Research Methods Flashcards
What is the scientific research method?
1) See behaviour of interest
2) Theory
3) Form Hypothesis
4) Test Hypothesis
5) Draw conclusions
What is an experiment?
Where there is an IV that is changed so that an effect on the DV can be observed/measured.
Experiments aim to establish a cause and effect relationship - where the IV causes the DV results.
What is an Independent Variable?
The thing that is manipulated/changed by the experimenter (cause)
What is a Dependent Variable?
The data from the participants behaviour, measured by the experimenter (effect)
What are the 2 conditions in an experiment? What are they part of?
Part of the IV - experimental condition and control condition
e.g. those playing violent video games and those playing non-violent video games
What is the operationalisation of Variables?
Turning your variables into a measurable form.
What are Extraneous Variables?
Anything that could influence the participants performance or behaviour that needs to be controlled (nuisance variables)
What are the two types of Extraneous Variables?
Situational Variables - something in the environment that could affect the results of the study.
Participant Variables - Anything in the participants that could affect their behaviour in the study.
How do you remove Situational And Participant Variables?
Standardisation - make both conditions have the exact same environment/use similar people.
Randomisation - Randomly allocate participants to each condition.
What is a confounding variable?
A variable that is known to have ‘confounded’ (influenced) the results of a study. It has varied systematically with the IV (only affected one condition).
Why do Extraneous and Confounding Variables matter?
They affect the internal validity (accuracy of the study).
Similarly to correlations and observations, questionnaires and interviews are _____________, meaning that there is no right or wrong.
Non-experimental
What are the 3 types of questions that can be asked in a questionnaire?
Open Question - the participant can give any answer they wish.
Closed Question - There are a set number of responses which the participant selects from.
Likert Scales - There are a number of responses to a question which often demonstrate a degree of agreement.
Evaluate questionnaires
- Different participants may interpret questions differently.
- Social Desirability Bias / Demand Characteristics
Affects internal validity
What is a structured interview?
The questions are pre-determined and the interviewer sticks to those questions only and in order. Only fixed responses allowed.
What is an unstructured interview?
The topic may be pre-determined but the interviewer develops questions during the interview as a response to interviewee’s answers.
What is a semi structured interview?
Same pre-determined questions but has the flexibility to adapt questions based on responses.
Evaluate Structured Interviews
+ Little training needed for interviewer
+ Easy to compare and analyse
+ Easy to repeat and replicate - increasing reliability
- May miss people’s true views
- Social desirability Bias
- Interviewer bias possible
…affects internal validity
Evaluate Unstructured and Semi structured Interviews
+ Can get people’s true views
+ No preparation of questions needed (unstructured)
+ Only some prep needed (semi structured)
- Harder to analyse and compare
- More training required for interviewer
- Social Desirability Bias
- Interviewer bias likely
… affects internal validity
What are the 4 types of experiments?
Laboratory, Field, Natural, Quasi
LAB: Controlled environment, IV manipulated by experimenter, participants randomly allocated to a condition, participants know they are in a study.
FIELD: Real life setting, IV manipulated by experimenter, people often unaware they are in research
NATURAL: IV is a naturally occurring event, participants often unaware they are taking part
QUASI: Lab or real life setting, participants automatically assigned to a particular condition due to a characteristic they have - e.g. gender/eye colour
What are the strengths and limitations of a lab experiment?
+ High control of EVs - so a cause-effect relationship can be established.
+ Easily replicated - so reliability of study can be checked
- Lack of ecological validity
- More likely to have demand characteristics and may have investigator effects and participant effects - reducing validity of study
What are the strengths and limitations of a Field experiment?
+ Higher ecological validity
+ Can reduce participant effects
+ Higher mundane realism - so higher validity
- Less control of EVs - cannot demonstrate cause-effect relationship
- Less easy to replicate
- Ethical issues - ok to observe and record behaviour?
What are the strengths and limitations of a natural experiment?
+ Good ecological validity
+ Can reduce participant effects
- Less control of EVs - cannot demonstrate cause-effect relationship
- Very unlikely to be able to replicate - difficult to assess reliability
- Limited options
What are the strengths and limitations of a Quasi experiment?
