Methods Flashcards
State 4 features of lab experiments linked to EWE
An incident is set up by a researcher in the same structured artificial but tightly controlled environment for witnesses to experience.
Extraneous variables that might influence a witness can be isolated and controlled such as participant variables. E.g. Witnesses not talking to each other. This is to ensure that no other variables other than the IV and the DV have an impact on the witness recall.
The IV is manipulated and concerns a factor that affects witnesses such as leading questions or weapon focus.
The effect the IV has on the DV is measured. The DV that is measured typically involves the amount or quality of recall about the incident witnessed.
State two strengths of lab experiments when studying the effectiveness of EWE
👍🏼Standardised procedures and strong controls are in place. E.g. Witnesses are shown the same film clip, are not allowed to talk to each other. This is to ensure all witnesses are involved in a consistent and fair EWT experience. This ensures that the EWT study is replicable and results into EWT are likely to be consistent.
👍🏼With control over the IV and extraneous variables the internal validity of the EWT study can be shown as the IV really does have a direct affect on the DV which is witness recall, confounding variables will not have affected the recall of the incident.
👍🏼Scientific knowledge can be built about witness effectiveness that can help the police to improve the effectiveness of EWT. E.g. Use the cognitive interview strategy when interviewing witnesses.
State two weaknesses of lab experiments when studying the effectiveness of EWE
👎🏼Lab experiments are conducted in an artificial environment for EWT recall and are therefore lack realism and emotionally compared to a real life criminal event. This means witness behaviour may not be spontaneous or natural and therefore not generalisable to real life eyewitness situation.
👎🏼Lack of realism in the crime event can lead to demand characteristics as pps to try to guess the aims of the study. Witnesses could therefore alter their testimony to provide the answers the researchers are looking for, in this way their behaviour is altered and is not natural.
State 4 features of field experiments links to EWE
An incident is set up by a researcher in a natural environment for a witness to experience.
The manipulated IV will concern a factor that affects witness recall. E.g. Leading questions, weapon focus.
The DV that is measured typically involves the amount or quality of recall about the incident witnessed.
The researcher will try to control as many extraneous variables as possible that can affect the witness within the field setting.
State two strengths of field experiments when studying the effectiveness of EWE
👍🏼Field experiments allow for an element of control when studying EWE as they follow standardised procedures. E.g. Yarmey was able to manipulate an IV and follow standardised procedures, all pps answered the same 16 questions to ensure all pps experienced the same situation.
👍🏼High ecological validity as witnesses are typically unaware they are taking part in a study and will be going about their normal activities in a natural environment. Responses will therefore be spontaneous and natural, demand characteristics are less likely to occur, suggesting greater generalisability to real life eyewitness situations.
State two weaknesses of field experiments when studying the effectiveness of EWE
👎🏼Low reliability as researchers may not be able to control situational variables that could confound the EWT results as the method is conducted in a natural, uncontrolled consistent ways of measuring testimony. E.g. In Yarmeys field experiment distractions from other people could have affected the results.
👎🏼Lacks ecological validity as the task carried out by witnesses is still manipulated by the researcher, and may not be realistic suggesting that field experiments lack generalisability to real life eyewitness situations.
Describe grounded theory
A way of analysing qualitative data that is grounded in the data.
Researchers start with general and open research question with the hope that theory will arise from their data analysis.
The aim is to retain the richness of ideas and interactions between people collected in qualitative data and to produce coding that enables meanings captured to be presented fairly and in a manageable form.
What is the the coding process in grounded theory?
- Coding involves taking text in small pieces and putting into suitable headings to identify the idea in each piece of text.
- Codes are collect and e into concepts, which groups the data together. The idea is to see how the coded data might fit together and in that way generate concepts that are wider.
- Concepts are grouped into similarities and differences. This is where the theory can start to develop. The researcher will take mothers during this process that can read alongside the analysis and their thought processes can be followed.
- The theory comes from collecting the categories together. It is about forming a model that can explain the data.
Describe meta analysis
Involves looking at secondary data from multiple studies conducted by other researchers and drawing the findings together to make an overall conclusion.
It is typically conducted when there is a large body of psychological research on one area but firm conclusions cannot be drawn without comparing the research or in consistent findings have been found.
The researchers conducting the meta analysis will seek out studies from a variety of places, cultures and time frames which have all tested the same area, with the aim of bringing all the findings together.
State two strengths of grounded theory
👍🏼Grounded theory contributes to the generation of new psychological theory and lends itself well to studying new areas and understanding new phenomena.
👍🏼Qualitative data used is high in validity and the use of inductive reasoning maintains a more true to life analysis guided by the data itself rather than the scientific research process.
State two weaknesses of grounded theory
👎🏼The analysis is highly subjective as it is dependent on the researchers interpretation of the data during the coding process and in the generation of theory.
👎🏼It is reduced credibility as the analytical process moves so far away from the traditional scientific method which is more objective and reliable than grounded theory.
State two strengths of meta analysis
👍🏼Large sample sizes as meta analysis allow researchers to use a large number of studies. Where individual studies might not find statistical significant results, the aspect of pooling together data from different studies can show significance in the findings.
👍🏼Practical advantages as meta analysis allows researchers to conduct research quickly by using already existing data and cheaply as it avoids having to conduct new research themselves.
State two weaknesses of meta analysis
👎🏼Validity/reliability can be questioned. As the researchers have not be involved in gathering the data directly, variables of interest could have been defined differently in each study, which overall affects the validity. E.g. In ore trail publicity studies were TV, newspapers, word of mouth, articles used.
👎🏼Publication bias as research that has found no effect may not be published meaning they would not be included in the meta analysis, bossing the results.
What are the 5 main issues to consider with experiments when looking at EWT when discussing ethics?
Using students Getting informed consent Deception Depriving a control group Risk management
Why is using students an issue when looking at EWT experiments when discussing ethics?
Undergraduates often take part in studies as part of their psychology course therefore they might feel pressured by to do this.
If students feel pressured this breaks the principle of responsibility.
The principle of respect states people should have self determination so students must be given the right to withdraw.
