Research Methods

Question 1

What are two examples of misinformed practice through psychological history?

Answer 1

1. Bettelheim’s theory of Autism
   a. Bettelheim stated that Autism was caused by parents neglecting children and comparing them to being Nazis. This is due to Bettelheim’s own experience in Nazi prisoner camps and the symptomology observed by prisoners was linear to that of an autistic child.
2. The lobotomy
   a. This was an experiment that at the time had no ethical framework on guiding principles in the practice. An experiment that used intuition rather than scientific experimentation that led most patients to dehumanisation and irreversible symptoms.

Question 2

What are some of the dangers of misinformed practice?

Answer 2

It can severely injure our patients and lead to outcomes that are making the patient or the stigma around an issue much worse.

It reduces people’s trust in practitioners as well as science as a whole.

Relying on common sense, intuition and unsystematic observation proves great harm for ever faucet of scientific enquiry.

Question 3

What distinguishes science from other discipline?

Answer 3

The need for evidence

Question 4

What is the definition of a theory and why are they useful?

Answer 4

A systematic way of organising and explaining observations.

A good theory provides the framework for a hypothesis.

Question 5

What is a hypothesis?

Answer 5

It is a prediction about the relation between two or more variables.

Question 6

What are the three things that constitute a good theory?

Answer 6

1. It fits known facts
2. It makes a new testable prediction
3. It must be falsifiable

Question 7

What is naturalistic observation?

Answer 7

A researcher carefully observes behaviour without intervening through participant observation. This can be done by

• Researcher is also a participant
• Observing in the world
• Ethically, it is important that the researcher discloses that they are observing behaviour, this could also create limitations for the research design.

Question 8

What are the advantages of naturalistic observation?

Answer 8

• In-depth observation of behaviour in a naturally setting, the information is not contrived.
• It can provide new insights

Question 9

What are the disadvantages of the naturalistic observation?

Answer 9

• It can induce reactivity to the researcher making it difficult to be unobtrusive in these settings.

Question 10

What is a case study?

Answer 10

An in-depth investigation of an individual person/ situation by using interview, direct observation, records and psychological tests.

Question 11

What are the advantages of a case study?

Answer 11

It can provide rich compelling data to support a theory.

Question 12

What are some of the disadvantages of a case study?

Answer 12

• It may not be representative of the general population

- It opens the possibility of subjectivity: The researcher/ investigator may see what they want to see

Question 13

What is a survey and how do they aid research?

Answer 13

A survey uses questionnaires or interviews to gather important information about specific aspects of behaviour.

They can be good if it is something difficult to observe directly, such as feelings.

Question 14

What are the advantages of a survey?

Answer 14

• They allow researchers to gather data on difficult-to-observe behaviour
• They offer the potential to reach a larger sample group

Question 15

What are the disadvantages of surveys?

Answer 15

• The self-reported data can be unreliable
• Participants may use intentional deception of the data, they may also change their data due to social desirability
• Some people may not choose to respond to certain questions therefore “throwing out” the data set.
• Having to rely on memory.

Question 16

What is correlational research and how is it useful and how is it not?

Answer 16

A correlational research design is looking for the relationship among variables e.g. the correlation between Facebook likes and self-esteem.

It is useful for studying variables that you cannot manipulate.

It can demonstrate that there is a relationship between variables but cannot demonstrate causality.

Question 17

What is an experimental research design?

Answer 17

The use of an experimental design is in order to establish causation and does this through manipulating one variable.
Manipulated variable is the independent variable (IV) or the cause and the measure is how this variable effects the dependent variable (DV) whilst holding all other variables constant.

Question 18

What is a constant variable?

Answer 18

A constant variable is one that does not change throughout the experiment.

Question 19

What is the definition of population and a sample and why are they important in research design?

Answer 19

The population is the group that you want to make a statement about
The sample is the subset of the population that is selected for the study.

You won’t be able to always test the entire population that you need for your design so you have to figure out a way to have a clear sample group that can aid your research.

Question 20

What is an important thing to think about when choosing a sample?

Answer 20

Does this sample group accurately represent the population of interest and what do we need to do in order to have a truly representable sample?

Question 21

Explain and define two ways that we can acquire a sample group?

Answer 21

1. Random sampling
   a. This would entail sending out random selections of people in order to have a completely balanced and accurate depiction of the interest group for your study. This is incredibly difficult to do and something we don’t see often in psychological research.
   b. This allows each member of the population to be included in the research.
2. Representative sampling
   a. This possesses the important characteristics of the population in the same proportions
   b. This is something that needs to be considered when reading published research
   c. We need to be careful when drawing conclusions and generalising to a bigger set of people

Question 22

What is the process of operationalising variables?

Answer 22

Operationalising variables turns abstract concepts into something concrete that can be measured or manipulated. For example: taking the abstract concept of self-esteem and using elements of theory in order to create a questionnaire.

This is a process that moves towards how you are going to specifically measure and manipulate things in your study.

Question 23

What are two things you need to consider when analysing and creating your design?

