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Research Methods Flashcards

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1
Q

What is a lab experiment?

A

Research is conducted in a tightly controlled way and controls the variables and conducted in artificial settings.

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2
Q

Advantages and disadvantages of lab experiments?

A

-high in validity due to controlled variables
- can check reliability by redoing
- show direct cause and effect
- lack ecological validity
- may show demand characteristics and decrease validity.

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3
Q

What’s a field experiment?

A

Similar to lab except conducted in real world settings.

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4
Q

Advantages and disadvantages of field experiments?

A

-greater ecological validity than lab
-show cause and effect because IV is still manipulated
- less likely to show demand characteristics.
-researcher doesn’t have full control making it less valid
-extraneous or confounding variables.
- issues with consent.

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5
Q

What is a natural experiment?

A

IV cannot be manipulated often due to ethical reasons so the researcher takes advantage of a naturally occurring event.

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6
Q

Advantages and disadvantages of a natural experiment?

A

-make it possible to study topics that would be unethical to artificially design.
-bc the event happens naturally it’s hard to say whether the event caused the outcome.
- many extraneous variables could effect the outcome.

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7
Q

What is a quasi-experiment?

A

The researcher is not able to use random allocation to put participants in diff conditions bc the IV is a feature of the participant like gender.

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8
Q

Advantages and disadvantages of quasi-experiment?

A

-controlled conditions so more than a natural experiment.
-less artificial than a lab study so results are easier to generalise to real life and high in ecological validity,
-as IV isn’t being directly manipulated it is hard to establish cause and effect
-may be confounding variables

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9
Q

what it the Dependent variable?

A

Measured and dependent on the IV

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10
Q

What is the independent variable

A

Manipulated by a researcher to investigate whether it causes change to another variable

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11
Q

what is the Control variable?

A

Thé thing that stays the sams

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12
Q

what is correlational analysis?

A

-investigation in which they are trying to find out if theres a relationship between two variables. e.g age and intelligence.

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13
Q

advantages and disadvantages of correlational analysis?

A

-allows you to explore topics that would usually be unethical
-gives an indication as to whether there is a connection between two variables which could then be investigated further.
-cannot prove a cause and effect between two variables ie its likely that more cigs cause ill health but there could be extraneous variables.

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14
Q

what is a naturalistic observation?

A

observer simply observes what happens in a situation without interfering or manipulating variables.

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15
Q

advantages and disadvantages of naturalistic observations?

A

-less likely to suffer from demand characteristics
-raise ethical concerns
-subject to observer bias
-unreliable if observers are not trained and procedure is not standardised.

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16
Q

what is a controlled observation?

A

watching and recording behaviour in a structured environment eg variables are managed.

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17
Q

advantages and disadvantages of controlled observation?

A

-observe patients response to specific situation.
-less generalisable findings as its not in natural context.

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18
Q

what is a covert observation?

A

participants behaviour is watched and observed without knowledge or consent.

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19
Q

advantages and disadvantages of a covert observations?

A

-behaviour observed is natural.
-without informed consent.

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20
Q

what is an overt observation?

A

participants watched with knowledge and consent.

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21
Q

advantages and disadvantages of overt observation?

A

-allows informed consent.
-may not be natural behaviour.

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22
Q

whats a participant observation?

A

-researcher becomes member of the group they are watching.

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23
Q

advantages and disadvantages of participants observation?

A

-increased insight into the situation.
-less objectivity.

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24
Q

what is a non-participant observation?

A

-researcher remains outside the group they are watching.

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25
Q

advantages and disadvantages of non-participant observation?

A
  • allows researcher to be more objective
    -will not have the same level of insight.
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26
Q

what is a questionnaire?

A

written closed set of questions open closed structured or unstructured.

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27
Q

advantages and disadvantages of questionnaires?

A

-practical and allow large amounts of data to be collected quickly.
-suffer less from social desirability than interviews.
-leading questions can be an issue.
-participants may not answer honestly or know the answers and will lower the internal validity.

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28
Q

what are interviews?

A

-researcher speaking directly to the participants and recording their response structured, unstructured and semi-structured.

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29
Q

advantages and disadvantages of interviews?

A

-more detailed than interviews.
-affected by social desirability bias this will affect their answers and lower the internal validity.

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30
Q

whats a case study?

A

in detail study of an individual.

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31
Q

advantages and disadvantages of case studies?

A

-gives detailed and in depth data with high ecological validity.
-case studies cant be generalised to the rest of the population
-may lack validity due to investigator being objective.

