research methods Flashcards
what is a research method?
the strategies, processes, or techniques used in the collection of data or evidence for analysis.
what are research aims?
a statement of what the researcher intends to find out in the study
what does an experiment involve?
the manipulation of an independent variable to measure the effect on a dependent variable.
what is the independent variable?
the thing that is manipulated
what is the dependent variable?
the thing we measure
what is the control condition?
provides a baseline measure of behaviour without the manipulation of the independent variable.
what is the experimental condition?
it involves the manipulation of the independent variable.
what do you do with results from the control condition and experimental condition?
compare them
what is a research hypothesis?
predicts a statistically significant effect of an independent variable on a dependent variable.
what is a directional hypothesis?
a hypothesis that shows a direction of the results.
what is a non directional hypothesis?
does not predict the direction of the results.
when is a non directional hypothesis used?
when there is no previous research or the research is contradictory
what is a correlational hypothesis?
states a relationship between two things.
what is a null hypothesis?
predicts a statistically significant effect or relationship will not be found.
what is the difference between the aim and the hypothesis?
an aim is the goal of the study, a hypothesis is a testable statement
what is an extraneous variable?
any variable other than the independent variable that may have an effect on the dependent variable unless it is controlled
what are examples of extraneous variables?
•noise
•temperature
•light
•size of room
•mood
•intelligence
•anxiety
•nerves
•concentration
•age
•gender
•accent
what is a confounding variable?
any extraneous variable that varies systematically with the independent variable, so that we cannot be sure of the true source of change to the dependent variable.
what are demand characteristics?
any cue from the researcher or situation that may reveal the purpose of the investigation which may lead to participants deliberately or unconsciously changing their behaviour.
what are investigator effects?
any effect of the investigators’ behaviour on the dependent variable. Can include design of the study, to the selection and interaction with the participants during research.
what is randomisation?
use of chance to control for the effects of bias when designing the study.
•helps to reduce extraneous variables
Randomisation involves participants being randomly allocated to different conditions.
what is standardisation?
Using exactly the same formalised procedures and instructions for all participants. Can reduce:
•situational variables
•investigator effects
•demand characteristics
what are blind procedures?
participants do not know which condition they are taking part within an experiment.
•used to try to reduce demand characteristics and investigator effects
what is independent groups design?
different participants are used in each condition of the experiment
what is repeated measures design?
the same participants take part in both conditions of the experiment.
what is matched pairs design?
pairs of participants are matched in terms of key variables such as age.
what are the strengths of repeated measures design?
•fewer participants are required
•participant variables are controlled for
what are the limitations of repeated measures design?
•order effects
•demand characteristics
what are the strengths of independent groups design?
•order effects are avoided
•demand characteristics are avoided
what are the limitations of independent groups design?
•more participants are required to produce the same amount of data
•participant variables
what is counterbalancing?
•an attempt to control for the effects of order effects in a repeated measures design
•half the participants experience the conditions in one order and the other half in the opposite order
what are the strengths of matched pairs design?
•participant variables are reduced
•order effects are avoided
•demand characteristics are reduced
what are the limitations of matched pairs design?
•time consuming and expensive
•individual differences still occur
what is a laboratory experiment?
•takes place in a controlled environment
•researcher manipulates the IV and records the effect on the DV
•maintaining strict control of extraneous variables
what is a field experiment?
•an experiment that takes place in a normal setting within which the researcher manipulates the IV and records the effect on the DV.
what is a natural experiment?
•an experiment where the change in the IV is not brought about by the researcher but would have happened even if the researcher had not been there.
what is a quasi experiment?
•the IV has not been determined by anyone
•the variables simply exist
what is ecological validity?
indicates the findings of the research can be generalised and applied to real life situations
what is a population?
refers to the large group of individuals that a particular researcher may be interested in studying, for example students attending sixth form.
what is a target population?
refers to a particular subset of the overall population from which the sample will be taken
what is a sample?
refers to the group of people who will take part in a research investigation. it is drawn from the target population and is presumed to be representative of that population
what is random sampling?
each member of a population has an equal chance of being selected
what is systematic sampling?
when every nth member of the target population is selected from a sampling frame
what is stratified sampling?
the composition of the sample reflects the proportions of people in sub-groups within the target population
what is opportunity sampling?
selecting anyone willing or available to take part
what is volunteering sampling?
