Chapter 1: Research Methods Part 2 Flashcards
What is primary data?
Data collected directly by the researcher (or through others) for their own purpose, usually to test a hypothesis.
What is secondary data?
Data that has been collected by someone other than the original user for their own purpose.
What is qualitative data?
Info about the ‘qualities’ or characteristics of what is being studied.
What is quantitative data?
Numerical info on the ‘quantity’ or amount of what is being studied.
-How much of something there is
Give some examples of descriptive statistics:
- Tables
- Graphs
- Percentages
- Means
- Standard deviation
What are inferential statistics used for?
Interpreting and giving meaning to statistics.
What is a generalisation?
A decision or judgment about how widely the findings of a research study can be applied, particularly to other members of the population from which the sample was drawn.
What is reliability?
The extent to which the results obtained from a research study are consistent, dependable and stable.
What is validity?
The extent to which the research study and its procedures measure what the research intended to measure.
-External or internal
What is internal validity?
The extent to which the results obtained for a study are actually due to the variable(s) that was tested or measured and not due to some other factor.
What is external validity?
The extent to which the results obtained for a study can be generalised to the population from which the sample was drawn or to other people in other settings and over time.
What are ethics?
Standards that guide individuals to identify good, desirable or acceptable conduct.
What is confidentiality?
The obligation of the researcher not to use or disclose private info for any purpose other than that for which ti was given to them.
What is voluntary participation?
The reseacher must ensure participants voluntarily consent to be involved in a study.
What are withdrawal rights?
Participants have an unconditional right to opt out of a study at any time without giving a reason for doing so.
What is informed consent?
Consent is a voluntary choice for participants and must be based on sufficient info and adequate understanding of both the proposed research and the consequences of participation in it.
What is deception?
Occurs when participants are deliberately misled or not fully informed about the aim or some other aspect of the research.
What is debriefing?
Involved clarifying each participant’s understanding of the nature of the research as soon as possible after it has been conducted.
What is an experiment used to test?
Is used to test a cause-effect relationship between variables under controlled conditions.
What does the operationalisation of a variable mean?
The variable is defined and stated in terms that show how it was measured.
-Defining the variable in a way that describes how it will be used or quantified.
Eg. Age - operalisation as age in total months
What is the difference between the experimental condition and the control condition?
In the experimental condition, the IV is present, whereas in the control condition the IV is absent.
What is the purpose of the control condition in an experiment?
Provides a standard comparison for the experimental condition in which the IV is present.
-Without a control condition, it would not be possible to determine the influence of an independent variable
List the different types of variables that can be identified as extraneous or potential confounding variables in an experiment:
- Individual participant differences
- The use of non-standardised instructions and procedures
- Order effects
- Placebo effects
- Experimenter effects
What are individual participant differences? Give some examples:
Differences in personal characteristics and experiences of the individual participants in an experiment.
Eg. Age, intelligence, sex, motivation
What does the use of non-standardised procedures refer to?
A way of controlling variables that may arise in research in order to minimise any differences among participants that might occur within the experiment itself.
What do standardised procedures refer to?
The techniques used for making observations and measuring responses which are identical for all individual participants, where all participants are treated in the same way, as appropriate to the experimental condition they have been assigned.
