Research Methods Flashcards
What is an aim?
A statement of the study’s purpose
What is another word for a one-tailed hypothesis?
Directional
What is another word for a two-tailed hypothesis?
Non-directional
What is a directional hypothesis?
A hypothesis on which the direction of the change is indicated. E.g. the % of boys that play football is higher than the % of girls that play football.
When would you chose a directional hypothesis?
When there is previous research suggesting which way results will go
What is a non-directional hypothesis?
Predicts a difference, however doesn’t state where the difference lies.
When would you chose to use a non-directional hypothesis?
When there is no previous research
What is a null hypothesis?
Predicts no difference/relationship between your variables.
What type of data is used in a bar chart?
Nominal data - categories
(Non-continuous/discrete)
How is a bar chart different to a histogram?
Columns do not touch in a bar chart, whereas they do in a histogram.
What type of data is used in a histogram?
Interval - height/temperature
(Continuous)
What is correlational analysis?
Measure of how closely two variables are related.
What are advantages of using correlational analysis?
- Do not need to use a controlled experiment
- Can use sensitive data obtained from hospitals
What are disadvantages of correlational analysis?
- Cannot establish cause and effect - third variable
- Coefficient can be due to change
What is correlation coefficient?
A number between -1 and +1. The closer to these number, the stronger the relationship between the variables is.
What is a positive correlation?
As one variable rises, the other variable rises.
What is a negative correlation?
As one variable rises, the other variable fall.
Describe no correlation
Variables are not linked
Describe the mean median and mode of a negatively skewed distribution graph
Mode on the right, then median, then mean.
Describe the mean median and mode of a positively skewed distribution graph
Mode on the left, then the median then the mean.
Where can the peak be found on a negatively skewed graph?
Towards the higher end of the data set (right)
Where can the peak be found on a positively skewed graph?
Scores at the lower end of the data set (left)
What is the independent variable?
The variable that changes (or is manipulated)
What is the dependant variable?
The variable that is measured
What is meant by the term operationalisation?
The process by which a variable is measured. (E.g. using specific numbers)
What is an advantage of operationalisation?
Allows researchers to see how you are defining and measuring variables
Define random allocation
Each participants has an equal chance of doing either condition
Define counterbalancing
Mixing the order in which the conditions are taken in order to prevent order effects in repeated measures design
Define randomisation
Materials are presented to participants in a random order
Define standardisation
Everything should be as similar as possible for all participants
What are extraneous variables
Any variable (other an IV), that could affect what you are trying to measure
How can extraneous variables be controlled?
- Random sampling: more equality between groups
- Strict conditions/lab experiments
What are confounding variables?
Any variable that influences your dependent variable
What are 5 types of validity?
- Ecological validity
- Concurrent validity
- Population validity
- Temporal validity
- Face validity
What is ecological validity?
Generalisability to real-life settings
What is validity?
How accurate a study is, both internally and externally
What is concurrent validity?
How similar results are between a new test and a previously well-established test
What is population validity?
Whether you can generalise from your sample to a large group of people
What is temporal validity?
Assess to what degree findings remain over time
What is face validity
The extent to which the test is measuring what it says it is
What is reliability?
The overall consistency of a measure
What is internal reliability?
The extent to which a test is consistent within itself
What is external reliability
Ability to produce the same results each time it is carried out.
What are ethical guidelines?
Guidelines were developed for psychologists to follow when designing studies, to ensure participants were protected.
What are 5 different ethical guidelines?
- Informed consent
- Deception
- Right to Withdraw
- Confidentiality
- Protection from harm
What is informed consent?
Consent is given, after being told the aims and nature of the study. If Under 16, parent/guardian can give consent.
What is deception?
Withholding of information, as participants wouldn’t behave naturally if they knew what the aims were.
What is confidentiality?
Details should be kept private
What is protection from harm?
No harm to daily life - participants should leave as they entered.
What is a method of dealing with all ethical dilemmas?
Debrief
What is a debrief?
After the experiment, participants are returned to the state they were in before the study. Aims are known and can withdraw.
What is an independent group design?
Where participants are in different conditions e.g. male and female
When would it be best to use independent group design?
When groups are compared
What are advantages of using independent group design?
