research methods Flashcards
1
Q
ethical issues
A
- problems in research that raise concerns about participants welfare or society
2
Q
ethical guidlines
A
- pieces of advice that guide psychologists to consider the welfare of participants + society
3
Q
Protection
A
- Partiicipants shouldnt be exposed to any greater physical/psychological risk than they would be expected in their daily life
4
Q
debfriefing
A
- giving particpants a full explanation of the aims + potential consequences of the study at the end; leave in a positive condition
5
Q
deception
A
- participants should not be deliberatley misinformed about the aim/procedure ; if its unavoidable the study should be planned to minimize risk of distress + throughly debriefed
6
Q
consent
A
- knowing eniugh about the study to decide wheteryou want to agree to participate
7
Q
right to withdraw
A
participants must know they can remove themselves+ their data from the study ANYTIME
8
Q
privacy
A
participants emotional/physical space shouldnt be invaded
9
Q
confidentiality
A
- participant results/personal info should be kept safely + not released to anyone outside the study
10
Q
AE: Replacement
A
live animals should be replaced w/ research alternatives like videos/computer simulations/ animals should be lasy resort
11
Q
AE: Species and strain
A
- Species bred in captivity are ethically prefferable to creatures taken from wild; research should be minimized if it involves high sentinent animals e.g APES
12
Q
AE: Numbers
A
Number of animals should be reduced as much as possible, this involvescarefully designed experiments + good use of stats= max data from smallest num of animals
13
Q
AE: Procedures
A
ANimals must be treated humanely during researcjh
14
Q
AE:Pain and distress
A
Anaesthetic should be given to minimise pain, animals should be given medical treatment after research; humanekilling must be considered if suffering cannot be reduced.Distress should be minimized during caging; social species need companionship + animals unused to other animals may be distressed if caged w/ them
15
Q
AE: Housing
A
When not studied, animals must be housed,fed and watered in suitable ways + given space and companiosnhip for appropriate species
16
Q
AE: Depreivation + aversive stimuli
A
- should be minimized and links to reward
- some food deprivation is allowable (for normal + healthy animals) but distressed should be minimized
17
Q
AE:Anaesthesisa
A
- Research should not break the law regularly endangered+ protected species, particularly restricting great apes.
18
Q
Analgesia euthanasia
A
- post operative care should minimise stress, and when needed the animal must be killed humanely using an approved technques.
19
Q
strengths of self report
A
- participants are given opportunity to express a range of feelings + explain their behaviours
- data obtained may be rich + detailed especially if done w/open ended questions
- data are often qualatative
20
Q
Lab experiment + strengths/weakness
A
- controlled environment
-artificial environment w lots of control over extraneous variables
S= tighter control of variables —> easier to comment on cause and effect and easy to replicate
S= enables use of complex equipment and cheaper + less time consuming than other methods
W= Demand characteristics –> participants may guess aim of experiment + change behaviour
W= artificial environment –>low realism
W= low ecological validity —>low generalizability to other situations + ppl
W= experimenter effects –> bias when experimenters expectations affect behaviour
21
Q
natural experiment
A
- natural changes in IV are used + IV not manipulated
S=can study unethical to manipulate IV scenarios
S= less chance of demand characteristics OR experimenter bias interfering
W= IV not controlled by experimenter
W= no control over allocation of participants to group (not randomized)
22
Q
Field experiment
A
- setting where behaviour studied would naturally occur (everyday context)
- IV manipulated by researcher
S=higher realism –>people may behave more naturally than in lab
S= easier to generlise results
W=Weak control of extraneous variables
W= difficult to replicate
W= time consuming + costly
23
Q
A hypothesis in a study says ‘Emotions will differ following exposure to a happy or an angry stooge’.
Is this a directional (one-tailed) hypothesis or a non-directional (two- tailed) hypothesis?
A
- non directional/two tailed = direction of change cannot be specified
24
Q
Write a null hypothesis that could be used with the hypothesis given above.
A
- there will be no difference between x and x
- there will be difference between DV experienced by ppts exposed to x and X
- any difference between the DV of ppt exposed to X or X is due to chance
25
State two ways in which the research methods of an experiment and a case study are different.
- ppt= many in experiment vs 1 or family in case study
- controls= many in experiments vs none/few in case stud
- data= quantative in exp vs qualitative in case study
- aim= to find casual relationship in exp vs not possible in case study
- data=objective in exp vs subjective in case study
26
Quantative data
Quantative
- numerical data
- data measured/counted
- interviews/questionnares w closed Q’s
-experiments/behavioral observation in categories
- closed questions/rating scales/likely scale
- Milgram ppt volt level + Andrade ppt recall of names
27
Qualative data
- descriptive + non numerical data
- open questions
- interviews/questionnares w open questions
- case studies
- transcripts of interviews/answers to open Q’s/radio/newspaper
-Pillavian ppt verbal comments + Milgrams ppt reactions
28
Dr Brown was testing false memories in a class of students. He used half the class as participants in his study. The other half provided true stories about events at school. He used two of these true stories and one false story. Each participant read all three stories. Dr Brown told them the events were from their school days and that he was studying friendships. One month later he asked them to recall the events.
