reserch methods Flashcards

Question

evaluate controlled observation

Answer 1

+ more controlled -lower ecological validity and behave differently if they know they are being observed

Answer 2

- a questionarie is set of written questions designed to collect information about a topic -they are composed of a variety of different questions and scales to measure them -the aim is to uncover what people think and feel about a topic

Answer 3

+partical, large volume of info quickly and cheaply - leading questions - social desirability bias

Answer 4

face-to-face discussion between participants and interviewer using a range of structured or open - ended questions

Answer 5

structured - follow a fix set of questions same for all participants pp’s respond verbally semi-structures - no fixed questions but topic areas are guided order etc can vary across pp’s unstructured - the interviewee takes the conversation in the direction that they want the interviewer often starts with a few pre-determined questions and the aim

Answer 6

+ pilot study - useful way to get info before a study -social desirability bias -impractical time consuming and skilled researchers - data analysis can be hard

Answer 7

-looks at relationship between 2 variables arnt manipulated may be caused by a third unknown variable or coincidence

Answer 8

+ethics you can study variables that would be unethical to manipulate -casual relationship can’t assume correlation may be caused by a third unknown variable

Answer 9

case study - intensive descriptions of a single individual or case they allow researchers to analyse unusual cases in a lot of detail eg milner et al study +unique cases can challenge existing ideas and suggest future ideas for research -cause -effect relationship can’t be established

Answer 10

-null hypothesis- a prediction that there will be no relationship between key variables if data doesn’t support you challenge it alternative hypotheses- when data forces you to accept an alternative hypothesis to show variables are linked -directional hypothesis- stating that one group will do BETTER or HIGHER data than another USED WHEN PAST RESERCH SUGGESTS THE FINDINGS WILL GO IN A PARTICULAR DIRECTIONAL -non- directional- predict no difference eg just saying there will be a difference in exam results compared to those who revised and don’t USED WHEN THERE IS NO RELEVANT PAST RESEARCH OR CONTRADICTORY RESEARCH -experimental hypothesis testable statement or prediction more words will be remembered when learning in silence than when TV is on

Answer 11

recruiting people who are most convient or avliable eg people walking in the street or students at school and fir the criteria you are looking for + easiest method and less time consuming -biased small smaple of population exculded certain populations eg people at work or children at school

Answer 12

every member of the population has an equal chance of being chosen identifying everyone in target population and selecting amount of people needed which gives everyone equal chance + unbiased all members of the target population have a equal chance of selection - takes time to create a list of all members and contact them

Answer 13

identifies subgroups in accordance to their frequency in the population and then are randomly selected in the same proportion as they occur in the real population +more representative because there is proportional selection -very time consuming to identify subgroups and contact them etc

Answer 14

use a predetermined to select participants for example choosing every nth person from a phonebook +unbiased because it uses a objective system -only random if number is selected randomly before

Answer 15

advertise in a newspaper or on a noticeboard or on the interent and is self selected sampling +gives access to a variety of participants who may read the advertisesment -sample biased in some ways eg those who arehighly motivated and have time on their hands or need money this results in volunteer bias

Answer 16

is a small scale test run of the reserch design to investigate if certain aspects of the experiment work to see to what extent the procedure needs fine tuning eg if participants dont understand the experiment

Answer 17

all participants recieve all levels of the IV and compare the performance of DV of the participants on the two tests eg all pp’s tries every brand of chocolate -order effect some may be better on second test due to practice effect or get bored boredom effect or may guess what the experiment is about demand characteristics practice effect ways of dealing - counterbalancing Each condition of IV occurs first and last equally which disrupts order effects

Answer 18

participants are placed in independant groups each group does one level of the IV we compare the performance DV of the two groups USES DIFFERENT PP’S IN EACH CONDITION EG ONE GROUP 1ST BRAND ONE GROUP 2ND BRAND -individual differences may impact on the DV rather than the IV itself TO OVERCOME = random allocation each pp’s a number put all in a hat draw one no at a time and allocate 1st to condition 1 continue until all are allocated

