research methods Flashcards

(69 cards)

1
Q

what is an aim?

A

A general statement of what the researcher intends to investigate. It always begins with ‘To investigate’.

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2
Q

what is a hypothesis?

A

A statement made at the start of a study that clearly states the relationship between variables as stated by the theory. ie drinking speedupp causes people to become more talkative.

There are two types: directional and non-directional.

Directional: states the direction of the difference or relationship

Non-directional: does not state the direction.

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3
Q

How do psychologists decide whether to use a directional or non directional hypothesis.

A

A directional hypothesis is used when there are previous studies which suggest a particular outcome.

A non directional hypothesis is used when there is no existing evidence or if findings are contradictory.

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4
Q

How is the effect of an independent variable tested?

A

By using different experimental conditions. A control condition is compared to an experimental condition.

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5
Q

What is operationalisation?

A

Clearly defining variables in terms of how they can be measured. This should be in a hypothesis.

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6
Q

What are laboratory experiments?

A

Experiments conduced in a highly controlled environment but not always a lab.

Strength: High control over extraneous variables. Researcher can ensure that the effect on the dependant variable is caused by the independent one, High internal validity. Replication is possible.

Limitations: Low ecological validity. Demand characteristics: unnatural behaviour. low mundane realism (not like in real life)

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7
Q

What are field experiments?

A

The independent variable is manipulated in a more natural setting.

Strength: higher mundane realism. More valid and authentic behaviour.

Limitations: Loss of control over extraneous variables. Precise replication not possible, Ethical issues if people are unaware they are being studied they cannot consent and this could be an invasion of their privacy.

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8
Q

What are natural experiments?

A

Natural experiments are when the change in the independent variable would have happened whether or not the researcher was there, not caused by him. The setting may or may not be natural (could be in a lab).

Strength: opportunities for research that may not otherwise be undertaken for ethical and practical reasons/ Natural experiments have high ecological validity.

Limitation: naturally occurring events may be rare. May be hard to generalise to other situations. Participants may not be randomly allocated and psychologists cannot distinguish whether the DV or this is effecting the IV.

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9
Q

What is a quasi experiment?

A

When the independent variable is based on an existing difference between people like age or gender.

Strength: controlled conditions, no extraneous variables

Limitation: confounding variables as cannot be randomly allocated.

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10
Q

What are ethical issues?

A

arise when there is a conflict between the rights of participants and the goals to produce authentic data.

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11
Q

What are the four major ethical issues?

PPDI

A

Informed consent- making participant aware of the aim and procedure and their right to withdraw and what data will be used for. This sometimes causes demand characteristics.

Deception- Deliberately misleading or withholding information from participants This can be justified if it doesn’t cause undue distress.

Protection from harm- participants should not be placed at more risk than they would be in their everyday lives. They should be protected from physical and psychological harm such as feeling embarrassed. They should be reminded of their right to withdraw at any point.

Privacy and confidentiality: patients have the right to control information about themselves including where the study took place.

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12
Q

What are the four ways of dealing with ethical issues?

A

The BPS code of conduct: includes a set of ethical guidelines. These are implemented by ethics committees.

Participants should sign a consent letter and children should have parents sign one. This deals with informed consent.

Participants should be debriefed at the end of the study where they are made aware of all aspects of the study. They should be given their right to withhold data and the researcher should provide counseling if needed. This deals with deception and protection from harm.

Maintaining anonymity and using initials or numbers deals with confidentiality.

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13
Q

What is the experimental method?

A

n experiment where the IV is manipulated to measure the effect on the DV. It could be a lab, natural, quasi or field experiment.

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14
Q

What is a null hypothesis?

A

A null hypothesis is always required and states that results were due to chance rather than the IV.

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15
Q

What is an alternative hypothesis?

A

A hypothesis that states that there is a relationship between variables being studied and so the results are not due to chance.

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16
Q

Name all variables which need to be controlled.

A
Demand characteristics
Extraneous variables
Confounding variables
Randomisation
Investigator bias
Standardisation
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17
Q

Explain demand characteristics.

A

Demand characteristics are any cue from the situation or researcher which might be interpreted as revealing the purpose of the investigation and lead to participants changing their behaviour. This includes the ‘screw you effect’ where participants deliberately try to sabotage the experiment and the ‘please you effect’ where participants try to act as expected.

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18
Q

Explain Extraneous variables.

A

Extraneous variables are any variable other than the IV which could be affecting the DV.

