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psychology > paper 2 - C - research methods > Flashcards

paper 2 - C - research methods Flashcards

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1
Q

whats the definition of hypothesis?

A

an educated guess

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2
Q

whats the definition of an aim?

A

the purpose of the research
= and a precise testable statement of the relationship between two variable

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3
Q

whats a directional hypothesis?

A

states what clear differences there are between conditions
=one tailed

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4
Q

whats non-directional hypothesis?

A

states that there is a difference between groups / conditions doesn’t say results

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5
Q

whats an alternate hypothesis?

A

when there is a relationship between two variables not due to chance

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6
Q

whats a null hypothesis?

A

no relationship between variables due to chance/aren’t significant

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7
Q

whats operationalising the variables?

A

defining your variables

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8
Q

whats an independent variable?

A

a variable that can be changed by researcher

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9
Q

whats a dependent variable?

A

data that is measured

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10
Q

whats internal validity?

A

whether the effects of observed in a study are due to the manipulation of the IV and not another factor

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11
Q

what are extraneous variables?

A

only the independent variable should influence the dependent variable any other factors that do are extraneous variables
= when possible are identified at the start of the experiment

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12
Q

what are participant variables?

A

differences between participants that may impact results

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13
Q

what are situational variables?

A

features of the experimental situation that may affect the results

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14
Q

whats a cofounding variable?

A

effects the DV but also relates to the IV

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15
Q

what are demand characteristics?

A

when there may be clues in the experiment which may help the participant figure out the aim of the research and change their behaviour

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16
Q

what are investigator effects?

A

when the behaviour of the investigator may affect participants and consequently impact the DV

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17
Q

what randomisation in experiments and why is it used?

A
  • using chance wherever possible to reduce the researchers influence
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18
Q

what is a standardised experiment?

A

keeping everything the same for all participants , to make sure they all have the same experience
eg. the same conditions
=lighting
=noise
=heat
=same time of day

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19
Q

whats the definition of an experimental design?

A

refers to the way participants are used in experiments / participants arranged in relation to the different experimental conditions

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20
Q

what are the three experimental method designs?

A
  1. independent group design
    2.repeated measure design
    3.matched pairs design
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21
Q

whats an independent group experiment?

A

-there are two separate groups of participants that experience two different conditions
-performance of two groups are compared

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22
Q

whats a repeated measures experiment?

A

-all participants experience both conditions
-both pieces of data compared

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23
Q

whats a matched pairs experiment?

A

-participants matched up by on variable eg. age, IQ,
-then one would be put in condition one and the other in condition 2
-

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24
Q

Evaluation on independent group experiments?

A

strengths
=order effects aren’t a problem but they are in repeated measures design this could be boredom or fatigue but as they are only in one condition they arent a problem

=less likely to guess the aim

weaknesses
=less economical= two sets of participants are needed

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25
Q

Evaluation of repeated measures experiments?

A

strengths
=fewer participants are needed
=any differences in conditions are due to changes in the IV and not participants variables

weaknesses
=order effects can occur as they take part in all conditions= their performance in the second task may worsen as they’re bored
=more likely to work out the aim

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26
Q

Evaluation of matched pairs experiments?

A

strengths
=only take part in one condition so order effects are decreased

weaknesses
=pairs can never be matched perfectly there will always be differences among the pair
=matching can be time-consuming and costly

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27
Q

whats counterbalancing and what does it help with in experiments?

A

its used to deal with order effects
= the sample is spilt in 1/2
=one half completes condition in one order
=other completes it in reverse

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28
Q

lab experiments?

A

-conducted in controlled environments
-not always in a lab

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29
Q

Evaluation of lab experiments?

A

strengths
=high control over extraneous variables this means it has a higher internal validity
=easily replicable as of controlled variables= this means it has higher validity

weaknesses
=lacks generalisability it can be artificial as its not in an everyday environment lowers external validity

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30
Q

whats a field experiment?

A

the IV is manipulated in a natural everyday setting

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31
Q

Evaluation of field experiments?

A

strengths
=has high mundane realism as the environment is more natural, this can produce more valid behaviour

weaknesses
=ethical issues participants are unaware they are being studied so cannot consent

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32
Q

what is a natural experiment?