Answer 19

match participants on key characteristics believes to affect performance of DV eg IQ - very time consuming and difficult to match and not able to fully control eg history ways of dealing resistrict number of variables conduct poliet study

Answer 20

observers agree on a list of specific behaviours they want to observe -this ensures clear exactly what is being measured and observers are looking for same behaviour -for example aggressive behaviour eg shouting hitting kicking and screaming

Answer 21

event sampling - counting the number of times a certain behaviour occurs in a individual in a certain time period time sampling - recording behaviours in a given time frame eg every 30 seconds and may tick one or more categories from a checklist

Answer 22

in an interview where the questions have a predetermined range of answers from which respondents select one tend to produce quantitive data ed yes/no and mutiple chose

Answer 23

questions that invite respondants to provide their own answers and produce qualitative data eg describe how you feel about psychology +avoids biasing answers +provides richer more accurate information +gives opportunity to respond freely

Answer 24

variables that interfere with the effect of IV you could explain the results of the study change in DV with a factor other than IV eg more intelligent better memory or eyesight

Answer 25

for example reserchers dont know if participants ability is distrubted evenly which makes it more difficult to detect the effect because other factors have an effect often called nuisance variables and make it difficult to detect a significant effect eg age, lighting, noise in background things that make it harder to detect a result they dont confound the findings of the study

Answer 26

participant variables = to do with differences between the pp’s situational variables = features of the experimental situation

Answer 27

define a variable to specify how it is measured or manipulated make it very clear exactly what was measured and how eg intelligence IQ test score

Answer 28

-obtain all the people in the population that wants testing -put all the names in a lottery barrel or hat -select the number of names required without looking

Answer 29

way 1 AB or BA divide group into 2 groups -each particpant does A then B -each participant does B then A

Answer 30

a set od procedures that are the same for all participants in order to be able to repeat the study. this includes standarised instructions which tell participants how to perform the task

Answer 31

a cue that makes participants unconscouisly aware of the aims of the study or helps participants work out what the resercher expects to find and may change how they would naturally behaviour way to deal with... single blind design that participants are unaware of the researchs aim/hypothesis this prevents them from seeking cues and reacting to them experimental realism if the experimental task is suffciently encaging participants are less likely to pay attention to the fact they are being observed

Answer 32

unwanted influence that the investigator does that has an effect on a particpants performance in a study other than what is intended which may affect participants natural behaviour ways to deal with... both the resercher and partipant dont know the aim or hypothesis and therefore less likely to produce cues about what he/she expects

Answer 33

- respect upkeeping the dignity and worth of participants eg confidentiality -competence psychologists should maintain high standards in their professional work -responsibility psychologists have responsibilty over physical and psychological harm eg protection from harm and debriefing -integrity psychologists should be honest and accurate

Answer 34

-informed consent given comprehensive info concerning the nature and purpose of research and their role in it -deception not given the real aims of the study eg being ied to and therfore cannot do informed consent -the right to withdraw participants can stop if they feel uncomfortable and can withdraw their results -protection from psychological and physical harm should not experience negative effects -confidentiality no communication of personal information and info protected -privacy a persons right to control the flow of information about themselves

Answer 35

-informed consent = gain presumptive consent deception = being fully debriefed right to withdraw = informed at the start they have the right to withdraw protection from harm = stop the study is harm is suspected offer follow up counselling if neccasary confidentiality = not record names use numbers or false names use pseudonyms privacy = dont study anyone without their informed consent

Answer 36

the practise of using independant experts to assess the quality and validity of scientific research and academic reports

Answer 37

- finding an expert in some fields is not easy -publication bias journals tend to publish positive results less likely to agree to publish negative findings -anonymity reviewed anonymously to enable objectivity and honesty -preserving status quo publishes what applies to current theory science is resistant to shifts

Answer 38

-publication of research in scientific journals and books ensures what is published is reliable and accurate prevents faulty or incorrect data enetering public domain -allocation of research funding paid for by government and charities -assessing research rating of university departments rates quality of research conducted by university which influences funding received by university

