Module 6/3 - Research Methods Flashcards
What is an aim?
A general statement of what the researcher intends to investigate.
What do you know about hypotheses?
Needs to clearly state the relationship between two variables.
Can be directional or non-directional.
Variables need to be operationalised - made testable/measurable.
What is the difference between IV and DV?
The researcher changes/manipulates the IV.
The effects of this change can be seen/measured in the DV.
What is the difference between EV and CV?
Both are any other variable that, if not controlled, could affect the DV.
An CV varies systematically with the IV - this means it is related to the IV in some way.
An EV does not vary systematically with the IV - It is not directly related to the IV, but could still affect the DV.
What is meant by demand characteristics?
Any cue from the researcher or research situation that may be interpreted by participants as revealing the purpose of the investigation.
This may lead to a PPT changing their behaviour within the research situation.
What is meant by investigator effects?
Any effect of the investigator’s behaviour on the research outline.
Could include everything from the design of the study to the selection of, and interaction with participants during the study.
What is meant by randomisation and standardisation?
Randomisation: The use of chance in order to control for the effect of bias when designing materials and deciding the order of conditions.
Standardisation: Using exactly the same formalised procedures and instructions for all participants in a research study.
Name and describe 3 types of experimental design.
Independent Groups: PPTs are allocated to different groups where each group represents one experimental condition.
Repeated Measures: All PPTs take part in all conditions of the experiment.
Matched Pairs: Pairs of PPTs are first matched on some variable that could affect the DV. Then one member of the pair is assigned to Condition A and the other to Condition B.
Give 1 strength and 1 weakness of each type of experimental design.
Independent Groups: The ppts in the different groups are not the same → Individual differences are an issues → Random allocation is used to deal with this. Less Economical - twice as many ppts are needed. Order effects are less of a problem → ppts are less likely to guess the aims.
Repeated Measures: Order effects can arise because each ppt takes part in both conditions - Fatigue, boredom, and practice can affect performance → Counter-balancing is used. It is more likely that ppts will work out the aim, as they experiences all conditions → demand characteristics. Participant variables are controlled and fewer participants are needed.
Matched Pairs: Order effects and demand characteristics are less of an issue → participants only take part in a single condition. Participants can never be matched exactly - participant variables can never be eliminated. Very time-consuming and expensive particularly if pre-testing is required → less economical.
Name and describe 4 types of experiment.
Lab Experiment: Takes place in a controlled environment. Researcher manipulates the IV and records the effect on the DV. Researcher maintains strict control of EVs.
Field Experiment: Experiment takes place in a natural setting within which the researcher manipulates the IV and records the effects on the DV.
Natural Experiment: The change in the IV is not brought about by the researcher. It would have happened whether or not the researcher had been there. The researcher records the effect on the DV.
Quasi Experiment: Not quite an experiment - not IV has not been determined by anyone. The variables simply exist e.g. being old or young. Strictly speaking this is not an experiment.
Give 1 strength and 1 weakness of each type of experiment.
Lab Experiment: High levels of control - researcher can be certain that any change in the DV was brought about by manipulating the IV → high internal validity.
Field Experiment: Higher levels of mundane realism than lab experiments due to the natural environment. Field experiments could produce behaviour that is more vald and authentic; High external validity due to ppts not knowing they are being studied. Increased realism means a loss of control of EVs → cause and effect is more difficult to establish. Difficult to replicate. Ethical issues - consent and privacy.
Natural Experiment: Provide opportunities for research that could not usually be done for ethical or practical reasons e.g. Romanian Orphan Studies. High external validity due to the study of real life issues and problems as they occur. Events only occur rarely → reduces the opportunity for research & Reduces generalisation.
PPTs cannot be randomly allocated → researchers might be less sure about the effects of IV on DV.
Quasi Experiment: Controlled conditions → same strengths as lab experiments. Cannot randomly allocate participants to conditions → confounding variables.
What is meant by population; sample; generalisation; bias.
Population: A group of people who are the focus of the researchers interest from which a smaller sample is drawn.
Sample: A group of people who take part in a research investigation. The sample is drawn from a target population and is presumed to be representative of that population.
Generalisation: The extent to which findings and conclusions from a particular investigation can be broadly applied to the population. This is made possible if the sample of participants is representative of the population.
Bias: In the context of sampling - when certain groups may be over for under-represented within the sample selected. E.g. too many younger people or too many people of one ethnic origin. This limits the extent to which generalisations can be made to the target population.
Name and describe 5 types of sampling.
Opportunity: Asking whoever is around at the time of the study e.g. on the street.
Random: All member of the target population have an equal chance of being selected. Get a complete list of all members of the target population → assign a number → generate sample through lottery method (e.g. pick names out of a hat).
Volunteer: Participants select themselves. E.g. through responding to an advert in the paper.
Systematic: Every nth member of the target population is selected. E.g. Every 3rd house on a street or every 5th pupil on a register. The interval can be decided randomly to reduce bias.
Stratified: The composition of the sample reflects the proportions of people in certain sub-groups (Strata) within the (target) population. Identify the strata → work out the proportions needed for the sample to be representative → The participants that make up each stratum are randomly selected. E.g. In Machester 40% support Man U, 40% support Man City, 15% support Bolton and 5% support Leeds. In a stratified sample of 20 this would equate to 8, 8, 3, 1.
Evaluate the types of sampling.
