Research Methods Flashcards

Question

Types of experiments What is a lab study and what are the advantages and disadvantages

Answer 1

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)

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

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

Answer 4

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

Answer 5

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

Answer 6

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

Answer 7

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

Answer 8

Ppts Don’t know they are being observed Advantages -no demand characteristics and research has high validity Disadvantages -highly unethical

Answer 9

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

Answer 10

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

Answer 11

Record all behaviour Advantages -lots of detail Disadvantages - hard to record data - hard to know what’s important

Answer 12

System to record behaviour, when you operationalise behaviours Advantages -can quantify behaviours and analyse them Disadvantages -may miss important behaviours

Answer 13

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)

Answer 14

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.

Answer 15

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

Answer 16

a general statement about what the researcher intends to study

Answer 17

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

Answer 18

``` Null hypothesis (suggests there is no difference) Alternative hypothesis (suggests difference) ```

Answer 19

states there is a difference but not which way it will go

Answer 20

- states which way the difference will go | - based on original evidence

Answer 21

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)

Answer 22

What: same participants complete each of the two experimental designs -produces related data, can compare how ppts did in both conditions Advantages - needs half ppts compared to repeated measures design - participants variables wont effect results as much as both ts take part both conditions Disadvantages -order effects: taking part in conditions may worse performance in second condition, due to getting better, fatigue, boredom , more likely to work out the aim and then show demand characteristics -

Answer 23

Counterbalancing - this uses an ABBA format - Hald ppts complete condition A then B - other half complete condition B then A

Answer 24

- different ppts complete two conditions - ppts assessed and ranked - both ppts randomly assigned to variable - produces related data (data in condition 1 can be assigned to data point of second condition Advantages - reduced ppts variables - no order effects as ppts take part in one condition Disadvantages - takes longer - need more ppts - ppts are similar but not identical ppts variables may still effect the results

Answer 25

factor manipulated by researcher that effects DV

Answer 26

factor you are measuring to see the effect of changing the IV

Answer 27

two measurements are taken to look for relationships

Answer 28

other variables that could change the DV, can control through instructions like don't eat eight hours before the experiment, lighting, sound, experimenter,

Answer 29

1. By using counterbalancing 2. By doing random allocation or by using a matched pairs design 3. come up with a standard procedure check lighting, noise, the temperature so ppts have the same effects as they do the experiment 4. Double-blind, so the experimenter (one carrying out research) and ppts don;t know aims of experiment, which stops bias. Could also have stnadrdised procedures as well

Answer 30

variables that change systematically with the IV and DV so you can't separate the effects For example effects on fatigue when recalling something, this can't be controlled as it a natural response

Answer 31

each person in target population has an equal chance of being chosen Thiis is done by - having a list of the target population 2. enter names into hat, comuter system 3. Then choose name until you reach your target sample,

Answer 32

Advanatges -avoids researcher bias, as researcher cannot choose ppts from sample Disadvantges - could proudce an underepresentative sample - can be time consuming to get full list of target population

Answer 33

ppts chosen from list of target population and every nth ppts chosen to frorm sample How its done - need full list of entire population - redd down list selecting every nth participants - process is repeated until sample required is chosen

Answer 34

- avoids researcher bias because researcher can't choose who they want in sample - quick method of chosing sample Disadvanatage - could result in unrepresentative sample - if target population is too large full list difficult to obtain

Answer 35

-researcher directly asks members of the target audience if they are avaliable -likley to be someone researcher has easy access to or familiar with - How its done -researchers asks if tehy are avaliable -those who are added to the sample until number of ppts is met

Answer 36

- Advantages - fastest way to get a sample - less cost compared to other sampling methods Disadvantages - researcher bias as researcher asks who they want to take art in the study, may choose those hwo they prefer - unlikley to be representative (for example research conducted in Unis is likley to have young undergrad students

Answer 37

What -ppts offer to take part study after seeing an ad in a newspaper or online How its done - advertismens placed in places more likley to be seen in the target population - often contains contact detalls of reserahcer and researcher will enrol volunteer when asked

Answer 38

Advantages - can reach large number of ppts espically if newspaper is widley read - easy sample to collect Disadvantages -may not be generalisable to target population becuase of volunteer bias (more likley to have different charactrtics to genrela public i.e more helpful)

Answer 39

What - select ppts from strata, - characteristics are in the same proportion as found within target population How Strata /sub groups identified by proportion within target population -random sampling used to select ppts required from each strata (eg, 10% graduates and 90% non graduates)

Answer 40

