RESEARCH METHODS YEAR 1 Flashcards

Question

Demand characteristics

Answer 1

Participants trying to guess the nature and purpose of the experiment and thus behaving differently.

Answer 2

Double: Neither the participants nor the researchers are aware of the aims of the investigation. This is often used in drug trials, so that the researcher doesn’t know which group gets the placebo. This avoids investigator effects (bias). Single: Participants are not aware of the condition they are in. Attempts to control for the confounding effects of demand characteristics.

Answer 3

Takes place in a natural environment and the independent variable is not manipulated, taking advantage of a completely natural event. Adv: High ecological validity, providing opportunities for research which otherwise may not be available enables ‘real’ problems to be studied objective research method (little influence from the researcher) few ethical issues Dis: the natural event may be one that only happens rarely, limits opportunity and generalisability many extraneous variables which threaten ‘cause-effect’ conclusion participants aren’t randomly selected, meaning that there could be bias

Answer 4

IV is a naturally existing characteristic between people which has not been manipulated. ‘Quasi’ refers to something that is not quite real, but may work as the real thing does. Adv: often carried out under laboratory conditions so therefore high in controls enables psychologists to study ‘real’ problems. Dis: like natural experiments, no random allocation so there may be confounding variables, meaning we cannot come to a cause-effect conclusion

Answer 5

devision of component behaviours

Answer 6

counting the number of times a certain behaviour (or event) occurs in a target individual or individuals.

Answer 7

Recording behaviours in a given time frame. Might be what an individual is doing every 30 seconds

Answer 8

When the researcher has some measure of control over the environment. Adv: control over extraneous variables inter-observer reliability (agreement between researchers) easy to replicate Dis: Cannot be applied to real life settings may be subjective towards what the researcher wants to see

Answer 9

Studying behaviour in a natural setting where everything is as it normally is. Adv: High ecological validity Natural environment is generalised to everyday life fewer demand characteristics Dis: Replication is difficult due to lack of control Uncontrolled extraneous variables

Answer 10

Participants are not aware that the are being watched Adv: No demand characteristics Dis: ethical issues as they don’t now that they are being observed

Answer 11

Participants are aware that they being watched Adv: fewer ethical issues as there is no deception Dis: demand characteristics as they know they are being observed

Answer 12

The observer acts as part of the group being watched Adv: first hand experience insight increased validity Dis: lose objectivity difficulty in recording observations ethical issues

Answer 13

The experimenter does not become a part of the group being watched Adv: more ethical more objective Dis: less insight not experiencing the same things lower in validity

Answer 14

The researcher determines precisely what behaviours are to be observed and uses a standardised checklist to record the frequency with which they are observed within a specific time frame Adv: easier to gather relevant data as you know what to look for Dis: interesting behaviours could go unrecorded because they weren’t predefined as important

Answer 15

The observer recalls all relevant behaviour but has no system Adv: all behaviours will be recorded, despite not being what was originally expected Dis: it is harder to gather relevant data because you don’t know what you are looking for

Answer 16

mean, mode, median

Answer 17

adding up items and dividing by numbers of items Adv: takes account of exact distance between all the values of the data representative of all the data Dis: anomalous values can distort and misrepresent data cannot be used with nominal data

Answer 18

The most common value Adv: unaffected by anomalies and is useful for discrete data and the only method which can be used for nominal data Dis: sometimes there are so many modes that the data cannot be described using this statistic

Answer 19

middle value in an ordered list. items must be arranged in order then the central value is the median when there are two central values, they must be added together and divided by two Adv: not affected by anomalies easy to calculate Dis: less sensitive as exact values are not reflected

Answer 20

how dispersed scores are

Answer 21

arithmetic distance between the highest and lowest values. it is customary to add 1 Adv: easy to calculate Dis: affected by extreme values doesn’t take into account the distribution of numbers

Answer 22

more precise. a measure of the average distance between each data item above and below the mean ignoring plus and minus values. the smaller the standard deviation, the closer together the values are Adv: precise method of dispersion because it takes into account all of the values Dis: may hide some characteristics of the data set (extreme values)

Answer 23

uses numbers -Discrete: data in discrete categories: bar charts use discrete data. -Continuous: data continues. is measured using a scale of measurement

Answer 24

A small scale version of an investigation that taks place before the real investigation is conducted. The aim is to check that procedures, materials, measuring scales etc., work and allow the researcher to make changes or modifications if necessary. Ethics need to be checked beforehand.

