PSY2206 All weeks

Question 1

How does MR work?

Answer 1

When a magnetic field changes over time with the rate of radio waves and is applied to hydrogen atoms, they respond (resonate) when there is a measurable magnetic signal. MR signal is only obtained if hydrogen atoms are aligned in parallel, not when they have random orientations. Hydrogen atoms can be aligned by putting them in a very large electromagnet.

Question 2

Why is fMRI better than MRI?

Answer 2

measures brain activity as well as structure.

Question 3

How does fMRI measure brain activity?

Answer 3

The Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) effect- Areas of the brain that are more active receive more oxygenated blood than they use. Hence, they contain less deoxygenated haemoglobin. The MRI signal in these areas drops off more slowly, i.e. there is more MRI signal coming from these brain areas. Hence BOLD fMRI is more sensitive to blood flow-related supply of oxygen to this area than to oxygen consumption in the active area. In other words, BOLD fMRI is sensitive to differences in blood flow into the active area.

Question 4

What type of interpretation is used for fMRI?

Answer 4

Reverse inference.

inference to ‘psychological processes’ from ‘patterns of activation’ revealed by functional magnetic resonance or other scanning techniques.

if changes in activation in a given brain area are specifically associated with a psychological process, then changes in activation in that area point to the involvement (or modulation of) the hypothesised psychological process

Question 5

What determines whether reverse inference (fMRI) is

Answer 5

(a) whether a pattern of brain activity is found reliably for the hypothesised psychological process (sensitivity)
(b) whether a given pattern of brain activity is also associated with other psychological processes (specificity) – indeed if a brain area is activated by multiple kinds of psychological process, then its activation cannot be taken as evidence of the involvement of a specific psychological process

Researchers who make reverse inferences need to provide detailed information on both sensitivity and specificity

Question 6

What are the weaknesses of fMRI?

Answer 6

comes a lot from large blood vessels like veins and less from smaller blood vessels like capillaries. But larger blood vessels are further away from the active tissue.

Also blood flow changes associated neuronal activity are slow, hence temporal resolution is low.

The scanner is very noisy- harder to use auditory stimuli and to record vocal responses. In order to do it, one needs to pause the scanning for a few seconds while the auditory stimulus is presented or while the participant is making a vocal response (“sparse imaging”)

Question 7

What is PET?

Answer 7

Used before fMRI. But moderately invasive, as radioactivity is introduced into body. Measures indirect metabolic correlates of neural activity.

Question 8

What is EEG?

Answer 8

the change in voltage (electricity) recorded from sensors on the scalp. EEG frequencies can tell us about the state of the brain (i.e.) sleep. Segment of the EEg associated with particular stimuli can be analysed separately: Event- Related Potentials (ERPs).
Different types of stimuli are separately averaged and then compared.

Question 9

What are the strengths of EEG?

Answer 9

very high temporal resolution: it can provide detailed temporal information about the processing of a stimulus
Compared to fMRI it is relatively cheap and accessible

Question 10

What are the weaknesses of EEG?

Answer 10

limited spatial resolution (it cannot localise activity in the brain with precision or confidence), due to the complexity of the inverse problem

Question 11

What is the problem with fMRI and EEG overall?

Answer 11

For a given set of fMRI activations or modulations of ERP components, it is difficult to be certain which (if any) are NECESSARY for a given task/psychological process. The fact that the fMRI activations (or ERP component modulation) co-occur with an experimental condition does not mean that they cause it, or that they are essential for the process to take place…

Question 12

Why is TMS better than fMRI and EEG?

Answer 12

Lesions the brain so its more causal

Question 13

How does TMS work?

Answer 13

Large current briefly discharged into a coil of wire held on the subject’s head. •current generates a rapidly changing (increasing) magnetic field around the coil of wire and this field passes into the brain. In the cortex, the magnetic field generates electric (ionic) current through neurons’ membranes.
Depending on the intensity and number of stimulation pulses, TMS can increase or reduce excitability (the ease with which neuronal activity is produced by an action or a stimulus)
In the context of goal-directed behaviour (e.g. cognitive task), this tends to result in disorganisation of neural activity, typically resulting in impaired performance
Thus, the effect is similar to that of neurological lesion, only mild, reversible and safe

Question 14

What are the strengths of TMS?