an advert is produced and individuals self-select themselves to take part
what are strengths and limitations of random sampling?
strengths:
•free from researcher bias
limitations:
•time consuming to conduct
•difficult to get a list of everyone
•could be unrepresentative
what are strengths and limitations of systematic sampling?
strengths:
•free from researcher bias
•usually fairly representative
limitations:
•time consuming to conduct
•difficult to get a list of everyone
•participants may refuse to take part
what are strengths and limitations of stratified sampling?
strengths:
•free from researcher bias
•produces the most representative sample
limitations:
•time consuming to conduct
•participants may refuse to take part
what are strengths and limitations of opportunity sampling?
strengths:
•saves time
•saves money
limitations:
•unrepresentative sample
•researcher bias occurs
what are the strengths and limitations of volunteer sampling?
strengths:
•easy
•less time consuming
limitations:
•volunteer bias occurs
•unrepresentative sample
when do ethical issues arise?
when a conflict exists between the rights of participants in research studies and the goals of the researcher to produce authentic, valid and worthwhile data.
What is the BPS?
a code of ethics which is a quasi-legal document that instructs psychologists in the UK about behaviour that is acceptable when dealing with participants.
What are ethical issues?
•informed consent
•right to withdraw
•confidentiality
•deception
•protection from harm
what is cost-benefit analysis?
the responsibility of an ethics committee to weigh up the costs and benefits of the research proposals to decide whether the study should go ahead.
•benefits may include ground-breaking nature of the research
•costs may include the damaging effect on individual participants or the reputation of psychology as a whole
what is presumptive consent?
rather than getting consent from the participants themselves, a similar group of people are asked if the study is acceptable. If this group agree, then consent of the original participants is ‘presumed’.
what is prior general consent?
participants give their permission to take part in a number of different studies-including one that will involve deception. By consenting, participants are effectively consenting to being deceived.
what is retrospective consent?
participants are asked for their consent (during debriefing) after already having taken part in the study. They may not have been aware of their participation or they may have been subject to deception.
what are observations?
•a non-experimental method meaning that they cannot establish a cause and effect relationship.
•allow psychologists to study observable behaviour
•can be used within experiments
•don’t establish cause and effect because there is no IV
Naturalistic vs. Controlled
naturalistic~ watching and recording behaviour in the setting within which it would normally occur
controlled~ watching and recording behaviour within a structural environment
Covert vs. Overt
Covert~ participants’ behaviour is watched and recorded without their consent
Overt~ Participants’ behaviour is watched and recorded with their knowledge and consent
Participant vs. Non- participant
Participant~ researcher becomes a member of the group whose behaviour they are watching
Non-participant~ researcher remains outside of the group
How do you write a debriefing?
•explanation of aim
•information about the other condition
•specific ethical issues
•general ethical considerations
Strengths and limitations of naturalistic observations
•low internal validity as may be uncontrolled extraneous variables
•high external validity as behaviour is studied in the environment it usually occurs
•replication is difficult due to lack of control over the research situation
•no demand characteristics as behaviour is being studied in natural environment
strengths and limitations of controlled observations
•high internal validity as extraneous variables less of a factor
•low external validity as findings may not apply to real life
•replication is easier
•may have demand characteristics as participants know they are being studied so may alter behaviour
strengths and limitations of covert observations
•high internal validity as the problem of participant reactivity is removed
•ethical issues as people may not wish to have their behaviour studied
•no demand characteristics as participants don’t know they are being watched
strengths and limitations of overt observations
•low internal validity as participants may change behaviour
•more ethically acceptable as consent is given
•demand characteristics as they know they’re being watched
strengths and limitations of participant observations
•high internal validity as researcher has increased insight into the lives of people
•no objectivity as line between being a researcher and participant may become blurred
strengths and limitations of non-participant observations
•lower internal validity as researcher may remove valuable insight as they are too far removed
•more objectivity as researcher can maintain an objective and psychological distance
what is an unstructured observation?
•researcher is writing down everything that they see
•appropriate when observation is small scale and involves a few participants
•produces qualitative data
•may be prone to bias as researcher may only record behaviour that “catches their eye”
what is a structured observation?
•used when there is too much going on for the researcher to record everything
•allows researcher to quantify their observations
•produce quantitative data
what is observer bias?
•observers’ expectations impact what they see or hear
•unstructured observations is more likely to be affected by this
what are behavioural categories?