Advanatges - sampling is representative of target population - sample should be generalisbale to target population - ppts randomally chosen wihtin each stratum so it avoids research bias Disadvantages - time consuming and estbalish and then select randomally for each strata - not every charcatertic is inculded in strata

Answer 41

Content analysis is a technique for analysing qualitative data of various kinds. Data can be placed into categories and counted (quantitative) or can be analysed in themes (qualitative). (from a mark scheme)

Answer 42

1. Decide the research question 2. Select a sample (randomly, systematically) from possible data 3. Coding: decide on categorise/coding units to be recorded (how often they come up) 4. Tally number of times things come up 5. Analyse data quantiataviley to look for patterns

Answer 43

- Test-retest: run the analysis again and see if you get the same results - Inter-rater reliability: second-rater performs content analysis with same data set and categories and then you compare results

Answer 44

- easy to collect a sample - high external validity and should be generalisable as data is taken from real world - other researchers could replicate s content analysis

Answer 45

- subjective as researcher needs to interpret data which may lead to researcher bias - data was not created for purpose of content analysis, so may lack internal validity

Answer 46

-researcher attempts to identify deeper meaning by reading the text first and allowing themes to emerge

Answer 47

- collect text /or turn the recording into transcriptions - read through transcriptions, or texts to see what could be coded - re-read transcriptions looking for emergent themes

Answer 48

-thematic analysis stops researchers from imposing own bias as they search for emerging themes instead of looking for preset themes Disadvanatges same for content analysis

Answer 49

- interviews | - questionaires

Answer 50

-question phrased in a way that limits ppts responses to a few options Advantages - allows easy data anayliss of large number of responses - easier to spot patterns Disadvantages -ppts responses are fixed , which is less valid

Answer 51

-questions phrased in way that allows ppts to answer in a way they choose Advantage -freedom to choose what they say, can lead to more valid responses disadvantage -makes data analysis more difficult

Answer 52

- Avoid complex terminology: ppts may not understand or by too embarrassed to say they don't, this can then result in inaccurate responses - Rewording questions: when a ppts doesn't understand a skilled interviewer could reword it in way that doesn't change the meaning of the question - Double barrled questions: ppts may agree with one part of the question but not the other, makes the question confusing Leading questions: this can bias responses in a certain direction, to avoid this questions should be written in a way that doesn't suggest a correct way

Answer 53

- run a pilot study - small scale study, which helps the interviewer or researcher identify problems like confusing questions, make sure questions don't give away the aim, or to check if they don't produce a meaningful and detailed response - this allows for things to be changed

Answer 54

Questionnaire: to stop ppts from finding out the aim Interviews: to ease the ppts in, to make them feel more comfortable

Answer 55

the interview asks a list of prepared questions Advantages: interviews do not have to be highly trained responses are easier to compare because same questions were used Disadvantages: responses can't be followed up with additional questions to gel ppt elaborate

Answer 56

When there is not a setlist of questions, so its an open conversation about the topic Advantages: interviewer can build a rapport, so ppts feels more comfortable answering questions -responses can be followed up with questions Disadvantages: need a highly trained interviewer to think about questions -every interview will be different so it's hard to come up with comparisons

Answer 57

combination of prepared questions and use of additional questions for elaboration Advantages: easy to compare because same questions used - intervew can ask follow up questions for ppts to elaborate on ideas - rapport can be built Disadvantages -highly trained interviewer

Answer 58

Questionnaires don't require skilled interviews whereas interviews do -questionnaires can be easily distributed -data can be easily compared in a questionnaire than interview -questionnaires and a quicker and cheaper process than an interview -interviews are less likely to be affected by acquisition bias making them more reliable -in interviews questions can be rephrased but with questionnaires, it can't be -interviewer effects can influence the answers to questions given both can be affected by social desirability bias -interviewer builds a rapport with ppts

Answer 59

- when ppts guess the aim of experiment and this creates a pressure from them to respond in a certain way - this means your measuring effect on demand characterises not the effect of the Iv on the Dv

Answer 60

Singel blind study: when ppt doesn't know aim of the experiment -double-blind- both ppts and experiment dom know aims of study,

Answer 61

-numerical data that is gathered from collecting scores from ppts through large scale experiments and questionnaires A: can be analysed systemically, and converted in graphs - objective - easy to replicate - measures behaviour on scale D - lacks detail - lacks external validity

Answer 62

-non-numerical data in the formsl of words A: - data is detailed - collected in real-life settings high validity D - low reliability - subjective

Answer 63

-researcher generates their own data to answer a specific research question D:its time consuming, and its expensive A: Has data that answers that question

Answer 64

-researcher uses data collected by others that were created to answer another research question (reports, government statics, content analysis) D: less valid as data wasn't collected to answer that research question A: data is collected easier as its cheaper and less time consuming

Answer 65

-a statistical technique used to gather data from lots of studies on the same topic and combine them to see the overall effect A: large number of ppts, D: studies vary, with different methods, aims etc -questions validity

