Week 2/3

Question 1

2 branches of statistics

Answer 1

Descriptive statistics - Organise, summarise, and communicate numerical information

Inferential statistics - Use representative sample data to draw conclusions about a population

Question 2

Population

Answer 2

a collection of all possible members of a defined group
Could be any size

Question 3

Sample

Answer 3

A set of observations drawn from a subset of the population of interest
A portion of the population
Sample results are used to estimate the population results

Question 4

Operationalisation

Answer 4

Refers to the logical connection between the measure and the theoretical construct, or to the process by which we try to derive a measure from a theoretical construct.

Starting off with a vague concept and narrowing it down to come up with a precise way to measure it

Question 5

Psychological measurement examples

Answer 5

Examples – age, intelligence, memory for an event, happiness levels, how often someone drinks alcohol

Question 6

Theoretical construct

Answer 6

A thing you’re trying to take a measurement of
e.g. age, opinions, motives for drinking alcohol

Question 7

Measure

Answer 7

Refers to the method or the tool that you use to make your observations

Question 8

Variable

Answer 8

What we end up with when we apply our measure to something in the world. That is, variables are the actual “data” that we end up with in our data sets.

Question 9

Types of variables - Continuous

Answer 9

Can take on a full range of values (usually decimals)
How tall are you?

Question 10

Types of variables - discrete

Answer 10

Variables that can only take on specific values
e.g. Number of students
Can assign discrete values to things we’d normally consider words.
e.g. Political party

Question 11

Classification of variables - Discrete

Answer 11

Nominal: category or name, frequency of belonging to a category – e.g., handedness

Ordinal: ranking of data; clear order to data but distance between points may vary – e.g., place in a race, 1st, 2nd, 3rd place etc

Question 12

Classification of variables - Continuous

Answer 12

Interval: used with numbers that are equally spaced; Order to data points, fixed distance between points and negative values – e.g., temperature, 1º is always the same, negative temperatures possible

Ratio: like interval, order to data points, fixed distance between points, but has a meaningful 0 point (absence of the thing you are measuring); no negative values – e.g., height, always measured in cm, no negative heights

Generally described as scale variables

Question 13

Examples of variables

Answer 13

Nominal: name of biscuit
Ordinal: ranking of favourite biscuits
Interval: temperature of biscuits
Ratio: how many biscuits are left?

Question 14

Likert scales

Answer 14

(1) Strongly disagree
(2) Disagree
(3) Neither agree nor disagree
(4) Agree
(5) Strongly agree

Question 15

Independent variables

Answer 15

For a true experiment: must be manipulated – meaning you changed it

Generally dichotomous variables (nominal) like experimental group versus control group

Variable you manipulate or categorise
For quasi experiment: used naturally occurring groups, like age; year of study
Still dichotomous, but you didn’t assign the group

when IVs are categorical, the groups are called levels
If political party is an IV, levels could be Conservative or Labour

Question 16

+Dependant variables

Answer 16

The outcome information, what you measured in the study to find differences/changes based on the IV

Generally, these are interval/ratio variables, but you can use nominal ones too

Question 17

Independent/dependent variables examples

Answer 17

Independent variable – Whether participants have 1 or 3 drinks
e.g. Group A – 1 drink
Group B – 3 drinks

Dependent variable – Participants’ reaction times on a driving simulator after 1 or 3 drinks
e.g. reaction time (ms)

Question 18

Test-retest reliability

Answer 18

This relates to consistency over time.

If we repeat the measurement at a later date do we get the same answer

Question 19

Inter-rater reliability

Answer 19

This relates to consistency across people. If someone else repeats the measurement (e.g., someone else rates my intelligence) will they produce the same answer?

Question 20

Parallel forms reliability

Answer 20

This relates to consistency across theoretically-equivalent measurements. If I use a different set of bathroom scales to measure my weight does it give the same answer?

Question 21

Internal consistency reliability

Answer 21

If a measurement is constructed from lots of different parts that perform similar functions (e.g., a personality questionnaire result is added up across several questions) do the individual parts tend to give similar answers.

Question 22

Reliability

Answer 22

A reliable measure is consistent
Measure your height today and then again tomorrow
Standardised tests are supposed to be reliable

Question 23

Validity

Answer 23

A valid measure is one that measures what it was intended to measure
A measuring tape should accurately measure height
A valid study is one that measures what it was intended to measure

Question 24

Internal validity

Answer 24

Refers to the extent to which you are able draw the correct conclusions about the causal relationships between variables.

Question 25

External validity

Answer 25

relates to the generalisability or applicability of your findings.

Question 26

Construct validity

Answer 26

Does your measurement measure what you think it should?

Question 27

Ecological validity

Answer 27

can the conclusions be extrapolated to the real world?

