Research Methods Flashcards
Why do we do a peer-reviews
- Keeps research honest
- stops poorly conducted research being accepted as fact
- makes people think about their methodology
- assess universities
- suggests improvemnts
- can help allocate funding
How are peer reviews done
- look at the methodology
- data analysis
- look at justification
Disadvantages of peer reviews
- hard to find experts
- sometimes it can be hard to find annimoity (if there are only a few people in the field) could lack objectivity
- there may be publication bias (may not want to publish negative results)
- sometimes may not want to publish research that contradicts the status quo
What are the two types of reliability?
Internal: in an interview do both researchers obtain the same results (inter-rater reliability)
external: how much results differ for example if you do the experiment will you get the same result each time
How can we test whether we have high reliability
Inter rater relibality
- compare the results of two researchers when they are looking at the same interview/observations. If they have the same results then the method has high inter-rater reliability.
- To improve you could look at how you opernalisatised, for example changing behavioural categories
test re-test: a test should give the same results twice. to improve, you can alter tests to improve the correlation
Split half method: half questions and ppts and see if people get same results, if not remove problematic questions
What is internal validity
has the IV changed the DV or as if it something changed the DV like extraneous variables or confounding variables
What is external validity
can you apply the findings to the public or day to day life (generalisability)
What can affect the internal validity of a study
- particapant variables (demand charctertics, personality, age)
- Lack of control (order effects, investigator effects)
- situational variables (temp, room size)
- Researcher Bias (lack objectivity)
What is face validity
does it claim to measure what its measuring,
What is ecological validity
when you can generalise to a different place or setting
What is mundane realism
is the task similar to what we would do in real life
What is population validity
The ability to generalise the findings to the wider population
What is temporal validity
Can you generalise to a different century, or decade
What is concurrent validity
the extent to which the test produces another established measure
e.g two tests of IQ should produce the same result
How would we improve our external validity
Using field study, natural observations etc
How would you do a sign test
- subtarct the two varibales
- then to work out s look for the least frequent sign
- to find n count all the +,- expect the 0s, this is N
- then using N you look for whether your results are significant
What is a type 1 error
This is when you accept your experimental hypothesis when you should have rejected it as the results were affected by random variables
How do we stop a type 1 error from occuring
we use a 0.01 level of signifcance
What is a type 2 error
You accepted your null hypothesis when you should have rejected it,due to you thinking there was no significance between variables
How do we prevent a type 2 error from happening
You use a 0.05 level of significance
what is nominal data
data we can set into differenet categories (gender, dogs,)
we can have a frequency count
What is ordinal data
It can be ordered but we are not sure the exact value between each point is the same
small -large (height)
What is interval data
when you can meaure data with equal sets of intervals (length, time, temp, )
What is the nnemonic for the stats table
S-pace (sign test) W-eather (wiliconxon) R-eally (related t test) C-contains (chi-squared) M-any (mann whitney) U-FOs (unrelated t test) C-hasing (chi squared) S-mall (spermans rho) P-igs (pearsons)
Types of experiments
What is a lab study and what are the advantages and disadvantages
What is it?
An experiment usually in laboratory.
