research methods Flashcards
what is the BPS code of ethics and conduct
respect, competence, responsibility and integrity
what are the big data 3Vs
volume, variety and velocity
what are the advantages of big data (social media)
more info, more complete answers and more confidence in the data
what is reactive data collection
participants are aware that they are being studied
what is non-reactive data collection
participants are not aware they are being studied
what are descriptive statistics
summarise and describe a given dataset, central tendency and spread, concrete and known values
what are inferential statistics
uses probability to infer/ draw conclusions about a larger population from a smaller sample
what is nominal/ catagorical data
the lowest level of info where data is split into categories but we don’t know about numerical relationships between categories. e.g. men, woman or bilingual, monolingual
what is ordinal data
ranked positions in a group, numbers don’t represent quantities. we do not know about intervals between positions. e.g. non-standardised questionnaires with single liker type items e.g. 1-agree, 5-disagree
what is interval data
uses equal units- the distance of scale points is the same across whole scale. e.g. IQ, test score, temperature.
what is ratio data
interval data that has a true zero and can be used in ratios. e.g. height, weight, time
what is discrete data
can only have a fixed number of values
what is continuous data
theoretically can have infinite number of values
what is central tendency
shows the most typical/ representative score
what does dispersion show
how much values vary around the central value
what measure is used when your data has extreme values
the median because the mean can be heavily influenced by outliers
what are the measures of central tendency
mean, median, mode
what are the measures of spread/ dispersion
range, interquartile range, variance, standard deviation
what is the mode
the value which appears most frequently
what is the range
the difference between your highest and lowest score. very sensitive to outliers
what is the interquartile range
the difference between the 75th and 25th percentiles of the data
what is the variance of a data set
uses info from all scores in a data set. average squared deviation from mean
what is the standard deviation
square root of the variance, this shows the average deviation from the mean. most commonly used measure of spread.
what does a big/ small standard deviation mean
big- data is dispersed, small- data is more clustered around mean
what do distributions show
the frequency of each value in a sample, they are important for inferential statistics
what is normal distribution/ gaussian distribution
produces a bell curve graph with a symetrical distribution around its mean value.
what is meant by skewness
measure if asymmetry in distributions. where there is skew there are few
define positive skew and negative skew
positive= most values are clustered at low end of the scale
negative= most values are clustered at the high end of the scale
what is kurtosis
refers to the peak and dispersion of the data, how squished it is
how is platykurtic data displayed
the distribution is more dispersed
how is leptokurtic data displayed
the distribution is more peaked
how is probability expressed
from 0-1 in decimals e.g. 0.5= 50%
what is empirical probability
the probability/ likelihood based on previous data
define epistemology
the theory of knowledge
define empiricism
theory that all knowledge is based on experiences
what is positivism
knowledge is revealed from measurable, observable data and scientific methods to understand the world.
what is social constructivism
theory which emphasises the collaborative nature of learning
define phenomenology
focuses on the study of lived experiences and how things appear to us
define discourse analysis
qualitative research method examining how people use language to create meaning and influence others (content and organisation of language)
what is grounded theory
qualitative research method where theories are developed from data collected
define experiential
involving or based on experience or observation
what are focus groups
recorded group interviews with several participants and one moderator
what does orthographic transcription mean
what is said and who is speaking
what is Jeffersonian transcription
what is being said and how it was said
what is thematic analysis
a qualitative research method used to interpret, analyse and identify patterns in data
