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Research Methods Flashcards

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1
Q

What does objective mean?

A

Based on facts and not affected by biases

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2
Q

What is the empirical method?

A

The scientific approach based on evidence gathering through direct observation

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3
Q

What is replicability?

A

The extent to which scientific procedures can be repeated by other researchers

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4
Q

What is falsifiability?

A

A theory cannot be proven scientific unless it admits to the possibility of being wrong

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5
Q

What are the stages of Poppers hypothetic-deductive model?

A

Identify a problem
Develop a hypothesis
Devise a study
Analyse and evaluate the results to determine if hypothesis supported
Modify and repeat the process depending on stage 4
Develop a theory

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6
Q

What is a hypothesis

A

A testable statement tested in an experiment
Must reference IV and DV
IV and DV must be operationalised

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7
Q

What is a paradigm

A

A shared set of assumption within science

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8
Q

What is a paradigm shift?

A

The result of scientific revolution - a significant change in the dominant theory within science

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9
Q

What is a lab experiment

A

All variable are controlled - artificial setting

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10
Q

What is a field experiment

A

Experiment carried out in natural setting but IV is still manipulated

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11
Q

What is a quasi-experiment?

A

The IV is naturally occurring but the DV is measured in the lab

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12
Q

What is a natural experiment

A

Carried out completely in a natural setting where there is no manipulation from researcher - just observation

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13
Q

Confounding VS Extraneous variable

A

Extraneous - Any variable other than the IV that may affect the DV
Confounding - A variable other than the IV that has affected your results

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14
Q

What are the 4 types of hypothesis?

A

Experimental / alternative
Null
Directional (one tailed)
Non-directional (two tailed)

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15
Q

What is an experimental / alternative hypothesis?

A

A hypothesis that predicts the results of the experimental group will be very different from the control group

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16
Q

What is a null hypothesis?

A

A hypothesis that predicts no difference between experimental group and control group

Any relationship is due to sampling or experimental error

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17
Q

What is a directional hypothesis?

A

A hypothesis which states the direction of difference between the relationship

Used when previous research has been done

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18
Q

What is a non-directional hypothesis?

A

A hypothesis that states there is a difference between conditions but the nature of the difference isn’t specified

No previous research

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19
Q

How do you operationalise a variable?

A

Make it measurable

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20
Q

Lab experiment evaluation

A

High internal validity
Low ecological validity
Lack of mundane realism
All variables controlled

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21
Q

Field experiment evaluation

A

Low internal validity
High ecological validity
Extraneous variables
More authentic behaviour

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22
Q

Natural experiment evaluation

A

High ecological validity
Extraneous variables
Limits generalisability since naturally occurring events happen rarely

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23
Q

Quasi-experiment evaluation

A

High internal validity
Replication possible
Cant randomly allocate participants so possible confounding variables

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24
Q

What are demand characteristics?

A

A participant guesses the nature of the experiment and adjusts their behaviour to do what the researcher wants

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25
Q

What are investigator effects?

A

The researcher provides cues to the participants about expected behaviour (often without realising) which then brings about the researchers predicitions

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26
Q

Single VS double blind

A

Single - participant isn’t aware of the research aims

Double blind - Neither participant or researcher are aware of the research aims

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27
Q

What is experimental realism?

A

The extent to which a controlled study is meaningful and engaging to participants

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28
Q

Naturalistic VS Controlled observation

A

Natural - Observing behaviour in a natural setting where everything is left as is
Controlled - Some variables are controlled by researcher

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29
Q

Covert VS Overt

A

Covert - Behaviour is observed and recorded without obtaining consent
Overt - Behaviour is observed and participants are aware they are being watched

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30
Q

Participant VS Non-participant observation

A

Participant - Observe becomes part of group they ares studying
Non-participant - The observer remains seperate

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31
Q

What is time sampling?

A

Recording behaviour shown within a time frame e.g. recording every 30s

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32
Q

What is event sampling?

A

Counting the number of times a behaviour takes place

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33
Q

What is qualitative data

A

Non-numerical data which is word based collected through interviews

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34
Q

What is quantitative data?

