Research Methods Flashcards
What is qualitative data?
any type of information that can be observed and recorded that is not numerical and can be in the form of written or verbal communication
Strength of qualitative data
Hollistic - Allows participant to give an meaning and individual opinion
Weakness of qualitative data
Hard to analyse - Hard to compare
Time consuming - Method of collection can be lengthy
What is quantitative data?
Numerical data
Strength of quantitative data
Objective - Cant be manipulated
Easy to compare - Inferential tests
What is primary data?
First hand data collected for the purpose of the study
Weakness of quantitative data
Reductionist - Participants can only answer specific words or numbers (yes/No), can’t expand
weakness of primary data
Subjective - May be bias to what you have collected, to fit hypothesis
Strength of primary data
Reliable - Know procedure, can replicate
What is secondary data?
information collected by someone other than the person who is conducting the research (taken from journals)
Strength of secondary data
Generalisable - More participants as multiple studies are used
Weakness of secondary data
Representivness - Not representative of target population
What is random sampling?
when every person in the target population has an equal chance of being selected
Strength of random sampling
No bias - Everyone has an equal chance
Weakness of random sampling
Not representative of target population - minority groups
Strength of stratified sampling
Representative of target population - Minority groups included
What is stratified sampling?
when you identify the subgroups and select participants in proportion to their occurrences.
Weakness of stratified sampling
Time consuming - Process is lengthy
What is volunteer sampling?
where participants pick themselves through newspaper adverts, noticeboards or online.
Strength of volunteer sampling
Easy to gather sample - Quick as participants put themselves forward
What is opportunity sampling?
uses people who are available at the time the study is carried out
Weakness of volunteer sampling
Participants may share characteristics - As they are all volunteering for the same study, shown intrest into the topic area
Strength of opportunity sampling
Easy to gather sample - Pick people who are available at the time to take part
Weakness of opportunity sampling
Not representative - Share characteristics - Same place/Same time
What is a directional hypothesis?
One tailed - State the specific direction the researcher expects the results to go in
What is a non-directional hypothesis?
Two tailed - these state that a difference will be found between the conditions of the independent variable
Strength of open question
Provide rich data
Weakness of open question
Hard to analyse - Alot of data
What is a structured interview?
The interview is standadised - Uses a fixed set of questions - Given to each participant in the same order
Strength of structured interview
Standadised set of questions - increase validity - more accurate
Weakness of structured interview
What is a semi-structured interview?
Strength of semi-structured interview
Weakness of semi-structured interview
what is an unstructured interview?
Strength of unstructured interview
Weakness of unstructured interview
Strength of lab experiment
Standadised - controlled setting - more valid
Weakness of lab experiment
Lacks ecological validity - Artifical settings - Increases demand characteristics
Strength of field experiment
Ecologically valid - naturalistic setting - prevents demand characteristics
Weakness of field experiment
Not standadised - Cant be controlled - extraneous variables
Strength of covert observations
Valid - natural setting - prevents demand characteristics
Weakness of covert observations
Lacks ethics - participants unaware they are being observed
Strength of overt observations
Ethical - participants are aware they are being observed
Weakness of overt observations
Lacks validity - as they are aware of observations - may act in a certain way to fit in - social desirability bias
Strength of participant observations
Spend more time with participants - get a more indepth understanding of participants behaviour
Weakness of participant observations
Social desirability bias - participant is aware of observations - act differently
Strength of non-participant observations
More natural - observer can observe the situation more naturally - prevent demand characteristics
Weakness of non-participant observations
Aware they are being observed - social desirability bias
Strength of naturalistic observations
Ecologically valid - prevent demand characteristics
Weakness of naturalistic observations
Lacks contol - cant be standadised - lacks validity
What is controlled observations?
behaviour is observed under controlled laboratory conditions (Bandura’s Bobo doll study).
Strength of controlled observations
Controlled setting - increases validity - standadised
Weakness of controlled observations
Lacks ecological validity - This is because its set in a lab - not natural
What are participant variables?
What are situational variables?
What is extraneous variables?
What are confounding variables?
What is an independent group design?
each participant is selected for only one group
Strength of independent group design
No order effects - as each participants has a different condition - prevent demand characteristics
Weakness of independent group design
Participant variables - all participants are different
What is repeated measures?
each participant appears in both groups, so that there are exactly the same participants in each group
Strength of repeated measures
Prevent participants variables - as each participants carries out all conditions
Weakness of repeated measures
Prevents chance of order effects - as the participant could discover what factor the researcher is looking for
What is matched pairs?
each participant is selected for only one group, but the participants in the two groups are matched (e.g. ability; sex; age).
Strength of matched pairs
Reduces participant variables - dependent on what they are matched on
Weakness of matched pairs
Time consuming - can be hard to match participants
What is a content analysis?
- An observation
- Indirect, through magazines and TV programmes
- ## Analyse qualitative data
How do you carry out a content analysis?
- Data collected
- Examine data
- Identify themes
- Data analysed and placed in categories
- Tally of how much a theme/category appears
Strength of content analysis
- Ecologically valid, this is because the data is collected from observations
- Easy and not time consuming
Weakness of content analysis
- The data may be subjective, because of researcher bias, may interpret the observations differently
What is correlational research?
What is longitudinal analysis?
What is cross cultural analysis?
What is cross sectional analysis?
What is a meta-analysis?
What is counterbalancing?
To prevent order effects - split the group into sub-groups
- one sub-group does the experimental condition first
- the other sub-group does it the other way round.
What are order effects?
This is when the participants experience every condition which can cause the participant to figure out the purpose of the study
What is social desirability bias?
When participants answer based on what they think will make them look better to others, fit social norms
What are demand characteristics?
When participants figure out the aim of the study and change their behaviour to fit
What is grounded theory?
What is a thematic analysis?