+ Less experimenter bias in participant condition allocation
- More chance of EVs, especially participant variables as participants are not randomly assigned to a condition
What are demand characteristics?
Where participants guess the aims and change their behaviour to help or spoil the study.
What is social desirability bias?
When a participant changes their behaviour to be seen as more socially acceptable.
What is mundane realism?
Ecological validity
What is investigator effects?
Experimenter Bias
What is a pilot study?
A small scale trial run of a study to test any aspect of the study, with a view to make improvements before the real research is done.
Why do researchers use pilot studies?
DEEP:
to check for
- Design
- EVs
- Ethical issues
- Procedures (e.g. timings/instructions clarity etc)
What are the 3 different experimental designs?
Repeated Measures, Independent groups/measures, Matched pairs
REPEATED MEASURES:
one single group of people perform all of the conditions of the experiment.
INDEPENDENT GROUPS:
where different groups of people each perform one condition
MATCHED PAIRS
where participants are paired up on a certain quality and put into different conditions
What are the strengths and weaknesses of Repeated Measures?
+ No participant variables
+ Fewer participants needed - so design is more economical
- Demand characteristics likely - affects validity
- Can be order effects - confounding results and making them invalid.
What are order effects? What are the two categories?
When the order the participants do the conditions affect the results.
- Practice effects
- Fatigue effects
How do you eliminate order effects in a repeated measures design?
COUNTERBALANCING
have some participants sit condition A first and then some sit condition B first, so any order effects will cancel each other out.
(AB BA)
What are the strengths and weaknesses of independent groups?
+ Reduction in demand characteristics
+ No order effects
- More likely to be participant variables
- More participants needed than repeated measures design
What are the strengths and weaknesses of Matched Pairs?
+ Reduces participant variables
+ Reduces demand characteristics
+ No order effects
- More participants needed than repeated measures design
- Time consuming and difficult
What are the 8 types of observations?
- Naturalistic observation
- Controlled observation
- Structured observation
- Unstructured observation
- Covert
- Overt
- Participant
- Non-participant
What does Covert and Overt mean?
Overt = when the participant is aware they are being studied
Covert = when the participant is unaware they are being studied
What is participant observation?
When the observer joins in with the activities of the group to gain greater insight and understanding.
What is structured observation?
When a system is used to make the research objective and rigorous. e.g. coding system to code various behaviours and sampling procedures to decided what to observe and when.
What is a case study?
An in-depth (usually longitudinal) study that gathers a lot of detail about one person or a small group.
It uses a range of sources and many techniques - producing rich, meaningful, descriptive detail (qualitative data).
What are the advantages and disadvantages of case studies?
+ Rich, in-depth qualitative data can be collected.
+ Complex interaction of factors can be studied (in contrast to experiments where only one is studied (IV)).
- Difficult to generalise (low population validity)
- Subjective - investigator bias - (low internal validity)
- Difficult to replicate - affects reliability of results
What is Content Analysis?
The analysis of the content of something created by humans.
A form of observation but instead of people, their communications are studied instead (e.g. newspapers, diaries etc) for patterns and trends.
What is Thematic Analysis?
Analysing qualitative data to identify themes (patterns).
What is the procedure for Thematic Analysis?
1) Familiarise
2) Break data into meaningful sections
3) Code
4) Combine
Families Break Code Combinations
What is the procedure for Quantitative Content Analysis?
1) Sampling (decide on what will be sampled)
2) Familiarise
3) Coding
4) Collect the data
5) Draw conclusions
Silly Families Code Collective Drawings
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Content Analysis?
+ No social desirability bias/demand characteristics
+ High ecological validity
- Time consuming and difficult - incomplete analysis affects internal validity
- Issues with observer bias - affecting internal validity
What is a correlation?
A relationship between two co-variables.
What are co-variables?
Variables that are examined for a relationship.
When studying correlations, ____ variables are measured. They have to be _______ and _______.
Both
Numerical
Continuous
What do you call it when two co-variables are not related at all.
Zero correlation
What is correlation Coefficient?
A statistic that gives a quantitative measure of the strength and direction of the relationship between two co-variables.
Between -1 (perfect negative) and +1 (perfect positive)
What are the strengths and limitations of correlation?