A

Numbers
More objective

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35
Q

Primary VS secondary data

A

Primary - collected first hand
Secondary - Originally collected for another study - now being used by you

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36
Q

Primary / secondary data evaluation

A

+
Primary - Very controlled
Secondary - Simpler and cheaper to use others data
-
Primary - Lengthy and expensive to collect
Secondary - Data may not fit purpose

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37
Q

What are the measure of central tendency? Why would you choose them?

A

Mean - Most sensitive
Median - Won’t be affected by anomalous data
Mode - Most commonly occurring value

38
Q

What are the measures of dispersion?

A

Range
Standard deviation - the spread of the scores around the mean

39
Q

How do you collect a random sample?

A

List of members of target population obtained
Each name assigned a number
Sample is generated using lottery method e.g. random number generator

40
Q

How do you collect an opportunity sample?

A

You select anyone available and willing to participate

41
Q

How do you collect a stratified sample?

A

Identify strata
Calculate proportion of each stratum
Random simple sample of each strata
Using a random selection method

42
Q

How do you do a systematic sample?

A

Every nth member of a population is selected
A sampling frame is made

43
Q

How do you do a volunteer sample?

A

Participants sign up to do the study
Maybe newspaper advert etc

44
Q

What are the 3 types of experimental design?

A

Independent groups
Repeated measures
Matched pairs

45
Q

Evaluating experimental design

A

Independent groups
+ No order effects
- Participant variables
Repeated measures
+ Participant variables are controlled
- Order effects like the practice effect
Matched pairs
+ Order effects aren’t a problem
- Matching is time consuming

46
Q

What are the types of self report design?

A

Questionnaires
Interviews

47
Q

Questionnaire evaluation

A

Do lots of them
Reveal info that would be uncomfortable face to face
People have to be able to read and write
Not many people return them

48
Q

What are filler questions?

A

Questions in a questionnaire designed to stop a participant from working out the nature of the study

49
Q

Interview evaluation

A

Can be unstructured - follow up questions
Repeatable
More skill on behalf of interviewer
People may be embarrassed answering personal questions

50
Q

Why is a correlation not a true experiment?

A

Lacks cause and effect

51
Q

How is a correlation measured

A

+/- 1 = perfect positive / negative correlation
+/- 0.5 = weak correlation
0 = no correlation

52
Q

Correlation evaluation

A

Lacks cause and effect
Easy to replicate
Used to establish if there is a relationship before research
How the behaviours are operationalised may be an issue

53
Q

What is counterbalancing? Why is it used?

A

Used to overcome repeated measure designs - half the group does task 1 first

 order effects are likely to occur
 if you performed the first task in the first week you may still be thinking about it in the second week, resulting in different behaviour

54
Q

What are the features of a positively skewed graph

A

Tail goes right
Mean greater than the median

55
Q

What are the features of a negatively skewed graph

A

Tail goes left
Mean is less than the median

56
Q

What is content analysis?

A

Analysing content like tv
A form of indirect observation

57
Q

What is coding?

A

Operationalise behaviour categories
Watch the episode and record each time a behaviour happens
Count up total number of findings

58
Q

What is thematic analysis?

A

Collects qualitative data
If a topic comes up, the quote is recorded
Themes and sub themes are made

59
Q

Content analysis evaluation

A

Avoids any ethics
Produce qualitative and quantitative data
Very subjective
People studies out of context

60
Q

What are the ethics in psychology

A

D eception
C onsent

C onfidentionality
O bservation
W ithdrawal
P rotection from harm
A dvice
D ebrief

61
Q

What is cost benefit analysis

A

One way that psychologists can protect participants is by using ethical committees. When a psychologist wants to carryout research they send an ethics form to the committee which sets out their aims and any areas of potential ethical concern. The committee carryout cost-benefit analysis to decide whether the research should be allowed to be conducted. They must decide whether the ethical issues it raises are worth the benefits it might produce.

62
Q

What is peer review

A

An important part of the scientific method to protect the public from fraudulent scientific findings

63
Q

What are the 3 main purposes of peer review

A

Allocation of funding
Publication of research
Assess the research rating of UNI’s

64
Q

Peer review evaluation

A

Better quality research made
No bias due to anonymity
May not be an appropriate expert to assess the researcher
Doesn’t help with research that has already been published

65
Q

What is reliability?

A

How consistent something is

66
Q

How can we assess reliability?

