Research methods Flashcards by alby Robertson

What types of experiment are there?

Laboratory experiment
Field experiment
Natural experiment
Quasi experiment

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What are the positives and negatives of a laboratory experiment?

Enables high levels of control which increase reliability.
This can reduce validity as It cannot be applied to other conditions due to it being so highly controlled.

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What are the positives and negatives of a field experiment?

Lower levels of control as its in an open environment which decreases reliability
Increase validity as in a open field environment where peoples behaviour is less likely to change due to situational factors.

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What are the positives and negatives of a natural experiment?

Can be seen to have less control, ethical consideration problems and potentials for bias from observers and subjects
Can allow for more natural behaviour making it more realistic increasing the ecological validity and reducing any demand characteristics

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What are the positives and negatives of a quasi experiment?

+ Can mimic an experiment and provide high levels of evidence without randomisation.
- Cannot rule out that other factors have not produced the results given.

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Whats the difference between external and internal validity?

Internal validity is confidence in what you are testing isn’t influenced by other factors/variables
External validity is the extent to which your results can be generalised to other contexts.

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What is the difference between a naturalistic and controlled observation?

Controlled observation is where peoples variables are manipulated
Naturalistic observation is where a is observed and variables are not manipulated.

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Whats the difference between a covert and overt observation?

In an overt observation participants know they are bing watched. Covert observations is where the participants doesn’t know.

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Whats the difference between a participant and non participant observation?

A participant observation is where the observer becomes a part of the observation.
Allows the observer to get a closer look at the group and there behaviour.

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What does it mean if participants have performed in more than one condition?

Repeated measures design if participants

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What does it mean if a participant is used in one condition and been matched up?

That a matched pairs design is occurring if not matched up its a independent measures design(unrelated)

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What is a pilot study?

A pilot study is a small version of the mains study which is carried out before the main study to test out the method or establish key facts for the main study.

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What are the advantages of a pilot study?

+ Can show areas where the study could fail
+ Inform of proposed methods being too complicated
+ Convince/help to get funding
+ Improve internal validity of a questionnaire

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What are the disadvantages of a pilot study?

Could make inaccurate assumptions
If include participants in main study there may be demand characteristics

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What are the 10 codes of ethics as of the BPS?

General (considering implications of research)
Informed consent
Deception
Debriefing
Withdrawal from investigations
Confidentiality
Protection of participant
Observational research
Giving advice
Colleagues

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Define standardisation

Process of making sure each participant receives exactly same instructions, task and condition in order to remove variations.

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What 4 types of validity are there?

Face validity
Concurrent validity
Ecological validity
Temporal validity

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Define face validity

Face validity is wether the method is measuring what it is supposed to be measuring

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Define temporal validity

How well something can be applied to current time. ie an experiment conducted in the 1800s may not be temporally valid to current time.

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Define ecological validity

The extent to which a study can be applied to real life findings considering the immersive nature of the experimental setting.

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Define concurrent validity

Concurrent validity is meant to test the performance of a new questionnaire or interview compared to a previously established method

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What do all laboratory experiments have?

Low validity high reliability (normally)

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

What five methods are used to analyse data?

Mode
Median
Range
Mean
Standard deviation

How well did you know this?

Not at all

Perfectly

Why would someone use the standard deviation?

Its a measure of the relative riskiness of an asset.

What do averages show us?

Allows experimenters to make comparisons from the mid points of each piece of data for each condition.

What are the 3 data measurement levels?

Nominal Ordinal Interval (ratio)

What is a normal distribution?

A probability distribution where the data is situated near the mean and more frequent occurrences of data are set near the mean.

What is a skewed distribution?

Where the frequency of data is not evenly spread or it is clustered at one end. If the data is positively skewed it has a long tail to the right. If it’s negatively skewed it has a long tail to the left.

What is primary data?

Data generated by the researcher

What is secondary data?

Information someone else has collected

What are the 5 different sampling techniques?

Random Systematic Stratified Opportunity Volunteer

Define random sampling

Each person selected is equally likely to be picked as it is random.

Define systematic sampling

Each person is selected from the population at an interval level e.g. every 15th person from a list of people selected

Define stratified sampling

Participants are subdivided into smaller groups called strata

Define opportunity sampling

Participants are selected wether they are willing to take part in the study or not

Define volunteer sampling

Where participants volunteer when asked from an advert or newspaper etc

What are demand characteristics?

Any cues that may indicate to a participant the aims of the study.

Give a strength and weakness to the use case study

+ Allows in depth research into a real life situation that has occurred naturally. - Difficult to apply to other areas i.e. has low ecological validity as only 1 participant.

What is the rule of U?

If the test is unrelated then the test used must also have a U in it.

Which test would be used for data with a correlation that is ordinal?

Spearmans rho

Which test would be used for data that is looking for a difference that is unrelated and nominal data?

Chi squared

Which test would be used for data that is looking for a difference that is related and interval level data?

Related t test

Which test would be used for data that is looking for a difference that is related and nominal level data?

Sign test

Which test would be used for data that is looking for a difference that is unrelated and ordinal level data?

Mann-whitney U

Which test would be used for data with a correlation that is nominal?

Chi squared

Which test would be used for data that is looking for a difference that is unrelated and interval level data?

Unrelated t-test

Which test would be used for data that is looking for a difference that is related and ordinal level data?

Wilcoxon

Which test would be used for data with a correlation that is interval?

Pearson's R

What is the difference between a one tailed and two tailed hypothesis?

One tailed hypothesises say that there is only one direction in which the data can go in and that it is either positive or negative correlation. Two tailed hypothesises says that there is just a correlation but does not specify being positive or negative.

What is quantitive data?

Numerically based data

What is qualitative data?

Data which is text based

What is content analysis?

Process in which presentations of behaviour or qualitative data are analysed.

What is a strength of content analyses?

Offers a method to analyse a variety of forms of data including media and self-report methods so that insights into cultural trends and experiences can be understood.

What is a weakness of content analyses?

The identification of suitable themes and codes is subjective and decided by the researcher alone, meaning that conclusions lack any scrutiny or objectivity.

What is thematic analyses?

Alternate to content analyses which converts qualitative data into quantative data.

What is the point of an abstract?

Last thing to write about but the first that others see which is a 150-200 word summary of what your looking into, why your looking into it, what it indicates and the results.

How should you overcome the issue of abnormal results?

Calulate mean score with abnormal result included Replace the abnormal scorre with the mean Recalculate the mean from there

What is a type 1 error?

When an investigator rejects the null and should have accepted it.

What is a type 2 error?

When an investigator accepts the null and should have rejected it.