+ provide a precise quantitative measure of the strength and direction of a relationship between variables.
+ Can measure things that cannot be manipulated experimentally.
- Cannot demonstrate a cause and effect relationship between variables (due to other intervening variables).
What is the difference between a correlation and an experiment?
Correlation looks for a relationship.
Experiment looks for a difference.
What do all studies have?
- An aim
- An Alternative Hypothesis
- A Null Hypothesis
What is an aim?
The general purpose of what the researcher is hoping to discover.
What are the phrases used to write the aim for:
- an experiment
- a correlation
Experiment:
‘To investigate if there is a difference in… between…’
Correlation:
‘To investigate if there is a relationship between…’
What is an Alternative Hypothesis?
A prediction that a study will find significant findings.
- This is a testable statement written in future tense.
e. g. Participants drinking water will drive significantly different to those drinking alcohol.
e. g. There will be a significant relationship between memory and sleep.
key word = significant
What are the two ways of writing a hypothesis?
NON-DIRECTIONAL(two-tailed)
You predict there will be a difference but not what the change will be.
DIRECTIONAL (one tailed)
You predict exactly what will be found.
e.g. there will be a significant negative relationship between…
What is a Null Hypothesis?
The prediction that no significant result will be found or that the finding was just due to chance.
(always non-directional)
How do you operationalise hypotheses?
By including detail.
e.g. 200ml of coca cola, 80 minutes, sudoku puzzle
When do you use a directional hypothesis?
Only when previous research has indicated what is likely to be found.
Evaluate quantitative and qualitative data
QUANTITATIVE
+ Easy to analyse and compare
+ Objective, scientific, less open to investigator bias
- not detailed
- no reasons for behaviour
QUALITATIVE
+ Detail provides insight
+ Reasons for behaviour
- More subjective and open to investigator bias
- Not easy to analyse and compare
Which out of mean, mode, median, range and SD are measures of dispersion and measures of central tendency?
Mean, mode and median = measures of central tendency
Range, SD = measures of dispersion
Evalute mean, mode and median
MODE
+ Ignores extreme scores
- unrepresentitive’
MEDIAN
+ ignores expreme scores
- unrepresentative
MEAN
+ representative
- can be skewed by ‘outlying’ scores
Evaluate range and standard deviation
RANGE
+ very quick to calculate
- can be skewed by ‘outlying’ scores
STANDARD DEVIATION
+ representative
- can be skewed by ‘outlying’ score
What is standard deviation?
The average difference that each score is in a data set from the mean.
high SD = data more spread out
low SD = data closer to the mean
What is temporal validity?
Whether the results of an experiment still apply today.
What are the 5 different sampling methods?
SYSTEMATIC: using a predetermined system with a target population.
OPPORTUNITY: Simply selecting people who are available at the time.
RANDOM: Every member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected.
STRATIFIED: Dividing the target population into important catagories and selecting members randomly but in proportion to that which they occur in the target population.
VOLUNTEER: Individuals who have chosen themselves to be involved in a study.
Evaluate Systematic sampling
+ Unbiased - uses an objective system - no investigator bias
- Could be biased by chance
- requires having full list of target population members
Evaluate Opportunity sampling
+ quick, convenient and economical
- Unrepresentative - researcher bias
Evaluate Random Sampling
+ large samples - best chance of unbiased respresentative sample.
- time consuming for large populations
- for small samples, could be unrepresentative by chance
Evaluate Stratified sampling
+ representative
- time consuming
- use of random sampling - has it’s own weaknesses
Evaluate volunteer sampling
+ convenient and ethical
+ access to a wide variety of participants - could lead to a more representative sample
- often unrepresentative
- expensive
What is a sample?
A subset of people that represent the target population.
What is reliability?
A measure of the consistency of a study
What are the issues of reliability?
Procedure: If a procedure does not have reliability then it means that it has not been done consistently in the study.
Measuring Tool: the measuring tool does not consistently measure the same when used on repeat occurances.
Researchers: researchers can be inconsistent with their observations and recordings of datal.
What is the test-retest check?
When a person takes the same test a while later to check if the test (measuring tool) is reliable.
Can’t be taken too close or far away from the first test.
What is inter-rater reliability?
When observers assessing behaviour are consistent with each other.