•target behaviour is the main focus of the observation
•target behaviours are put into behavioural categories
•behavioural categories makes the data more structured and objective
•important they are clear and unambiguous
•they should not overlap
•if the behavioural categories are not clearly defined, two observers might interpret it differently which would make it unreliable
what is event sampling?
a target behaviour/ event is established, and the researcher records this event every time it occurs
•used when the behaviour happens infrequently
•tend to use a tally chart
what is time sampling?
a target individual or group is observed, and the researcher records their behaviour in a fixed time frame
•appropriate when there are lots of people to observe
•issue is important behaviours may be missed if they do not occur at the set time interval
what is inter-observer reliability?
should be 2 or more observers. 1 observer may miss important details or only notice events that confirm their hypothesis.
•it is the extent to which there is an agreement between 2 or more observers in an observation
•make data reliable, objective and unbiased
•should take part in same training beforehand
what are the 4 stages in inter-observer reliability?
- Observers should familiarise themselves with behavioural categories
2.a pilot study should be complete - observations should be correlated to check for reliability
- a positive correlation of +.80 would seem the observations reliable
what to avoid when writing questionnaires
•overuse of jargon
•emotive language
•leading questions
•double-barrelled questions
•double negatives
what is a self-report technique?
any method in which a person is asked to state or explain their own feelings, opinions, behaviours, experiences related to a given topic
what are two self-report measures?
•questionnaires
•interviews
what is an open question?
there is no fixed choice of response and respondents can answer in any way they wish
what is a closed question?
there is a fixed choice of responses determined by the question setter
strengths and limitations of questionnaires
•cost effective
•can be completed without the researcher being present
•data is usually straightforward to analyse
•problem is may not always be truthful
•social desirability bias
•response/aquiescience bias
what is validity?
the accuracy of something
what is internal validity?
whether the researcher measured what they wanted to
how do demand characteristics impact internal validity?
if participants respond it can cause the results to be false
what is external validity?
the results from the experiment would apply to real life situations
what is reliability?
how consistently a method measures something. It relates to our ability to repeat a study and obtain the same results.
what is the split half method?
compare half the questions with the other half of questions to check for similar levels of difficulty
what is the test-retest method?
if the same questionnaire/interview conducted more than once the same results should be obtained
how to do test-retest?
•participants do the same test a second time
•the researcher will correlate the two tests
• check correlation score: +0.8 as reasonable degree
what is a case study?
an in-depth investigation, description and analysis of a single individual, group, institution or event
•involve analysis of unusual individuals or events
what data do case studies collect?
•researchers use many research methods
•qualitative data often collected
•quantitative data may also be collected
•tend to be longitudinal
strengths and limitations of case studies
•offer rich and detailed insights into unusual and atypical forms of behaviour
•tend to involve a single individual or small group of people
what is content analysis?
a kind of observational study in which behaviour is indirectly studied by examining the communications that people produce
what is coding?
the stage of content analysis in which the communication to be studied is analysed by identifying each instance of the chosen categories
what is thematic analysis?
involves identifying implicit or explicit ideas within the data. The data is then organised according to these themes
what are strengths and limitations of content analysis?
strengths:
•it can get around many of the ethical issues normally associated with psychological research
•it is a flexible research method where both quantitative and qualitative data can be obtained
•high ecological validity
limitations:
•tells us what rather that why
•at risk of observer bias
what is primary data?
original data that has been collected specifically for investigation
what are pros and cons of primary data?
pros:
•authentic data from participants themselves
•specifically target required info
cons:
•requires time and effort on the part of the researcher
what is secondary data?
data that has been collected by someone other than the person who is conducting the research
what are pros and cons of secondary data?
•may be substantial variation in the quality and accuracy of it
what is meta-analysis?