Answer 25

The group from the population that is selected for the researcher to use in the research.

Answer 26

The group of people from whom the sample is drawn. We use a target population if we want to investigate specific individual differences.

Answer 27

each person has an equal chance of being selected. Chosen from a computer random generator/ picked out of a hat. Adv: unbiased: all members of the target population have an equal chance of selection Dis: The researcher may end up with a biased sample because the sample is too small Subgroups of target population might not be selected- does not guarantee a representative sample

Answer 28

Researcher advertises the study and people who are interested apply to be in the research. Adv: quick, convenient and ethical if it leads to informed consent large response rate allows more in-depth analysis and accurate results Dis: sample is biased because the participants are likely to be more highly motivated (volunteer bias)

Answer 29

Asking people who are available at the time to take part in the research Adv: the easiest and fastest method because you use the first participants you can find Dis: biased because the sample is drawn from a small part of the target population unlikely to be representative of a target population

Answer 30

Selecting people from every portion of your population in the same proportions Adv: more representative than an opportunity sample because there should be equal representation of subgroups Dis: it is time consuming because all potential participants need to be assessed and categorised some groups within a sample may not be represented if a small sample is used

Answer 31

Selecting every nth name from a list Adv: it avoids bias as, once the researcher has decided what number they have no control over who is being selected Dis: it is not completely objective because the researcher may decide on how people are listed before the selection there is a small chance of a ‘freak’ sample which would not be representative

Answer 32

consent letter. Should include aim of the study, nature of the study, offer counselling, must be anonymous (name removed from data), must be signed, allows right to withdraw.

Answer 33

ask similar group of people for consent

Answer 34

consent for different studies, including one that may involve deception

Answer 35

asked consent during debrief

Answer 36

represented in the form of categories. is discrete and one item can only appear in one category

Answer 37

Data which is ordered in some way does not have equal intervals between each unit based on subjective opinion

Answer 38

based in numerical scales that include units of equal precisely defined size (units of measurement for example)

Answer 39

when questions are decided in advance adv can be easily repeated- standardised questions requires less skill than unstructured interviews easier to analyse than unstructured interviews dis interviewer bias may still occur social desirability may still occur data collected will be restricted by a predetermined set of questions

Answer 40

the interview start with some general aims and questions and then lets the interviewee’s answers guide the subsequent questions adv detailed and in depth information access information that may not e revealed from pre-determined questions deep insights into feelings and thoughts you can tailor questions to specific responses good rapport, high in validity dis more affected by interviewer bias then structured interviews requires well-trained interviewers low reliability, interviewer may behave differently or ask different questions hard to analyse answers body language

Answer 41

combination of both structured and unstructured interview techniques

Answer 42

a set of questions used to assess a person’s thoughts and experiences. Usually gathered from large numbers of people, carried out on selected samples of people, may include a mixture of both open and closed questions adv cost effective no demand characteristics researcher does not need to be present straightforward to analyse dis leading questions social desirability bias misunderstanding questions

Answer 43

Likert: a number of responses to a question which often demonstrate a degree of agreement, quantitative Open : the participant can give any answer they wish, qualitative Closed: possible answers are determined by the researcher. various types of these and best asked when factual information is needed

Answer 44

clarity: questions need to be clear so that the reader understands what is being asked bias: leading questions might lead to desirability bias (when respondents choose to portray themselves in a positive way. sequencing for the questions: start with easier questions until respondent is more relaxed.

Answer 45

A research method that involves a face to face interaction with another individual and results with the collection of data.

Answer 46

it is not possible to establish cause and effect using correlation you may find a strong link between things but that does not necessarily mean one causes another. instead you have found an association.