What is face validity?
Whether something appeaers to measure the thing it is supposed to.
How do you ensure face validity?
By having the tool examined by an expert.
When do ethical issues occur?
When there is conflict between the rights of the participant and the needs of the researcher.
Who regulates ethics and what are their 4 key principles?
British Psychological Society - Code of Ethics Conduct 2018
- respect
- competence
- responsibility
- integrity
What are the main ethical issues?
Privacy
Confidentiality
Deception
Right to Withdraw
Informed Consent
Protection from Harm
What is debriefing?
A post study description to explain the study to p’s after expeirment has been conducted.
What is retrospective and presumptive consent?
Retrospective: consent given after experiment
Presumptive: person similar to participant interviewed about whether they would consent to the experiment.
What is concurrent validity?
Whether the measuring tool you are using is equal to an existing validated measuring tool.
How do you overcome Investigator bias?
Double blind
How do you overcome Demand characteristics?
Use deception (hide the aims of the study) or use Double blind
How do you overcome Social Desirability bias?
Make questionnaires anonnymous or Covert study.
How do you overcome Participant variables?
Repeated measures, matched pairs or randomisation
What is primary and secondary data?
PRIMARY DATA - data collected direct from the participants for the purpose of the study.
SECONDARY DATA - data which was collected for another purpose/in a different study and then used in a new study.
Evaluate primary and secondary data
PRIMARY
+ Direct from participants for a specific purpose. Research can be designed in such a way that it specifically targets info required for research Q.
- Requires time and effort in planning, preparing and carrying out research.
SECONDARY
+ Inexpensive and requires minimal effort.
- Could be outdated and irrelevant.
- Could vary in quality and accuracy.
What are the 3 levels of data?
NOMINAL - data arranges into categories.
ORDINAL - data is rank ordered.
INTERVAL - data measured using units of equal intervals.
What does a ‘normal’ distribution curve look like? Where is the mean, median and mode?
Symmetrical - all on the line of symmetry.
What does a positively and negatively skewed distribution curve look like? Where is the mean, mode and median?
Teachers say:
“The test was positively hard”
” The test was negatively easy”
What are the 3 main aims of the peer review process?
- To validate the quality and relevance of the research
- To suggest ammendments or improvements before publication
- To allocate future research funding
What are the 3 ways of doing a peer review?
Open review, double blind and single blind
What is the process of peer review?
1) Scientists study something
2) Scientists write about their results
3) Journal editor receives an article, checks for scientific standard and sends out for peer review.
4) Peer reviewers read the article and provide feedback to the editor.
5) If an article finally meets editorial peer standards it is published in a journal.
The process of peer review is held in ___ esteem. It is the process of quality _______.
high
assurance
Evaluate:
- Open review
- Double blind
- Single blind
OPEN REVIEW
+ Reduces personal comments and encourages honest reviews
- Reviewer may not totally be honest for fear of backlash.
DOUBLE BLIND
+ Avoids gender/cultural bias by reviewers
- Researcher is often figured out by reseach/writing style
SINGLE BLIND
+ Reviewer can be honest
- Might have prejudice against researcher
Peer review:
- What is the issue with finding experts and what problems can this lead to?
- Once a study has been publish and later discovered to be found low in validity, what problems does this cause?
- Why can it sometimes be an issue that the peer reviewer is anonymous?
- It isn’t always possible to find an expert - so poor research may be passed
- Lack of trust and data from fraudulent studies remaining published and used.
- Social relationships can affect objectivity.
Give an example of a researcher who was later criticised by their peers. What happened?
Sir Cyril Burt
Claim to have found 53 identical pairs of twins raised apart to show similar inteligence (IQ).
However results from twins were suspciously similar and research assistants failed to be found.
Burt’s ‘research’ lead to the development of the 11-plus examination.
How can the validity of a questionnaire be improved?
- Change questions so are less ambiguous/clearer to understand.
- Incorporate a lie scale to reduce demand Cs and SDB.
- study validated questionnaires and note differences.
How to overcome issues of validity:
- Demand Characteristics
- SDB
- Investigator effects
DCs - deception (hide aims) or double blind
SDB - make questionnaires annonymous or study covert
Investigator effects - double blind (researcher employed that does not know the study).
