Research Methods Flashcards
What is the purpose of Lab experiment?
To investigate causal relationships between and IV and DV under controlled conditions. Participants are aware they are taking part in the study but they may not be aware of the true aims of the study.
What role does the experimenter play in a lab experiment?
- The researcher directly manipulates the IV
- The experimenter/researcher measures the effect of the manipulation on the IV using the DV
What is experimental control in a lab experiment?
- All other variables must be controlled (kept constant), this control allows us to assume that the only variable affecting the DV is the IV.
- Because the lab experiment is highly controlled cause and effect can be established.
What are the strenghts of a lab experiment?
- Well-controlled. Extraneous/confounding variables are minimized, thus there is higher internal validity.
- Can be easily replicated demonstrating external validity.
What are the limitations of a laboratory experiment?
- Artificial, a contrived situation- participants may know that they are being studied, materials may lack mundane realism, the environment may be unfamiliar. Therefore, participants may not behave naturally leading to lower ecological validity.
- Demand characteristics may be a problem.
What is the scientific method?
- Observe behavior
- Propose a theory
- Develop testable hypothesis
- Design a study to test the hypothesis
- Draw conclusions
What is a field experiment?
To investigate causal relationships between an IV and DV in more natural surroundings. As with the lab experiment, the IV is still deliberately manipulated by the researcher and the researcher measures the DV. Participants are usually not aware that they are participating in an experiment so their behavior may be more natural.
What are the strengths of a field experiment?
- Less artificial, usually higher mundane realism (mundane realism refers to how a study mirrors the real word), and higher ecological validity.
- Participants are usually not aware of being studied.
What are the limitations of a field experiment?
- Less control of extraneous/confounding variables reduces internal validity.
- More time-consuming and thus more expensive.
What is a natural experiment?
To investigate relationships between and IV and DV in situations IV cannot be directly manipulated for practical or ethical reasons. The IV varies ‘naturally’ whether or not the researcher was interested. The researcher records the effect of the IV on a dependent variable. The DV may be tested in a lab.
What are the strengths of a natural experiment?
- Allows research were IV cannot be manipulated for ethical reasons.
- Enables psychologists to study ‘real’ problems such as the effects of a disaster or health (increased mundane realism ad ecological validity).
What are the limitations of a natural experiment?
- Cannot demonstrate causal relationships because IV not directly manipulated.
- Randomly allocation not possible, therefore there may be confounding variables that can’t be controlled, a threat to internal validity.
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What is a Quasi-experiment?
The IV is naturally occurring and the DV may be measured in a lab. The IV is simply a difference between people that exists..
What are the strengths of a Quasi-experiment?
Allows comparison between different types of people.
What are the limitations of a Quasi-experiment?
- Participants may be aware of being studied, reducing internal validity.
- The DV variable may be a fairly artificial task, reducing ecological validity.
- Lack of control of the IV - reduces the ability to draw conclusions.
What is an independent variable?
Some event that is directly manipulated by an experimenter in order to test its effect on another variable (the dependent variable).
What is a dependent variable?
The dependent variable is the variable that is measured/tested or observed.
What does it mean to operationalize a variable/hypothesis?
Define the variable/hypothesis precisely.
What is internal validity?
-Internal validity is concerned with what goes on inside the study.
Meaning:
- Whether it is actually the IV that produces a change in the DV.
- Whether the researcher tested what she/he intended to test.
- Whether the study passes mundane realism.
How can internal validity be improved?
Internal validity can be improved by controlling as many relevant confounding and extraneous variables as possible.
What is an extraneous variable?
Extraneous variables do not vary systematically with the IV but may have an effect on the DV. They are nuisance variables which make it more difficult to detect a significant effect.
What is a confounding variable?
This is a variable that is not the IV but varies systematically with IV. Changes in the DV may be due to the confounding variable rather than the IV making the outcome meaningless.
What is external Validity?
External Validity is the degree to which research findings can be generalized.
Population validity: can the results be generalized to other groups of people besides those who took part in the study?
Temporal validity: Can the results be generalized to the past or future?
Ecological validity: Can the results be generalized to other settings beyond the experimental setting, particular everyday settings?
Why is it difficult to conduct observations?
It is difficult because:
- It is difficult to work out what to record and what not to record.
- It is difficult to record everything that is happening.
What is an unstructured observation?
The researcher records all relevant behaviour but has no system.
What is a structured observation?
Structured interviews fall into two categories:
a) Behavioural categories - what is needed is operationalisation. This involves dividing a target behaviour into a subset of behaviours, by breaking things down into a behavioural checklist.
b) Sampling procedures - Event sampling means counting the number of times behaviours occur. Time sampling means recording behaviours in a given time frame e.g every 15mins .
