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)
What are a repeated measure (experimental design)
Advantages and disadvantages
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
-
How can you control the order effects in a repeated measures design
Counterbalancing
- this uses an ABBA format
- Hald ppts complete condition A then B
- other half complete condition B then A
What is a matched pairs design
- 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
What is the independent variable
factor manipulated by researcher that effects DV
What is the dependent variable
factor you are measuring to see the effect of changing the IV
What is a co-variables
two measurements are taken to look for relationships
What are extrenous varaibles
other variables that could change the DV,
can control through instructions like don’t eat eight hours before the experiment, lighting, sound, experimenter,
How can you control extraneous variables like
- Order effects
- Participant variables
- Situational variables
- investigator effects
- By using counterbalancing
- By doing random allocation or by using a matched pairs design
- come up with a standard procedure check lighting, noise, the temperature so ppts have the same effects as they do the experiment
- 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
What is a confounding variable
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
What is a random sample and how do you conduct one
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,
What are the advanatages of random sampling
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
What is a systmamtis sample and how do we do this
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
What are the advanatages and disadvantges of systamatic sampling
- 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
What is an oppotunity sample and how is conducted
-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
What are the advanatages and disadvantages of oppotunity sampling
- 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
What is a volunteer sample and how does it work
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
What are the advanatages and disadvantages of volunteer sampling
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)
What is a stratified sample and how does it work
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)
What are the advanatages and disadvantages of stratified
sampling
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
What is content anaylsis
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)
How do you do content analysis
- Decide the research question
- Select a sample (randomly, systematically) from possible data
- Coding: decide on categorise/coding units to be recorded (how often they come up)
- Tally number of times things come up
- Analyse data quantiataviley to look for patterns
How would you test the reliability of content analysis
- 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
What is an advantages of content analysis
- 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
What is an disadvantages of content analysis
- 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
What is a thematic analysis
-researcher attempts to identify deeper meaning by reading the text first and allowing themes to emerge
How do you do thematic analysis
- 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
What are the advanatges and disdvanatges of thematic anayslsi
-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
Name two self report techniques
- interviews
- questionaires
What is a closed question
-advantages and disadvantages
-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
What is an open question
-advantages and disadvantages
-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
What does the researcher need to do when conducting a self-report
- 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
How can a researcher test whether their self-report study has issues
- 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
Why are filler questions used in self-report studies
Questionnaire: to stop ppts from finding out the aim
Interviews: to ease the ppts in, to make them feel more comfortable
What is a structured interview and what are the advantages and disadvantages
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
What is an unstructured interview and what are the advantages and disadvantages
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
What is a semi-structured interview and what are the advantages and disadvantages
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
Compare questionnaires and interviews
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
What is a demand characteritcs
- 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
How can you reduce the effects of demand characteristics?
Singel blind study: when ppt doesn’t know aim of the experiment
-double-blind- both ppts and experiment dom know aims of study,
Define quantatative data and evaluate it
-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
Define qualitative data and evaluate
-non-numerical data in the formsl of words
A:
- data is detailed
- collected in real-life settings high validity
D
- low reliability
- subjective
Define primary data and evaluate it
-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
Define secondary data and evaluate it
-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
What is a meta-analysis
-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
What is meant by a case study
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
What is a short case study called
A snapchat case study
What is a long case study called and what are the problems
- Longitudinal study
- difficuly to contuine long term, because of fundings and death of ppts or researchers
What are the strengths and limitations of case studies
- 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
What is the difference between correlanational studies and experiments
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
What is a co-variable
Two factors that are compared to each other
How is correlational data presented
Scattergram
What are the types of correlations
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
What does the correlation co-effiecent show us
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
Evaluate the use of correlations
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
What are the measures of central tendency
- mean
- mode
- median
What are the measures od dispersion
- range
- standard deviation
Evaluate the use of the mean
- Makes use of all values in the calculation
- extreme scores can influence the overall mean making it shift in certain directions
Evalaute the use of the median
- not affected by the extreme scores
- not all the values are used though
Evaluate the use of the mode
- not affected by extreme scores
- there can be multiple modes
What is the range and evaluate it
shows the spread of data by subtracting the highest from lowest
strengths
-easy to calculate
Limitation
-extreme score will dramatically change the range
Who created the list of ethical guidelines
British pyschological society
What are the 6 ethical principles
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
How can we deal with ethical issue of consent
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
How does psychology help the economy
-think of mental health, criminal justice, social influence o
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
What are the features of psychology as a science?
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
How is a psychological report laid out
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
How do you write a reference
-Surname
-year of publication
title of book
-title of book
-place of publication
-publisher
Why do we reference other studies
- avoid plagiarism
- so people can look at research paper you cited
What is a strength of using questionaires
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)