Opportunity: Convenient and less costly. Participants are drawn from the same, very specific, area → findings cannot be generalised. Researcher bias → the researcher has complete control over the selection of participants.
Random: Free from researcher bias. Time consuming and difficult to conduct (full list of the target population may be difficult to obtain. Although statistically unlikely, the sample obtained could still be unrepresentative.
Volunteer: Easy and less time-consuming. Volunteer bias → could attract a certain profile of person: helpful, curious keen → affects generalisability.
Systematic: Avoids research bias → the research has no influence over who is chosen. Fairly representative - although it is possible to get a biased sample.
Stratified: Avoids research bias and produces a representative sample → generalisation of findings is possible. Strata cannot reflect all the ways that people are different → complete representation of the target population is not possible.
Name 5 ethical issues to be aware of in psychological research and how they could be dealt with.
Ethical issues: When a conflict exists between the rights and dignity of the participants and the aims of the research. Researchers must follow the BPS code of conduct.
Informed consent: Participants should be made aware of the aims, procedures and their right to withdraw before they agree to take part. Provide consent letter. There are alternatives: presumptive, prior general and retrospective consent.
Deception: Participants should not be deliberately misled. Some deception is acceptable. Participants must be fully debriefed at the end - this includes telling them they have the right to withdraw.
Protection from harm: Participants should not be exposed to any more risk than they would be in everyday life. If harm has been caused, participants should be offered counselling as part of the debrief.
Confidentiality: Participants’ anonymity and privacy must be respected. Personal details should be protected/should not be recorded. PPTs should be reminded at the end that their data will be protected.
What is a pilot study?
A small-scale version of the experiment/questionnaire/observation and will usually involve a small number of participants. The aim is to ‘road-test’ the procedure to make sure everything runs smoothly and if not, amendments and adjustments can be made.
What is a single-blind and double-blind procedure?
Single-blind: Participants are not made aware of some details of the investigation – such as the full aim or what condition they are in – to reduce demand characteristics.
Double-blind: Neither the participants nor the person conducting the study knows the aim of the research – to reduce demand characteristics and investigator effects.
What is meant by observational studies?
Studies that allow researchers to investigate observable behaviour within a natural or controlled setting. This allows flexibility to study more complex interactions between variables in a more natural way.
Provide psychologists with a way of seeing what people do without having to ask them.
What limitation do all observational studies have?
It is not possible to establish cause and effect.
What are naturalistic and controlled observations?
Controlled observations involve watching and recording behaviour within a structured environment, i.e. one where some variables are managed e.g. the Strange Situation. Naturalistic observations involves watching and recording behaviour in the setting within which it would normally occur.
Outline 1 strength and 1 weakness of naturalistic and controlled observations.
Naturalistic observations tend to have high external validity → the behaviour is studied in an environment in which it would usually occur. On the other hand however, the lack of control over the situation makes replication difficult. There may also be uncontrolled extraneous variables in naturalistic observations.
Controlled observations do not have the problem of EVs as much and are more easily replicated, however lack external validity.
Distinguish between covert and overt observations.
In covert observations participants’ behaviour is watched and recorded without their knowledge or consent. In overt observations participants’ behaviour is watched and recorded with their knowledge and consent.
Briefly evaluate covert and overt observations.
A positive side of covert observations is the fact that participant reactivity is removed, as they do not know they are being observed → behaviour will be more natural → higher internal validity. However, there are ethical issues → people may not want their behaviours to be noted down. Overt observations may be more ethical, but the fact that participants know they are being observed may influence their behaviour.
Distinguish between participant and non-participant observations.
Participant observations involves the researcher becoming a member of the group whose behaviour he/she is watching and recording.
In non-participants observations the researcher remains outside of the group whose behaviour he/she is watching and recording.
Briefly evaluate participant and non-participant observations.
In participant observations the researcher is able to gain insight in the lives of the participants, as they are experiencing the situation as the participants do. This however also increases the chances of losing objectivity → Going native → the lines between participant and researcher becomes blurred.
In non-participant observations an objective distance can be maintained from the study. However, at the same time, this means that valuable insight can be lost as they are too far removed from the people.
What is meant by behavioural categories in observations?
Behavioural categories refers to the breaking up of target behaviour into components that are observable and measurable.
Outline the issues related to behavioural categories that researchers should be aware of.
The must be observable. Measurable and self-evident → should need no further interpretation. All possible occurrences of the behaviour should be included - no dustbin / miscellaneous category. Categories should be exclusive and should not overlap.
What is meant by time and event sampling?
Counting how often a certain behaviour occurs (event).
Observing behaviour within a given time frame (time).
Evaluate time sampling.
Effective in reducing the amount of observations that have to be made. However the behaviour observed in the time frame may be unrepresentative of the observation as a whole.
Evaluate event sampling.
Useful if the target behaviour does not happen regularly and could be missed if time sampling were to be used. If the specified behaviour is too complex, the observer may overlook important details.
What is meant by open and closed questions?
Open questions do not include a fixed range of answers. In closed questions respondents are directed to a fixed set of responses from which they have to choose.
Briefly evaluate the use of questionnaires.
Questionnaires are cost effective - they can be used to gather large amounts of information quickly, as they can be distributed to groups quickly. Can also be conducted without the experimenter there, which reduces the effort involved.
Negative Side - People may not always be truthful → social desirability bias, which occurs when people want to paint themselves in a positive light. Is also subjected to a response bias → where participants always respond in a similar way (always ticking ‘yes’ for example).