Answer 14

The effects of a singleTMS pulse on behaviour can be brief, therefore temporal resolution with respect to target behaviour (and underlying brain activity) is relatively high.
•TMS can answer the critical question of causality (which cannot be answered using brain measurement methods like fMRI or EEG): is a brain area or structure necessary for performance

Question 15

How does eye-tracking work?

Answer 15

monitors pupil position by emitting an infrared beam and detecting its reflection from the cornea- the reflection is weaker where the pupil is. The sampling rate can be as high as 1000 Hz, allowing not only measures of fixations (their timing location) but also precise measures of saccades (path and velocity)

Question 16

What are the primary measures in eye-tracking?

Answer 16

Fixation: when the gaze stops on some visual attribute. The attributes of a fixation are: spatial location (where?), onset latency (when did it start?), and duration (how long?)
Saccade: the eye-movement. Its attributes are: amplitude (how far?), onset (when did its execution start?), velocity (how fast?), shape (linear or somewhat curved?)
Pupil diameter: it is correlated with arousal and the emotional state, e.g. the perception of emotional signals usually increases pupil size

Question 17

What are the strengths of eye-tracking?

Answer 17

•It has very high spatial and temporal resolution

Question 18

What are the weaknesses of eye-tracking?

Answer 18

• One challenge in eye-tracking is that attention is allocated before the gaze moves to the location of the attentional spotlight – and it is quite difficult to estimate that lag – estimates range from ~80 to 200 ms
• Another challenge is that people can shift spatial attention without moving their eyes – especially if the visual objects are relatively close in space – and this can complicate inferences about the location of the attention “spotlight” in the absence of gaze shifts

Question 19

What are the three problems in assessing the socio-emotional problems in children?

Answer 19

Rapid developmental transitions. - Many behaviours that are clinically relevant in older children may be normal in younger children. For example, temper tantrums in toddlers may reflect their emerging sense of self but may cause parent’s concern in older children.

Lack of data intergration from a bunch of difference sources.
Who provides information about the child? Parents, teachers, friends, themselves, observers. Depends on the topic being looked at.
What method of assessment have they employed? Questionnaires, interviews, behavioural/ cognition assessments (writing, vocab)
What timeframe have they used? Depends. (i.e.) anxiety would need to be measured for 6 months as the DSM-5 says this is the criteria.

Difficulty determining level of impairment/functioning.
Aspects of child functioning: Adaptation to situational demands, Development of new skills, Relationships (i.e., interactions with peers), Physical health.

Question 20

Regarding observations of parent-child interactions, describe the probelm with the presence of the observer.

Answer 20

issues with reactivity. Can fix this by discarding first 10 of interaction as it is suggested the reactivity is more prevalent in the beginning

Question 21

Regarding observations of parent-child interactions, whats up with the type of task

Answer 21

Type of task (structured vs. unstructured. Unstructured there are no targets, they are more likely to be relaxed and display more positive behaviour. Structured may elicit more anxiety

Question 22

Whats the strength of observations?

Answer 22

Researchers define and choose target behaviours. Can look at microscopic processes and mechanisms. Have data on rates and frequencies.

Question 23

What is the weaknesses of observations?

Answer 23

expensive, time consuming and require extensive training.

Question 24

In questionnaires, what are some factors that affect childrens accurate responding?

Answer 24

Age
Response formats- faces they can choose from could be good, like smiley, neutral and sad faces.
Phrasing or complexity of questions
Factual information versus abstract concepts.

Question 25

In structured interviews with children, what is considered?

Answer 25

Information about onset, duration, frequency and course of behaviour.

Sensitivity of behaviour to context- bad behaviour because theres a new sibling and they dont like it, but they are great at school.

Must be careful to avoid leading questions.

Question 26

What are some examples of attachment measures?

Answer 26

The strange situation (lab). for 9 to 18 month year olds.