- No order effects
- Fewer demand characterisrics
What are disadvantages of using a independent group design?
- More participants needed
- Individual differences are in play
What is a repeated measures design?
Same participants in both conditions
What is an advantage of repeated measures design?
No individual differences
What are disadvantages of repeated measures design?
- Demand characteristics
- Order effects
What is the matched pairs design?
Participants in each conditions are matched on ability/characteristics
What are advantages of the matched pairs design?
- No order effects
- Controls for individual differences
What are disadvantages of the matched pairs design?
- Difficult to make perfect matches
- Costly + Time consuming
What is a field experiment?
- Takes place outside of the lab, natural environment using basic procedures
- Independent variable is manipulated
What are advantages of field experiment?
- Causal relationships
- Higher ecological validity
What are disadvantages of field experiments?
- Less easy to eliminate extraneous variables
- Ethical issues
What is a laboratory experiment?
Controlled artificial environment and independent variable is manipulated
What are advantages of laboratory experiments?
- Reliable
- Controlled
- Minimised extraneous variables
- Can be replicated
What are disadvantages of laboratory experiments?
- Low ecological validity (low mundane realism)
- Participants may behave differently
- Low external validity
What is a confederate?
Someone in on the experiment, who act on behalf of the researcher
What is an experimental group?
Participants in an experimental group
What is a control group?
Participants who do not do the experimental conditions.
What are demand characteristics?
Any cue from the researcher or the research situation that may be interpreted by the participants as revealing the purpose of the research.
- please ‘u’ effect
- screw ‘u’ effect
How can demand characteristics be controlled?
Deception
What is meant by the term ‘double-blind’ ?
Both participants and researcher aren’t aware of the conditions
What is meant by the term ‘single-blind’ ?
- Participants aren’t aware of what condition they are in
- Attempts to control confounding effects of demand characteristics
What is a natural experiment?
- Independent variable is not manipulated (takes advantage if naturally occurring event)
What are advantages of natural experiments?
- High ecological validity
- Can study real life problems
- Few ethical issues
- Little interference from researcher
What are disadvantages of natural experiment?
- Rarely seen (limited opportunity)
- Many extraneous variables - threat to cause and effect conclusion
- Participants aren’t randomly allocated to conditons
What is a quasi experiment?
Independent variable is naturally existing existing characteristics between people
- Not true experiment
What are advantages to quasi experiments?
- Often carried out under lab conditions (high controls)
- Enables scientists to study ‘real problems’
What are disadvantages of quasi experiments?
- Unable to randomly allocate participants
- No cause and effect
What are behavioural categories?
Devising a set of component behaviours
What is event sampling?
Counting the number of times a certain behaviour (or event) occurs.
What is time sampling?
Recording behaviours in a given time frame. For example, noting what an individual is doing every 30 seconds.
What is a controlled observation?
The researcher has some measure of control over the environment
What is an example of a famous controlled observation?
BOBO DOLL
What are advantages of controlled observations?
- Control over extraneous variables
- Inter-observer reliability
- Easy to replicate
What are disadvantages of controlled observations?
- Cannot be applied to real-life settings
- May be subjective towards what the researcher wants to see
What is a naturalistic observation?
Studying behaviour in a natural setting where everything has been left as it normally is.
What are strengths of naturalistic observation?
- High ecological validity
- Generalisable as it is real-life
- Few demand characteristics
What are disadvantages of naturalistic observations?
- Replication is difficult (lack of control)
- Uncontrolled extraneous variables
What is covert observation?
The participants aren’t aware that they are being observed
What is an advantage of covert observation?
- No demand characteristics
What is a disadvantage of covert observation?
- Ethical issues as they are unaware of observatiom
What is overt observation?
Participants are aware of observation
What is an advantage of overt observation?
- Less ethical issues participants aren’t being deceived
What is a disadvantage of overt observation?
- Demand characteristics, as they are aware of observation
What is participant observation?
The observer acts as part of the group being watched
What are advantages of participant observation?
- Experience situation
- Insight
- Increased validity
What are disadvantages of participant observations?
- Lose objectivity
- Difficult to record observation
- Ethical issues
What is non-participant observation?
The observer doesn’t become part of the group being observed.
What are advantages of non-participant observation?