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32
Q

what is a content analysis? *

A

like an observation but using written data. the researcher decides on categories or themes and then reads the text and tallies up how many times particular ideas come up or analyses the meaning of what has been written in more depth.

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33
Q

advantages and disadvantages of content analysis

A

-less likely subjective to demand characteristics.
-can provide both quantitive and qualitative data.
-may lack internal validity if researcher effects it by their opinions
-time consuming.

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34
Q

what are confounding variables?

A

-something that did affect or confound the results.

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35
Q

what is a non-directional hypothesis?

A

-states there will be a difference but or relationship between two conditions but doesnt try to predict what the difference is.

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36
Q

what is a directional hypothesis?

A

states exactly what difference or the relationship will be between conditions or participants.

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37
Q

what is a repeated measures design?

A

an experiment that uses one group of participants but exposes them to different conditions.

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38
Q

what are independent groups?

A

two or more separate groups are tested, one condition for each.

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39
Q

what are matched pairs design?

A

having two or more groups where you match participants.

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40
Q

evaluation of repeated measures?

A

-participants may do better on second test because they can practice or become bored and do worse.
- need fewer participants
-can counterbalance to balance the bad.

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41
Q

evaluation of independent groups?

A

-need twice as many participants compared to repeated measures.
-control extraneous variables that may be due to practice.
-less chance of participants becoming bored.

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42
Q

evaluation of matched participants?

A

-very time consuming to match participants.
-controls some patient variables.

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43
Q

what is opportunity sampling?

A

simply select whoever is available

44
Q

evaluation of opportunity sampling?

A

-easiest method.
-inevitably biased because drawn from a very small selection of the population.

45
Q

what is volunteer sampling?

A

advertising online, in a newspaper or notice bored.

46
Q

evaluation of volunteer sampling?

A

-access to a wide variety of participants.
-but again biased because they are more likely to be motivated.

47
Q

what is random sampling?

A

put the names of people into a hat and draw out the required number.

48
Q

evaluation of random sampling?

A

-more chance of getting a more balanced representative group.
-you usually still end up with a bias sample because starting sample is too small.

49
Q

what is stratified sampling?

A

it involves dividing a population into characteristics important for the research then the population is randomly sampled with each catergory.

50
Q

evaluation of stratified sampling?

A

-more chance of getting a more representative group.
-can take time and money.
-difficult to identify traits and characteristics.

51
Q

what is systematic sampling?

A

involves taking every Nth person from a list.

52
Q

evaluation of systematic sampling?

A

-no bias in selection and increase in representative sample therefore generalisable.
-some subgroups may be missed.

53
Q

ways of assessing relability?

A

-test-retest
-inter-rater reliability- checking consistency of ratings of two or more independent researchers who are rating the same behaviour.

54
Q

how can reliability be improved?

A

-pilot study
-standardising the procedure.
-provide proper training for the researchers.

55
Q

what is validity?

A

-refers to how much you are measuring what you set out to measure.

56
Q

what is internal validity?

A

-the extent to which the method you use is really measuring what you intended to measure.

57
Q

what is external validity?

A

the extent to which your findings can be generalised from the lab to the real world

58
Q

how is internal validity reduced and dealt with?

A

-participants guessing the aim of the experiment- a double blind experiment where neither the participants or researcher know the aim.
-investigator unintentionally influencing the participants performance- standardised instructions for both.

59
Q

how is external validity reduced and dealt with?

A

-being conducted in artificial settings- trying a design in a real life setting.
-only using one type of participant- research with diff types of groups

60
Q

what is peer review?

A

-where experts in the same field assess the quality and validity of research before it goes to publication.

61
Q

why is peer review important?

A

-difficult to spot every mistake.
-help prevents spread of irrelevant findings, unwarranted claims and personal views.
-judge the quality and signif of the research in a wider context.

62
Q

what is a correlation?

A

-research technique which is used to find out if there is a relationship between two variables can be strong, weak, positive or negative.

63
Q

evaluation of correlational research?

A
  • if correlation is significant then further investigation is justified.
    -If correlation is not significant then you can probably rule out a causal relationship.
    -No manipulation of behaviour is required.
    -No direct cause and effect can be inferred - the association between two variables could potentially be explained by a third variable.
    -As with experiments, may lack internal/external validity.
64
Q

what is content analysis?*

A

it is systematic and objective classification of written or spoken communication from diff forms of media.

65
Q

what is the process of content analysis?

