research methods Flashcards
why is cross cultural research conducted
it is carried out by researchers who want to compare an attitude or behaviour in different cultures, allowing psychologists to see what is common across cultures and what is culturally specific
how does cross cultural research investigate nature vs nurture
if a behaviour is repeated across all cultures it can be argued that the behaviour is nature
if a behaviour is found in some cultures but not others it can be argued that the behaviour is nurture
why do we need cross cultural research (3 ways)
it can remove ethnocentric views
researcher can immerse themselves in different cultures and learn their ways, making it ethnographic (increase generalisability)
improve understanding of culture factors
what is meant by an emic approach
studying a culture from within to find out about cultures and norms and seeing if that behaviour is relevant to that culture
what is meant by an etic approach
studying a culture from outside, looking at norms and ideas between them
give 1 overall study that can be used to look at cross cultural research
Lin (1996) schizophrenia was looked at cross culturally and it was found the prevelance seemed similar across all cultures, similarities outweighed the differences, the only difference seemed to be in terms of the outcomes for the patient, patients in developed countries seemed to have more positive outcomes
name 3 strengths of cross cultural research
allows psychologists to see if behaviours are universal
same procedures are replicated across different cultures
reduces ethnocentrism in research
name 3 weaknesses of cross cultural research
communication difficulties may arise
observer bias may occur
participants may not be reflective of that culture and be influenced by personal upbringing rather than cultural upbringing
what is alpha bias
exaggerating differences between groups
what is beta bias
minimising differences between groups
what is afrocentrism
defining psychological experiences from an African-centered point of view
why is cross sectional research conducted
quick snap shot of behaviour in a population rather than waiting for longitudinal data to be gathered, they use a large sample size in order to get a good cross section of the whole target population
give 1 study surrouding cross sectional research
Mynard and Joesph(1997) investigated peer victimisation (bullied by other children) is positively related to psychological maladjustment, they used one group of bullies, one group of victims and one control group
what is a cohort effect
factors relating to this group which might make them special in some way and thus not entirely comparable to another similar group
give 3 strengths of cross sectional research
practically more time and cost efficient
increased validity
more ethical than longitudinal studies
give 3 weaknesses of cross sectional research
cohort bias
participant variables (low validity)
how descriptive is the data compared to longitudinal
what are longitudinal designs
involves studying the same participants over a long period of time, monitoring changes or the experience under a therapy or drug
give 1 examples of a study using a longitudinal method
Goldstein (1988) used the longitudinal method to look at gender differences in schizophrenia in terms of their experience such as how they coped with everyday life, where she recorded number of hospitalisations
give 4 AO1 points surrounding primary data
gathered directly from a group of participants
can give information which is unique to the aim of the research
can be gathered from clinical interviews with mentally ill patients regarding their symptoms and experiences
can be gathered from interviews or questionaires
give 4 AO1 points surrounding secondary data
data gathered by other researchers
data can come from assessing other peer reviewed articles or public access statistics
information can be used in the aim of the study but not directly purposeful for the study
can be gathered from hospital records, criminal records or education records
give 3 AO1 points about structured interviews
pre planned interview with questions
in a fixed order of questions
closed ended questions
give 3 AO1 points about semi-structured interviews
set few questions
flexibility
can ask further questions to learn more about the symptoms
what is meta analysis
where researchers combine findings from multiple studies to draw an overall conclusion
what is the purpose of the HCPC
legal regulations to protect the public and ensure good practice and failure
name 5 standards of the HCPC
able to work appropriately with others
maintain records appropriately
assure quality of their practice
communicate effectively
understand the importance of confidentiality
why does psychology practice require regulation (3 reasons)
protect the service user
protection of the practioner
protect the profession
2 negatives of the HCPC guidelines
too vague
is 2 years enough for a re-registration if done wrong
how does meta analysis work
define the research question
conduct a literature search (retrieve and review published and unpublished studies)
select studies which are included in the meta analysis
extract data for analysis
what is content analysis
it is an observation which studies human behaviour, it is usually presented in qualitative data
how does content analysis work
a sample of content artefacts are collected
they are categorised (top-down approaches make categories before looking at data)
researcher has to create a coding system (e.g. tallying)