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19
Q

Explain confounding variables.

A

A variable that changes systematically with the IV…ie when one group is affected and another is not. for example, personalities of people in different groups may be very different.

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20
Q

Explain randomisation.

A

Using chance to control effects of bias when designing materials and deciding the order of conditions. ie. random allocation, counterbalancing.

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21
Q

Explain investigator effects.

A
Investigator effects are any unwanted influence of the investigator on the research outcome. 
expectancy effects
unconscious cues
participant selection
instructions
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22
Q

Explain standardisation.

A

Using the same formalised procedures and instructions for all participants.

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23
Q

What is an experimental design and name the different types.

A

An experimental design is the way in which participants are used.
Repeated measures
Matched pairs
Independent groups/measures

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24
Q

Explain and evaluate independent groups design.

A

Participants are allocated to different groups (experimental/control) where each group represents one condition, and the results of different groups are compared to each other. Each participant only experiences one condition of the experiment.

Evaluation:
+ no order effects
+ participants less likely to guess aim (demand characteristics)
- participant variables (dealt with through random allocation)
- less economical

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25
Explain and evaluate the repeated measures design.
All participant take part in all conditions of the experiment (control+experimental) Evaluation: - order effects (dealt with through counterbalancing) - demand characteristics (participants likely guess aim) + no participant variables + fewer people needed
26
Explain and evaluate the matched pairs design.
Participants are matched with another participant on a variable that may effect the DV. They become a pair and then are each assigned to a different condition and their results are compared. ``` Evaluation: + no order effects + fewer demand characteristics - participant variables - time consuming and expensive ```
27
Define the term population.
A group of people who are the focus of the researcher's interest , from which a smaller sample is drawn.
28
What must a sample be?
- representative of the target population
29
Name all the different types of sampling.
``` Volunteer Opportunity Random Stratified Systematic ```
30
Explain and evaluate volunteer sampling.
Volunteer sampling is when participants self-select themselves for a sample. For examplel, they put their hand up when asked or respond to an advert. Evaluation + easy and time effective - volunteer bias (attracts a certain type of person)
31
Explain and evaluate opportunity sampling.
Opportunity sampling is when the researcher uses anyone around them who is willing and available such as people in the street. Evaluation + time and cost effective - unrepresentative asame - researcher bias (researcher may appraoch a certain kind of person)
32
Explain and evaluate random sampling.
Random sampling is when a list of members of the target population is takena and all the names are numbered and then a lottery method randomly selects numbers to beome a part of the sample. Evaluation + free from researcher bias - difficult to obtain list of population - time consuming - the sample may still be unrepresentative - some participants may refuse to take part, making the sample more of a volunteer sample
33
Explain and evaluate systematic sampling.
Systematic sampling is when every nth member of the target population is selected. ie every 3rd house on a street. This is done using an organised list called a sampling frame. Evaluation + no researcher bias + fairly representative - by chance, may be unrepresentative
34
Explain and evalaute stratified sampling.
Stratified sampling is when the sample represents proportions of people from different strata within the target population....participants from each stratum are randomly selected. Evaluation + avoids researcher bias + representative and good eternal validity - copmpolete representation isn't possible as identified strata cannot reflect all the ways in which people are different.
35
What is a pilot study?
A pilot study is a small scale trial of the investigation to check that everything works. It allows the researcher to make any modifications and to: - check the coding system in observational studies - save time and money in long term it must still be ethical.
36
What is a single-blind procedure?
A single-blind procedure is when particiapants are unaware of the details of the study but the administrator is aware. This reduces demand characteristics.
37
What is a double-blind procedure?
A double-blind procedure is when both the participants and the administering researcher are unware of the details of the study. This reduces investigator bias as well as demand characteristics.
38
Explain and evaluate questionnaires.
They involve a pre-set list of questions to assess thoughts and feelings. They may be used to assess the dependent variable in an experiment. They can have open or closed questions. An open question has no fixed range of answers and produces qualitative data which is detailed but hard to analyse. Closed questions offer a fixed number of responses and produce quantitative data which is easy to analyse. These may lack depth and detail. ``` Strengths: + cost effective +gather large amounts of data +easy to analyse +can be used for statistical analysis ``` Limitations: - untruthful responses: demand characteristics (social desirability bias) - response bias (acquiescence bias)