A

1- a general hypothesis put forward.
2-identifies categories which the info is placed.
3-decides what sources to use.
4- desirable to have 2 or more judges and tally the amount of times actions take place.
5-findings are related back to the original hypothesis.

66
Q

strengths and weaknesses of content analysis?

A
  • easy technique to use and not too time consuming.
    -high reliability as can be redone.
    -can be seen to be subjective as the researchers choose the categories.
    -lacks validity as rich qualitative data is reduced down to numerical values- loses validity as data may be omitted and wider picture is lost.
67
Q

content analysis example?

A

-cumberbatch and gauntlett 2005- ofcom commissioned wanted to see how often drugs, smoking and drinking were in TV shows found more alchohol.

68
Q

what is thematic analysis?

A

-process is qualitive, and identify trends.

69
Q

steps of thematic analysis?

A

1- familiarise yourself with the data.
2-generating initial codes.
3-searching for themes.
4-reviewing themes.
5- defining and naming themes.
6-producing the report.

70
Q

evaluation of thematic analysis?

A

-has high ecological validity.
-content analysis finds subjective data.
-cultural differences may contribute to inconsistent interpretation of behaviour coding so validity can be questioned

71
Q

what are the ethical issues? how are they dealt with?

A

Deception- weigh up pros and cons of research, debrief after and give opportunity to withdraw data.
lack of Informed consent-asked to sign a consent form
lack of right to withdraw-informed before and after taking part in study that the have the right not to take part.
lack of protection of from harm-avoid planning studies that may cause harm
lack of confidentiality- do not record names instead numbers or false names
lack of privacy-do not observe unless their is confirmed consent or in public

72
Q

what is nominal data?

A

Nominal level data is frequency or count data that consists of the number of participants falling into categories.
mode is mostly used.

73
Q

what is ordinal data?

A

data that is placed in an order or on a scale.
median is mostly used.

74
Q

what is interval data?

A

Interval data is data which comes in the form of a numerical value where the difference between points is standardised and meaningful. The most common example of interval data is temperature, the difference in temperature between 10-20 degrees is the same as the difference in temperature between 20-30 degrees.
mean is mostly used.

75
Q

what makes experiments scientific?

A

-empiricism basing new knowledge on extensive observation not through hunches.
objectivity- e.g not letting what they think is an impact on the research.
-replicability.
-theory construction.

76
Q

what is a type 1 error?

A

-when a difference or correlation in a data set accepted as a real one, when it is in fact not.
-this mean that the null hypothesis is rejected and accepts the alternative hypothesis.
-so they say their results are significant when they are not.

77
Q

what is a type 2 error?

A

-when a difference or correlation in a data set is rejected, but it actually shouldn’t be
-this means that the null hypothesis was accepted when the alternative hypothesis should have been accepted.
-so they say their results are insignificant when they are significant

78
Q

what are descriptive statistics?

A

-where you cannot see any level of statistical difference alone by using,
-mean, mode, median, range and statistical deviation

79
Q

what is the usual probability?

A

-P ≤ 0.05
-means that there is a less than 5% probability that results occurred by chance

80
Q

how to remember difference between type 1 and type 2 error?

A

-boy who cried wolf:
type 1-first they believed there was a wolf when there wasn’t
type 2- next they believed there was no wolf when there was.

81
Q

explain why the psychologist used the P ≤ 0.05 level of significance

A

-she used the P ≤0.05 level of significance to strike a balance between making a type 1 and type 2 error. If she had used P ≤0.10 she may have made a Type 1 error. If she used P ≤0.01 she may have made a type 2 error

82
Q

how do you reduce confounding/ participant variables?

A

-counter balancing
-for example if their was one condition then, half the subjects would be given the visual task and then the other half the auditory task first.

83
Q

advantages and disadvantages of the mean?

A

-uses all of the numbers so nothing is left out this ensues that it represents everyone that took part.
-can be misleading if you have one or two outlying high or low scores.

84
Q

advantages and disadvantages of the median?

A

-not skewed by outlying high or low scores
-not as sensitive as the mean as not all of the scores are used in the calculation and can be unrepresentative in a small set of data.

85
Q

advantages and disadvantages of the mode?

A

-the mode is not influenced by extreme scores.
-it may be completely useless if there are several common results or a very wide spread.

86
Q

advantages and disadvantages of the range?

A

-easy to calculate and provides direct information which may be more useful than just the mean.
-this is affected by extreme values and does not take into account the numbers of scores.