A

researchers take advantage of pre-existing variables - variables change even if researcher was not interested

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33
Q

Evaluation of a natural experiment?

A

strength
-has high external validity as they study real life-issues

weaknesses
–cannot be generalised

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34
Q

what is a quasi-experiment?

A

iv based on existing differences between people so nobody has manipulated the variable

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35
Q

evaluation of quasi-experiment?

A

strength
-controlled conditions so have the same strengths as lab experiments

weakness
-may have co-founding variables as participants are randomly allocated

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36
Q

definition of population?

A

large group of individuals that a researcher is interested in studying

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37
Q

definition of target sample?

A

-a subset of the general population

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38
Q

what are sampling techniques used for?

A

-they are used to select samples that aim to be representative so can be generalised

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39
Q

what is random sampling?

A
  1. a list of all target population is obtained
    2.all names given a number
    3.numbers generated in a lottery method
    4.numbers are randomly chosen
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40
Q

Evaluation of random sampling?

A

strength
-researchers have no influence on who is picked so cannot be bias and choose someone they think will support the hypothesis

weaknesses
-time consuming
-selected participants may refuse to take part

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41
Q

whats a systematic sample?

A
  • when every nth person of a population gets chosen
    -this reduces bias
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42
Q

systematic sample evaluation?

A

strength- reduces bias
strength= fairly representative

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43
Q

what is stratified samples?

A
  1. researcher identifies subgroups that make up the proportion
    2.populations needed to be representative are worked out
    3.then participants are worked out using random sampling
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44
Q

evaluation on stratified sample?

A

strength- avoids research bias
-findings can be generalised

weakness- complete representation isn’t possible

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45
Q

whats an opportunity sample?

A

this is when the researcher chooses anyone available to be in their study

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46
Q

Evaluation of opportunity sample?

A

strength
-convenient
-saves time
-less costly
weaknesses
-researcher can be bias in choosing

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47
Q

whats a volunteer sample?

A

participants select themselves to be in the sample

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48
Q

evaluation of volunteer sample?

A

strength
-less time consuming
-less costly

weakness
-may attract similar people

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49
Q

why do ethical issues arise?

A

conflict between participants rights and the researchers needs to gain findings
-causes damage to participants health and wellbeing

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50
Q

what does informed consent involve?

A

making participants aware of the aim of research, the procedure and their rights and what their data will be used for

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51
Q

How is informed consent dealt with in research?

A
  1. participants given a consent form
    2.if under 16 need consent off parents
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52
Q

what does deception involve?

A
  • deliberately withholding info from a participant
    -this means participants cannot say they have given informed consent
    -it can be justified if the participant does not gain stress from it
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53
Q

how is deception dealt with?

A

at the end of an investigation participants should be given a full debrief
-they are also told what their data is being used for and can withhold any they want to

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54
Q

what does protection from harm involve?

A

participants shouldn’t be placed in anymore risk than they are in their daily lives
-they should be reminded they can withdraw

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55
Q

how is protection from harm dealt with?

A

-BPS code of ethics
-includes a set of ethical guidelines
-wont go to prison if they dont follow it

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56
Q

what is involved in confidentiality and privacy?

A

-participants have the right to control info about themselves
-confidentiality should also be protected by the data protection act

57
Q

how is dealing with confidentiality dealt with?

A

participants should be related to using numbers or letters

58
Q

whats a pilot study?

A

a small scale trial run off the actual investigation

59
Q

how do pilot studies help observable studies?

A

checks coding systems
identifies any potential issues saving time and money

60
Q

whats a single blind procedure?

A

participant isnt told the aim
participant isnt told what condition they’re in or if there is another condition

61
Q

what are control groups used for?

A

used for comparison

61
Q

whats a double blind procedure?

A

neither the participant or researcher knows the aim
eg in drug trials

62
Q

what does observation allow psychologists to do?

A

allows researchers to see how participants act without asking them
allow behaviours to be observed in a controlled setting

63
Q

what are naturalistic observations?

A

takes place in the setting the behaviour would normally occur

64
Q

what are controlled observations?

A

having some control over variables

65
Q

evaluation of naturalistic observations?

