Research Methods Flashcards
What is a hypothesis?
A clear, precise, testable statement that states the relationship between the variables being investigated
What is an aim?
What the researcher wants to achieve from the experiment
What is a directional hypothesis?
A hypothesis which states the direction of the relationship
What is a non-directional hypothesis?
A hypothesis which simply states there will be a difference with saying the direction
What is the Independent Variable?
The variable which is changed
What is the Dependant Variable?
The variable which is measured or being investigated
What is a null hypothesis?
A hypothesis which states that the IV will have no significant effect on the DV
What is an extraneous variable?
Any variable other than the IV that may have an effect on the DV if it is not controlled
What is a confounding variable?
Any variable other than the IV that may have affected the DV so we cannot be sure of the true source of changes to the DV
What are Demand Characteristics?
When the participant changes their behaviour to affect the results or outcome of the experiment
What are investigator effects?
Any effect of the investigators behaviour on the research outcome (DV)
What is randomisation?
The use of chance in order to control for the effects of bias when designing experiments and deciding the order of conditions
What is standardisation?
Using the same procedures for each participant in the experiment
What is experimental design?
The different conditions in which participants are organised in the experiment
What is an independent groups design?
Participants are separated where each group represents one condition
What is the repeated measures design?
When the same participants take part in all conditions of the experiment
What is the matched pairs design?
When pairs of participants are matched up based off of what may affect the DV, then one is assigned to condition A while the other to condition B
What is random allocation?
When each participant has the same chance of being in one condition as the other
What is counter balancing?
An attempt to get rid of order effects (in repeated measures design), one half does A—>B while the other half does B—>A
What is reliability?
When something is consistent and can produce the same or very similar results
What is validity?
Whether the measurement used actually measures what it claims to be measuring
What is a lab experiment?
An experiment that takes place in a controlled environment (keeping strict control of EVs), while the researcher manipulates the IV
What is a field experiment?
An experiment that takes place in its natural setting within which the researcher manipulates the IV and records the DV
What is a natural experiment?
An experiment where the IV changes naturally and participants aren’t randomly allocated
Wha is a quasi experiment?
An experiment where the IVs are characteristics of the participants (they cannot be randomly allocated)
What is a population?
The group of people who the experiment is trying to represent
What is a sample?
A group of people that participate in the experiment to represent the population
What is sampling bias?
When the method used to sample participants do not choose the sample representatively
What is generalisation?
The extent to which results in the experiment can be applied to the population
What is a random sample?
A random sample is one in which all members of the target population have an equal chance of being selected
What is a systemic sample?
When every nth member from the target population is selected (eg. every 4th person)
What is a stratified sample?
A sample which proportionally represents the population
What is an opportunity sample?
When the researcher simply selects anyone who is available and willing to participate at the time
What is volunteer sampling?
Volunteer sampling (self selection) involves participants selecting themselves to partake in the experiment
What are ethical issues?
When there is conflict in between the rights of the participants and the goals of conducting an experiment to produce authentic and valid results
What is the BPS code of ethics?
A document made by the British Psychological Society (BPS) that instructs psychologists what behaviour is and isn’t acceptable when dealing with human participants
What is informed consent?
This includes making the participant aware of the aims of the experiment, the procedures and their rights
What does the acronym PC DRIP stand for?
P - Privacy
C - Confidentiality
D - Deception
R - Right to withdraw
I - Informed consent
P - Protection from harm
What is privacy?
A person’s right to be free from public attention in personal spaces
What does deception mean?
Deception means misleading or withholding information from the participant at any point within the experiment
What is protection from harm?
This means that participants should not be placed in any more danger than they would be in during their normal life
What is the “right to withdraw”?
This means that participants can withdraw themselves or their data from the experiment at any point during or after the experiment
What does confidentiality mean?
Refers to our right to have our data remain disclosed unless it has been agreed to be shared in advance
What should a consent form contain?
Some or all of the conditions to gain informed consent, reassure confidentiality will be kept, give the right to withdraw, leave a place to sign
What are standardised instructions?
What the participant will be expected to do, must include all essential points and address all ethical issues
How do you write a debrief?
- Include the full aim of the study and remind the p which condition they took part in
- They should be reassured their behaviour is typical or normal
- They should have the right to withdraw their results
- In extreme cases where they may have suffered stress, ask them if they may require counselling (protection from harm)
- Thank them for taking part
- Ask them if they have any questions
How do you write a debrief?
- Include the full aim of the study and remind the p which condition they took part in
- They should be reassured their behaviour is typical or normal
- They should have the right to withdraw their results
- In extreme cases where they may have suffered stress, ask them if they may require counselling (protection from harm)
- Thank them for taking part
- Ask them if they have any questions
What is a pilot study?
A pilot study is a smaller scale version of the experiment before the real investigation to test the procedure and make sure everything runs smoothly
What is a case study?
An in-depth study using a range of methods on a person or group
What is a naturalistic observation?
Watching and recording behaviour in the setting it would naturally occur in
What is a controlled observation?
Watching and recording behaviour in a structured environment where variables are controlled
What is a covert observation?
Participants behaviour is watched and recorded without their knowledge or consent
What is an overt observation?
Participants behaviour is watched and recorded with their knowledge or consent
What is a participant observation?
When the researcher becomes part of the group which they are investigating
What is a non-participant observation?
The researcher stays out of the group whose behaviour they are recording
What are behavioural categories?
When target behaviour is broken up into components which are observable and measurable
What is event sampling (structured)?
A target behaviour which is recorded every time it is observed
What is time sampling (structured)?
When the researcher records their behaviour every set interval
What is inter-observer reliability?
When multiple observers consider the same behaviour to be in the same category
What is an unstructured observation?
When the observer simply records every behaviour that they see
What is a self report technique?
Any method in which a person is asked to give their own feelings, opinions or experiences related to a given topic
What is a questionnaire?
A written set of questions used to assess a person’s feelings or experiences
What is an interview?
A live encounter where the interviewer asks the interviewee questions to assess their thoughts and experiences, questions may be pre-set (structured) or may be asked as it goes along (unstructured)
What is an open question?
A question where there is no fixed answer and respondents can respond with whatever they want
What is a closed question?
Questions for which there is a fixed choice of response
What is a likert scale?
A scale using numbers to indicate how much the respondent agrees with a statement
What is correlation?
A mathematical technique used to investigate association between two variables
What is positive correlation?
As one variable increases, so does the other
What is negative correlation?
When one variable increases, the other decreases
What is zero correlation?
When there is no relationship between the co-variables
What is the correlation coefficient?
The number which tells us how closely the variables are related (between 0-1)
What is qualitative data?
Data which is expressed in word and not numerical (may be converted to numbers)
What is quantitive data?
Data which can be counted, usually given as numbers
What is primary data?
Information which has been obtained first hand by the researcher
What is secondary data?
Information which has already been collected by someone else
What is a meta-analysis?
Combing results from a number of investigations to provide an overall view
What is standard deviation?
How much scores deviate from the mean by calculating the difference between the mean and each score. All the differences are added up and divided by the number of scores
