Final lecture - review

Question 1

How are qualitative and quantitative research different?

Answer 1

In Quantitative Research the emphasis is on quantifying: measuring, statistics, surveys and experiments. In Qualitative Research the emphasis is on understanding: gaining an insider perspective. Qualitative analysis such as thematic analysis are used, and data is gathered through interviews, focus groups, etc.

Question 2

What is the research cycle?

Answer 2

Problem - Model and hypothesis - research design - measurement - data collection - data analysis - generalisation - problem …

Question 3

Explain deduction vs induction.

Answer 3

deduction is from the general to specific, while induction works from specific to general.

Question 4

What is falsification?

Answer 4

We cannot prove theories to be correct we can only prove them to be wrong.

Question 5

What is a variable?

Answer 5

Anything that varies (age, self-esteem, etc.)

Question 6

What are the four types of variables?

Answer 6

Nominal - groups (gender)
Ordinal - ordered groups (spiciness)
Interval - equal distance between points (temperature)
Scale - equal distance between points AND 0 has interpretation (age)

Question 7

Explain independent vs dependent variables?

Answer 7

Independent variables are the cause/predictor/manipulation(in experiments), Dependent variables are the effect/outcome/the thing that is predicted.

Question 8

What are the types of validity?

Answer 8

Internal validity - are the conclusions valid
External validity - Can results be generalised
Ecological validity - can results be generalised to the real world

Question 9

What is reliability?

Answer 9

refers to consistency, can the results be replicated?

Question 10

What are the two types of study designs?

Answer 10

Correlational designs

Experimental designs

Question 11

What are the types of central tendency?

Answer 11

Mode, Median, Mean.

Question 12

What are the types of dispersion?

Answer 12

Interquartile range and standard deviation

Question 13

What are the types of frequency distributions?

Answer 13

normal distributions, bimodal/multimodal distributions, skew and kurtosis, boxplots.

Question 14

What are the main steps a researcher will go through when using thematic analysis?

Answer 14

1. familiarising yourself with the data and identifying potential interest
2. generating initial codes
3. searching for themes and subthemes
4. reviewing potential themes
5. defining and naming themes
6. producing the report

Question 15

What are the types of measure?

Answer 15

behavioural measurement, self-report measures, physiological measurement.

Question 16

What are latent variables?

Answer 16

Variables that cannot be directly observed.

Question 17

What is the formula for the Classical test theory?

Answer 17

Item score = true score + error

Question 18

What are the measurement problems particularly with surveys?

Answer 18

Acquiesence bias, consistency bias, and social desirability bias.

Question 19

In regards to measurement problems what are the types of validity and reliability which you should consider in developing a scale?

Answer 19

1. content validity
2. convergent validity
3. discriminant validity
4. concurrent validity
5. Internal reliability
6. test-retest reliability

Question 20

What key issues are included in the BPS guidelines for research with human participants?

Answer 20

Consent, Coercion, Deception, debrief, withdrawal, anonymity and confidentiality, protection of participants, giving advice.

Question 21

What are expectancy effects?

Answer 21

unconscious influences that an experimenter has on study results.

Question 22

What are confounds?

Answer 22

Variables other than your IV that can impact your results.

Question 23

What are confidence intervals?

Answer 23

Because we work with samples and not entire populations, there will always be uncertainties about whether our sample mean represents the true population mean. We can see this uncertainty through confidence Interval is a range of values in which the true population mean will be.

Question 24

How do we calculate confidence intervals?

Answer 24

Mean - 1.96 x S.E. = lower bound of CI

Mean + 1.96 x S.E. = upper bound of CI

Question 25

Two means are significantly different if…

Answer 25

One mean falls outside the other mean’s confidence interval.

Question 26

What are the two types of effect size?

Answer 26

Pearson’s r = effect size for the strength of association

Cohen’s d = effect size from mean differences (when you compare two means)

Question 27

What are the tests for between-subject designs and within-subject designs?

Answer 27

between-subject design - Independent-samples t-test(P) and Mann-Whitney U test (NP)
within-subject design - paired sample t-test(P) Wilcoxon signed-rank test(NP)