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Research methods Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the IV and DV?

A

IV - changes/is manipulated by researcher.
DV - factor measured by researchers.

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2
Q

What are the different types of confounding and extraneous variables?

A

Participant variables eg. age, intelligence
Situational eg. experimental setting
Experimenter eg. personality changes

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3
Q

How can demand characteristics affect results?

A

Guess purpose and try to please researcher, ‘screw you effect’, nervousness, social desirability bias.

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4
Q

What are investigator effects?

A

Experimenter bias - accent/tone
Interviewer bias - unconscious
Observer bias - physical traits

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5
Q

What is a lab study?

A

Strict variable control in artificial environment, researcher manipulate IV.
Repeat, cause and effect, bias, demand characteristics, low ecological validity

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6
Q

What is a field study?

A

In own environment - more realistic. Researcher manipulates IV.
High ecological, less control, sample bias

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7
Q

What is a natural study?

A

IV = naturally occurring, researcher records effect on DV.
High ecological, no demand, unaware = unethical.
Quasi - internal IV eg. gender

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8
Q

What are the different observational techniques?

A

Participant - observer participates in activity, with or without others knowing.
Non participant- not actively involved.

Overt = aware being observed, covert = not.

Naturalistic - watching + recording naturally occurring events without intervention (use when lab too unrealistic)

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9
Q

What are evaluation points for observations?

A
  • high external validity
  • practical as manipulating V = unethical
  • not causality
  • observer bias
  • ethics
  • lack control
  • privacy invasion
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10
Q

What are ways to measure observations?

A

Behavioural categories prevent ambiguities - easier to code with agreed scales, quantitative.
Event sampling - no. of times target behaviour occurs recorded
Time sampling - all behaviour in time frame recorded

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11
Q

What is inter-observer reliability?

A

Observers consistently coded behaviour same way.

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12
Q

What are different ways of using questionnaires?

A

Closed questions - yes/no or scales. Easy quantify but restrict.
Open questions - own words, increase depth, express, hard to quantify.

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13
Q

What are ways of using different interviews?

A

Structured - verbal questionnaire, closed questions
Unstructured - no specific questions - tailored
Semi-structured - deviations possible

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14
Q

What are evaluation points for interviews?

A

Positives: easier to address complex issues, ease misunderstandings, qualitative + quantitative, easier to replicate if structured

Negatives: social desirability bias, demand characteristics, researcher influence, deception

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15
Q

What are evaluation points for questionnaires?

A

Positives: quick, lack of investigator effects, quantitative + qualitative, standardised so easy to replicate

Negatives: misinterpretation, biased samples, low response rates, social desirability

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16
Q

What is the aim and hypothesis of an experiment?

A

Precise statement of why study is occurring
Hypothesis - precise testable research predictions

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17
Q

What is a pilot study?

A

Small scale practice investigations to find issues with design, methods, analysis. Identify change of significant results.

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18
Q

What is a correlation?

A

Analysis of relationship between co-variables. Use scattergrams.

Not experiments as not investigate cause and effect as no IV.

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19
Q

What are evaluation points of correlations?

A
  • allow predictions
  • relationship strength
  • before research = useful
  • not always significant
  • not infer causality
  • only linear relationships
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20
Q

What stats tests are used for correlations?

A

Pearsons if data = precise, Spearman’s rank If ordinal data/scales.

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21
Q

What are case studies?

A

In depth, detailed investigations of 1 person/small group. Behaviour explanations = subjective.
- high detail
- contradict theories
- not representative
- researcher bias
- retrospective data

22
Q

What are the different types of hypothesis?

A

Directional: predicts direction of results, 1 tailed. Used when previous research or replication.
Non-directional: will be different, not direct of results, 2 tailed. No previous research.
Null: IV not affect DV.

23
Q

What is random sampling?

A

Chance of being chosen. Theoretically unbiased, time consuming, biased sample.

24
Q

What is systematic sampling?

A

Every nth person - generalisable, unbiased. Hidden pattern, unrepresentative.

25
Q

What is stratified sampling?

A

Calculate relative % of samples based on ratio in population. Representative, unbiased, time consuming.

26
Q

What is opportunity sampling?

A

Sample of those available. Easy/practical, biased, unrepresentative.

27
Q

What is volunteer sampling?