Answer 39

the extent to which there is an agreement between 2 or more observers involved in observations of a behaviour kappa score 1 would be perfect agreement

Answer 40

objectivity - being subjective empirical - observation to reach logical judgement replicability - being able to do the test multiple times improves reliablity falsifiability - hypothesis can be proven wrong by the experiment

Answer 41

which represents how much or how long there are of something deals with numbers and which can be measured using behaviour categories or frequency tabled +easy to analyse conclusions easily withdrawed - data may over simplify reality

Answer 42

deals with descriptions concerns attitudes beliefs and emotions using collection of videos or written dairy + can provide rich detailed info of peoples experiences - more difficult to analyse and draw conclusions

Answer 43

information observed or controlled directly from first hand experience collected for the study currently being undertaken +data collected can be designed so it fits the aims and hypothesis of the study -is a very lengthy and expensive process

Answer 44

information used in a reaserch study that was collected by someone else or for a purpose other than the current one for example published data collected from the past +simplier and cheaper to access someones else data significantly less time and equipment needed -data may not the needs of the study

Answer 45

a resercher looks at the findings from a number of different studies and produces a statistic to represent the overall effect +may increase the validity of conclusions reached because they are based on a larger sample -different studies can vary considerably and not truly vomparable therefore calculating the effect may not be appropriate

Answer 46

- gives a typical value for data set where the middle of data set is -mean adding all the data and diving by the number of numbers -median middle value in an ordered list -mode (most common)

Answer 47

- range - standard deviation shows the amount of variation in a data set. it asscess the spread of data around the mean

Answer 48

-uses data which comes in categories (discrete data) -vertical axis = score of DV -horizontal = individual categories or IV -bars should be drawn separately with equal gaps

Answer 49

-use continuous data -varitical axis = frequency of something -horizontal axis = scale of something eg length or mass -they don't have gaps between bars

Answer 50

-contineous data on the x axis -points are the top of where a bar would be -highlights continuous nature of variable on x axis

Answer 51

-when doing correctional analysis -involves plotting 2 scores on the x axis and one on y axis

Answer 52

population scores are evenly distributed around the mean. a symmetrical classic bell shaped curve - the mean median and mode are all in the exact mid point

Answer 53

looks like a slide mode eg is closer to the x axis

Answer 54

looks like a rollacoaster mode etc are closer to the right end of the graph

Answer 55

-used when looking at related data -the hypothesis states a difference between 2 sets of data -2 sets of data are related -nominal data -matched pairs

Answer 56

so we are certain that there is less than a 5% possibility that the results occurred by chance

Answer 57

1. state the hypothesis if directional = one tailed test non-directional = 2 tailed test 2. calculated difference (after-before) the directional factor away from the other factor eg After holiday - before holiday recored each score as a + or - 3. find s value added up the total number of + and - the less frquent sign is X and thefore the calculated value 4. Find critical value of S N= number of participants - exclude any 0 differences and use 0.05 5. results? we can accept the hypothesis if the s value is equal to or lower than the critical value to show significance

Answer 58

-observe = identify problems and trends -hypothesis -test and collect data -analyse results against dependant variable -accept or reject hypothesis

Answer 59

- a person reports and describes their own attitudes, thoughts and feelings usually through answering questions on a questionnaire (expressing answers to open or closed questions) or via an interview which can be structured or unstructured

Answer 60

-clarity key terms are operationalised and are non-ambiguous -bias be prepared for social desirability reverse your questions so pp’s cant just tick the same end of scale regularly -analysis questions need to be written so easy to analyse use similar types of questions to enable a score to be generated

Answer 61

-filler questions include some irrelevant questions to distract from main purpose of the study -sequence of questions put easier / less challenging questions first -sampling technique stratified -pilot study test questionnaire on small group first

Answer 62

please indicate in rank order your preferred type of animal 1 next to you favourite 5 for your least faviourite rabbit, dog, gerbil, cat and lion

Answer 63

indicate the strength of agreement with a statement eg psychology is the best subject in the world do you agree or disagree 1 agree 10 disagree

