * further away from 0, the more positive the correlation * if close to 0 it is a weak correlation

Answer 104

replace 'significance' with 'relationship' | e.g there will be a significant relationship between...

Answer 105

* must submit their ideas to an ethics committe (British Psychological Society). * ethical guidelines must be adhered to to make sure participant(s) abd psychologist are kept safe.

Answer 106

all participants names and data should not be shared or made public with anyone but the researchers

Answer 107

* participants are given pseudonyms/ numbers rather than their name in the report

Answer 108

* details of participants name or data may be published or pseudonyms aren't encrypted enough * name sharing with other researchers outside study

Answer 109

lying or not revealing the true aims of the study to participants

Answer 110

* sometimes revealing true intentions would skew results therefore necessary to mislead participants - lie must be approved by board of ethics

Answer 111

* if true aims are not shared with participants, they are not offered further support after the study

Answer 112

the participant has fromally agreed to take part in the study and knows and understands the aims of the study

Answer 113

* participant will recieve info on the study and sign consent form if they want to take part

Answer 114

* gaining consent whilst not revealing true nature of study. * not receiving any agreement that the participant wants to be in the study

Answer 115

after the study the participant is told the aim of the study and is made aware of any guidance/ further info that is availible to them

Answer 116

* short conversations after ther study where the participant is reminded of the aims of the study and offered to withdraw data if they do not agree with the research

Answer 117

* if the participant is never made aware (through debriefing) of the true aims of the study

Answer 118

participants are free to leave the study at any point or remove their data without any contention from the researcher

Answer 119

* researcher make participant aware they can remove their data at any time

Answer 120

* if participants ask to leave and are denied this right * if participants are questioned on why they want to leave

Answer 121

when the participant leaves the study with a more damages/fragile mental state than when they started with

Answer 122

* ensuring the participants are resilient and during pilor study no one was harmed

Answer 123

* if the participant is physically/mentally harmed during or after the study

Answer 124

an objective and scientific way of viewing the brainand allows medical professionals to observe brain activity and detect abnormalities

Answer 125

* objective method that can observe live brains

Answer 126

* can be very expensive * time consuming * not perfect at finding issues and abnormalities may still be missed

Answer 127

electrodes attatched to scalp which detect electrical charges as a result of activity in the brain. ## Footnote used to diagnose epilepsy and identify stages of sleep

Answer 128

* silent * non invasive * doesn't use ionising radiation

Answer 129

* only shows activity of cerebral cortex

Answer 130

x-rays showing internal structure of cortex in slices from different angles. patients are passed through scanner slowly whilst lying down ## Footnote used fro detecting brain injuries and skull fractures - and schitzofrenia research

Answer 131

* high resolution of bone, soft tissues and blood vessels at the same time

Answer 132

* high x-ray dose

Answer 133

strong magnetic field causes protons in body to allign with magnets in the machine. radio waves cause protons to realign and an image is created of the scanned part of the body ## Footnote used for indetifying structures in brain

Answer 134

* detailed anatomical image without using ionising radiation

Answer 135

* have to lie very still on their back * very noisy * difficult for people with claustrophobia

Answer 136

write up a formal report to be shared with other people in the field of psychology. (psychological report)

Answer 137

1. abstract 2. literature review/introduction 3. methodology 4. procedure 5. results 6. discussion 7. conclusion

Answer 138

summary of research - brief explanation of sections

Answer 139

brief summary of previous research thats inspired/guided current research

Answer 140

describe characteristics of participants and type of experiment

Answer 141

steps by step guide on research

Answer 142

data gathered and analyzed

Answer 143

evaluate current study with past research

Answer 144

summarize results and put finidings into laymans terms. suggests what research should be next carried out

Answer 145

* formal review of a document produced by a colleague, scholar or expert * they describe strengths and weaknesses of document and if it should be published or not * advise writer how to improve * when peer reviewed it can help establish credibility of work

Answer 146

1. author submits article 2. editor forwards article to reviewers 3. reviewers evaluate quality and suggests revisions. if lacking scholarly validity and regour they reject it 4. author has oppportunity to make changes before publication

Answer 147

* provides valuable feedback so researchers can revise it and improve before publication * enables editors to select most important research * understood and accepted by most researchers * promotes scientific research through development and dissemination of comprehensive up to date info. only research of highest quality reaches public domain.

Answer 148

* not always easy to find an appropriate peer reviewerp- research may be rejected if reviewer doesn't understand it * may be difficult to protect annonymity of researchers from reviewer - biases * process is time consuming and expensive - can take months or years and may be old when published.

Answer 149

mean median and mode used to find average of data sets

Answer 150

add up all data points and divide by how many data points there are

Answer 151

+ includes all of the data in the set - affected by outliers or anomalies

Answer 152

* data is arranged smallest to largest and is the middle point of the data * should be used is mean is deemed unsuitable * should be used so the average is not affected by outlier

Answer 153

* not affected by outliers or anomalies * doesn't take into account all the data in the set

Answer 154

* the measure of central tendency that identifies the most common data point in the set. * used when using categorical data | e.g favourite colour or food

Answer 155

* will always give a value that's represented in the data * there can sometimes be no mode or two modes (bi-modal)

Answer 156

* how spread out the data is in the entire set or from individual points

Answer 157

find the difference between smallest and largest data point in teh data set

Answer 158

* easy to calculate * doesn't include all the data in the set * affected by outliers

Answer 159

how spread out the data is from the mean | Large SD means data is dissimilar from the mean; opposite for small SD

Answer 160

* not affected by outliers (extreme values) beacuse it looks at individual scores rather than as a whole * difficult to calculate, time consming especially fro large data sets

Research Methods Flashcards

Conducting research and maths skills (217 cards)