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Ms Johnson - Psychology > Research Methods > Flashcards

Research Methods Flashcards

1
Q

Define what is means to operationalise something

A

Making something more specific

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2
Q

Define what an aim is

A

Vague objective of the study/experiment

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3
Q

Define hypothesis

A

A testable statement that is more specific than the aim

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4
Q

After the study is finished, what do you do to the hypothesis?

A

Accept or reject it

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5
Q

What is a directional hypothesis ?

A

A one-tailed hypothesis that states the direction of the difference or relationship eg: men are better drivers than women as opposed to saying: there is a difference between how men and women drive ( not clarifying what the difference is )

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6
Q

What is meant by a non directional hypothesis?

A

Two - tailed hypothesis that does not predict the direction of the difference or relationship eg: boys and girls drive differently

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7
Q

What is a null hypothesis?

A

Predicts there is no difference between different conditions eg: there is no difference between how men drive compared to women

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8
Q

What is meant by conditions?

A

Groups

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9
Q

What is a participant ?

A

Someone who takes part in a study

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10
Q

What is an independent variable? And is it the cause or effect?

A

What you change

Cause

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11
Q

What is the dependent variable ? Cause or effect?

A

What you measure

Effect

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12
Q

Define what is meant by demand characteristics

A

Anything about a set up of a study that tells people how they should behave

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13
Q

What is investigator effects?

A

Anything about the behaviour of the person running the study that can affect results

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14
Q

5 types of sampling techniques?

A

Random - eg everyone in the target population has an equal chance of being chosen
Systematic - eg ask every nth person
Stratified - identify groups, find out proportion of each group, randomly select from each group
Opportunity - anyone who is available and willing
Volunteer- participants put themselves forward to take part by responding to an advert or request

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15
Q

What is a pilot study?

A

Small scale version of a real study to identify potential problems with study

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16
Q

What are extraneous variables ?

A

Any variables that could have an impact on the dependent variable but is not the independent variable

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17
Q

What is a confounding variable?

A

Did have an impact on DV, won’t know this until after study

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18
Q

What is a single blind design

A

Participant doesn’t know the true aim of the study, don’t know which condition they’re in or whether they’re in conditions at all. Controls demand characteristics

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19
Q

Double blind design ?

A

Neither participant or researcher is aware of the aims of the investigation

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20
Q

What is standardisation

A

All participants should be subject to the same environment, info and experience.

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21
Q

Randomisation?

A

Use of chance wherever possible to reduce the researchers influence on the design of the study. For example, a memory experiment may involve participants recalling words from a list. The order of the words should be randomly generated so the position of the words isn’t decide by the experimenter.

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22
Q

What is experimental design?

A

How we allocate participants to the conditions

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23
Q

What is repeated measures design?

A

Same people are used in all conditions of the experiment and their performances in the different conditions are compared.

Strengths- no individual differences, need less people

Limitations- order effects: performance in second condition can be affected by performance in first condition: practice/ fatigue effect. This can be controlled by using counterbalancing ( half do condition A followed by condition B and half do condition B followed by condition A)
Participants may guess the aim of the study

24
Q

Independent measures design? Random allocation?

A

Different people take part in each condition and their performances are compared. In some cases this is the only design that can be used for example whether independent variable is sex or age.

Random allocation= Random allocation means that each person has an equal chance of being in either condition. Can be carried out by giving everyone in the condition a number putting the numbers in a hat and then drawing out the first 10 numbers these 10 people take part in one condition and the remainder take part in other condition.

Strengths- no order effects such as practice or fatigue, participants take part in only one condition so less likely to figure out the aim

Limitations- individual differences, more people needed

25
Q

Matched pairs design?

A

Different people take part in each condition but there are matched in ways that matter for the experiment. This means individual differences are less likely to affect the results. The research in western show that each participant in one condition has a matching participant in other condition.

Strengths- individual differences are minimised, no order effects, naive to the aim of study

Limitations- matching is very difficult and time consuming, individual differences not eliminated completely as no two people are exactly alike.

26
Q

Four different types of experiment ?

A

Laboratory, field, quasi and natural

27
Q

Lab experiment?

A

IV: manipulated by experimenter

Setting: controlled by experimenter

Strengths: high control, can be easily replicated

Limitations: artificial, low ecological validity

28
Q

Field experiment?

A

IV: manipulated by experimenter

Setting: natural environment, not controlled by experimenter

Strengths: natural behaviour (less demand characteristics), greater ecological validity

Limitations: less control, less ethical ( participants might not know they’re taking part)

29
Q

Natural experiment?

A

IV: not manipulated by experimenter

Setting: can be controlled by experimenter

Strengths: allows research where IV can’t be manipulated for ethical or practical reasons

Limitations: random allocation not possible so confounding variables more likely, can only be used where conditions vary naturally

30
Q

Quasi experiment?

A

IV: not manipulated by the experimenter because it is a naturally occurring characteristic of the individual

Setting: can be controlled by the experimenter

Strengths: allows comparison between types of people

Limitations: Random allocation not possible therefore confounding variables more likely, can only be used where conditions vary naturally

31
Q

What is internal validity?

A

Does the research really measure what it claims to measure? Validity is concerned with whether the effect observed in the research is due to the manipulation of the IV and not some other factor. Can be improved by minimisation of investigator effects, reduction of demand characteristics etc

32
Q

Ecological validity?

A

Extent to which research reflects real life. Refers to the extent to which an experimental effect ( the results) can be generalised to other settings

33
Q

What is an observation?