39
Explain and evaluate interviews
Interviews are mostly done face to face and can be structured, unstructured or semi-structured. Structured: predetermined questions. Like a questionnaire but in real time Unstructured: Like a conversation. No set questions, the general topic discussed. Interviewee encouraged to expand and elaborate. Semi-structured: List of questions predetermined but follow up questions allowed Structured Evaluation: + replicable +reduced difference between interviewers - no elaboration Unstructured Evaluation + flexibility and better insight - difficult to analyse
40
Explain the different types of closed questions.
Likert scale: strongly agree- strongly disagree Rating scale: Rate value of strength of topic ie very entertaining - not at all entertaining Fixed choice option: Includes list of possible options to choose from
41
What needs to be done when designing an interview?
Have an interview schedule; list of questions to be covered. This should be standardised to reduce interviewer bias. Should be in a quiet room and start with neutral questions so the participant feels relaxed. Bear in mind ethical issues.
42
How do you write a good question?
Don't use jargon Don't use emotive language or leading questions Don't use double barrelled questions (2 questions in one) or double negatives
43
What does a correlation do?
It illustrates the strength and direction of an association between 2 variables.
44
Name and explain the different types of correlations.
positive correlation: As one co-variable increases, so does the other negative correlation: As one co-variable increases, the other decreases Zero correlation: No relationship between co-variables
45
What is the difference between a correlation and an experiment?
An experiment has an IV which is manipulated, a DV which is observed and can prove causation. A correlation has no manipulation and cannot prove causation because of potential intervening variables.
46
What are the strengths of correlations?
- useful starting point for experiments - quick because secondary data can be used - economical
47
What are the limitations of correlations?
- They tell us how but not why variables are related - cannot prove causation - third variable problem (intervening variable)
48
Write out all our types of correlations.
Significant positive relationship Significant negative relationship null hypothesis: no significant relationship and if there is it is due to chance non directional: there is a significant relationship
49
What is a perfect positive or perfect negative correlation?
When the coefficient is 1 or -1 respectively.
50
How do you tell the strength of a correlation?
By the number, not the + or - sign. The larger the number, regardless of the sign, the stronger the correlation
51
Label the correlation strength scale.
0. 0-0.3= weak 0. 3-0.7= moderate 0. 7-1.0= strong
52
What is content analysis?
A method used to analyse qualitative data and often transform it to quantitive data.
53
What are the steps of content analysis?
- Decide what you will investigate - Collect your sample 1. Read information and make notes of key topics/words 2. Create a list of kinds of categories you are interested in comparing/ assessing 3. Tally how many times each option occurs (turns it into frequency data) 4. Compare findings between 2 groups
54
What are the strengths of content analysis?
- no ethical issues - good external validity - flexible as it is both qualitative and quantitive - can be replicated to test reliability
55
What are the weaknesses of content analysis?
- lack of objectivity | - culture bias because of language written in
56
What is a case study?
An in-depth investigation of a single person or a small group of people, usually concerning an unusual phenomenon.
57
What are the strengths of case studies?
They have good ecological validity as they are a stud yof a real-life situation. They can be the only way to investigate some phenomenon and things which are too unethical or impractical to study otherwise.
58
What are the weaknesses of case studies?
Cannot be replicated= low reliability difficult to generalise= low population validity no cause and effect as we don't see them how they were when they were healthy researcher bias ethics
59
What is a behavioural checklist?
A means of operationalising behaviour being measured in content analysis. This involves breaking the target behaviours into a list of measurable categories.
60
What is a behavioural category?
The measurable categories used to tally the frequency of behaviours.
61
What is thematic analysis?
An alternative to content analysis which involves rereading information to identify and report patterns/themes within the material.
62
What is qualitative data?
Data which is expressed in words and is non-numerical.
63
What is quantitative data?
Data which is numerical.
64
Evaluate qualitative data.
+ rich in detail + good external validity as it provides the researcher with a more meaningful insight to the participant's view - hard to analyse - subject to researcher bias
65
Evaluate quantitative data.
+ easy to analyse and use to draw comparisons + objective and less scope for bias - narrow in scope and meaning, may fail to represent real life
66
What is primary data?
Primary data is information that has been obtained first hand by the researcher ie from participants, self-report, questionniare or observaton.
67
What is secondary data?
Secondary data is information that has been previously obtained by someone else ie journal articles or government statistics.
68
Evaluate primary data.
+ it fits the job as it is specially designed for the researcher's study - time consuming - takes a lot of effort and resources
69
Evaluate secondary data.
+ cost effective | + easily accessible