How to check concurrent validity?
Compare ps scores on your measure with their scores on an existing validated measure.
How to improve temporal validity?
Retesting new participants on old study procedures.
How to ensure reliability?
Check categories/measurements are not too ambiguous/similar and researchers are using the same coding sheet.
Observers/researchers may need more training.
Standardising procedures and operationalising variables.
How to improve reliabiltiy of correlations? And Questionnaires?
C: Check measuring tools and co-variables with test-retest. Operationalise.
Q: Test-retest. Use closed Qs. Make Qs clearer.
How to improve reliability of observations?
Use controlled and structured observations.
Categories should me measurable and clear.
Inter-rater reliability test.
Film behaviour.
How to improve reliability for interviews?
Use same interviewer and a structured interview.
What do all studies have?
An aim, alternative/experimental hypothesis and null hypothesis
Name the sections of a Scientific report/investigation
Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, References
What is the Abstract?
First section of a psychological report but written last.
- short concise summary of report
- includes aim, hypothesis, methods, results and conclusions
Researchers use abstracts to find the most relevant reports to read in full.
What does the introduction contain?
A literature review and overview of current research on the field of study.
Written using funnel tehcniques - borad themes narrowed down to piece of research.
Includes aim and hypothesis of study.
What does the method contain?
D’APES
- Design and method
- Apparatus / equipment
- Procedure
- Ethics
- Sample and participants
In much detail so study can be replicated (to test for reliabiltiy).
What does the Results section contain?
- Key findings in relation to the hypothesis
- Descriptive and Inferential statistics - does not include raw data
What does the Discussion contain?
Results summarised, relating them to the hypothesis and aim.
Compare results to previous research (outlined in introduction).
Limitations of the research and suggestions to addressing these.
Implications of research for real life.
Suggestions for future research
What are references?
The sources the researcher has used to gather their initial info and apparatus for their study. (e.g. books, articles, websites etc.)
What is the deductive and inductive process?
DEDUCTIVE (broad to specific)
- observe behaviour
- propose theory
- generate hypothesis
- test hypothesis
- draw conclusions - ammend theoy if necessary
INDUCTIVE PROCESS (specific to broad)
- observe behaviour
- generate hypothesis
- test hypotheis
- draw conclusions
- propose theory
(refine and repeat - hypothesis and theory)
What are the 5 features of science?
Paradigm
Replicability
Objectivity
Falsifiabiltiy
Constructing theories and testing hypothesis
PROF Construct
What is a science?
Involves making predictions about phenomena which are tested empirically through scientific observations and experimentation.
How is psychology falsifiable?
Biological and Behavioursit approaches are falsifiable e.g. operant conditioning/localisation - theories can be disproven.
H: Self-actualisation (humanism) and the Unconsious (psychodynamic) - not falsifiable
How is psychology replicable/not replicable?
How to make studies replicable?
Replicable - brain scans and lab experiments
Not replicable - case studies and natural experiments
Replication = repeating a study to ensure reliability and validity (generalisability) of findings. Achieved by recording and standardising methods so they can be restested.
What are examples of empirical methods?
How is psychology objective? How is it not?
Experimentation and observation
- double blind collection of data
- controlled methods
- operationalised variables
- standardised procedures
- peer review
H: in order to study personal experience a certain amount of subjectivity is needed.
NOTE when an experimenter has not maintained objectivity it is called investigator bias
What is a paradigm and how does this apply to psychology?
Paradigm = a shared set of assumptions, methods and terminology about what shoud be studied and how.
- Assumptions - No - different approaches have different assumptions e.g. biological vs humanism
- Methods - No - different between approaches - e.g. brain scans for biological/cognitive and case studies for psychodynamic
- Terminology - No - different approaches have own vocabulary - e.g. neurotrasmitters vs Id, Ego, Superego
However - Agreement on what the subject is and modern psychology has a heavy focus on scientific methods and cognitive neuroscience.
What is the cost to the economy from absence of work?
£15 billion
Why is it important for scientific reports to include a referencing section?
To give credit to original source/avoid palgerism
To enable people to read the full article
What is the name of another variable which affects the relationship between an IV and DV (co-variables)?
Intervening Variable