•special type of research method
•uses secondary data from a large number of studies
what are pros and cons of meta-analysis?
pros:
•allows us to view data with more confidence as validity of data is known
•can be generalised to larger populations
cons:
•may be prone to publication bias- may leave out studies with negative or non-significant results
what are descriptive statistics?
the use of graphs, tables and summary statistics to identify trends and analyse sets of data
what is the measure of central tendency?
the general term for any measure of the average value in a set of data
what does bimodal mean?
when there are 2 modes
what is measure of dispersion?
the general term for any measure of the spread or variation in a set of scores
what are the advantages of using the mean?
most sensitive of the measures of central tendency as it includes all the values in the data set within the calculation so it is more representative
what are the limitations of using the mean?
it is easily distorted by extreme values. By replacing 1 number in the set of data it can change dramatically
what are the advantages of the median?
extreme scores do not affect it. It is also easy to calculate when you have the numbers arranged in order to
what are the limitations of the median?
less sensitive than the mean as the actual values of lower and higher numbers are ignored
what is the advantage of the mode?
for some data- data in categories- the mode is the only method you can use
what is the limitation of the mode?
it is a crude measure- can be quite different from the median and mean. When there are several modes it is not very useful
what does a small standard deviation show?
the smaller the standard deviation the tighter the dispersion of data, so people are impacted similarly
what does a large standard deviation show?
the larger the standard deviation, the greater the dispersion so people are impacted differently by the IV
what are the advantages of the range?
easy to calculate so won’t be any issues with data analysis
what are the limitations of the range?
only takes into account the two most extreme values so may be unrepresentative of the data set as a whole
what are the advantages of standard deviation?
a much more precise measure of dispersion than the range as it includes all values within the final calculation
what are the limitations of standard deviation?
can be distorted by a single extreme value
what are bar charts used for?
• data in categories
•should always be a space between the categories on the x axis
•data is categorical so not related and should not be touching
when are histograms used?
•when data is related
•different categories not separated by a gap
•has bars of unequal width- what tells us the frequency
•frequency is plotted on the x axis
when are line graphs used?
•for continuous data
•allows more than one set of continuous data to be shown at a time
what is a scattergram used for?
•shows relationships between co variables
what is a normal distribution shown as?
a bell curve
when does a skewed distribution occur?
•when the distribution of data around the mean is not symmetrical
•skewing occurs because of extreme results
when does a positive skew occur?
•when there are more low scores in the data
•distribution is concentrated towards the left of the graph
when does a negative skew occur?
•more high scores in the data
•distribution is concentrated to the right of the graph
•there is a low extreme score
what are co-variables?
there is a relationship between the variables rather than a cause and effect relationship
what is a positive correlation?
as one co-variable increases so does the other
what is a negative correlation?
as one co-variable increases the other decreases
what is a zero correlation?
when there is no relationship between the co-variables
what numbers is a correlation co-efficient always between?
+1 and -1
what are positives of using correlations?
•useful of a preliminary research technique, allowing researchers to investigate a link that can be further investigated
•correlations are relatively quick and cost-effective to carry out
what are the negatives of using correlations?
•there is a lack of experimental manipulation and control within a correlation, so they cannot establish cause and effects
•correlations suffer from the third variable problem where another untrusted variable is causing the relationship
•correlations can occasionally be misused or misinterpreted
what is a pilot study?
a small scale version of an investigation that takes place before the real investigation is conducted
what is the purpose of a pilot study?
•to check procedures etc before the large scale version happens
•allows the researcher to make changes
what are strengths of a pilot study?
•saves time and money
•researchers can rectify issues in procedure
•increases validity of research in final investigation
what are limitations of a pilot study?
•could lead to investigation bias
•could waste time and money if no changes are required
•more participants would be required
what is the process of peer review?
•researcher finds a journal
•suggests 2 experts to the journal who are in the same field and able to review the research
•feedback from the reviewer determines whether the article is accepted
•editor makes the final decision whether to accept or reject the research
what are the aims of peer review?
1) to allocate research funding
2) to validate the quality and relevance of the research
3) to suggest amendments or improvements
what is publication bias?
research that has a significant finding is more likely to be published than research that does not
what is deductive theory construction?
•observation leads to the creation of a theory
•from this theory a hypothesis is created
•hypothesis is tested empirically
•conclusions are drawn
•may lead to new questions and new hypotheses being created
•new hypothesis are then tested
•the theory may then be refined
what is inductive theory construction?
•observation leads to a hypothesis being created
•hypothesis is tested empirically
•conclusions are drawn from the study
•may lead to new questions and hypotheses being created
•new hypothesis tested
•eventually the data is used to construct a theory
what is falsification?
science aims to falsify the hypotheses that it forms
what are paradigms?
•a shared set of assumptions about the subject matter of a discipline and the methods appropriate to its study
what is a paradigm shift?
•when there are revolutionary changes in scientific assumptions