Answer 23

1. Reliability
   a. Measures the consistency of the results
2. Validity
   a. Whether it measures the thing that you are trying to measure.

Question 24

What are the three ways that we can ensure reliability in a design?

Answer 24

1. Test-retest reliability
   a. You would use this if you needed to test something that was to stay constant overtime, for example: when you are testing someone’s personality. You have the first study and then the second would follow up a year later and see the correlation.
   b. You are looking to see if the participant who took the test give similar values if the same participant takes it two or more times.
2. Internal consistency
   a. Different items that measure the same variable should produce similar answers. This will allow for corroboration and if these elements are consistent shows us that the participants are answer the questions.
3. Inter-rate reliability
   a. Two testers who rate the same person on the same variable should give similar rating to the participant.

Question 25

What is validity and how do we ensure it works in a design?

Answer 25

Validity is a measure of how well a test measures what it claims to measure. It could be the case that something is reliable in your test however the validity may be fractured. This would be a case where you need to be specific about what your research set is about. For example, what constitutes self-esteem. You need to think about, is our measure related to other measures that demonstrate validity? Is our measure related to an outcome it should be related to?

Question 26

What is an example of positive, negative and no-correlational data?

Answer 26

1. Positive correlational data is data that shows there is a positive correlation between the two variables that are being measured. a. E.g. people with high scores on one variable tend to have high scores on another variable 2. Negative correlational data is data that shows there is a negative correlation between variables. a. E.g. those that had high-scores on one variable tend to have low-scores on another variable. 3. No-correlation a. A high score on one dimension of the research design tells you nothing about a person’s score on the other dimension.

Question 27

What are the independent and dependent variables?

Answer 27

Independent variable is the variable that implies causation and is something that can be measured. The dependent variable is usually the effect of the causation.

Question 28

What is something important to remember in correlational research?

Answer 28

That correlation doesn’t imply causation.

Question 29

What are the basic elements of an experimental research design?

Answer 29

In experimental research you are always looking at how the independent variable manipulates the dependent variable. You do this by measuring the independent variable and seeing how this effects the dependent variable and hold everything else constant.

Question 30

What is a control variable?

Answer 30

A control variable is anything that is held constant or limited in a research study. It’s a variable that is not of interest to the study’s aims, but is controlled because it could influence the outcomes.

Question 31

What are the basic elements of an experiment?

Answer 31

1. State your hypothesis, make a specific prediction 2. Manipulate the independent variable a. Randomly assign prediction to condition b. Hold all other variables constant 3. Measure the dependent variable 4. Try to eliminate sources of bias/ alternative explanations of results 5. Draw conclusions

Question 32

When conducting a research design, you have to take in consideration the roles or groups that will be in the experiment. These sometimes act as other constant variables, what are the groups people are assigned to and what is random assignment?

Answer 32

The first is the experimental group This is a group of participants that are exposed to the condition of interest The second is the control group They are not exposed to the experimental condition, but otherwise treated identically to the experimental group. The Random Assignment Participants are equally likely to be assigned to the experimental or control condition.

Question 33

In a good experiment, what is the difference between the experimental and control group?

Answer 33

The only difference between the two groups is that the experimental group has been exposed to the independent variable.

Question 34

What are some sources of bias?

Answer 34

1. Participant bias 2. Experimented bias 3. Confounding variables 4. Sampling bias

Question 35

What are some things that could influence participant bias?

Answer 35

There is the idea that participants could play into demand characteristics where participants will respond in the way in which they think the experimenter wants them to respond. Placebo effects - Participant’s condition could improve because they believe that the procedure will help them

Question 36

What is an example of experimenter bias?

Answer 36

This could happen when experimenters play into expectancy effects, these effects are when the experimenters expectations and behaviour bring about a change rather than the independent variable itself.

Question 37

What are some ways that you can aid bias?

Answer 37

1. By having a single-blind study a. This is a study where the participant is blind to the purpose of the study and which condition they are in 2. Double-blind study a. Both the experimenter and the participant are unaware of the purpose of the study/ condition

Question 38

What are confounding variables and how do they effect a study?

Answer 38

A confounding variable is another variable that could be producing the observed effect in the experiment. Confounding occurs when something other than your independent variable varies systematically across conditions and is correlated with the dependent variable. It has the potential to affect the internal validity of the study.

Question 39

What is sampling bias?

Answer 39

The fact that a sample is not a representation of the population as a whole and can affect the generalisability of the results.

Question 40

What are the main points in the Australian Psychological Society (APS) in regard to ethical practice?

Answer 40

1. Informed consent 2. Maintaining participant welfare 3. Voluntary participation 4. Ensure confidentiality 5. Avoid deception 6. Fair and humane treatment of animals 7. Gaining the appropriate ethical approval

Question 41

What is open science?

Answer 41

It is a movement to make scientific research and data accessible to all. It includes practices such as publishing open scientific research, campaigning for open access and generally making it easier to publish and communicate scientific knowledge.