Research Methods 1/2 Flashcards
What did Plato say about the soul?
It has 3 parts: rational, ambitious, appetitive
What did Freud say about the soul?
It has 3 parts: superego, ego, id
What are 3 issues with Freud?
theories reliant on case studies
theories are not testable
unconscious process cannot be observed
What did Skinner believe in?
Behaviourism: emphasised the importance of consequences of behaviour in determining its likelihood of repetition
What is ‘empty organism psychology’?
No internal processes or theoretical constructs are used to explain behaviour
How did Tolman&Honzik prove empty organism psychology wrong?
proved mice ‘learnt’ a maze to get food but learning also occurred without a reward - organism is therefore not that ‘empty’
Explain Christian Hughes’ Hypothetico-deductive model
Theory –> hypothesis –> empirical test –> results –> theory etc.
What must be given by every participant in an experiment?
Consent
What must be done if deception is used in an experiment?
The participants must be fully debriefed after the experiment is over
What is an independent variable?
The variable the experimenter changes
What is a dependent variable?
The variable the experimenter measures
What is within-subject design?
The same set of participants undergo all treatments
What are the benefits and downfalls of within-subject design?
individual characteristics ‘even out’
fewer participants needed to recruit
order effects can interfere with results
What is between-subject design?
Different participants take part under each condition
What are the benefits and downfalls of between-subject design?
avoid order effects
quicker and can be simpler
individual differences are not controlled for - esp. sig. if small pool of participants
What is the general order of a practical report?
Title, abstract, introduction, methods (participants, material, design, procedure), results, discussion, references , appendices
What tense should practical reports be written in?
Past tense
What person should practical reports be written in?
3rd person
What is the purpose of descriptive statistics?
To enable the summary of data - identify the average and distribution
What is the purpose of inferential statistics?
Make inferences about the likelihood of findings occurring
What is the mean? What are the positives and negatives of it?
It is the sum of all the values divided by the number of values recorded
It is a good measure of central tendency
Is very susceptible to outliers
What is the median? What are the positives and negatives of it?
The central value of a set of numbers
Unaffected by extreme values
Less sensitive than the mean
What is the mode? What are the positives and negatives of it?
The most common value in a data set
Shows the most important value in the data set
Not useful for small data sets or those without reoccurring values
What does it mean if a mode is bi-modal?
There are two numbers that occur equally frequently
What is interval data? What should be used to measure the average?
data measured on a scale
Use the mean
Whats ordinal data? What should be used to measure the average?
categorical data
Use the median
What is nominal data? What should be used to measure the average?
labeled variables without quantitative value
Use the mode
What is the range?
The distance between the highest and lowest value
What is dispersion?
A measure of the distribution of values in a data set around the central tendency
What is standard deviation?
A measure of the variance or dispersion of a data set
What is true 0?
The point that represents total absence of the phenomenon
What sort of data do pie charts use?
Nominal
What sort of data do bar charts use?
Nominal
What sort of data do histograms use?
Ordinal
What sort of data do line graphs use?
Ordinal
What sort of data do scatter graphs use?
Interval/Ratio data
What’s the maximum number of authors you can you cite in text?
5
Give the 5 ways you can conduct research
naturalistic observation case studies surveys correlational research experimental research
What is internal validity?
Whether the inferences made by researchers are correct
What is external validity?
Can the conclusions of a study be generalised to other contexts or settings
What is the Pygmalion effect?
self-fulfilling prophecy based on the experimenter’s desires
Give 4 examples of internal invalidity
experimenter bias
participant bias
placebo effect
regression to the mean
Give 4 examples of external invalidity
participant selection not random
discussion discusses only one possible answer to the results
What is skew?
Where data shows more than the usual proportion of observations at one end of the scale
What is negative skew of a normal distribution?
a left skew, meaning the tail in on the left
What is a positive skew of normal distribution?
a right skew, meaning the til is on the right
Where are the mean, median and mode on a skewed distribution?
mode is at the peak
mean is near the end of the tail (extreme)
median is in the middle of the two
Where are the mean, median and mode on a normal distribution?
In the centre of the graph
What % of the normal distribution falls within 1SD of the mean?
68.2%
Which out of mean, median and mode is most susceptible to skewedness?
The mean
What is kurtosis?
a measure of peakedness of a distribution
What is a leptokurtic distribution?
A very peaked graph of distribution
What is a platykurtic distribution?
A fairly flat graph of distribution
What do skew and kurtosis indicate?
Some sort of bias
What is a mesokurtic distribution?
centrally distributed graph
How do you calculate the z score from a raw score?
(raw score - sample mean)/ standard deviation
What sort of plot can you use to find outliers?
Box and whisker plots
How do you find mild outliers?
Using the lower and upper inner fences
How do you find extreme outliers?
Using the lower and upper outer fences
What does the Z score tell us?
How many standard deviations from the mean a score is
How do you cite a quotation?
Author, year, page number
How do you cite a secondary source?
author, year, as cited in authors, year
How many z scores are used to find outliers in a data set?
3
