Research Methods

Question 1

Data Analysis : Types of Data

Answer 1

Qualitative data is data expressed in words and an example is a dairy or an open question interview. It is based on the interpretation of language with an unstructured observation whereas Quantitative Data is nominal data such as scores or numbers and can be analysed statistically or converted into a graph

One is not better than the other and they are used in different situations

Primary data is data that is acquired from the participant themselves whether it may be from conducting an experiment or a questionnaire whereas Secondary data is data collected from sources that already exist and is also subject to statistical testing in order to identify the significance. An example is population records

Question 2

Data Analysis Types of Data Evaluations Q+Q

Answer 2

Qualitative data gives a much more richness of detail and gives the participant time to develop their thoughts to thoughts or feelings and this means it has great external validity and also provides a more meaningful insight into the participants worldview

A limitation of Qualitative data is that it is difficult to analyse and cant be summarised statistically meaning patterns are harder to identify and is thus subject to subjectivity meaning an experimenter/ researcher may show bias

Quantitative data -
Strength- Easy to collect data and analyse since it can be graphed statistically meaning it isn’t subject to bias
Limitation- low external validity because participants cant develop their thoughts or feelings and data is less meaningful

Question 3

Data Analysis : P+S Evaluations

Answer 3

Primary Data
Strength - data is authentic and can be designed to acquire the information needed for what the researcher inquires
Limitation - Producing Primary data takes time and effort and this could also be a limitation compared to secondary data

Secondary Data
Strength - Secondary data requires minimal effort and i inexpensive compared to primary data since desired information already exists
Limitation - Data could be outdated or incomplete and meaning it could have inaccuracies or not match what researcher is inquiring about

Question 4

Self - report Designing questionnaires and interviews

Answer 4

When Designing questionnaires you can use open questions which have no fixed response and one can respond whichever they want to whereas closed questions provide a fixed choice of responses. The type of closed questions that can be given are…
- Likert Scales — phases in which one agrees or disagrees in a scale in response to a phrase or a question and these indicate agreement

• Rating scales — scales which represents their strength or feeling about a particular topic and uses Numbers
• Fixed Choice options — a list of possible options in which one must respond to

When Designing interviews, Interviews must be standardised and must go through a schedule in order to reduce the effect of interviewer bias. They can be group interviews or individual interviews.

one should conduct in a quiet room as this increases the chance of interviewee opening up. One should also use neutral questions in order to make the interviewee feel comfortable and relaxed but should treat answers said in confidence to prevent doubting.

Question 5

Writing Good Questions

Answer 5

When producing questions if one uses too much jargon in the questions, one may not understand and so they must be simple

One should also make sure they are not emotive and suggestive as this may guide the respondent towards a particular answer which creates interviewer bias

Questions should also not be double barrelled as they could agree to one part of question but disagree to another part and finally they shouldn’t use double negatives but should be straightforward

Question 6

Self Report Technique (Questionnaires)

Answer 6

Questionnaires are use in order to assess thoughts and/or feelings and this can be simple or complex however it is mainly used to assess the dependent variable

Whilst Open questions don’t have a fixed range of answers and normally produce qualitative data which is harder to analyse, Closed questions assess quantitative data and is easy to analyse but lacks depth associated with Open questions. - Closed questions which produce qualitative data can be converted into quantitative data by counting yeses or noes

Question 7

Self report technique (Interviews)

Answer 7

Interviews can be conducted on the phone or involve a face to face interaction between an interviewer and an interviewee. The interviews can be structured or unstructured interviews. There are

Structured interviews - predetermined questions asked in a fixed order which can be conducted through any medium

Unstructured interviews - These work like conversations meaning there is no set questions and the general aim is that a certain topic is discussed in a free flowing way. Interviewee encouraged to expand and elaborate answers

Semi-Structured interviews - most common interview such as an interview. There are a list of questions to work through however interviewer allows any follow up questions when they feel it is needed

Question 8

Questionnaires (Evaluation)

