Module 6: Research Methods Flashcards
What are the different types of variables?
- Independent variable (IV), is changed to investigate its effect
- Dependent variable (DV), is changed by IV and measured
- Extraneous variables, not controlled:
- Situational (e.g. order effects, environment, demand characteristics)
- Participant (e.g. mood, physical ability)
How can situational variables be controlled?
- Standardised procedure
- Counterbalancing
- Randomisation
- Counter-blind technique (nobody knows aims, including researchers)
How can participant variables be controlled?
- Use same/similar participants
- Random allocation
What are the different types of hypothesis?
- Null: results will show no non-coincidental relationship/difference
- Alternative: prediction based on a theory
- Directional: predicts direction only
- Non-directional: predicts a relationship/difference but no specified direction
- Experimental: hypotheses in field/lab experiments
What are the different methods of sampling?
Random, stratified, volunteer, opportunity
Explain the random sampling technique
- Equal chance
- Controls participant variables
- Some may refuse to participate, so less representative
Explain the stratified sampling technique
- Accurate proportions of subgroups
- Used if small group may be missed
- Time consuming
- Some may refuse to participate, so less representative
Explain the volunteer sampling technique
- Advertise study, people volunteer
- Minimal effort, most ethical
- Less representative
- Biased sample, unreliable
Explain the opportunity sampling technique
- Whoever happens to be around
- Quickest & simplest
- Biased sample, unreliable
What are the different research and experimental designs?
- Independent measures design
- Repeated measures design
- Matched pairs design
Explain the independent measures design
- Split participants into groups, each group tested in one condition
- No order effects
- More participants needed, may be participant variables
Explain the repeated measures design
- Use same participants in all conditions
- Fewer participants needed, no participant variables
- Demand characteristics/order effects
Explain the matched pairs design
- Different people in each condition, match them for likeness
- Fair comparisons between groups
- Time consuming
- Not everything can be equally matched
What is reliability?
The consistency of an investigation’s results
What is validity?
- Internal: whether the investigation measures what was intended
- External: whether the results are generalisable to the target population
Explain qualitative methods
- Gather new information to base theories on
- Hard to replicate
- Restricted to individuals
- Researcher bias/investigator effects
Explain quantitative methods
- Start with a hypothesis, test a theory
- Standardised procedure
- Generalisable
- More objective
Describe the British Psychological Society Code of Human Research Ethics (2014)
- Respect the autonomy, privacy and dignity of participants
- Scientific integrity (don’t claim misleading/false findings)
- Social responsibility (must have value to society)
- Maximise benefit and minimise harm
What are the five main ethical principles when conducting studies?
- Informed consent
- Deception (sometimes needed, debrief ASAP)
- Right to withdraw (REQUIRED)
- Protection from physical and psychological harm
- Confidentiality (details destroyed upon request)
Explain the three types of experiments
- Laboratory: controlled environment, extraneous variables eliminated
- Field: natural environment, IV manipulated, not as much control
- Natural: real-life environment, IV not manipulated (occurs naturally), opportunistic
Explain the three types of interview (and the traits of interviews in general)
- Structured: pre-set questions, quick, interviewer training not required, superficial info
- Semi-structured: framework but open questions, in-depth info, takes time & trained interviewers
- Unstructured: most in-depth, takes time & trained interviewers, impossible to replicate
- (Non-experimental, subject to social desirability bias and interviewer characteristics)
Explain questionnaires and their strengths & weaknesses
- Close-ended (pre-set answers) or open-ended (free prose answers)
- Good for large samples, ethical, no interviewer effect, (close easy to analyse, open more detailed)
- Low response rate (close lacks detail, open hard to analyse)
Explain correlation and its strengths & weaknesses
- Looking for relationship (positive or negative) between variables
- Cheaper/quicker than experiments, used where experiments would be unethical
- Cause and effect cannot be determined
Explain case studies and their strengths & weaknesses
- In-depth investigation into one person/group
- Research what would be unethical to set up experimentally
- Cannot be repeated, lacks generalisability, subject to researcher bias
Explain the different types of observation
- Naturalistic: natural environment, normal behaviour
- Controlled/structured: laboratory, encourages observed behaviour
- Overt: participants aware of observation
- Covert: participants unaware of observation
- Participant: observer is involved in the group they are observing
What are the strengths and weaknesses of observation
- Strengths: reliability checked with inter-rater reliability (separate observers, cross-examine results)
- Weaknesses: observers must be trained, observer bias, ethical issues (covert)
Explain primary and secondary data
- Primary: collected directly for specific research purpose (expensive/time consuming)
- Secondary: previously collected for another study, often for different purpose (cheaper/larger sample size)
Explain qualitative and quantitative data
- Qualitative: descriptive/hard to measure numerically
- Quantitative: numerical data, can be subjected to statistics/testing
Describe ethical issues in relation to development
- UNCRC (children’s rights):
- Participation - experimented WITH, not ON
- Protected from harm at all times
Describe ethical issues in relation to memory
- Deceit & informed consent
- Seen as ethical with a careful debrief
Describe ethical issues in relation to psychological problems
- Research helps people (cost/benefit)
- Control group (‘waiting list’), only receive therapy is proved effective
- Protection of participants
- Genes: can’t be changed, problems found may only lead to stress
Describe ethical issues in relation to the brain and neuropsychology
- Brain damage patients vulnerable (protection)
- Treatment should always take priority over research
- Nature/nurture - criminal responsibility
- Social value of results
Describe ethical issues in relation to social influence
- Participants must be protected from knowing how far they might go (Milgram 1963, Haney et al. 1973)
- Milgram did not expect the results he found
Explain the risk-benefit viewpoint in regards to ethics
- Balance harm to participants with benefit to society
- Deception justified if: right to withdraw clear, full debrief, benefit outweighs harm, and harm is temporary
Describe ethics committees
- Research proposals MUST be approved by an ethics committee
- Concerns –> escalated to university committee (most research done in universities)
- Older studies had guidelines, but didn’t require scrutiny