Attachment Q-set (home assessment). For 1 to 5 year olds.

Manchester Child Attachment story task (home assessment) for 4 to 8 year olds.

Question 27

Describe an assessment of the emotional quality of the parent-child relationship using the caregiver.

Answer 27

Caregiver has to talk about their child for 5 minutes straight about what their child is like and their relationship with their child over the last six months. 
§Initial Statement
§Warmth
§Emotional over-involvement
§Relationship
§Critical comments
§Negative comments.

Question 28

For animal behaviour research, whats the difference between pure and applied research?

Answer 28

.

Question 29

What are the pure aspects of animal behaviour?

Answer 29

Evolutionary biology.
Behavioural ecology.
Cognition and consciousness.

Question 30

In animal behaviour, what’s an ethogram?

Answer 30

List of all behaviours, defined and described.

Question 31

In animal behaviour, what are the different sampling techniques?

Answer 31

Focal sampling- one individual

Scan- whole sample at intervals (good if you can’t tell them apart)

Behavioural- record occurrence of particular behaviour

Question 32

In animal behaviour, what are the different recording techniques?

Answer 32

Ad libitum- all behaviour
recorded. Good for ethogram

•Continuous
–Exact record of behaviour as records each occurrence.

•Instantaneous
-short intervals and record behaviour on the time point.

•One-Zero
–Record whether behaviour has occurred in sample period.

Question 33

In animal behaviour, what are some different measures of behaviour?

Answer 33

•Frequency
–The number of occurrences of the behaviour per unit of time.
•Duration
–The length of time for which a single occurrence of the behaviour lasts.
•Latency
–The time from a specific stimulus to the first occurrence of the behaviour.
•Bout
–A short period of a specific activity, normally intense, that can be timed. Will have a specific start and end point and a latency between bouts is required for measurement.

Question 34

What is a non-positivist approach in psychology?

Answer 34

A non-positivist approach is distinct from pure science in that it is centred on the humanistic view of the social sciences. From this perspective, research concerning human behaviour cannot be regarded in the same way as other scientific research: the social world is distinctive and separate from the world of nature.

Question 35

Describe the non-positivist Qualitative research paradigm.

Answer 35

• There is no one correct version of reality or knowledge
• Argues there are multiple versions of reality (even for the same person)
• These are bound by the context in which they happen or are created
• Most qualitative researchers would argue you should not, even must not consider knowledge outside the context in which it was generated

Question 36

What are some elements of the qualitative paradigm in terms of what is consists of and how it works.

Answer 36

The use of qualitative data, and the analysis of words which are not reducible to numbers.
•The use of more ‘naturally’ occurring data collection methods, that more closely resemble real life (compared to other possibilities, such as experiments) – this develops from the idea that we cannot make sense of data in isolation from context.
•An interest in meanings rather than reports and measures of behaviour or internal cognitions.
•The use of inductive, theory-generating research. BOTTOM UP

Question 37

What is the Big Q?

Answer 37

the application of qualitative techniques within a qualitative paradigm, which is markedly different to a quantitative approach (reflective – interpretative- immersion in the data – fluidity contrast to quantitative – structured – objective)

Question 38

What is the Biggish Q?

Answer 38

sits in the middle of small Q and big Q – more structured and less fluid than big Q but more flexibility and more in line with the qualitative philosophy than small Q. Often used in applied research.

Question 39

What is the Small Q?

Answer 39

the use of qualitative data collection and techniques, not necessarily in a qualitative paradigm – positivist sensibility – techniques qualitative but the philosophy is not

Question 40

What are the characteristics of the inductive approach?

Answer 40

Moving from data to theory.
Close understanding of the research context.
Flexible structure to permit changes of research.
Realisation that the researcher is part of the research project.

Question 41

What is thematic analysis?

Answer 41

A popular method for analysing qualitative data. It aims to develop an understanding of participants experiences/influence of context to develop or extend theory.

Question 42

In thematic analysis, what is data corpus?

