Research Methods Flashcards
Give some weaknesses of an observation
Do not know the reasons behind their actions
Easy for extraneous variables to take place
Give the 4 main types of observation
Naturalistic, structured,participant and non participant
What is a naturalistic observation ?
Observing participants without the manipulation of the environment. Studies the participant in a natural setting
What is a structured observation
Observation pre planned and set up. Lots of controls and a standardised procedure Set up in a lab.
What is a participant observation
The observer is pretending to be part of the setting
What is a non participant observation?
Researcher is not part of the setting of the observation
Define overt observation
When the researcher is open about their intentions and everyone is aware of what is happening
Define covert observation
Everything is concealed from the participant (so they participant does not know they are being observed )
What is an unstructured observation ?
When the observation is not set up and controlled so the researcher records everything
What was the aim of our observation report?
To see whether males or females smiled more during conversation
What were the research methods of our observation?
Naturalistic, covert, event sampling.
How many participants in our observation?
139 males and females of mixed age groups
How long did we observe our participants for?
One minute
What is classed as a smile in our observation
Teeth and no laughter
How did we collect our data?
Made a tally chart and tallied every time a participant smiled
What were the results of our observation?
Chi-squared told us that the difference between males and females miles is due to chance factors and is not due to gender
What do our results suggest?
That social learning theory can encourage other people to smile
Name some strengths of an observation
Qualitative and quantitative data
Can be done in many different ways such as a natural or a controlled environment
Objective data
What are The key features of an experiment?
Independent variable, depending on very well, controlled variables, hypotheses (More quantitive data)
What are the key features of the case study?
An in-depth study of one or a small group of people, both rich qualitative data and quantitive data.
What was my experiment?
To see whether listening to music affects the LTM
What is the IV and DV of my experiment
The IV is whether music is listened to or not whilst reading information and the DV is how many points they have recalled from the extract
What was my one-tailed hypothesis for my experiment
That the participants who listens to music whilst reading and trying to recall the facts about people with red hair, will remember less than the participant that doesn’t listen to the music
What were my controlled variables for my experiment
They both read the extract twice, all participants did the seven times table after reading the information, every participant did the seven times table for the same length of time, it’s the same information and it is the same song.
How many participants were there in my experiment
Six
What was the procedure of my experiment
One participant listen to some music which will be played whilst they read the extract twice. After they read it they will take the earphones out and recite the seven times table for one minute verbally. When the time is up they will then write down as much as they can remember from the extract. This procedure is exactly the same for the second participant, however they do not listen to the song whilst reading the extract.
What was the age range of the six participants within my experiment?
16 to 45
What were the results and conclusion of the experiment
The mean average of points without music was 14.6 in comparison to 11 with music. This concluded that my results prove my hypothesis.
What does my experiment make links to
The working memory model within the cognitive psychology section
What are the strengths of an experiment?
You can manipulate the IV
It is controlled
Procedure is standardised so results are reliable
What are the weaknesses of experiment?
Ecological validity is bad
Extraneous variables can occur due to pressure ect, leading to demand characteristics
What is the null hypothesis
Stating that there will be no relationship or difference between two variables
What is a one-tailed hypothesis
Predicting exactly what you think will happen in terms of the results so being able to predict the effects of the independent variable and the dependent variable
What is the two-tailed hypothesis
Predicting that there will be a relationship but you don’t know what it is
What is a correlation
Shows the relationship between two variables
What two factors have to be in place to make a correlation?
The data has to be quantitive and continuous
What is continuous data?
Quantitive data with an infinite number of values for example ordinal data and interval data
What is ordinal data
It is a rating scale question so it is less precise for example how happy are you on a scale of 0 to 15
What is interval data
It’s a very precise measure each point on the school has a fixed interval e.g. distances in centimetres
What is a positive correlation
As one variable increases the other variable increases however not necessarily at the same time
What is a negative correlation
As one variable increases the other variable decreases however not necessarily at the same rate
What are the strengths of a correlation
Because we have continuous data we can plot a scattergraph and see if there is a relationship
You can tell how strong relationship is
Spearman’s Rho can measure the significance of the correlation
It may be the only way to do a study in terms of ethics because you can give data that you couldn’t physically do any experiment for example schmolk he couldn’t physically give his participants brain damage
What are the weaknesses of correlational research
You can’t be certain about cause and effect so that variable one is causing variable two or vice versa. Four example you can’t be certain that the number of aggressive acts caused at break timecan be due to the number of hours of video games played (violent) as there could be other factors causing their aggressive behaviour
There could be a third unmeasured variable that causes the relationship that is observed
What was my correlation study
How is drug crime in the UK changing over time
What was my hypothesis for my correlational research
My two-tailed hypothesis was that there will be a correlation between the amount of drug crimes in the UK and the number of years over time.