Identify the dependent variable in this experiment and suggest how it could be operationalised
- Memory/memory for false story or true story
- by counting number of words ppt recalled (operationalisation)
29
Name the ethical guideline that Dr Brown broke by telling the participants he was investigating school friendships.
- Deception
30
Explain why it was important that Dr Brown broke Deception
- ensured ppt unaware of aim e.g study abt false beliefs = high validity
- no portrayal of demand characteristics/natural behavior = high validity
- matters as ppl should have free choice = if been lied to about false stories —> no informed consent
- deception has potential to cause distress e.g ppt may have been upset abt believing false story
31
Describe one advantage of using repeated measures
- if there are differences between ppt they even out
- if there are differences in DV between ppt they even out
If ppt had better DV and were in one group = might seem to better DV when its not the case
32
Explain why waiting a month before testing the participants could be a problem. (Laney)
- ppt could forget all details so no data collected
- ppt have classmates = met up and discussed study + may be reminded of true stories so more likely to remember than false = low validity
Ppt might talk abt false stories + guessed aim = demand characteristics —> don’t recall false story = low reliability/validity
33
Write one open and one closed question that Hilja and Sakri could as
CLOSED Q’s
- do you expertise regularly?
- do you play football?
- any yes or no Q
OPEN Q’s
- What kind of exercise do u enjoy?
- Why do u play cricket?
- any describing/detail Q
34
Suggest how Hilja can test whether all the closed questions on the questionnaire are consistent
- compare 2 halves of test items e.g look at scores for same ppl on 1st half then 2nd half of test
- she could look at all odd numbered Q’s compared to all even numbered Q’s
- she could then correlate them/conduct a test to see if ppl who get high scores in one half also get highs cores in 2nd half
- if they correlate then test is INTERNALLY RELIABLE
35
Suggest how Sakri can test whether he and Hilja are reliable in their scoring of the questionnaire.
- Comapres scores
- then correlate/conduct test
- if coreelation/similar reuslts between both = high inter rated reliability
36
Explain one reason for having control condition use BC
- controls for absence of IV (generic) e.g performance on eyes test without autism
- to eliminate confounding influence of other variables (generic) e.g effect of IQ on TOM
- allows comparison for what would happened without intervention
37
Describe differences between field vs natural exp
- Field exp has manipulated IV and measured DV + occurs in normal environment for activity investigated
- Natural exp has IV which occurs spontaneously + measured DV + often occurs in normal environment for activity investigated
- so in field exp the experimenter deliberately alters DV like Pillavian et al did by changing stooge
- whereas in natural exp the IV j happens so researcher has to use existing differences in variables rather than manipulating
- E.g Banduar manipulating aggressive stooge = could have compared children in violent vs non violent settings
- so natural experiments may be more ethical because there is no deliberate inter fence w ppt existence
38
What is meant by ‘open questions’ and ‘closed questions’?
- open questions ask for descriptions/detail;
• closed questions ask for answers from specific options
39
Suggest one advantage of using open questions
- detailed responses (advtg)
- responses are in ppt now words
- enable ppt to be precise abt their helping rather than being limited to choices in closed Q’s = may not represent their actual view/behavior = low validity
40
Explain problem in validity of questionnares responses
- social desirability = ppl want to appear better than they seem + may lie/exaggerate about X
- if ppl guess study aim —> change behaviour so responsd to demand characteristics
41
.
- In one experiment, Keelan has recorded the total number of aggressive acts 1 per hour in children of each age between 3 and 18 years old.
Name the type of graph that would be most suitable to display this frequency data
- Histogram
42
WHat measure of spread can be calculated from a Histogram and range of ages and DV
- Range or Standard deviation
43
Name the measure of central tendency that Keelan should use for this data.
- central tendency
- most frequent/most common
44
State what is meant by semi structured interview
- range of fixed and variable questions
- interviewer can add some questions in response to the participant’s responses
- Schachter and Singer interviewed participants and asked ‘How are you feeling?’;
45
Explain w similarities between lab + field using any core study
- both have IV’s - similar
- e.g Bandaranaike et al compared effects of aggressive + non aggressive models = done in field w children from more/less violent homes
- both have DV’s - similar
- both use controls
- e.g Dement recorded dreams = can be done at home w phone on bed + Dement made sure all ppt had no alc/Pillavian kept clothing same for both victims
46
Explain one difference between a laboratory experiment and a field 2 experiment, using any core study as an example.
- field experiment conducted in situation which is normal for behaviors measured
- Milgrams obedience to shock not normally performed/ethical irl
E.g Pillavian field experiment measuring helping which ppl do go on subways
- controlling variables more difficult in field
- e.g hard to implement Dement and Kleitmans control on waking in field
47
What does standard deviation mean
- measure of spread/dispersion
- shows how varied scores are around the mean
“The spread of scores around the mean”