A

Watching people’s behaviour

34
Q

What are covert and overt observations and the strengths and limitations of them both?

A

Covert observations are when people don’t know they’re being observed

Strengths: reduced demand characteristics

Limitations: not ethical

Overt observations are when people are aware they are being observed

Strengths: ethical

Limitations: demand characteristics (reduce validity)

35
Q

What are natural and controlled observations and the strengths and limitations of them both?

A

Naturalistic observations are conducted out in the real world

Strengths: high validity because the behaviour is real behaviour in a real setting

Limitations: lack of control

Controlled observations take place in artificial environments

Strength: high level of control

Limitations: discipline’s behaviour is less likely to reflect the way they behave in real life therefore this type of observation lacks validity

36
Q

What are participant and non participant observations and the strengths and weaknesses of them both?

A

Participant observation is when the researcher is a member of the group being observed

Strengths: allows for close observations

Limitations: A problem is the chance that the presence and actions of the observer will change the course of events making the results less valid

Nonparticipant observation is when the researcher is not a member of the group being observed

Strengths: observer can remain objective

Limitations: observations can’t be contextualised

37
Q

What are behavioural categories?

A

Researchers often use a category system breaking down the target behaviour into operational categories, for example, if the target behaviour was ‘aggression’ the behavioural categories maybe hitting, smacking and kicking. Category systems should be clear, any instances of these behaviours can be recorded on a tally chart.

37
Q

What is times sampling?

A

Having a regular pattern of time for when data is collected (time intervals) for example, every minute, note the behaviour

38
Q

What is event sampling?

A

Involves counting the number of times a particular behaviour (the event) occurs in the target individual/group

40
Q

Define what is meant by a self report

A

The technique you can use to find out information from the person themselves, for example, an interview

41
Q

Questionnaires – what is a closed question?

A

Close questions are ones where there are a fixed number of optional answers and the respondent has to choose one of the options. They produce quantitative data that is easy to summarise, allowing for straightforward comparison across different groups of respondents. However, there is little depth or richness to the data and people do not have a chance to explain their answers so the data may have less validity

42
Q

Questionnaires – what is an open question?

A

Open questions are ones where the respondent can answer in any way they like. People’s responses are more likely to be the true response, giving the data greater validity. Open questions produce qualitative and more meaningful information. They are more participant friendly because they are less restrictive as people put their own answer forward rather than being forced to choose from a set of fixed options. Despite this it’s difficult to analyse the responses and look for patterns.

43
Q

Closed questions – what are Likert scales?

A

One in which the respondent indicates their agreement with a statement using a scale of usually five points. The scale ranges from strongly disagree to strongly agree

44
Q

Closed questions – what are rating scales?

A

A rating scale works in a similar way to Likert scale but gets respondents to identify a value that represents the strength of feeling about a particular topic

45
Q

Close questions – what is a fixed choice option?

A

A fixed choice option item includes a list of possible options and respondents are required to indicate those that apply to them

46
Q

What are the strengths and limitations of questionnaires?

A

Strengths: large amounts of data can be collected quite quickly, can be highly replicable, questionnaires using close questions are easy to score, questionnaires using open questions give richer and more valid data

Limitations: questionnaires are a self-report method so are subjective (based on opinion), respondents may not give a true answer (socially desirable). This means the data may be less valid. Respondents have a natural tendency to comply or say they agree with items even when they really don’t

47
Q

Interviews are a form of self report. What is a structured interview?

A

Is one where the interviewer has a preprepared set of questions that are asked in a fixed order. There is no chance to ask extra questions.

48
Q

What is an unstructured interview?

A

Where the interviewer starts off with an aim and interviewee is invited to discuss a specific topic. There are no predetermined questions, the interviewer listens and makes comments, prompting interviewees to expand on interesting or relevant points.

49
Q

What is a semistructured interview?

A

Many interviews are likely to fall somewhere between the two other types of interviews. The sort of interview that one is most likely to encounter in every day life (a job interview) is a good example of a semistructured interview: there is a list of questions that have been worked out in advance but interviewers are also free to ask follow-up questions when they feel it is appropriate

50
Q

What is a correlation? And what would you represent a correlation on?

A

Method type that allows us to look for a relationship between two variables
DON’T ESTABLISH CAUSE AND EFFECT, only general relationships!

Represent correlation studies on a scatter gram

51
Q

Three types of correlations?

A

Positive- one variable increases, other variable increases or as one decreases other decreases

Negative- one variable increases, other decreases

Zero- no relationship between two variables

52
Q

What is a correlation co-efficient?

A

A numerical value to represent correlation

The closer the number is to +1, stronger the positive correlation

Closer the number is to -1, stronger the negative correlation

Closer it’s to 0, stronger zero correlation

53
Q

What is a case study? And who can you have one on?

A

Method type that’s an in depth analysis

Can be of:
A single person
Small group
Event
Institution
54
Q

What is content analysis?

A

Technique to analyse qualitative data, can turn qualitative data into quantitative data
Data usually collected using a coding/category system eg: researcher might analyse speeches of politicians to see how often they refer to ‘family’ or ‘religion’ (these are words that are qualitative however they turn into a mark on a tally which it quantitative)

55
Q

What is thematic analysis?

A

Can turn qualitative data into refined qualitative data

The way content analysis data is analysed, goes beyond just counting, involved identifying ideas within data

Ms Johnson - Psychology (2 decks)

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