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Research methods Flashcards

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
What is stratified sampling?
Calculate relative % of samples based on ratio in population. Representative, unbiased, time consuming.
26
What is opportunity sampling?
Sample of those available. Easy/practical, biased, unrepresentative.
27
What is volunteer sampling?
Ads + choose participants. Biased, demand characteristics, not shy people.
28
What are the different types of design?
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
What are ethical considerations that always have to be made?
- informed consent - deception - briefing/debriefing - protection of participants - right to withdraw - confidentiality/anonymity - observational research - only in public - incentives
30
What is internal vs external reliability?
Internal - something consistent within itself. Random sample, high control. External - extent to which test is consistent over time. Naturalistic setting.
31
What is reliability?
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
What are ways to make experiments better/more scientific?
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
What is validity?
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
What is falsification?
Scientific statements can be proven wrong, Empirically testable - replication.
35
What is primary data?
Collected specifically for research aim - not published before. More reliable and valid.
36
What is secondary data?
Data collected for another research, been published before. Several sources -> clearer insight.
37
What is a meta analysis?
Stats technique for combining info. Many studies with same research reviewed + data tested to assess effect.
38
What is a content analysis?
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
What is a thematic analysis?
Qualitative analysis methods to identify patterns via data coding. Themes = categories for analysis. Identify ideas within data.
40
What are measures of central tendency?
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
What are measures of dispersion?
Range - easy to find, accounts extremes, distorted, not show data spread Standard deviation - all scores used, interpret individual scores, complex to calculate
42
Which stats tests are used with nominal data?
Sign test - RMD Chi squared - IGD
43
Which stats are used with ordinal data?
Mann Whitney - IGD Wilcoxon - RMD
44
Which stats tests are used with interval data?
Unrelated t test - IGD Related t test - RMD
45
What is a normal and skewed distribution?
Normal - most scores around the mean, bell shaped. Unless is symmetrical = skewed. Positive if high extreme scores.
46
What are inferential tests?
Stats tests - allow researcher to make inferences if difference in data is significant.
47
What are the different types of data?
Nominal - frequency it occurs - distinct categories, most uninformative. Ordinal - data ranked in order - scales Interval - measured with standard units
48
What is a type 1 and type 2 error?
Type 1 = accepting hypothesis should reject Type 2 = rejecting hypothesis should accept.
49
What is peer review?
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
Why is peer review important?
Integrity of psychology Not spread false info Avoid fraudulent research Help allocate funding
51
How is inter rater reliability tested?
Determine and agree on categories beforehand, carry out the observation then compare results with a correlation - want +0.8.
52
How is counterbalancing measured?
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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