- More ethical
- More objective
What are disadvantages of non-participant observation?
- Less insight
- Not experiencing the same things
- Lower in validity
What is structured observation?
The researcher predetermined what behaviours will be observed and uses a standardised checklist.
What is an advantage of structured observation?
- Easier to gather data, as you are aware as to what you are looking for
What is a disadvantage of structured observation?
Behaviours may go unidentified, as they weren’t pre-defined as important.
What is unstructured observation?
The researcher recalls all relevant behaviour but has no set system
What is an advantage of unstructured observation?
- All behaviours are recorded
What are disadvantages of unstructured observation?
- Not easy to gather relevant data
- Time consuming
What is ‘inter-rater reliability?
Two separate researcher observe behaviours to ensure that there is consistency between the researchers.
How can inter-rater reliability be improved?
More observers
What type of information is gathered through interviews?
Qualitative - gather information for researcher (one-to-one/group)
What are advantages of using an interview?
- rich data
- pilot study can be carried out
What are disadvantages of using interviews?
- Impractical
- Ethics
What is a structured interview?
- Fixed set of questions that are the same for all participants.
- Questions are decided in advance
What are advantages of structured interviews?
- Easily replicated - standardised - easier to analyse
- requires less skill/training
What are disadvantages of structured interviews?
- Interviewer bias could still occur
- Social desirability could occur
- Data collection is limited - determined set of questions
What is an unstructured interview?
The interview starts with some general aims and questions and then let’s the interviewee’s answers guide subsequent questions.
What are advantages of unstructured interviews?
- Detailed + In-depth information observed
- Deep insights into feelings + thoughts
- Good rapport —> high in validity
What are disadvantages of unstructured interview?
- More likely to be affected by interviewer
- Requires training/low reliability/body language
What are investigator effects?
An effect of the investigator’s behaviour on the researcher’s outcome
What is researcher bias?
Researcher’s expectations can influence how they design their study and how they behave towards the participants.
How can you avoid researcher bias?
Use an independent person to collect data
What type of data is collected through content analysis?
Qualitative/Secondary data - data is analysed as quotations - summaries + quotations
Describe the steps involved in content analysis?
- Representative sample collected
- Coding units are identified to analyse data
- See how often code appears
What are advantages of content analysis?
- Clear summary of the patterns in the data may be established.
- Replication easy once coding is set up
- Reliable
What are disadvantages of content analysis?
- Can be subjective
- Coding reduces detail
What is thematic analysis?
Involves making summaries of data and identifying key themes + categories.
- researcher becomes familiar with data
- researcher looks for different themes and writes a report
What are advantages of thematic analysis?
- Qualitative analysis
- Creating hypothesis allows for new insights to develop
What are disadvantages of thematic analysis?
- How are categories decided? - subjective
- Leaving data out of summary could mean that data can be lost.
How is the mean calculated?
Add up all the data items and dividing it by number of data items
What are advantages of using the mean?
- representative of all data
- sensitive data (considers exact values)
What are disadvantages of using the mean?
- Can’t be used for non-numerical data
- Anomalous results distort the mean
What is the mode?
Most frequently occurring score
What are the advantages of the mode?
- Shows the most common score
- Unaffected by extreme values
- Only method that can be used for nominal dta
What is the median?
Middle score when the data is put in order
What are advantages of using the median?
- Quick & Easy to work out
- Not affected by extremely high/low scores
What are disadvantages of using the median?
- Less sensitive (exact values aren’t reflected)
- Not all scores used to work out the median
What is the range?
Measure of dispersion obtained by subtracting the lowest score from the highest - AND ADDING 1!
What is an advantage of using the range?
- Easy to calculate
What is a disadvantage of using the range?
- Affected by extreme values
What is standard deviation?
Measure of variation that indicates the typical distance between the scores of a distribution and the mean.
What is an advantage of using standard deviation?
- Precise measure of dispersion, as it takes into account all the values.
What is a disadvantage of using standard deviation?
- It may hide some of the characteristics of the data set (extreme values)
What is qualitative data?
- Words
- Literature
What is an advantage of collecting qualitative data?
Rich insight of people’s thoughts and feelings
What is a disadvantage of collecting qualitative data?
- Can be difficult go analyse and may be subjective due to researcher bias
What is quantitative data?