Answer 42

All data collected for a project (i.e.) interviews and websites and diaries

Question 43

In thematic analysis, what is data set

Answer 43

All data used for a particular analysis (i.e.) interviews

Question 44

In thematic analysis, what is data item

Answer 44

Piece of collected data (i.e.) an interview

Question 45

In thematic analysis, what is a data extract

Answer 45

An identified chunk of data item (i.e.) a quote from an interview

Question 46

What is the TA school “coding reliability”

Answer 46

Small Q- qualitative method but quantitative approach.

themes are often conceptualized as domain summaries which have often been derived from data collection questions e.g. questions in a semi-structured interview with participants. These drive the coding process and are the output of the coding process.

Then, the researcher categorizes the data into (pre-determined) themes. Ideally, the codebook is applied to the data by more than one coder, each working independently; for some, the ideal coder has no prior experience with or knowledge of the topic of concern and comes to the coding process naive.

Question 47

What is the TA school “codebook”

Answer 47

• Sits between coding reliability and reflexive TA
• Biggish Q
• Shares structured approach to coding with coding reliability

Some, if not all, themes are determined ahead of full analysis (e.g. again can be derived from data collection questions), and themes are typically conceptualized as domain summaries.

Question 48

What is the TA school “reflexive”

Answer 48

In this type of TA, themes are conceptualized as meaning-based patterns which result from considerable analytic work on the part of the researcher.
The researcher spends time exploring and developing an understanding of patterned meaning across the dataset.
The process of coding is organic, open and iterative – and doesn’t involve the use of a codebook or coding frame.

•Themes are meaning based patterns evident in explicit (semantic) or conceptual (latent) ways

Question 49

What is inductive

Answer 49

• Bottom-up
• Not driven by researcher’s theoretical interests/background
• Themes linked to data
• Research question might evolve during analysis
• Little resemblance to interview questions
• No pre-defined coding frame

Question 50

What is deductive

Answer 50

• Top-down
• Driven by researcher’s theoretical/analytic interests
• Themes linked to theory, analytic interests, research question or interview questions
• Specific research question
• Might use pre-defined coding frame

Question 51

What is discursive psychology?

Answer 51

focuses on the everyday management of relations between mental states and an external world
•This method of analysis considers how people, in talk and text, formulate personal subjectivity – mental states, dispositions, feelings, judgments, and reactions – and tie them to descriptions and assessments of what the world is like – the object side.

Question 52

How is discourse psychology both constructed and constructive

Answer 52

Constructed – made up of linguistic building blocks (words, categories, repertoires), used to present particular versions of the world

Constructive - that these versions of the world are a product of the talk itself, not something that exist prior to the talk

Question 53

What is at the heart of discourse analysis?

Answer 53

1. Language is used for a variety of functions
2. Language is both constructed and constructive
3. There will be considerable variation in accounts AND THAT’S OKAY!
4. That said, conversations usually follow a certain convention and when they deviate from this there can be interactional trouble and that can be really interesting for a researcher (think back to our Friend’s clip)
5. The constructive and flexible ways in which language is used should themselves become a central topic

Question 54

How does discourse analysis?

Answer 54

Speech and actions are recorded, both of which are coded for later analysis (usually using Jefferson method of transcription but not always

This is because:
•The researcher can concentrate and listen and respond better
•The discussion flows better when there are no distractions
•In note taking there is an increased risk of the researcher being more subjective
•The entire interview/observation is recorded, which gives a better, more holistic picture of what is going on
•The participants may feel less observed if the tape recorded is used in a discreet way
•During analysis, the researcher has the opportunity to go back over material

Question 55

What are some criticisms of discourse analysis?

Answer 55

Subjectivity- data is interpreted and therefore influenced by personal experience and beliefs of the researcher.

Replicability- because researcher influences, cannot necessarily be replicated

Generalisability- no attempt to recruit a representative sample.

Transparency- sometimes difficult to establish how conclusions were arrived at.

Credibility
Is the researcher’s interpretation of the data credible?
Respondent validation
Triangulation

Transferability
Is the description provided rich enough in detail for others to make judgements about its transferability to other milieu?

Dependability
Can the research be “audited”?