A

Ads + choose participants. Biased, demand characteristics, not shy people.

28
Q

What are the different types of design?

A

Independent groups - different people for each condition + compare. No order effects, less demand characteristics, more people needed.

Repeated measures - all do all conditions. No participant variables, fewer people, order effects, more time.

Matched pairs - diff people in each condition but similar. No order effects, less demand characteristics, more time, not match all.

29
Q

What are ethical considerations that always have to be made?

A
  • informed consent
  • deception
  • briefing/debriefing
  • protection of participants
  • right to withdraw
  • confidentiality/anonymity
  • observational research - only in public
  • incentives
30
Q

What is internal vs external reliability?

A

Internal - something consistent within itself. Random sample, high control.
External - extent to which test is consistent over time. Naturalistic setting.

31
Q

What is reliability?

A

Extent to which research has consistent results.
1. split half method - same do both, if similar, internal reliability.
2. test-retest - same test to same people on 2 occasions.
3. inter-rater reliability

Measured by correlation. Video event + rewatch increases reliability.

32
Q

What are ways to make experiments better/more scientific?

A

Random allocation - individual differences/ability less likely to affect.
Counterbalancing - decrease order effects.
Randomisation - used in trial presentation.
Standardisation - procedures = same, increasing successful replication.

33
Q

What is validity?

A

Extent to which results measures what it claims to.
1. face - looks to be measuring what it intends to
2. concurrent - measured alongside existing measure
3. temporal - results relevant today
4. predictive - how well test predicts future behaviour

34
Q

What is falsification?

A

Scientific statements can be proven wrong, Empirically testable - replication.

35
Q

What is primary data?

A

Collected specifically for research aim - not published before. More reliable and valid.

36
Q

What is secondary data?

A

Data collected for another research, been published before. Several sources -> clearer insight.

37
Q

What is a meta analysis?

A

Stats technique for combining info. Many studies with same research reviewed + data tested to assess effect.

38
Q

What is a content analysis?

A

Quantifying qualitative data using coding units. Used with media research. Can involve words themes, characters etc.
- easy to perform
- complements other methods
- reliable
- only descriptive
- lack of causality

39
Q

What is a thematic analysis?

A

Qualitative analysis methods to identify patterns via data coding. Themes = categories for analysis. Identify ideas within data.

40
Q

What are measures of central tendency?

A

Median - not affected by extremes, easy to find, unrepresentative, not all scores used
Mean - most accurate, uses all data, can be skewed
Mode - less affected by extremes, can be more than 1, not use all scores

41
Q

What are measures of dispersion?

A

Range - easy to find, accounts extremes, distorted, not show data spread
Standard deviation - all scores used, interpret individual scores, complex to calculate

42
Q

Which stats tests are used with nominal data?

A

Sign test - RMD
Chi squared - IGD

43
Q

Which stats are used with ordinal data?

A

Mann Whitney - IGD
Wilcoxon - RMD

44
Q

Which stats tests are used with interval data?

A

Unrelated t test - IGD
Related t test - RMD

45
Q

What is a normal and skewed distribution?

A

Normal - most scores around the mean, bell shaped. Unless is symmetrical = skewed. Positive if high extreme scores.

46
Q

What are inferential tests?

A

Stats tests - allow researcher to make inferences if difference in data is significant.

47
Q

What are the different types of data?

A

Nominal - frequency it occurs - distinct categories, most uninformative.
Ordinal - data ranked in order - scales
Interval - measured with standard units

48
Q

What is a type 1 and type 2 error?

A

Type 1 = accepting hypothesis should reject
Type 2 = rejecting hypothesis should accept.

49
Q

What is peer review?

A

Want to publish for research funding, journal, assess rating of uni. Better research, more points.
Quality control is essential - experts in same field, read paper for mistakes (not ethics).
Responses: accept, accept with changes made, reject.

50
Q

Why is peer review important?

A

Integrity of psychology
Not spread false info
Avoid fraudulent research
Help allocate funding

51
Q

How is inter rater reliability tested?

A

Determine and agree on categories beforehand, carry out the observation then compare results with a correlation - want +0.8.

52
Q

How is counterbalancing measured?

A

Each group does the condition in different order. Reduces order effects as they would affect both conditions equally and limits effects of rehearsal.

Psychology (12 decks)

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