Answer 66

A case study is an in-depth study of one person or a group of people over time. usually carried out in the real world. -They are idiographic and very individualistic. -high levels of data -qualitative data -but experimental techniques can produce quantitative data

Answer 67

A snapchat case study

Answer 68

- Longitudinal study | - difficuly to contuine long term, because of fundings and death of ppts or researchers

Answer 69

- case studies are in depth: range if data has realism, It is used by humanistic psychologits who argue that it gives valid insights into peoples lives - They can be the only way to investigate extreme human behaviour, as it may be unethical to replicate in a lab - they can also provide a basis for many psychological theories like brocas case study on tan leading us to beleive language is lateralised Limitations - Findings cannot be generalised because they are based on one person - interviews depend on memories which may be inaccurate, ppts may also lie to make themselves look good (social desirability bias) - unable to test reliability is studies are unique and its hard to replicate it exactly - can suffer from research bias: include and exclude certain findings

Answer 70

Experimental designs manipulate the independent variable resulting in a change in DV, whereas coreeolation studies no variables are manipulated and two variables are measured to look for a realtionship

Answer 71

Two factors that are compared to each other

Answer 72

Scattergram

Answer 73

Positive: co-variables increases with the other co-variable Negative: as one co variables increases the other co variable decreases Zero: no relationships between co variables

Answer 74

shows us the strength and direction of the relationship between co-variables as a number between -1 and +1 If its higher than 0.8 it has a strong positive correlation lower than -0.8 has a strong negative correlation

Answer 75

Limitation -correlation does not mean causation, even if a relationship exists unknown co variables may have caused the change Strength - highlight potential causes and relationships, which can be tested experimentally later - few ethical problems because co- variable data already exists - correlation co-efficient is a useful

Answer 76

- mean - mode - median

Answer 77

- range | - standard deviation

Answer 78

- Makes use of all values in the calculation | - extreme scores can influence the overall mean making it shift in certain directions

Answer 79

- not affected by the extreme scores | - not all the values are used though

Answer 80

- not affected by extreme scores | - there can be multiple modes

Answer 81

shows the spread of data by subtracting the highest from lowest strengths -easy to calculate Limitation -extreme score will dramatically change the range

Answer 82

British pyschological society

Answer 83

Informed consent: ppts must be told about research before taking part Deception: shouldn't lie to ppts protection from harm: ppts should not be exposed to psychological/physical harm more than expected in day to day life right to withdraw: pts can lave tsudy at any yime and can withdraw data later Confiedentiality: keep personal infomation of ppts out of publications privacy: ppts should not obserbed unless its public

Answer 84

Prior general consent: ppts can sign a consent form presumptive consent details explained to a similar representative group and ask if they would agree to conditions retrospective consent: ppts asked to give consent after the study

Answer 85

mental health: now there is CBT, which means people will take less time of work or the emergence of ADs social influence: can be used to stop people from doing certain behaviours i.e smoking, etc link to work, then economy and how psych has helped

Answer 86

Empirical &objective: data should be gained from direct observation, and it should not be affected by the expectations of the researcher, it should have a systematic procedure Replicable: scientists should record their methods and standardised them carefully so the same procedures can be followed in the future Paradigm shift: Kuhn said scientific knowledge develops through revolution. Paradigms are challenged until there is a shift, this is when there is enough evidence to suggest old paradigms can't be accepted (an example is the sun revolves around earth Theory construction: the process of developing an explanation of behaviour by systematically gathering evidence Hypothesis testing -a theory should produce statements that can be tested Falsifiability: can someone challenge your findings, for example, Freudian theories

Answer 87

Abstarct: summary of aims, hypothesis, method, findings etc Introudction: general overview of areas studied, icnuldes existing theories Aims and hypothesis, state the purpose of the study and talk about the IV and DV Method: how the research was carried out Design: Research,method, design, any problems with design, external variables and how they were controlled, ethical issues, any materials, demographics, sampling, how data was collected etc Results: includes descriptive stats (graphs), central tendencies and inferential stats, talks about significance level Discussion: summary of results which relates aims and hypothesis, implications of study, consideration of methodology, suggestions for future research References

Answer 88

-Surname -year of publication title of book -title of book -place of publication -publisher

Answer 89

- avoid plagiarism | - so people can look at research paper you cited

Answer 90

Compared to interview they are easy to use (1 mark). The researcher doesn’t need any special training to hand out the questionnaires (2nd mark for elaboration). • People may be happier to disclose personal information on a questionnaire (1 mark) compared to a face-to-face situation (2nd mark for elaboration). • Participants can answer the questions without the need for the researcher to be present (1 mark) so reducing experimenter bias (2nd mark for elaboration). • If the questionnaire used closed questions which generate quantitative data, this is easier to analyse (1 mark) than open questions which generate qualitative data which is difficult to analyse (2nd mark for elaboration). • Can be given to a large group of people (1 mark)