87
Q

advantages and disadvantages of standard deviation?

A

-more precise than the range as all numbers are taken into account.
-more difficult to calculate and understand, may hide extreme values

88
Q

what is a histogram?

A

-similar to a bar chart but without gaps histograms can be used with continuous data.
-Y axis represents frequency (number of people)
-X axis is equal sized intervals of a single category.
-represents nominal data.

89
Q

what data can a bar chart represent?

A

-nominal
-ordinal
-interval

90
Q

what descriptive statistics can you use for nominal data?

A

-mode

91
Q

what descriptive statistics can you use for ordinal data?

A

-mode
-median
-range

92
Q

what descriptive statistics can you use for interval statistics?

A

-standard deviation
-mean

93
Q

what level of data does a histogram use?

A

-interval

94
Q

what data does a scattergram use?

A

-ordinal

95
Q

what are the 4 key features of science?

A

-empiricism, basing new knowledge on extensive observation or experimentation, not through reasoned argument or unfounded belief.
-objectivity, scientists need to be objective in their studies e.g not letting what they already think or want to find impact the research.
-replicability, carefully record the procedure to allow it to be replicated.
-theory construction, although the main aim of science is to record facts, another aim is to use these facts to create theories.

96
Q

steps of theory construction?

A

-induction, observing behaviour and drawing conclusions.
-deduction, looking for instances that confirm theory

97
Q

what does Thomas Kuhn suggest?

A

-stated that psychology cannot be classified as a science as it doesn’t have one single paradigm.
-suggested science develops in three distinct stages:
-pre-science: during stage there are a number of theories that try to explain a phenomenon but there is no generally accepted theory of paradigm
-normal science: paradigm has emerged that has generally accepted main assumptions, and dominates the science and influences, over time evidence that contradicts this paradigm emerges.
-revolutionary science: evidence against existing grows and leads to it being questioned, as a result new theories are put forward until a new paradigm is accepted. this is known as a paradigm shift and does not happen over night.

98
Q

how is published research set out?

A

-Abstract: the aim of an abstract is to summarise the whole investigation briefly and clearly so that someone new to the topic being investigated can gain an idea of what actually happened.
-Introduction/aim: contain reasoning of the research and usually refers to previous research/ theories that explain why the investigator has chosen the particular topic.
-method, contains:
-Design a brief outline of the method used in the study e.g design used.
-participants this should describe key features of the participant sample and how they were selected.
-materials, contains details of apparatus used, e.g questionnaires.
-procedure, inform the reader exactly how the study was conducted.
-results, where the findings of the research are placed both descriptive by graphs and tables and inferential statistics of statistical test on their data.
-discussion, section which the researcher suggests what they believe the results mean.
-references, list all the other articles research and books they used.

99
Q

in the method section of the write up what is included?

A

-design, a brief outline of the method used in the study and includes the design used, the number of groups or conditions and the variables under investigation.
-participations, describe key features of the participation sample, age range gender etc, and how they were selected.
-materials, contain details of any apparatus researchers will need if they decide to replicate it e.g questionnaires.
-procedures, inform the reader exactly how exactly the study was conducted, should include how participants were allocated, instructions, how data was collected etc.

100
Q

acronym to remember write up?

A

-Am
-I
-Mad
-Really
-Dude
-Really

101
Q

what is reliability?

A

-refers to the ability to repeat a study and obtain the same result, essential that all conditions are the same.

102
Q

what is internal reliabity?

A

-this is wether a test is consistent within itself, e.g all the questions on an IQ test should be measuring the same thing.

103
Q

what is external reliability?

A

-measure of consistency over several different occasions for example if the same memory test by the same researcher with the same participants was conducted twice the outcome should be the same, otherwise the memory test is not reliable.

104
Q

what is observer reliability?

A

-observations should be consistent, which means that ideally two or more observers should produce the same record.
-extent to which observers agree is called inter-rater calculated by dividing total agreements by the total number of observations and a result of 0.80 or more is good inter-observer reliability.

105
Q

how do you assess reliability?

A

-split half method
-retest test
-inter rater reliability

106
Q

how do you improve reliability?

A

-when possible take more than one measurement from each participant.
-pilot studies.
-standardise the way in which researchers collect data
-increase inter-rater reliability by giving proper training
-operationalise variables.
-adjust experiment after split-half test.

107
Q

how do you remember which stats test to use?

A

N O I at the top
R I at the side
stats with roberts creates magical understanding

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