Answer 64

pp’s indicate which items from a list apply eg choose 3 adjectives which best describe your personality eg grumpy happy smiley

Answer 65

test - retest relatability is a measure of consistency of a psychological test or assessment and is measured by administering a test twice at 2 different points in time this type of reliability assumes there will be no change in the quality or construct being measured

Answer 66

the extent to which a self-report measure looks like it is measuring what it claims to measure it requires the researcher to ask people whether they intuitively think that the measure it accurate

Answer 67

the extent to which a new questionnaire produces the same result as a pre existing questionnaire if it doesn’t it has high concurrent validity pp’s complete new and pre-existing questionnaire there scores are compared looking at similarity and correlation

Answer 68

the effect of an interviewer’s expectations,communicated unconsciously on a respondents behaviour

Answer 69

a distortion in the way people tend to answer questions they tend to answer in a way that presents them in a better light

Answer 70

a systematic association between 2 continuous variables - a method used to analyse data not strictly a research method -variables are simply measure no manipulation or change made -represented using a scattergram

Answer 71

-range from -1 to +1 -positive correlation co-efficient as one variable increases so does another eg taller people have bigger feet -a perfect positive correlation would be represented by +1 -negative correlation co efficient as one variable increases other decreases perfect negative correlation= -1

Answer 72

+correlation can be used to investigate trends in data if correlation is significant then further investigation is justified +the procedures in a correlation can be easily repeated to test its reliability -correlations cannot show a cause and effect relationship no manipulation of IV

Answer 73

mean +uses all values in data set most sensitive to variations in the data - artificially raised or lowered by extreme values median + not distorted by extreme values -less sensitive to variations in data mode +summarsing frequency data -serval modes

Answer 74

range + easy to calculate takes into consideration extreme scores -ignores rest of results standard deviation +uses every score in calc +not heavily distorted by extreme scores -laborious to calculate

Answer 75

-ask a specific reserch question -data is collected -resercher reads through and examines data familiarising themselves -resercher identifies coding units -test the coding on sample material and assess reliability -tally is made of number of times that a coding unit appears

Answer 76

+high ecological validity + can be replicated and tested for reliability -observer bias reduces objectivity and validity os results -culture bias

Answer 77

-a qualitative content analysis summarises data descriptively and identifies underlying themes in data allows themes to emerge from the data and maintain pp's pov

Answer 78

- read and reread data transspricts -break data down into meaningful units assign a label or code to each unit -combine codes into larger themes -ensure that these emerging themes represent all the data

Answer 79

FALSE POSITIVE rejecting null hypothesis that is true -eg positive covid test when you're actually negative

Answer 80

FALSE NEGATIVE accepting null hypothesis that is not true eg negative covid test when you're actually positive

Answer 81

-data (nominal,ordinal, interval) -design (independent groups, repeated measures, matched pairs) -difference (correlation or test of difference)

Answer 82

nominal= pp's are categorised into groups ordinal= data ordered in some way eg ratings or ranking often based on subjective attitudes interval= data measured using formal units of equal distance eg weight and height

Answer 83

Carrots = chi -squared scare = sign test me = mann-whitney when = wilcoxon served = spearmans under = unrelated t-test roast = related t-test potatoes = pearson's Data up to down = nominal, ordinal, interval test of difference left to right design IG, design RM/MP

Answer 84

-summary of study covering :aims,hypothesis, method,findings and conclusions -allows reader to get quick picture of study and if results are worthy or useful for further investigation

Answer 85

-provides background information on literature relevant to investigation -contextualises present research shows where. aim and hypothesis are derived from.

Answer 86

-design such as research method used and IV/DV -participants sampling method and justification age gender culture -materials stimulus material -procedure instructions, informed consent and debrief -ethics issues and dealing with

Answer 87

-summary of results -strength and weaknesses -implication of findings -suggestions for future research

Answer 88

summary of the main

Answer 89

all cited evidence Books Surname. initial (year) title of book. place of publication: publisher journals surname, initial. (year). title of article. volume. Page number