Research Methods Flashcards
Directional or Non-directional Hypothesis?:
Memory decreases as age increases
🙌
Directional!
What is an independent variable??
A variable that is manipulated or changed by the researcher!
What is operationalising?? 😐
Making the IV and DV measurable!
What are the 3 types of experimental design??🧪
- Independent groups
- Repeated Measures
- Matched pairs
So…What is a repeated measures experiment and what are the strengths/weaknesses?
Each ppt takes part in all experimental conditions!
+ Smaller sample easier to obtain
+ Control ppt variables
- Less representative
- Demand Characteristics
- Order effects
What are order effects??
Fatigue, boredom and/or familiarity
Minimise them by using counterbalancing! So one ppt does one condition first whilst another does a different condition and then they switch!
GRAVE!
… What is grave??
🪦
G- Generalisation
R- Reliability
A- Application
V- Validity
E- Ethics
It’s a guide to evaluating studies!
What’s external validity?? 🌍
The extent to which the conclusions from your research study can be generalised to people and situations outside of the study!
What’s Mundane realism?
The degree to which materials and procedures involved in an experiment are similar to events that occur in the real world!
Onto types of experiments…
What’s Quasi??
The IV is based on an existing difference between people!
Like…Age! Or gender!
What are the negatives of a field experiment??🏡(and positive)
+ High external validity
- Ethical issues (Did the ppt consent??)
- Lose control over extraneous variables
Now the positives and negatives of natural experiments, Go!
+ Take advantage of rare experimental opportunities
+ High external validity
- Too rare to replicate
- People not randomly allocated (bias?)
Phew… Onto Observational techniques now!
What are the 6 types??
Naturalistic
Controlled
Overt
Covert
Participant
Non-participant
Why use a controlled observation technique?? (or why not?)🔬
+ High internal validity
+ Control over extraneous variables
+ Easy to replicate
- Demand characteristics
Gimme all the facts about covert!
Ppts unaware they’re being observed
+ High validity
- Unethical
Positives and negatives of Participant! (The observation technique)
+ High validity (more insight)
- Difficult to record observations promptly and objectively
- Difficult to replicate
- Objective
What is a structured observation?? 👀
Researchers design a coding/categorising system
Use a behavioural checklist -> A list of behaviours that could be observed specific to the observation
Wait so… Can we remove the bias from Participant observations?
Yes!
Inter-observer reliability: 2+ researchers need to record the same data & their judgements need to be consistent!
Wait there’s more though… What are the 2 types of sampling in a structured observation??
Time sampling -> Observations made at regular time intervals
Event sampling -> Keep a tally chart of every time a behaviour occurs
Now onto Ethics! What are the 4 main parts of ethical issues??
Informed consent
Deception
Protection form harm
Privacy & Confidentiality
What 4 things should be in a consent letter?? ✉️
- General aim
- Clear instructions
- Right to withdraw
- Signature from ppt
Define retrospection!
Debriefing after an experiment when ppts didn’t know they were part of an experiment!
What 3 things should the debrief after the study include?? 🧐
- Told true nature of study and given all info withheld during
- Given right to withdraw data
- If subject to stress or embarrassment, researcher provides counselling
What’s the rule linked to confidentiality??
Only collect necessary information from ppts (keep names and data confidential when possible)
Moving out of ethics and towards…
Questionnaires and interviews!!
Start off with the 3 strengths of questionnaires!
- Cost effective
- Researcher doesn’t have to be present
- Data analysis easy to conduct!
What are the weaknesses of questionnaires then?? 👎
- Demand characteristic & social desirability bias
- Response bias
What’s the difference between structured and unstructured interviews??
Structured: Easy to replicate, can’t deviate from questions or elaborate
Unstructured: More detail from ppt but harder data analysis
structured follows a fixed set of questions whereas unstructured is more conversational.
(Descriptive statistics)
Which central tendency is the most representative??
Mean!!
How do we calculate the range in Psychology?? 📏
Highest - Lowest + 1
What does a large standard deviation show us??
Not all ppts were affected by the IV in the same way - The results are further from the mean.
Sampling techniques time!
How do we obtain a random sample??
- Complete list of target population is made
- Each member assigned a number
- Numbers generated by computer-based programme
When discussing the strengths and weaknesses of sampling techniques, what are the topics that should be considered?
- Researcher Bias
- Cost
- Convenience
- Ethics (ppts can refuse)
- Time consumption
- Representation of population
- Fairness
What are the strengths of systematic sampling?? 💪
- Free from researcher bias
- Usually representative
What are the weaknesses of random sampling??
- Time consuming
- Not representative
- Hard to obtain complete list of entire population
- Ppts may refuse
How do we obtain a systematic sample??
- make list of target population
- Sampling frame organised
- Every nth member chosen
How do we obtain stratified samples??
- Identify the strata within the target population
- Proportions of each strata for the sample to be representative are calculated
- Ppts from each strata are chosen using random sampling
What are the weaknesses of stratified sampling?? 👎
- Can’t reflect individual differences
- Time consuming
- Ppts can refuse
How do we obtain opportunity samples??
Researcher selects first available ppts that fit the criteria
What are the weaknesses of opportunity samples?? 💔
- Not representative
- Researcher bias
What are the strengths and weaknesses of volunteer sampling?? 👀
Strengths: Cheap & Convenient
Weaknesses: Not representative & Only specific types of people volunteer
What’s a pilot study??✈️
Small-scale trial run of the actual investigation to check the method works
Why would we use pilot studies for observations??
- To check the behavioural checklist
- Train observers
(etc)
Why would we use pilot studies for questionnaires??✈️👀
Ensure questions are standardised and understandable
To remove ambiguous or leading questions
What would a pilot study check for field experiments??
If the sampling technique is biased or if the wrong one is being used
Give 2 examples of secondary data sources!✌️
- Journal articles
- Government statistics
What’s meta-analysis??
(And what type of data is it?)
Combining results from multiple studies to draw an overall conclusion
Data: Secondary
What’s a strength of meta-analysis??
Increases validity of conclusion
(sample size larger than individual samples, increases degree of generalisation)
What’s a case study? 💼
Studies that collect qualitative, primary data based on subjective experience
What are the 5 weaknesses of case studies?? 🤔
- No control over extraneous variables
- Subjectivity
- Not generalisable
- Hard to replicate (low reliability)
- Time-consuming
What are the 3 strengths of case studies??
- Rich & qualitative data
- High external validity
- Avoids ethical issues
What is the purpose of the critical value??
Tells us whether the result is significant or not
What are the 4 things that are needed to calculate the critical value??
- Table of critical
- Desired significance level (0.05)
- Number of ppts in investigation (N value)
- Whether hypothesis is one-tailed or two-tailed
How do you find the calculated value??
- Calculate the difference between both conditions for each participant
- Determine what the sign is (+ or -)
- How many + and - there are, the calculated value is the lesser number (smaller)
How do you find the critical value??
- Calculate the N value (how many results were collected, excluding any zeros when the differences are calculated)
- Use the N value, the desired significant level, the table of critical and the type of hypothesis to find the critical value
What is the conclusion if the calculated value is higher than the critical value??
Data is not significant and alternative hypothesis is not accepted but null hypothesis is.
What is the conclusion if the critical value is higher than the calculated value??
Data is significant and the hypothesis is accepted