Where did we get our data from and what type of data is it for our correlation study
We use secondary data of reported police records
How did we do The study (correlation)
Took the secondary data and interpreted it into a correlation.
What were the results of our correlation study
Our results showed that from 2002 to 2003 until 2008 to 2009, there was a positive correlation however from 2008 2009 until 2013 to 2014, there was a negative correlation.
What was the conclusion of our correlation study
Spearmans rho told us that’s the positive correlation was 1 and the negative correlation was -1 proving to be significant strong positive and negative correlations and therefore we are 99% certain that our results aren’t due to chance. Meaning therefore that our 2 tailed hypothesis is correct.
What was our self report study
Which gender is more obedient
What is our hypothesis for the self report
It was two-tailed and state that there would be a difference between how obedient a person is and whether they are male or female
What sample did to use and how many participants were there (self report)
Opportunity sample
13 females and 11 males
What was the age range of the participants and where did they come from (self report)
19 to 84
Mainly the Midlands in the UK
What was the procedure for our self-report
Used the questionnaire to ask both quantitative and quantitative data , We then measured the quantitive data by points and adding them all together. 0 was least and 21 was most. We then calculated averages such as mean mode median and range of both the male and female results. After comparing the averages We then used standard deviation to see how read out the scores were and to see whether there was a trending score. To measure the qualitative data, we categorised it into themes.
What were the results of our self report study?
The quantitative data results showed that females are more obedience that males, however the females obedience scores are more spread out than males . Niamh calculated the Mann Whitney U and found that there was no more that a 5% possibility that chance caused the gender differences in the obedience scores. The qualitative data showed that people believe obedience is important, however it depends on the situation or the circumstance.
What are the strengths of a self report
You can collect both qualitative and quantitated data
You can provide a brief and a debrief within the questionnaire
You can categorise the qualitative data into themes
You get their personal opinion
What are the weaknesses of self-report
The participants can interpret the aim of the study themselves creating extraneous variable and demand characteristics
What is subjective data
When the information comes from the participant themselves
Name the four different sampling methods
Random sampling, stratified, opportunity, volunteer
When can the findings from the study be generalised
When the entire group that is sampled is representative of the total target population, then it can be generalised to the whole population
Give 3 examples of extraneous variables
Demand characteristics - pp acts a certain way on purpose
Participant variables - characteristics
Situational variables - the environment affects behaviour
What is a situational variable
When the environment affects the behaviour/performance of the pp, eg. Fatigue or hunger or the temperature of the room
What is a confounding variable?
When the extraneous variables are not dealt with, so the variable actually affects the outcome of the study
What is a longitudinal study?
An experiment studied over a longer period of time
What are order effects?
If the participant is in more than one condition of the I.V. they may get bored - fatigue of Pp which means the results are less accurate - Repeated measures design & counterbalancing
What is counterbalancing
When in a RMD, the participants do both variables however in different orders eg. Participant 1 will do variable 2 and then variable 1, whereas participant 2 will do variable 1 and then variable 2. This counterbalances order effects as it balances out the results. For example if they did it in the same order, they would both be bored at the time of the same variable and therefore results wouldn’t be as good.
What are the 3 types of experiment?
Quasi
Field
Laboratory
What is a quasi experiment
Naturally occurring I.V such as ‘whether the pp is a girl or a boy’
What is a lab experiment?
Researcher manipulates the I.V
What is a field experiment?
Researcher manipulates the I.V in a naturalistic setting
What is an Independent Group Design?
Participants only do one condition of the I.V
What is a repeated measures design?
Participants to all conditions of the I.V
What is a matched participant design?
Pp are matched based on characteristics such as age and education
What are the 2 types of self report?
Questionnaire and interview