A

Test-retest - People do task, after an amount of time where they have forgotten the original test, they redo it, compare 2 sets of results and do statistical test
Inter-rater - Several observers independently watch the behaviour and tick of the behavioural categories

67
Q

What is validity?

A

The extent to which an observed effect is genuine

68
Q

Internal VS External validity

A

Internal - Ho much the experiment is assessing what it aims to assess
External - How we can apply findings to other scenarios

69
Q

What are 4 types of validity

A

Face - Does it look like it makes sense

Concurrent - The psychological tool being used in your test produces similar results to an existing test e.g. comparing your intelligence test with IQ test

Ecological - the extent to which behaviours observed and recorded in a study reflect the behaviours that actually occur in the real world.

Temporal - The extent to which findings from research can be applied to other historical times

70
Q

What are the 2 ways you can asses validity?

A

Face
Concurrent

71
Q

What is the order of a psychological investigation

A

Title
Abstract - written at the end - brief overview
Intro (hypothesis)
Method
Results
Discussion
References

72
Q

What are the types of experimental method

A

Lab
Field
Quasi
Natural

73
Q

How can replicability be increased

A

Standardised procedures to increase replicability and increase validity

74
Q

How can a questionnaires concurrent validity be improved

A
  • the researcher could compare the two questionnaires and note any differences
  • the researcher could (identify and) remove/deselect any items on his questionnaire that are
    problematic
  • items might be problematic because they are leading, ambiguous, too complex, double-barrelled etc
75
Q

Why should mean be used for some pieces of research

A

No extreme values
Most representative of sample

76
Q

What are pilot studies and why are they used

A

Pilot studies are small-scale investigations conducted before research.

to identify whether there needed to be any modifications in the design, eg whether the interview questions were sufficiently relevant to dream content

77
Q

How can investigator effects be reduced

A

 provide a standardised script for the interviewers to use so that they all asked the same questions in the same way to avoid any bias in the students’ responses

 the interviewers could have been trained to greet the students in the same way and ask questions with a neutral tone

 ensure all interviewers were female or all interviewers were male

78
Q

Why are repeated measures designs used

A

 necessary to avoid the effects of individual differences

 habits, gender, time doing what research is measuring, personality, etc, can have a big impact on the studies outcome.

79
Q

How can a sample be split randomly into 2 groups

A

All names put in a hat
A name is drawn from the hat at random and assigned to the first group
A name is drawn from the hat at random and assigned to the second group
This is repeated as many times as necessary

80
Q

How can method validity be increased

A

 include more than one question in the questionnaire/interview message. This would make the aim of the experiment less obvious to guess which would in turn reduce demand characteristics and improve the validity of the experiment

 make the conditions less obvious.

 guarantee anonymity so people will give honest answers and not feel embarrassed

 use a broader sample, not just one demographic to avoid a self-selected sample and thus avoid volunteer bias
as that may make them more susceptible to demand characteristics.

81
Q

Why may it be better to use a correlation rather than an experiment

A

It may be more ethical to conduct a correlation rather than an experiment

82
Q

Why is the 5% significant level used

A

Convention as it balances type 1 and type 2 errors

83
Q

Discuss features of science

A
  • objectivity and the empirical method
  • replicability and falsifiability
  • theory construction and hypothesis testing
  • paradigms and paradigm shifts.
    ——————————
  • use of research studies/theories/approaches to discuss the features of science
  • comparison of approaches to discuss features of science, eg Freud’s psychodynamic approach is
    unfalsifiable
  • difficulties of the subjective nature of psychological investigations
84
Q

When sampling, what must operationalised behaviours be

A

Clearly observable

85
Q

How to time sample

A

Record every ** time in the total period
Tick what behaviour person is doing
Ignore behaviours that happen in-between

86
Q

Pros and cons of time sampling

A

Easier to manage as not recording all the time

Important behaviours may be skipped

87
Q

What is a reasonable correlation coefficient

A

0.8

88
Q

Why may S.D be better than range?

A

Less sensitive to anomalies
Uses all data
Not just highest and lowest

89
Q

How do you write a journal reference

A

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (year) Article title. Journal Title

90
Q

How do you reference a book

A

Author, A. A. (year). Title of work. Location: Publisher, Page numbers

Psychology (14 decks)

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