haslam and mcgarty notes Flashcards
Manipulation check
checks the manipulation of the IV has had an effect on a theoretically relevant causal variable.
Relevance sensitivity trade-off
Dependent variable is highly relevant to a given issue so it may be less sensitive to changes in the IV
(e.g. measuring road rage with crashes. Not many crashes).
Naïve empiricism
directly generalising research findings to other settings and samples, without basing that generalisation on a theory
Maturation effects
any changes in the participants that occur as a result of time passing. There are two forms
Practice effect
performance on a post-test is improved as a result of the practiced gained from performing a pre-test
Fatigue effect
Performance on a post-test deteriorates as a result of boredom or tiredness associated with having already completed a pre-test
History effects
changes to the participants’ circumstances that take place over the course of a study
Why can history and maturation effects threaten internal validity?
because they can lead to systematic differences between observations at different phases of a study.
Testing effects
to do with the situation itself. Participants answering questions a second time already have experience of being questioned. Experimental reactivity
Experimental reactivity
participants often react to features of an experiment so that the process of making observations can change observations.
Hawthorne effect
arises in any research where responses are affected by participants’ sensitivity to the fact that they are participating in research
Order effects
experimental effects that result from the sequencing of experimental treatments or the completion of dependent measures
Instrumentation effects
Threats to internal validity arising from changes in dependent variables and materials used to record them
Selection effects
participants are assigned to different levels of an independent variable on the basis of some specific criteria.
Regression to the mean
The tendency for observations and responses at the extreme end of a scale on one measure to be closer to the mean on another measure. If this problem is not recognised it constitutes a threat to internal validity.
Mortality effects
participants withdrawing from a study
Demand characteristics
norms participants conform to because they appear to be appropriate guides to behaviour in the situation they confront.
Experimenter bias
any behaviour by the researcher that prevents a fair test of the experimental hypothesis (e.g. could nod at some answers).
How can you counteract demand characteristics and experimenter bias?
Blind experimenter
What can never be methodologically controlled?
Cheating
Hermeneutic approach
focusing on the meaning that particular behaviours have for participants themselves
Participant involvement
actively involve participants in the research process.
Which philosophies does quantitative represent?
Realism and positivism
What philosophies does qualitative represent?
Idealism, constructionism, constructivism, relativism
What are some tools to collect qualitative data?
Q-sort, verbal protocol, repertory grid
What is Q-sort
o Participants sort cards containing statements into piles associated with different points on a response dimension (e.g. ‘not likely of me’ to ‘very likely of me’)
What is verbal protocol
o Participants retrospectively comment on a particular topic and their responses are coded using pre-established guidelines. The most common is ‘thinking aloud’
What is repertory grid
o Used to gain access to participants’ persona constructs. Participants are first asked to identify similarities and differences between elements that are relevant to an aspect of their life. Regularities in the content of these similarities and differences are then used to gain an understanding of the way in which the participant subjectively organises their world.
What is empiricist repertoire?
Presented science as an objective activity
What is contingent repertoire?
. A way of accounting for scientific endeavour and progress which draws attention to the role played by subjective, human factors beyond the realm of the empirical phenomena under investigation.
What methods does qualitative research fall into?
Constructionist, contextualist, realist
What is a constructionist method?
Discourse analysis
What is discouse analysis?
Discourse analysis is an example of this as it is used to inspect character of naturally occurring discourse to discover subtle features of it and allows people to reach particular ends. Against literal interpretations of data.
Example of contextualist methods
Grounded theory
What is grounded theory
Emphasis on the perspective and interests of participants but seek to reconcile this with the scientific goals of the researcher. The clearest example of this is the grounded theory.
Grounded theory is where researchers attempt to develop analyses of psychological topics which are grounded in participants localised experiences of relevant phenomena.
Reflexive journal is kept
Examples of realist methods
Repertory grid analysis and content analysis
What is repertory grid analysis
Repertory grid analysis shares with discourse analysis and grounded theory a belief that it is important for psychological research in a number of domains to tap into the subjective perspective or personal constructs of participants.
Stages in repertory grid analysis:
a) The various aspects of elements are listed
b) Different combinations of these elements are identified in rows underneath
c) Two blank columns are on the right correspond to each row (these are used to identify constructs)
What is content analysis
Content analysis is a method for analysing communication after it has been produced. Records of communication must exist in some concrete form
How can descriptive uncertainty be removed?
if all participants obtained an identical score
What does inferential uncertainty depend on?
- The amount of information that we have to indicate that something interesting is going on
- Random error
- Sample size
What does internal uncertainty relate to?
researchers’ confidence in their ability to interpret the results of a study correctly.
Where is internal uncertainty prevalent?
in survey research as well where IVs are not directly manipulated. This is because you cannot draw conclusions about which variables affects which in a research on relationships.
Where is internal uncertainty reduced?
in cases where there is no relationship found as a lack of correlation allows the researcher conclusively to rule out certain interpretations.
Where does external uncertainty arise?
when we are not sure that the results have obtained in our research can be generalised to the population of interest.
When will external uncertainty be high
if we use naïve empiricism to generalise research findings without recourse to theory or if we draw conclusions on the basis of samples that are not representative of the population of interest on theoretically relevant variables.
What is used as a compromise between uncertainty and the experiment?
Trade-offs
what is the difference between realist and constructionist analysis?
•Constructionist methods
o Reject most assumptions and objectives of quantitative methods
•Contextualist methods
o Emphasises subjective experience and goals of researchers and participants
•Realist methods
o Share the same objectives and assumptions as quantitative methods