A

-they have a high external validity
=findings can be generalised to daily life
-lack of control causes replication to be difficult

66
Q

what is covert observations?

A

participant is unaware they are apart of the study and are observed in secret
-to be ethical behaviour should be in public

67
Q

what is over observations?

A

participants know they are being observed and have given informed consent

68
Q

evaluation of covert observations?

A

strength= participants dont know they are being watched so behaviour is more natural= high validity

weakness= ethics may be questioned as they haven’t given consent

68
Q

evaluation of overt observations?

A

strength- ethically acceptable as participants have given consent

weakness- they know theyre being observed so may change behaviour

69
Q

what is participant observation?

A

when the researcher becomes part of the group they are researching

70
Q

what is non participant observation?

A

researcher remains seperate from the group theyre observing

71
Q

evaluation of participant observation?

A

has an increased validity
researcher may lose objectivity as they may start to identify with the people they’re studying

72
Q

evaluation of non-participant observation?

A

less danger on losing objectivity
may not have the insight that they would iof in the investigation

73
Q

what is unstructured observation?

A

= writing everything down you see
=produces observations rich in detail
=used with small amount of participants

74
Q

whats a structured observation?

A

=allows researchers to quantity their observations using a list of behaviours

75
Q

Evaluation of structured and unstructured observation?

A

structured
=allows data to be recorded easier
=comparing data is more straightforward

unstructured
=harder to record and analyse data
=rich in data
=can have observer bias as they may only write down certain behaviours

76
Q

what are behavioural categories?

A

=behaviours broken down into categories
=behaviours are measurable
=researcher should list all behaviours that the participant may present

77
Q

Evaluation of behavioural categories?

A

weakness- categories may not precise enough
weakness- all behaviours may not be in the list

78
Q

whats event sampling?

A
  • counting how many times a behaviour occurs in a group
79
Q

whats time sampling?

A

recording behaviours in a pre planned time frame

80
Q

evaluation of time and event sampling?

A

event sampling is good as if it happens infrequently it could be missed in time sampling
time sampling allows observations to be reduced

81
Q

what are questionnaires?

A

they are pre-set list of questions that participants respond to

82
Q

what do questionnaires assess?

A

they assess thoughts and feelings

83
Q

whats an open question in a questionnaire?

A

=doesnt have a fixed range of answers
=responses how the participants wish
=produces qualitative data hard to analyse

84
Q

whats a closed question in a questionnaire?

A

=fixed ways of responding
=easy to analyse
=lacks data and detail

85
Q

Evaluation on questionnaires?

A

Strengths
-cost effective
-gather data quickly

weaknesses
-answers may not always be truthful
-response bias

86
Q

whats a structured interview?

A

-pre determined questions asked in a fixed order

87
Q

whats an unstructured interview?

A

-no set questions
-certain topic is a main focus

88
Q

whats a semi-structured interview?

A

-set of questions
-interviewed can add questions if they need to

89
Q

evaluation of interviews?

A

structured
=easy to replicate

unstructured
=not straight forward to analyse data

90
Q

whats a likert scale?

A

a scale that participants use to rate how much they agree with a statement normally out of 5

91
Q

what are rating scales?

A

rating their strength of feeling about a topic

92
Q

whats a fixed choice option?

A

items include a list of options and have to tick what applies to you

93
Q

what things are needed when designing a questionnaire?

A

1.rating scale
2. fixed choice options
3/ likert scale

94
Q

what does writing good questions include?

A
  1. no overuse of jargon
    2.no leading questions
95
Q

meaning of association in correlation?

A

-a measure of the extent to which two variables are related

96
Q

what is the difference between experiments and correlation?

A

experiments look at cause and effect relationship and correlation looks at just the relationship

97
Q

definition of positive correlation?

A

as one variable increases so does the other variable

98
Q

definition of negative correlation?

A

as one variable increases the other decreases

99
Q

definition of zero correlation?

A

no relationships between the variables

100
Q

what are correlation coefficients?

A

used to describe the strength of the correlation

101
Q

what are the rules of corelation coefficient?

A
  • +1.0 is a positive correlation
  • -1.0 is a negative correlation
  • below +/- 0.5 its weak above +/- 0.5 its strong
102
Q

Evaluation of correlation?