Question 28

Hypothesis testing

Answer 28

Process of drawing conclusions about whether a relationship between variables is supported or not supported by the evidence

Question 29

Null hypothesis

Answer 29

No effect

Question 30

Alternative hypothesis

Answer 30

Predict that there will be an effect

Question 31

Two-tailed hypothesis

Answer 31

predict effects will be found but you don’t specify the direction

e.g. Reaction times will differ between participants drinking one and three alcoholic drinks

Question 32

One tailed hypothesis

Answer 32

predicts the direction
Participants will respond quicker after drinking one alcoholic drink than after drinking three alcoholic drinks

Question 33

Experiments

Answer 33

studies in which participants are randomly assigned to a condition or level of one or more independent variables

able to make causal statements
Control the confounding variables

Question 34

Quasi experiments

Answer 34

we still have an experiment but we can’t randomly assign participants to the IV –e.g., handedness

Question 35

Between-groups design

Answer 35

Different people complete the tasks, and comparisons are made between groups

Question 36

Within groups design

Answer 36

The same participants do things more than once, and comparisons are made over time

Question 37

Correlational studies

Answer 37

Correlational studies do not manipulate either variable
Variables are assessed as they exist
Cannot determine causality

Question 38

Categorical analysis

Answer 38

Looking at the frequency of occurrence across one or two categorical variables

Involves looking at the frequency at which participants ‘belong’ to particular categories

In the analysis, you look at the observed frequency and see whether this differs from the frequency that you expect to see by random chance

Question 39

Correlational analysis

Answer 39

Video game playing and aggression are related

No evidence that playing video games causes aggression

Question 40

Informed consent

Answer 40

researchers describe their research project and obtain participant’s consent to take part in the research based on their understanding of the project’s methods and goals
Whenever children or individuals with impairments are asked to participate, consent from them must be obtained wherever possible, as well as consent from the participant’s parent or guardian (dual consent)

If a participant cannot provide consent or has an impairment in communication or understanding that prevents them being able to consent, then a written consent form signed by a parent or guardian who is in a position to understand the participant’s reaction must be obtained (dual-consent by proxy)
In cases such as this, it is also advisable for the researcher to seek approval from a disinterested advisor who is familiar with ethical issues in research

Question 41

Deception

Answer 41

deliberately misleading participants about any aspect of the research

In some instances, it would be ok to deceive our participants, acknowledged by the BPS code of conduct

This would be included in the ethics application where one would explain the deception and why its necessary

Deception should be avoided, however in some studies this would be impossible to achieve since lots of psychological processes can be modified by individuals if they’re aware they’re being studied

Question 42

Debriefing

Answer 42

explaining to participants the nature, results, and conclusions of the research they participated in and correcting any misconceptions

Debriefing occurs after the completion of the study

It is an opportunity for the researcher to deal with issues of withholding information, deception, and any potential harmful effects of participation

The researcher should consider what the most appropriate form of debriefing is given the nature of the research being conducted

Question 43

Internet research

Answer 43

Individuals conducting research on the internet should consider the potential implications of participation without having fully read the relevant information

Yet another potential problem concerns the researcher’s inability to confirm the identity of online participants:
E.g. if someone checks a box saying “I am over 18” because the research specifically requires that only over-18s can participate, then there is no way of verifying whether this person is actually over 18

A person can easily maintain anonymity by using a pseudonym that cannot be traced back to reveal their identity

The exchange of information in open, public internet forums does not fall under the heading of research that requires informed consent and can be legitimately studied as long as there is no potential harm to participants

When deception is used you have an obligation to debrief your participants, however, debriefing may be more difficult in internet research

Question 44

Designing Ethical Research and Applying for Ethical Approval

Answer 44

Cost benefit approach – Does the potential of psychological distress or physical harm outweigh the benefits of the study?

Study design – Making sure informed consent is collected, no deception if avoidable, no risk if avoidable, full debriefing

Potential issues and safeguards included – Contact details in case any issues arise, outlining potential issues that could arise in the experiment but reassuring that the researchers are prepared to handle these issues in a safe and ethical way

Role of ethics committee – They are an
independent and objective committee who will look at the ethics application independently and objectively and assess whether or not it is feasible to go ahead

Build time into research process – Make time to write consent forms, info sheets, debrief sheets etc., being available to wait for decision making from ethics committee

Question 45

Research fraud

Answer 45

occurs when a researcher intentionally produces research which is inaccurate or untruthful

Question 46

Ethics

Answer 46

a branch of philosophy concerned with the way in which we formulate codes and principles of moral behaviour

Question 47

Morals v ethics

Answer 47

personally defined, are related to your own character – your moral values or principles – and generally don’t change much (although they sometimes do)

Ethics are related to the system in which we live