What is observer bias?
Observer bias is when what someone observes is affected by their expectations. This can affect internal validity.
What is reliability in terms of observations?
Observations should be consistent, to be reliable an observation must have high inter-observer reliability.
A general rule is that if the total number of agreements divided by the total number of observations is more than 80% then the data has a high inter-observer reliability.
What is inter-observer reliability?
- Inter-observer reliability is the extent to which there is an agreement between 2 or more observers.
- IT checks if the observation is reliable.
- Researchers (observers), agree on the meaning of each category by operationalizing
- separately record observations
- Plot on scattergraph, if reliable should have a positive correlation.
What is a naturalistic observation?
Naturalistic observation is an observation carried out in an everyday setting, In which the investigator does not interfere in any way but merely observes the behavior (s) in question.
Give one strength and Limitation of a naturalistic observation.
Strength: Realism and natural behavior. The researcher can observe behaviour. The researcher can observe behaviour, which occurs, in a natural setting. Likely to have high ecological validity.
Limitations: Lack of control of variables cause and effect relationships cannot be established. They do not tell us why the behaviour takes place.
What is a controlled observation?
Observe behavior but under conditions where certain variables have been organised by the researcher.
Give one strength and one limitation of a controlled observation.
Strength: Due to control, the observer can focus on particular aspects of behavior.
Limitation Disturbing natural settings. This means that the setting is no longer natural. Observations of back validity.
What is an overt observation?
In both a natural and controlled observation the people being observed may know that their behaviour is being observed.
Give one strength and one limitation of an overt observation.
Strength: More ethical as participants know they are being observed.
Limitations: Likely to have an effect on the naturalness of participant’s behavior.
What is a covert observation?
In both a natural and controlled observation the people being observed may not know that their behavior is being observed.
Give one strength and one limitation of a covert observation.
Strength: Participant is unaware of being observed and thus their behaviour is more natural.
Limitation: Ethical issue - it is acceptable to observe people in a public place as long as the behaviors being observed are not private ones.
What is Non-participant observation?
The observer, observes from a distance and does not interact with the people being observed.
Give one strength and one limitation of a non-participant observation.
Strength: Observations are likely to be more objective because they are not part of the group being observed.
Limitation: may not gain special insights into behavior which can be gained from participant observation.
What is a participant observation?
A particpant observation is an observation made by someone who is also participating in the observed, which may affect their objectivity.
Give on strength and one limitation of a participant observation.
Strength: May provide special insights into behaviour from the inside that may not otherwise be gained.
Limitations:
- Participant observations is more likely to be overt and thus have issues of participant awareness.
- If it is covert then there are ethical issues
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What is a self-report technique?
A self-report technique is the reporting of what you think and feel.
What is a questionnaire?
A questionnaire is a set of written questions which is designed to collect information about a topic or topics.
What does a question intend to do?
Questions aim to discover what people think and feel.
What is clarity?
Clarity is when questions are written clearly so that the respondent understands what they are being asked. This means there should be no ambiguity.
What reduces clarity?
Clarity is reduced with the use of double negatives. Which is where there are two negative words in a sentence e.g are you against banning capital punishment. It is also reduced via double-barreled questions such as ‘Do you suffer from sickness and headaches?’.
What is bias in terms of questions?
Bias is when the question leads the respondent to be more likely to give a particular answer (as in a leading question).
What is analysis? (in terms of interviewing, discuss open and closed questions).
Questions need to be written in a way that they are easy to analyze. Open questions may be harder to analyze but give a more representative and accurate/insightful answer. Whereas closed questions are much easier to analyze but they may be forced to select answers that don’t represent their thoughts and feelings.
What is an open question?
Open-ended questions invite respondents to provide their own answer rather than on provided, this typically produces qualitative data.
What is a closed question?
Closed questions have predetermined answers from which the respondent will select one, typically produces quantitative data.
How can demand characteristics be avoided in a questionnaire?
By using filler questions. Which are irrelevant questions that distract the respondent from the true aims/purpose of the survey.
Identify two strengths of a questionnaire.
- one designed and tested they can be easily distributed to large numbers of people cheaply and quickly.
- Respondents may feel more willing to reveal personal info.
Identify two limitations of questionnaires.
- Can take long to design.
- Can be biased as only those who can read and write and those who are willing to answer will answer the questionnaire.
What is a structured interview?
A structured interview has pre-determined questions, essentially making it a questionnaire that is delivered face to face (or over the telephone), with deviation from the original questions. It is conducted in real-time, the interviewer asks the questions and the interviewee replies.
