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Psychology degree > Research methods > Flashcards

Research methods Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the scientific method?

A
  • The scientific method is a procedure for acquiring and testing knowledge through systematic observation or experimentation (e.g., through use of empirical methods).
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2
Q

What does science assume?

A
  • All events have causes and these causes can be discovered
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3
Q

What is probabilistic determinism?

A
  • The idea that events cab be predicted but not with 100% accuracy
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4
Q

What is science?

A
  • Assumes determinism and discover-ability, makes systematic observations, produces public knowledge, creates data based conclusions, make tentative conclusions (support not prove), asks empirical/ answerable questions, ope-rationalises procedures, develops falsifiable theories,
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5
Q

What are the qualities of good research?

A
  • Reliable, valid, public, cumulative (builds upon and allows for future research), parsimonious (provide a efficient theory incorporating all sides of the argument using the least principles)
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6
Q

What is inductive support?

A
  • When research outcomes coincide with the direction of the hypothesis
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7
Q

Name four potential ways of developing a theory

A
  • Observation (observing something that may benefit from study), serendipity (personal interaction/ experiences lead to study), everyday problems that need a solution, replication and extension (of previous work).
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8
Q

List three examples of independent variables

A
  • Situational, task variable (e.g. a puzzle), Instruction (given explicit instructions while another group may not receive instructions)
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9
Q

What is a manipulation check?

A
  • Checking the IV was manipulated by indirectly checking other external factors and comparing the two
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10
Q

What is a confound?

A
  • When a confounding variable could provide a alternative explanation to a set of results other than the variable that was manipulated.
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11
Q

What is the ceiling effect?

A
  • A test is too easy and thus the scores are artificially high
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12
Q

What is the floor effect?

A
  • A test is too hard and thus the scores are artificially low
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13
Q

How can you test for floor/ ceiling effects?

A
  • Conducting a pilot study and if necessary altering materials/procedure
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14
Q

What does a relevance-sensitivity trade off refer to?

A
  • Ensuring a DV is sensitive to the IV and results are still relevant to the real world (the purpose of the test)
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15
Q

In terms of a Quasi experiment, what can the variables be referred too as (e.g. differences in IQ)?

A
  • Self selected characteristics/variables
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16
Q

What is naive empiricism?

A
  • Using findings to generalise to real life rather than applying findings to validate the theory and then applying to the real world
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17
Q

What do history effects refer to?

A
  • An event that occurs between pre and post test other than that being manipulated, effecting results ( e.g. a terrorism attack being publicised on the media during a study about attitudes towards terrorism)
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18
Q

What is a test effect?

A
  • Completing the test or tests in a study improves or worsens a participants performance (e.g. practice improves performance, fatigue reduces performance)
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19
Q

What is the instrumentation effect?

A
  • Results change pre/post test because different measures were used
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20
Q

What does mortality refer to?

A
  • When participants with certain characteristics drop out
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21
Q

What does between subject design refer to?

A

-Independent measures

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22
Q

What does within subject design refer to?

A

-Repeat measures

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23
Q

What does a carry over effect refer to?

A

-The effects of one condition carrying over into another

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24
Q

What does the Hawthorne effect refer to?

A

-When participants change their behaviour because they know they are being studied

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25
Q

State and describe three types of cognitive bias

A

-Confirmation bias (interpret new evidence as supporting current beliefs/evidence), Negative bias (remembering negative events more easily than positive ones), Groupthink (Groups valuing harmony rather than critically analysing results/evidence)

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26
Q

When using boolean operators what do the following mean: OR, AND, ANDNOT, (), * or known as truncation, wildcards

A
  • OR (either of the subjects, AND (both the subjects), ANDNOT (excluding a subject), () (search for these subjects first), * (all subjects starting with stem subject e.g treat* leads to treatment, treated ect), wildcards $ (subject with a degree of spelling deviation)
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27
Q

What does content validity refer to?

A

-A tests ability to measure all aspects of the construct you are trying to measure

28
Q

What does predictive validity refer to?

A

-A tests ability to predict something it can predict for

29
Q

What does concurrent validity refer to?

A

-A tests ability to distinguish between groups it can distinguish between

30
Q

What does statistical conclusion validity refer to?

A

whether statistical tests are used that match the research design, goals of the study, and formal characteristics of the data and whether they are applied in conditions under which the resultant Type-I and Type-II error rates match those that are declared as limiting the validity of the conclusion.