- Numbers
- Numerical data
What are advantages of collecting quantitative data?
- Easy to analyse —> conclusions can be drawn easily
- More objective and less open to bias
What is a disadvantage of collecting quantitative data?
- Not as meaningful, which may not represent real-life
What is primary data?
- Data gathered first hand, gathered by the researcher
What is secondary data?
- Data collected by someone else
What is a pilot study?
Small scale of your study
Why is a pilot study used?
Aims to check:
- The design works
- Participants understood the instructions
- Allows for adjustment
- Validity + reliability
What are questionnaires + interviews?
Methods of self report
What is an open questionnaire?
- Range of answers is not restricted by the researcher.
What is a closed questionnaire?
- Range of answers are determined by the researcher.
What are advantages of using questionnaires?
- Cost-effective (cheap to distribute)
- No demand characteristics
What are disadvantages of using questionnaires?
- Leading questions (unreliable data)
- Social desirability bias
- Misunderstanding
What is social desirability?
- Favourable responses by others
- People want to be seen in a positive light, meaning that they might not always be truthful, but say what is socially acceptable.
How does social desirability affect validity?
- Not a true representation of people’s thoughts/feelings
What is a case-study?
An in-depth study, using a range of methods on one person.
What are advantages of case-studies?
- Rich data
- Unique cases
What are disadvantages of case-studies?
- Cannot establish cause + effect
- Ethics
- Generalisability
What is a sample?
The people that the researcher actually selects/uses in the study.
What is meant by a population?
- The people that the researcher is interested in.
What is random sampling?
Each participant has an equal chance of selection
What is an advantage of using random sampling?
- Unbiased
What are disadvantages of using random sampling?
- Could end up with bias/unrepresentative if sample size is too small
- Subgroup might not be selected
What is volunteer sampling?
Researcher advertises the study and people may get in contact and volunteer in the study.
What are advantages of volunteer sampling?
- Quick, convenient + ethical
- Large response rate
- In-depth rate
What is a disadvantage of volunteer sampling?
- Biased sample (specific demographic may respond)
What is opportunistic sampling?
Asking people who are available at the time to take part.
What is an advantage of using opportunistic sampling?
- Easy and fast
What are disadvantages of using opportunistic sampling?
- Biased due to small population
- Not representative
What is stratified sampling?
- Selecting a representative sample of each subgroup that is proportionate to the population size.
What is an advantage of stratified sampling?
- More representative (includes all subgroups)
What is a disadvantage of stratified sampling?
- Time consuming and small sample for some groups
What is systemic sampling?
Selecting every ‘n’th term/name from a list.
What is an advantage of systemic sampling?
- Avoids bias, researcher has no control over who’s being selected.
What are disadvantages of systemic sampling?
- Not completely objective, as researcher may decide how people are listed before selection.
- Small chance of ‘freak’ sample, in which may not be representative.
What are 4 types of consent?
- Presumptive consent
- Prior general consent
- Retrospective consent
- Informed consent
What is presumptive consent?
- Presumptive consent: Ask a similar group of people for consent.
What is prior general consent?
- Prior general consent: Consent for different studies, including one that may include deception.
What is retrospective consent?
- Retrospective consent: Ask consent during debrief.
What is informed consent?
- Informed consent: consent letter - WITH AREA TO SIGN
What is nominal data?
Data represented in the form of categories.
What is ordinal data?
Data which is ordered - it doesn’t have equal intervals between each unit.
What is interval data?
Numerical scales that include units of precisely defined size. e.g. time/temperature/height
What are situational variables?
A type of extraneous variable found in the environment.
“Noise, light, time, location, temperature or weather.”
What are participants variables?
A type of extraneous variable found in participants.
“Motivation levels, moods, skills, experience, fatigue, eye sight.”
What are experimental variables?
Effects of the experimenter’s which are communicates intentionally or unintentionally (aka. Investigator effects).
What is a semi-structured interview?
A combination of both structured and instructed interview technique.
What is order effects?
Occurs in repeated group design where the order in which participants do the conditions affect the findings e.g. they may become tired after the firdt condition and fatigue may affect their performance on the second condition.
What is the solution to prevent order effects?
- Counterbalancing
- Randomisation