-It’s usually in a situation where you control many variables except environmental variables
-it uses standardised procedures
Advantages
- high internal validity, change DV due to IV
- high replicability because there is a standardised procedure
- due to control of variables you can show a relationship between cause and effects
Disadvantage
- experimenter bias
- less external validity, hard to generalise findings to real life
- demand characteristics (ppt may try to help experimenter or try to look good)
What is a field experiment and what are the advantages and disadvantages
What it is
Conducted in a natural setting, IV manipulated by the researcher
Advantages
- High external validity which means you can generalise it to real life situations (people show more naturalsitic behaviours)
- no demand charactertics
Disadvantages
- hard to control extraneous variables
- could argue that result may not be due to IV
What is a natural experiment and what are the advantages and disadvantages
What it is
Change in IV has occurred naturally so not be manipulated by researchers
Advantages
- high external validity (changes happened in real life)
- no demand characteristics
- allow research in areas that could not happen due to ethical or cost reasons
Disadvantages
- no control of extraneous variables which means hard to establish cause and effect
- rare and can’t be replicated to see if we would get similar results
- not replicable
What is a quasi experiment and what are the advantages and disadvantages
What is it
Change in IV cannot be manipulated or randomly assigned (male/female/old/new)
Advantages
-only way to study these variables
Disadvantages
- unable to know if gender is the reason for the result as you can’t control ppt variables
What is naturalistic observation and what are the advantages and disadvantages
In a real life setting
Advantages
- high external validity likely to show more natural behaviour, as its easier to generalise
- fewer demand characteristics
Disadvantages
-low levels of control may be unknown extraneous variables contributing to behaviour
What is a controlled observation and what are the advantages and disadvantages
Aspects of environment are controlled, to give ppts same experience, Often conducted in a lab (ainsworth and bandura)
Advantages
- high control reduces likelihood of extraneous variables are responsible for observed behaviour
- Results reliable as they used same standardised procedures
Disadvantages
-low external validity because enviormenmt is artificial, Behaviour may not be repeated in actual envioroment
What is an overt observation and what are the advantages and disadvantages
Ppts know they are being observed
Advantages
-ethically correct as ppts gave informed consent to being observed
Disadvantages
-risk of demand characteristics and social desirability bias
What is covert observation and what are the advantages and disadvantages
Ppts Don’t know they are being observed
Advantages
-no demand characteristics and research has high validity
Disadvantages
-highly unethical
What is participant observation and what are the advantages and disadvantages
Observer joins the group and takes part
Advantages
-builds a rapport, insight (you gain more about the situation)
Disadvantages
-researcher bias (may start to take on opinions), may lose objectivity
What is non participant observation and what are the advantages and disadvantages
Observer is outside of the group
Advantages
-increases objectivity
Disadvantages
-may miss details or insight because unable to build a rapport so behaviour less natrualistic
What is unstructured observation and what are the advantages and disadvantages
Record all behaviour
Advantages
-lots of detail
Disadvantages
- hard to record data
- hard to know what’s important
What is structured observation and what are the advantages and disadvantages
System to record behaviour, when you operationalise behaviours
Advantages
-can quantify behaviours and analyse them
Disadvantages
-may miss important behaviours
What ways can someone record behaviours
Behavioural categories
- identify categories, (scratching your head, shifting around in seat, breaking eye contact) then you count the behaviours
Event sampling -tally the number of behaviours -A: if behaviour is on list, always will be recorded D: miss relevant behaviour -need lots of observers
Time sampling
-record behaviours say every 30 seconds in 5 minutes over 1 hour observation
A: more flexible are able to record more unexpected behaviours
disadvantage (can miss behaviour that is not in 30 second time frame)
What are the benefits of the researcher using open and closed questions
Exam q
Closed questions give ppts option and researchers can collate and display the
information collected easily.
• Closed questions make it easy to compare specific responses and ensure that certain questions are answered
• Open questions allow respondents to respond with detail or depth – so there is lots of information received.
• Open questions allow the researchers to pursue a line of enquiry that
they may not have predicted but which comes to light because of a
response by an interviewee.
What is an investigator affect and how it ot be reduced in this study
Exam Q
when the person
collecting the data has knowledge of what the research aim is
How to decrease it
separate observation by the two researchers and
comparison – inter-rater reliability.
• Having ‘blind’ rating of the discussion by someone who is unaware of the
aim or research hypothesis.
• Filming the discussions so there is a permanent record that can be
checked by peer review of the data to confirm the scores / ratings.
* having a double blind study
What is an aim
a general statement about what the researcher intends to study
What is a hypothesis and how do you write them
a precise testable statement that includes levels of an independent variable and a dependent variable (or co-variables for a correlational study)
-You need to operationalise the variables as well like instead of saying recall (number of words recalled)
instead of saying reaction say the time taken in milliseconds
What are the two types of hypothesises
Null hypothesis (suggests there is no difference) Alternative hypothesis (suggests difference)
What is a non-direcotional hypothesis
(two-tailed hypothesis)
states there is a difference but not which way it will go
What is a directional hypothesis
(one-tailed hypothesis)
- states which way the difference will go
- based on original evidence
What is an independent group (experimental design) and what are the advantages and disadvantages
What: different ppts complete different conditions
- ppts randomly allocated to avoid bias
- produces unrelated data
Advanatges
- less likely to work out aim of the study which reduces demand characteristics
- no order effects as ppts take part in one condition
Disadvantages
- extraneous variables can influence the results of the study because of random allocation
- needs more ppts than repeated measures (to get the same amount of data)