A

Strength
-can be used when unethical/impractical to manipulate variables
-procedure can be replicated

weakness
- cannot demonstrate
-often misunderstood by society leading to misunderstanding

103
Q

what’s qualitive data?

A

the data is expressed in words and no stats

104
Q

whats quantative data?

A

numerical data measured in stats

105
Q

examples of qualitative data?

A

interviews
open ended questions
case studies

106
Q

examples of quantative data?

A

questionnaire
rating scales
lab experiments

107
Q

Evaluation of quantative and qualitative data?

A

qualitative
weakness
-costly and time consuming
strength
-provides contextual data to explain complex issues by explaining the why and how

quantitative
weakness
=dont take place in natural settings

strength
=rapid analysis

108
Q

whats the definition of primary data? and examples?

A

data that has been collected by the researcher
=questionnaire
=interview

109
Q

definition of secondary data? and examples?

A

data collected by someone who isnt conducting the research
=journal articles
=books
=websites

110
Q

Evaluation of primary data?

A

strength
=data collection can be designed to fit the hypothesis

weakness
=time consuming and takes a lot of planning and preparation

111
Q

Evaluation of secondary data?

A

strength
=easy to access so minimal effort
=no need to do primary data if experiment already exists

weakness
=data may be out-dated

112
Q

definition of meta-analysis?

A

-type of secondary data
-researcher analyses different pieces of research on a certain topic

113
Q

what are measures of central tendency?

A

-mode
-mean
-median

114
Q

what are measures of dispersion?

A

-range
-standard deviation

115
Q

what is nominal data?

A

=data put into categories measured frequently
=often in pie charts
=most basic level of measurement
=only says how many participants picked each option

116
Q

whats ordinal data?

A

=a numerical value, based on ranks/orders
=data can be subjective
=always used in questionnaires

117
Q

whats interval data?

A

-units of equal measurements used
=data is objective
=most complex level of measurement

118
Q

definition of the mean?

A

-adding up all the scores and dividing by how many there are

119
Q

definition of the range?

A

taking away the smallest number from the largest

120
Q

definition of the mode?

A

how frequently a number appears

121
Q

definition of median?

A

the middle number in a list of numbers

122
Q

definition of standard deviation?

A

a measure of variation that indicates the typical distance between the scores of a distribution from the mean

123
Q

definition of a low standard deviation?

A

-data tightly clustered by the mean= all participants responded fairly similar

124
Q

definition of high standard deviation?

A

-data that has a wide spread of data values
=not all participants responded in the same way

125
Q

evaluation of standard deviation?

A

strength
=most precise measure of dispersion
=looks at all data unlike the range

weakness
=time consuming to calculate

126
Q

evaluation of the range?

A

strength
=easy to calculate
=not time consuming

weakness
=only takes into account the 2 most extreme values= unrepresentative
=impacted by outliers

127
Q

evaluation of the mode?

A

strength
=less prone to desertion by extreme values
=makes more sense than othert measures

weakness
-can have more than one mode
-doesnt use all data

128
Q

evaluation of mean?

A

evaluation

strength
=includes all data = representative

weakness
=affected

129
Q

evaluation of median?

A

strength
=not impacted by anomalies
=easy to identify
=easy to calculate

weakness
=not all data included

130
Q

whats a histogram and what data is it used for?

A

-interval data
-continuous data
-columns touch
-scores on x-axis
-height of column= frequency

131
Q

whats a bar chart and what data is it used for?

A

-nominal data
-discrete data
-columns dont touch
-data in categories

132
Q

what a scattergraph and what data is it used for?

A

-ordinal
-correlational data
-measures relationships between variables
-pattern=correlation

133
Q

whats a line graph and what data is it used for?

A

continuous data
shows change over time
Iv on x-axis and dv on y axis

134
Q

what is normal distribution of a graph?

A
  • it is displayed as a curve which is symmetrical on both sides
    -the mean mode and median are all at the mid point
135
Q

what is a positive skew graph?

A

-most of the distribution is to the left of the graph
=the mode is at the highest peak then the median then the mean

136
Q

what is a negative skew graph?

A

-more distributed to the right of the graph
-mode at the highest then median then mean at the lowest point

psychology (5 decks)

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