31
Q

What is the difference between a type 1 and type 2 error?

A
  • Type 1 error assumes something exists when it does not while a Type 2 error assumes something doesn’t exist when in fact it does
32
Q

What are the APA ethics principles and describe them

A

-Beneficence and Non-maleficence (ensure welfare of participants and to not inflict harm), Fidelity and Responsibility (be trustful and responsible), Integrity (honest, truthful, accurate), Justice (equal opportunities and benefits from scientific study), Respect peoples rights and dignity (confidentiality and self determinism)

33
Q

What are the BPS ethics principles and describe them

A

Respect (privacy and self-determination), Competence
(development and maintenance of high standards of e in work), Responsibility (avoidance of harm and the prevention of misuse or abuse of their contributions to society), Integrity (honesty, accuracy, clarity, and fairness in their interactions with all persons)

34
Q

What are the special groups in relation to informed consent?

A

-Racial / ethnic origin, Political opinions, Religious / philosophical beliefs, Trade Union, Biometric data, Health, Sex life / sexual orientation

35
Q

What are the two forms of ethical application for approval?

A

-Track A: Non-interventionist methods (e.g. observational) and no ethical concerns (e.g. topic/methods are not ethically sensitive)
Applications are reviewed by the Chair of the PREC or one committee member
-Track B: Ethically-sensitive methods and/or subject
Applications are reviewed by the Chair of the PREC and one committee member
Track B applications require substantially more documentation

36
Q

State eight questionable research practices

A

Failing to report all dependent measures, Collecting more data after seeing whether results were significant, Failing to report all conditions, Stopping data collection after achieving the desired result,
Selectively reporting studies that “worked”,
Excluding data after looking at the impact of doing so,
Claiming to have predicted an unexpected finding,
Falsely claiming that results are unaffected by demographics

37
Q

what are the four main types of plagiarism?

A

Direct copying, claiming another’s ideas, one source (largely copying a piece of work with a few personal sentences to connect pieces), Re-submission (submitting a previous piece of work again)

38
Q

Name the two main types of research design

A

-Experimental, Correlation

39
Q

What are the advantages/disadvantages of the laboratory method?

A

-Advantages: Highly-controlled environments, so extraneous and/or confounding variables may be excluded, Easier to replicate due to standardised procedure
-Disadvantages: Setting is likely artificial and so participants’ behaviour may be unnatural
Demand characteristics may influence participants’ behaviour

40
Q

What are the advantages/disadvantages of the field method?

A
  • Advantages: Naturalistic environment, so participants’ behaviour more likely to reflect real responses (i.e. higher ecological validity), Demand characteristics less likely to affect participants (especially true in covert field experiments)
  • Disadvantages: Less control over extraneous and/or confounding variables, making replication more difficult
41
Q

What are the advantages/disadvantages of the natural method?

A

-Advantages: Naturalistic environment, so very high ecological validity, Demand characteristics unlikely to affect participants (especially true in covert natural experiments), Can be used in situations where ethical considerations prevent manipulation of independent variables (e.g. stress research)
-Disadvantages: Tend to be costly (e.g. time, financial costs)
No control over extraneous or confounding variables

42
Q

What are the advantages/disadvantages of naturalistic observation and surveys for studying correlation?

A
  • Advantages: Allows researcher to predict direction and strength of relationship(s) between variables, based on theoretical or other considerations, May help to establish how well findings from experiments generalise to more naturalistic contexts – provides confirmatory evidence,May allow study of phenomena that cannot be investigated ethically or practically using experiments
  • Disadvantages: Cannot establish causation, unless logical sequence of relationships exists
43
Q

What are the three types of observation?

A

-Participant, controlled, natural

44
Q

Whats the advantages/disadvantages of controlled observation?

A
  • Advantages: Easy to replicate using same methods and observation schedule,Data is quick to analyse using quantitative statistical methods and software, Relatively quick to conduct, so large samples possible
  • Disadvantage: Hawthorne effect or demand characteristics may limit validity, demand characteristics
45
Q

Whats the advantages/disadvantages of naturalistic observation?

A

-Advantages: Observing flow of behaviour in natural setting increases ecological validity, Often used to inform further research
-Disadvantages: Observations on small scale may not be representative, Difficult to replicate
Substantial training required, May not be able to establish cause and effect relationships or direction

46
Q

Whats the advantages/disadvantages of participant observation?

A
  • Advantages: Same as naturalistic

- Disadvantages: Challenges with recording of data, Loss of objectivity and researcher bias

47
Q

Whats the advantages/disadvantages of case studies?