What are the strengths of a structured interview?
- The interview can be easily repeated because the questions are standardized. meaning that answers from different people can be easily compared.
- Answers are easier to analyze - this is due to the fact that answers are predictable making them easier to analyze.
What are the limitations of a structured interview?
- The comparability may be a problem if the interviewer behaves differently on different occasions research like this has low reliability.
- The interviewer’s expectation may influence the answers the interviewee gives (this is an investigator effect known as interviewer bias), all interviewers have to be skilled to prevents this as much as possible.
What are unstructured interviews?
New questions are developed during the course of the interview. The interviewer may begin with the general aims and some pre-determined questions but subsequent questions develop on the basis of given answers. Sometimes referred to as a clinical interview, as it’s similar to when you go to see the doctor.
What are the strengths of an unstructured interview?
- Detailed information is obtained from respondents, as they can be more specific with questions.
- Gives a deeper insight into the thoughts and feelings of respondents which is commonly the overall aim of questions.
What are the limitations of an unstructured interview?
- They require more skill to conduct as the interviewer develops new questions on the spot.
- Unstructured interviews are more expensive as they require well trained or specialist interviewers.
Describe what is meant by ‘recording the interview’
An interviewer may take notes during answers to document them, this may affect/interfere with their listening skills it may also make the interviewee feel a sense of evaluation because if a researcher does not take everything thing down they may feel as though what they said was not valuable.
Describe what is mean by ‘The effect of the interviewer’
If the interviewer is interested their presence may increase the information given by the respondent, even in an unstructured interview, meaning that the interviewers need to be more aware of behavior that demonstrates interest.
- Non-verbal communication- things like sitting with arms crossed or frowning shows disinterest. But things, like nodding and leaning forward, encourages the respondent to speak.
- Listening skills - the interviewer needs to know when and how to speak. So that they don’t interrupt often and include a range of encouraging comments.
What questioning skills are required in an unstructured interview?
There are special skills to be learned about what kind of following questions should be asked. It is important to be aware of previously asked questions, to avoid repetition. IT is also useful to avoid much probing, as its better to ask more focused questions - both for the interviewee and also, later, for analysis of the answers.
What is an aim?
A statement of the area or purpose of an investigation.
What is a hypothesis?
- A statement of what the researcher believes to be true
- It is a formal and testable statement of the relationship between variables.
What is a directional hypothesis?
A hypothesis that states the expected direction of results (one-tailed).
What is a Non-directional hypothesis?
A hypothesis that states that there is a difference between two conditions but does not state the direction of the difference (two-tailed).
In terms IV’s, what should the hypothesis of a study include?
The hypothesis should reflect two different levels of the IV.
What does operationalizing a hypothesis mean?
It means writing the hypothesis in a testable form, meaning in a way that makes clear the specific way the experiment tests the hypothesis.
Name the 3 types of experimental design.
- Repeated measures design
- Independant groups design
- Matched pairs design
What is a repeated measures design?
An experiment design where each participant takes part in every condition under test.
Name two strengths of a repeated measures design.
- Fewer participants are required.
- It eliminates participant variables i.e differences between participants e.g gender
What are the two limitations of a repeated measures design?
- The order of the conditions may affect performance (order effects), which can involve being less anxious on the second try or being more practiced. Others can do worse on their second attempt due to boredom effects.
- By doing the second test participants may guess the aims of the study (demand characteristics).
State 2 methods of dealing with the limitations of a repeated measures design
Counterbalancing:
- Method 1: AB or BA divide participants into two groups: in group 1 each participant does A then B and in group 2 each participant does B then A.
- Method 2: ABBA all participants take part in each condition twice: Trial 1 - condition A (morning), Trial 2 - condition B (afternoon), Trial 3 condition B (Afternoon), Trial 4 - condition A (morning). Then compare scores on trials 1 and 4 with 2 and 3.
What is the purpose of counterbalancing?
To control the impacts of order effects (practice, fatigue or boredom). This allows order effects to be evenly distributed across both conditions. Making the each condition of the IV occur as the first and the second task evenly.
What is an independent groups design?
Independent group design is where participants are placed into sperate groups. Each group does one level of the IV.
What are the strengths of an independent groups design?
- There are no order effects.
- Demand characteristics are less of a problem.
- The same test e.g word lists can be used in both conditions.
What are the limitations of an independent groups design?
- Participant variables
- It needs more participants compared to a repeated measures design to obtain the same amount of data.
What are the methods of dealing with the limitations of an independent groups design?
-Randomly allocating.
