Research Methods Flashcards
What are some main methods of acquiring knowledge?
Intuition, authority, rationalism, empiricism
What is the role of theory in science?
Helps summarise and integrate existing data into model of relationship between variables. Can guide development of new research to test and continue to develop theory.
There is a continuous interaction between theory and empirical observation
What is a theory?
A systematic way of organising and explaining observations. It fits to known facts and makes predictions that are testable.
Different schools of thought can develop different theories for the same phenomenon
What is a hypothesis?
A prediction about the relationship between two or more variables derived from theory or past research.
What are the key elements of research in psychology?
research method and design
sample
data collection
reliability and validity
sources of bias
ethics and integrity
What are some main research designs?
Naturalistic observation
Case study
Interviews / focus groups
survey
Correlation
Experiment
What are the basic elements of an experiment?
state hypothesis
manipulate independent variable
measure dependent variable
try to eliminate sources of bias
draw conclusions
How can other variables in an experiment be held constant?
Experimental groups are exposed to the condition of interest.
Control groups are not exposed to this condition but are otherwise treated the exact same as experimental groups. This gives researchers a basis to work from.
Random assignment of participants means there is an equal chance that a participant could be assigned to either group, removing bias.
What are the main factors when assessing reliability?
Main question: does the measure/manipulation produce consistent results?
Test-retest (does test give similar values when taken two or more times by same participant)
Internal consistency (different items measuring same variable should produce similar results)
Inter-rater reliability (two testers who rate the same person on the same variable should give similar findings)
What are the main factors when assessing validity
Main question: does the measure measure what it is supposed to measure?
Construct validity (face validity, does it look like it’s measuring the right thing) (convergent validity, measure related to other measures with demonstrated validity) (criterion validity, do scores on measure relate to other variables as we expect them to)
Internal v external validity (internal - relates to whether results obtained in research can be attributed to the variables you have examined in the research) (external - relates to how generalisable findings are to other situations)
What are some sources of bias which can affect validity of the experiment?
Participant bias (demand characteristics, placebo effect)
Confounding variables (any variables could be producing effect)
Experimenter bias (expectancy effects, brings about the change rather than the variable itself)