Confirmability
Is it apparent that the researcher has not overtly allowed personal values or theoretical inclinations to influence the conduct of the research or the interpretation of the data?

Question 56

How can the criticisms of TA be combatted?

Answer 56

more than one method and investigator (credibility)

“Thick description” (transferability)

Research should be conducted in an explicit and systematic way (dependability)
Meticulous record keeping and seperate diaries (dependability)

Openness and honesty about theoretical perspectives and biases (confirmability)

Question 57

In term of mixed methodology, what is sequential explanatory method?

Answer 57

Two data collection points. Quan first and qual after, but equal priority to both.

•Primary focus is to explain quantitative results by exploring certain results in more detail or helping explain unexpected results (e.g., using follow-up interviews to better understand the results of a quantitative study)

• Strength: relatively straight forward due to clear, distinct stages and easier to describe than concurrent strategies.
•Weakness: very time consuming especially when both phases are given equal consideration and priority.
.

Question 58

In term of mixed methodology, what is sequential transformative strategy?

Answer 58

Two data collection points, either first and priority to both or just one.

• Primarily purpose is to “employ the methods that will best serve the theoretical perspective of the researcher… (it) may be able to give voice to diverse perspectives, to better advocate for participants or to better understand a phenomenon or process that is changing as a result of being studied” (Creswell, 2003, p. 216).
• Strength: very straight-forward in terms of implementation and reporting.
• Weakness: time consuming. Little guidance due to the relative lack of literature on the transformative nature of moving from the first phase of data collection to the second.

Question 59

In term of mixed methodology, what is concurrent triangulation strategy?

Answer 59

This design involves a single study containing qualitative and quantita- tive data collection which is conducted at the same time. The purpose of this type of investigation is to validate the findings generated by each method through evidence produced by the other.

• Strengths: Familiar to many researchers. Shorter data collection time when compared to sequential methods. Offsets weaknesses inherent to one design by using both.
• Weaknesses: Requires a great deal of expertise and effort to study the phenomenon under consideration using two different methods. It may be difficult to compare two types of data as well as resolve discrepancies if they arise.

Question 60

In term of mixed methodology, what is Concurrent nested strategy

Answer 60

•There are two data collection methods; one is embedded (i.e., nested) within the other.

• Priority is given to the primary data collection approach with less emphasis placed on the nested approach.
The research question to be answered by the
embedded method may be of a secondary nature or address a very specifi c subtopic that is connected with the general research question.

• Data are mixed during the analysis phase.
• Strengths: able to collect two types of data simultaneously; can collect both quantitative and qualitative data allowing for perspectives from each; provides advantages of both methods.
• Weaknesses: data need to be transformed to allow integration during analysis, this may lead to issues in resolving discrepancies that occur between different data types; there is little literature in this area; results may be bias by differing priorities assigned to research design results.

Question 61

In term of mixed methodology, what is Concurrent transformative strategy

Answer 61

Unlike a sequential transformative design, in a concurrent transformative design both the qualitative and quantitative data are collected at
the same time. The conduct of the study is informed by a theoretical perspective and data are integrated during the interpretation phase

• Is guided by a specific theoretical perspective (e.g., critical theory, advocacy, participatory research or theoretical framework).
• Strengths: can collect both quantitative and qualitative data simultaneously allowing for perspectives from each; provides advantages of both methods. Familiar to many researchers. Shorter data collection time when compared to sequential methods. Offsets weaknesses inherent to one design by using both.
• Weaknesses: data need to be transformed to allow integration during analysis, this may lead to issues in resolving discrepancies that occur between different data types. Requires a great deal of expertise and effort to study the phenomenon under consideration using two different methods.

Question 62

What is the overall strength of mixed methods approach?

Answer 62

• One major strength is that it is seen to solve the ‘weaknesses’ that both quantitative and qualitative research suffer from
• Quantitative: weakness is not taking into account the context of the participants talk; their voices are not ‘heard’ in the final analysis
• Qualitative: weakness is the potential interference of the researcher in the analysis – they are heavily involved in coding/interpreting the findings; can not generalise to wider population