A

-Advantages
Offers rich descriptive information
Often indicates possible hypotheses for future research
Can study rare phenomena in detail
Provides opportunity to investigate factors that would be unethical to manipulate experimentally
-Disadvantages
Often unable to establish cause-effect relationship (causal inference)
Focus of case study may not be typical or representative
Cannot generalise findings to wider population
Often relies heavily on subjective interpretation of data
Difficult to replicate

48
Q

Whats the advantages/disadvantages of surveys?

A
  • Advantages: Carefully selected, representative sample provides accurate information about population of interest, Samples can potentially be quite large, increasing external reliability
  • Disadvantages: Unrepresentative sample may provide misleading information, Researcher biases or social desirability bias may distort findings
49
Q

Name four types of surveys

A

-In person, telephone surveys, mail out surveys, web-based surveys

50
Q

Whats the advantages/disadvantages of in person surveys?

A
  • Advantages: Control over environment, exclude/reduce biases, Researcher can provide explicit instructions and address queries,Highest quality data
  • Disadvantages: Very time-consuming and expensive, Small samples as a result
51
Q

Whats the advantages/disadvantages of telephone surveys?

A
  • Advantages: Cheaper than in-person so larger samples possible, Anonymous
  • Disadvantages: Less control, less credibility, Visual materials unavailable, Materials less sophisticated
52
Q

Whats the advantages/disadvantages of mail out surveys?

A
  • Advantages: Relatively cheap, Convenient, Ample time for completion, No interviewer bias, Visual aids possible, Rapid data collection, Anonymous
  • Disadvantages: Self-selection bias, Full instructions required
53
Q

Whats the advantages/disadvantages of web based surveys?

A
  • Advantages: Cheapest of all methods, Convenient, Ample time for completion, No interviewer bias, Visual aids possible, Rapid data collection, Anonymous
  • Disadvantages: Self-selection bias, Full instructions required
54
Q

What are the advantages/disadvantages of interviews?

A
  • Advantages: Carefully selected, representative sample provides rich and accurate information about population of interest
  • Disadvantages: Unrepresentative sample may provide misleading information, Researcher biases or social desirability bias may distort findings
55
Q

Describe the characteristics of qualitative research

A
  • often in verbal/text form, interpretative, warm & rich, idiographic, exploratory and creates potentially variable meanings, particular and unique findings, researcher involved, potentially subjective, inductive
56
Q

Describe the characteristics of quantitative research

A

often in numerical form, statistical, cold & bare, nomothetic, reliable, general application, researcher is detached, objective, deductive

57
Q

What is deduction?

A

-Top down approach (research/data drives theory)

58
Q

What is induction?

A

-Bottom up approach (theory drives research/data)

59
Q

What is phenomenology?

A
  • Phenomenology is the philosophy underlying qualitative methodologies
  • ‘Reality’ is socially constructed. The social world consists of multiple, subjective realities rather than a single objective reality. It is too complex to lend itself to theorising about definite laws.
  • The interpretivist seeks to understand the subjective reality of participants in a way that is meaningful to the participants
60
Q

What is positivism?

A
  • Scientific method and underlines standard view of science

- Realist ontology (objective, underlying reality to be discovered)

61
Q

What are the characteristics of the inductive approach?

A
  • Moving from data to theory.
  • Understanding the meanings humans attach to events.
  • Close understanding of the research context.
  • Collection of qualitative data.
  • Flexible structure to permit changes of research emphasis as the research progresses.
  • Realisation that the researcher is part of the research process.
  • Less concern with the need to generalise.
62
Q

What are the characteristics of the deductive approach?

A
  • Emphasises scientific principles.
  • Moves from theory to data.
  • Seeks to explain causal relationships between variables.
  • Collection of quantitative data.
  • Highly structured methodology.
  • Researcher independence.
  • Operationalisation of concepts.
  • Reductionist
  • Generalisation.
63
Q

What is methodological triangulation?

A
  • A combination of several methodologies in one study

- Removes the method effect to increases confidence in findings

64
Q

What is thematic analysis?

A
  • Organising and describing data in terms of themes

- An active process themes are interpretative and do not just emerge from data.

65
Q

How is thematic analysis conducted?

A
  • Familiarise yourself with data
  • generate initial codes
  • search for themes
  • review themes
  • define and name themes
  • produce report

Psychology degree (6 decks)

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