Prelim Flashcards
Repeated measures are one of the three types of experimental designs.
What are repeated measures? Try to give a pro and con too.
The same participants take part in each condition of the I dependant variable. This means that each condition of the experiment includes the same group of participants.
Pro: Fewer people are needed as they take part in all conditions. (Saves time)
Con: May be order effects. Order effects refer to the order of the conditions having an effect on the participants behaviour. Performance second time may improve as the participant will know what to do, or performance may weaken to to tiredness.
Independent measures are one of the three types of experimental designs.
What is an independent measure?
Independent measures are when different participants are used in each condition of the Independent variable. This means that each condition of the experiment includes a different group of participants. This should be done by random allocation.
What is random sampling?
Everyone in the entire target population has an equal chance of being selected.
Random samples require a way of naming or numbering the target population and then using some type of raffle method to choose those to make up the sample. Random samples are the best method of selecting your sample from the population of interest.
The advantages are that your sample should represent the target population and eliminate sampling bias, but the disadvantage is that it is very difficult to achieve (i.e. time, effort and money).
Matched pairs are one of the three types of experimental designs.
What are matched pairs? Give a pro and con too if you can.
This is when one pair must be randomly assigned to the experimental group and the other to the control group.
Pro: Reduces participant (Extraneous) variables because the researcher has tried to pair up the participants so that each condition has people with similar abilities and characteristics,
Pro: Avoids order effects, and so counter balancing is not necessary.
Con: Very time consuming trying to find closely matched pairs.
Con: Impossible to match people exactly, unless identical twins.
What is stratified sampling?
The researcher identifies the different types of people that make up the target population and works out the proportions needed for the sample to be representative.
A list is made of each variable (e.g. IQ, sex etc.) which might have an effect on the research. For example, if we are interested in the money spent on books by undergraduates, then the main subject studied may be an important variable.
What is opportunity sampling?
Uses people from target population available at the time and willing to take part. It is based on convenience.
An opportunity sample is obtained by asking members of the population of interest if they would take part in your research. An example would be selecting a sample of students from those coming out of the library.
What is systematic sampling?
Chooses subjects in a systematic (i.e. orderly / logical) way from the target population, like every nth participant on a list of names.
To take a systematic sample, you list all the members of the population, and then decided upon a sample you would like. By dividing the number of people in the population by the number of people you want in your sample, you get a number we will call n. If you take every nth name, you will get a systematic sample of the correct size. If, for example, you wanted to sample 150 children from a school of 1,500, you would take every 10th name
What is informed consent?
Before the study begins the researcher must outline to the participants what the research is about, and then ask their consent (i.e. permission) to take part.
What is the ethical problem with debrief?
Participants must be thoroughly debriefed at the end of the study. They must be given a general idea of what the researcher was investigating and why, and their part in the research should be explained. They must be told if they have been deceived and given reasons why. They must be asked if they have any questions and those questions should be answered honestly and as fully as possible.
What is the ethical issue associated with deception?
This is where participants are misled or wrongly informed about the aims of the research. For example, in Milgram’s study of obedience the participants thought they there giving electric shocks to a learner when they answered a question wrong. In reality no shocks were given and the learners were confederates of Milgram. This is sometimes necessary in order to avoid demand characteristics (i.e. the clues in an experiment which lead participants to think they know what the researcher is looking for).
What do people suggest can happen to a child in daycare?
The child being unable to form an attachment or disruption to the bond if already attatched.
Increased sociability and social skills due to greater exposure to the outside world.
What is correlation?
This is a link between data, like a pattern.
Describe the 44 thieves study.
Aims: To determine whether there is a correlation between maternal deprivation in infancy and adolescent delinquency.
Procedure: Bowlby studied a group of 44 juvenile thieves who attended a child guidance clinic, and subsequently compared them with a control group of 44 adolescents “who though emotionally disturbed, did not steal”. He also interviewed the parents of the boys from both groups to question whether they had experienced separation and for how long.
Findings: More than half of the juvenile thieves had been separated from their mothers for longer than six months during their first five years. In the control group only two had had such a separation. He also found several of the young thieves showed ‘affectionless psychopathy’ (they were not able to care about or feel affection for others). None of the control group were affectionless psychopaths.
Conclusion: Bowlby concluded that there is a correlation between maternal deprivation in infancy and subsequent criminal behaviour in adolescence.
Describe Bowlby’s evolutionary theory of attachment.
Key Features
Bowlby’s evolutionary theory of attachment states that children come into the world biologically pre-programmed to form attachments with others because this will help them survive.
A child needs to attach to one main attachment figure (monotropy). This figure should care for the child for the first two years of its life. Babies are born with systems ready to be activated called Social Releasers.
Social Releasers
Crying
Sucking
Clinging
Weakness
Mother is not always the main attachment figure.
Describe the Aim, Procedure, Results, Conclusion, Evaluation.
**Aims:
