Methodological Issues Flashcards
What is validity?
If the research has been measured ACCURATELY
What is ecological validity?
Consider if what participants do resembles a real life setting/a situation which would occur in every day life
What is population validity?
Looks at the make up of samples as we want to understand how as many people as possible behave (generalisable)
What is construct validity?
A study needs to be measuring what it set out to measure. Looks at what factors could prevent this such as extraneous variables, knowing the aim of the study
Explain why Milgram’s study lacks ecological validity?
You wouldn’t normally administer electric shocks to another person everyday
Explain why Milgram’s study has a high ecological validity?
People working in the Nazi death camps were also required (by an authority figure) to inflict harm upon one another
Explain why Piliavin’s study lacks ecological validity?
The study took place at 11am -3pm so participants may not expect to see people drunk on the train at that time
Explain why Piliavin’s study has a high ecological validity?
Many emergencies occur daily
Being on the subway train it is common for drunks to be there at all times of the day
Explain why Bandura’s study lacks ecological validity?
Children would not normally see adults attacking toys
Explain why Bandura’s study have a high ecological validity?
Children may normally see adults being aggressive in other situations
Explain why Milgram’s study lacks population validity?
The sample only included men and no women
They were only from New Haven in America
Small age range - others may act differently
Explain why Milgram’s study has a high population validity?
It has a wide range of occupations/qualifications
Similar to characteristics of Nazi Male officers who will have worked at concentration camps (representative)
Explain why Piliavin’s study lacks population validity?
Only happened in New York other people worldwide may have acted differently
Only people who take the train not people who drive or walk etc.
Explain why Piliavin’s study has a high population validity?
The study was carried out in New York which is a very diverse city - includes people from all ethnic backgrounds
Explain why Bandura’s study lacks population validity?
The sample only included children of a very small age range (3-5 years) other children may have acted differently
The parents of the children probably worked at Stanford university. This is a good and expensive university so the sample may have been more middle class and educated than other children in areas of the USA
Explain why Bandura’s study has a high population validity?
It can be generalised to the rest of the USA
Explain why Milgram’s study lacks construct validity?
Milgram’s didn’t do much to ensure the participants were all psychologically healthy. Milgram would not have been testing obedience if a participant enjoyed hurting people and shocked the learner for pleasure
Explain why Milgram’s study has a high construct validity?
Participants were decieved so couldn’t guess the aim of the study (no demand characteristics)
Lab experiment so highly standardised procedure
Took place at Yale university and had trial shocks which made it seem real
Wide range of occupations controlled fro possible individual differences
Explain why Piliavin’s study has a high construct validity?
At the same time/train line so passengers may have observed the emergency more than once
Cultural stereotypes and gender influences for helping behaviour were no assessed before the study
Explain why Piliavin’s study has a high construct validity?
The victims always fell in the same place so there is less chance of the environment changing the participants helping behaviour
Passengers didn’t know they were taking part in a psychological experiment
Explain why Bandura’s study lacks construct validity?
The Bobo doll was not real. The children may act differently to a toy compared to an adult
Explain why Bandura’s study have a high construct validity?
The pre-test controlled extraneous variables (natural aggression)
All the conditions were standardised all given the same trial/condition
What is reliablity?
It refers to the consistency of a study
- has the research method been standardised (therefore replicable)
- has it been carried out on multiple participants
What is internal reliability?
Has the experiment been kept the same (standardised) so that it’s replicable - could be repeated by another researcher and get the same results
What’s external reliability?
Has the research been carried out on multiple participants (suggest a consistent trend) - large sample
What is Inter-rated reliability?
Multiple observes who watch the same participants independently to see if their results are consistent (match)
How is Milgram’s study not completely standardised for all participants (internally reliable)?
Even though there were 4 standard ‘prods’, it would have been difficult for the ‘experimenter’ to act in precisely the same way with each participant ‘teacher’
Explain why Milgram’s study would be difficult to repeat?
Ethical guidelines mean that this study couldn’t be carried out (because of the high level of deception and likelihood of harm being caused to participants)
How is Piliavin’s study not completely standardised for all participants (internally reliable)?
A passenger mag have been standing in the place that the ‘victim’ is supposed to collapse, meaning he couldn’t always collapse in the same place
The floors of carriages may not have been equally clean/dirty across the 103 trials
Reasons why Piliavin’s study may have been difficult to repeat?
Each participant was not receiving the same experience in the study
Eg. The procedure was not standardised so results unreliable
How is Bandura’s study not completely standardised for all participants (internally reliable)?
Physical/verbal aggressive conditions towards Bobo-doll would have varied in words, action and behaviour shown by adult role models because they were all acting
Reasons why Bandura’s study may have been difficult to repeat!
Due to the variability if models acting any future study would be hard to replicate unless they used eg. Filmed behaviour
What is external reliablity like in Milgram’s study?
Had a total of 40 participants
Participants were always ‘teacher’ but no other conditions
Sample is too small to suggest a consistent effect (New Haven isn’t a widespread area)
Large enough as it was representative of Nazi officers
What is the external reliability like in Piliavin’s study?
4450 participants
Don’t know exactly how many passengers saw each condition (average of 43) but 65 ill trial, 38 drunk, 81 white and 22 black
Large enough sample size to suggest a consistent effect (diverse group)
What is the external reliability like in Bandura’s study?
72 participants
Split into triplets based on natural aggression levels
Equally spread across experimental conditions (24 control, 6boys/girls aggressive male/female, 6 b/g non-aggressive make/female
Yes made up of make and females but no more age levels
What is ethnocentrism?
A rating of how culturally bias a study or piece of research is
How is ethnocentrism measured?
1, does the research include participants from a variety of different cultures
2. If the study was repeated in a different country would participants understand the procedure?
Where did Milgram’s study take place?
New Haven, Connecticut USA
Where did Piliavin’s study take place?
New York , USA
Where did Bandura’s study take place?
Stanford university, USA
How is Milgram’s study highly ethnocentric?
- Obedience levels or Americans may not reflect other cultures
- Milgram only carried this out in one country
- America is a western society
- it took place in a lab setting
- America was communist county
How does Milgram’s study have low ethnocentricity?
Replications of the study in other culture often produced quite similar results
How does Piliavin’s study have a high ethnocentricity?
- it only got participants from one location in America all f which travel by subway so not generalisable to other cultures
- New York is a western culture and only one city/subway so other cities may experience different rates of helping behaviour
How does Piliavin’s study have low ethnocentricity?
The sample included people form different ethnic backgrounds (45% black, 55% white)
The study was carried out in New York which is a diverse ‘world city’ with a heterogeneous population
How does Bandura’s study have high ethnocentricity?
- The study took place at a nursery that reflected American western culture. Childcare may differs in other places (eg, tribes like Zulu in Africa)
# Some toys in this study (tinker toys and Bobo doll) might be more familiar to American children
How does Bandura’s study have low ethnocentricity?
72 American children representative of American culture and could therefore be generalised to other western cities/cultures