Answer 47

using to or more variables (co-variables) are measured in order to identify if there is a relationship between them (e.g. height and shoe size).A single numerical value is produced that is used to describe the relationship. adv: -can be used when it would be unethical/impractical to conduct an experiment -if correlation is significant, then further investigation is justified -if correlation is not significan, you can rule out a causal relationship dis: -correlational analysis cannot demonstrate a cause and effect relationship between variables -there may be other unknown variables that can explain why the co-variables are linked -extraneous variables may lead to false conclusions

Answer 48

number between -1 and 1. tells us how strong the correlation is, the nearer to 1 or -1, the stronger the relationship. It has a plus or minus sign in front of the number which tells us whether the correlation is positive or negative.

Answer 49

normal distribution: a symmetrical spread of frequency data that forms a bell-shaped pattern. The mean, median and mode are all located at the highest peak. Skewed distribution: a spread of frequency data that is not symmetrical where the data clusters to one end

Answer 50

the long tail is on the negative (left) side of the peak and most of the distribution is concentrated on the right. The mode and the median are greater than the mean

Answer 51

the long tail is on the positive (right) side of the peak and most of the distribution is concentrated on the left. The mean is greater than the mode and median.

Answer 52

Internal: the study measures or examines what it claimed to measure or examine External: the extent the results of the study can be generalised to others (also known as ecological validity)

Answer 53

Ecological: generalisable to real life settings- generalising findings from one setting to other settings Concurrent: results from a new test can be compared to a previously well-established test Population: whether you can reasonably generalise the findings from your sample to a larger group of people Temporal: assesses to what degree research findings remain over time Face: does the test look as though it measures what it intends to measure Content: involves asking experts in the field to check the content of the study Predictive: if diagnosis leads to successful treatment then the diagnosis is seen as valid

Answer 54

reliability is the overall consistency of a measure Internal: the extent to which a test is consistent within itself External: refers to the ability of the test to produce the same results each time it is carried out

Answer 55

Inter-rater reliability: two or more interviewers/observers must get the same outcome on 80% or more of the behaviours Split-half method: compare an individual’s performance on two halves of a test Test-retest method: a person repeats a test a month or after doing the same test the first time

Answer 56

Questionnaires: test-retest -low test-retest might require items to be deselected or rewritten Interviews: structured interviews are more reliable due to fixed nature Observations: operationalising the behavioural categories

Answer 57

A method of quantifying qualitative content via coding/categorisation data is analysed as typologies, quotations and summaries hypotheses are grounded in the data -coding units are identified to analyse data -see how often that code appears used with secondary data

Answer 58

a clear summary of the patterns in the data may be established once a coding system has ben set up, replication is easy this, in turn, improves reliability can be subjective reducing the data to coding units removes detail

Answer 59

Involves making summaries of data and identifying key themes and categories. These themes should be recurrent. • researcher becomes familiar with the data • researcher looks for different themes, reviews the themes, defines and names the themes and writes a report Hypothesis is made after the data is collected and is grounded in the data

Answer 60

qualitative analysis preserves the details in the data creating the hypotheses during analysis allows for new insights to develop some objectivity can be established by using triangulation how do you decide which categories to use and whether something fits a category? how do you decide what to leave out of the summary subjective decisions

Answer 61

an in-depth study, using a range of methods on one person or a small group. Because it uses a range of different research methods, this increases reliability, by the process of triangulation. Using a range of different methods is a way of double-checking results. adv: rich data- researchers have the opportunity to study rare phenomena in a lot of detail unique cases- can challenge existing ideas and theories and make suggestion for future research dis: causal relationships- cause and effect cannot be established generalisation ethics- informed consent

Answer 62

-outline of what the experiment entails, including aims, time of the experiment, duration of experiment,general purpose of the study -Ethical guidelines: No pressure to consent, right to withdraw, right to withdraw data, confidentiality and anonymity, they should be able to ask questions at any time, they should receive a full debrief -Format and style of consent form: will require participant’s agreement could be written as a form that participants need to sign, including space to do so space for the participant to write the date a space to print their name