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psychology > research methods > Flashcards

research methods Flashcards

1
Q

what is a single blind study?

A
  • participants may not be told details about the research (ie the aim, which condition they are in, if there is another condition)
  • done in an attempt to control demand characteristics
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2
Q

what is a double blind study?

A
  • both participants & researchers are unaware of the aims
  • often conducted by third party
  • done to avoid investigator effects
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3
Q

what is a case study?

A

an in-depth investigation, description and analysis of a single individual/group/institution

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4
Q

what is content analysis?

A

research:
- systematic investigation of materials and sources
- done to establish facts and reach new conclusions

method:
- particular procedure for accomplishing or approaching something

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5
Q

what is coding?

A
  • stage of content analysis
  • communication is analysed by identifying each instance of the chosen categories
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6
Q

what is thematic analysis?

A
  • inductive and qualitative approach to analysis
  • involves identifying implicit or explicit ideas within data
  • themes will often emerge after coding
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7
Q

what does studying a ‘case’ involve?

A
  • may involve the production of qualitative data
  • may construct a case history of the individual
  • may be subjected to experimental or psychological testing (may produce quantitative data)
  • tend to take place over a long period of time (longitudinal)
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8
Q

evaluation of using case studies

A

+ offers rich detailed insights
+ contributes to understanding of ‘normal behaviour’
+ may generate hypotheses for future studies
- no generalisability
- may be based on researcher’s interpretation
- retroactive accounts

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9
Q

evaluation of content analysis

A

+ circumnavigates many ethical issues
+ high external validity
- studied indirectly
- analysed outside of context within it occurred
- lack of objectivity

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10
Q

what is a questionnaire?

A
  • most common form of self report technique
  • involves a pre-set list of written questions
  • used to assess thoughts and/or feelings
  • may be used as part of an experiment
  • may be used to assess the DV
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11
Q

what is an open question?

A
  • does not have a fixed range of answers
  • respondents are free to answer in any way they wish
  • contains a wide range of different responses
  • tends to produce qualitative data
  • may be difficult to analyse
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12
Q

what is a closed question?

A
  • offers a fixed number of responses
  • gathers qualitative data (counts number of qualitative responses)
  • easy to analyse
  • may lack depth and detail
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13
Q

what is an interview?

A
  • may be conducted over the phone/on the internet
  • may involve face to face interaction
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14
Q

what is a structured interview?

A
  • made up of a pre-determined set of questions that are in a fixed order
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15
Q

what is an unstructured interview?

A
  • works like a conversation
  • no set questions
  • general aim that a certain topic will be discussed
  • interaction tends to be free- flowing
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16
Q

what is a semi-structured interview?

A
  • most likely to encounter in every day life
  • list of questions worked out in advance
  • interviewers are also free to ask follow up questions
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17
Q

how do you design an interview?

A
  • involve an interview schedule
  • should be standardised to reduce the contaminating effect
  • usually involve an interview and a single participant
  • one-to-one in a quiet room, starting with neutral questions
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18
Q

what is acquiescent bias?

A

phenomenon where individuals are likely to agree with with something regardless of how they actually feel

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19
Q

what is social desirability bias?

A

portraying yourself in a specific way to appeal to society/the researcher

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20
Q

what is response bias?

A

participants reply in a similar way every time (ie always ticking yes)

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21
Q

questionnaires evaluation

A

+ cost-effective
+ gather large amounts of data quickly
+ can be distributed to large amounts of people
+ can be completed without researcher’s presence
+ can be easily analysed
- responses may not be truthful
- often produces: social desirability, acquiescent and response biases

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22
Q

unstructured interview evaluation

A

+ flexible
+ more likely to gain insight
- risk of observer bias
- difficult to analyse

23
Q

structured interview evaluation

A

+ replicable
- unable to deviate from topic
- social desirability bias
- limited amount of rich data

24
Q

what is a pilot study?

A
  • a small scale trial run of a study that is done before the real study
  • identifies any potential issues
  • improvements can be done
25
Q

random sample evaluation

A

+ potentially unbiased
- may be confounding variables
- time consuming

26
Q

systematic sample evaluation

A

+ objective method
- time-consuming
- selected participants may refuse

27
Q

stratified sample evaluation

A

+ representative
- cannot account for subgroups

28
Q

opportunity sample evaluation

A

+ convenient
- unrepresentative

29
Q

volunteer sample evaluation

A

+ easy
+ participants engage and want to do the study
- volunteer bias

30
Q

what is a correlation?

A
  • mathematical technique
  • investigates an association between two variables (called co-variables)
31
Q

what is a positive correlation?

A

as one co-variable increases/decreases, the other co-variable increases/decreases. (ie the number of people in a room and the noise level)

32
Q

what is a negative correlation?

A

as one co-variable increases the other decreases (ie the number of people in a room and the amount of space)

33
Q

what is a zero correlation?

A

when the co-variables have no relationship (ie the amount of people in Newcastle and the amount of daily rainfall in Peru are likely to have no relationship)

34
Q

what are measures of central tendency?

A

the general term for any measure of the average value in a set of data (ie mean, median and mode)

35
Q

what is a measure of dispersion?

A

indicates the scattering of data and explains the disparity of data from to another (ie range and standard deviation)

36
Q

what is standard deviation?

A
  • single value that tells us how far scores deviate from the mean
  • the larger the standard deviation, the larger the spread within a set of data
  • if there is a large SD within a particular condition it suggests that not all participants were impacted by the IV in the same way
  • low standard deviation reflects the fact that the data is tightly clustered around the mean, which may imply all participants responded in the same way
37
Q

mean evaluation

A

+ representative
- distorted by extreme values (ie average class age including teacher)

38
Q

median evaluation

A

+ extreme scores do not effect the median
- less sensitive so less representative

39
Q

mode evaluation

A

+ easy to calculate
+ sometimes only usable average (when not dealing with numerical data)
- not very representative

40
Q

range evaluation

A

+ easy to calculate
- unrepresentative
- distorted by extreme values

41
Q

standard deviation evaluation

A

+ more precise
- distorted by extreme values

42
Q

what is qualitative data?

A
  • expressed in words and non-numerical values
  • may be converted to numbers for the purposes of analysis
43
Q

what is quantitative data?

A

data that can be counted - usually given as a number

44
Q

what is primary data?

A
  • has been obtained first-hand by a researcher for the purposes of a research project
  • often collected directly from participants as part of an experiment, self-report or observation
45
Q

what is secondary data?

A
  • already been collected by someone
  • pre-dates the current research project
  • might include the work of other psychologists or government statistics
46
Q

what is meta-analysis?

A
  • combining the findings from a number of studies on a particular topic
  • aim is to produce an overall statistical conclusion (the effect size) based on a range of studies
  • should not be confused with a review where a number of studies are compared and discussed
47
Q

a general statement about what the researcher intends to do

A

what is an aim?

48
Q

a testable statement that is made before the study takes place which states the relationship between variables

A

what is a hypothesis?

49
Q

predicts that there will be a difference and states in what direction (ie higher, lower)

A

what is a directional hypothesis?

50
Q

predicts that there will be a difference but does not specify in which direction

A

what is a non-directional hypothesis?

51
Q

the variable the researcher controls, changes, or manipulates

A

what is the independent variable (IV)?

52
Q

the outcome, which is measured by the researcher and is caused by the change in the IV

A

what is the dependent variable (DV)?

53
Q

if previous research suggests the direction of findings

A

when should you use a directional hypothesis?

54
Q

if previous research suggests the findings are ambiguous or there are little to no findings

A

when should you use a non-directional hypothesis?

psychology (5 decks)

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