Answer 8

The strengths of the questionnaires are that they are cost effective and can easily gather large amounts of data. The number of people participating determine the volume of data and it can be completed without an experimenter which reduces the effort of researcher involved

Another Strength is that they are usually straightforward to analyse and mainly compromise of closed choice questions meaning statistical analysis can be used to compare

One limitation is that is that respondents may not be truthful so it relies on truth and a positive light. An incriminating question may lead to social desirability bias or demand characteristics

Another limitation of questionnaires is that they produce response bias in which respondents may respond in a similar way or in a favourable way which might be because respondents don’t read questions properly and complete the questionnaire too quickly. Acquiescence bias may also be common

Question 9

Types of Interviews (Evaluations)

Answer 9

Structures Interviews
STR- one strength of structured interviews is that they are straightforward and easy to replicate through their standardised format and this reduces the difference between interviewers
LIM - one limitation of structured interviews is that interviewers can not ask to elaborate on points which could be frustrating

Unstructured Interviews
STR - One strength of Unstructured Interviews is that there is much more flexibility and interviewers can follow up or arise points in order to gain insight of interviewee’s worldview
LIM - A limitation of unstructured interviews is that analysis of results is difficult and much sift through irrelevant information which means conclusions harder to make.
Another limitation of Unstructured interviews is that they may lie due to social desirability bias but this relies on how skilled the interviewer should be able to establish sufficient rapport even with personal or sensitive topics

Question 10

Observational Design (Ways of observing)

Answer 10

Unstructured Observation - When someone writes down what they see, produces rich detail and involves a small number of participant

Structured Observation - when one looks for target behaviour which allows researchers to quantify their observations using list of behaviours and sampling methods

Continuous recording used commonly in unstructured observation records all behaviour that occurs but not feasible for complex behaviours. This means other methods for structured observation are present such as

Event sampling - counting the number of times a particular behaviours is shown from a target individual
Time Sampling - behaviour that is recorded in a fixed time frame

Behavioural categories are categories of behaviour seen in a target. This comes from operationalisation in which target behaviours must be observable and measurable. This means, complex behaviours must be broken down into simple observable ( not inferred) behaviours and the researcher should make sure that the behaviour checklist beforehand is in depth

Question 11

Inter - observer reliability

Answer 11

When observing behaviour, one should not miss important behaviours and confirm the hypothesis based on opinions as this causes bias.
In order to make the observation objective and unbiased, observers should be in a pair in order to make sure that any data recorded is similar
To establish inter rate reliablility, one should
- familiarise with the behavioural categories being used
-serve same behaviours at the same time as a small scale pilot study
-observers should compare data recorded and disuse differences of interpretation
- analyse data from the study and find correlating the observations made by an overall figure

Question 12

Types of Observations (evaluations)

Answer 12

Structured observations use data that can be categorised and more likely to be numerical meaning it produces quantitative data and this means analysing behaviour between participants is more straightforward

Unstructured observations benefit from richness in detail however they are subject to observer bias meaning they may categorise behaviour not present or behaviours that catch their eye

When making these behavioural categories, one should make sure that they are

• clear and unambiguous as possible
• observable,measurable and self evident
• should ensure all target behaviours are recorded
• categories mustn’t overlap and be exclusive

Event sampling is useful when behaviour occurs infrequently but could be missed if time sampling used, complex target behaviours may be overlooked by observers using event sampling however but time sampling good with reducing number of observations but behaviour may not be representative of observation as a whole

Question 13

Observational Techniques (6 types)

Answer 13

Observation is an non-experimental method which produce researchers of behaviour without asking them which allows moe flexibility to study more complex interactions between variables

Naturalistic observation - Watching/recording behaviour one would normally see occurring in the setting

Controlled Observation - Watching behaviour within a structured environment where one or more variables are managed

Covert Observations - participants behaviour observed without their informed constant/knowledge , allows it to be ethical

Overt observation - participants behaviour observed with their knowledge and consent

Participant observation is when the researcher becomes a member of the group whose behaviour they are watching

Non - participant observation - researcher remains outside the group of behaviour she is watching

Question 14

Observational Techniques (Evaluation) n+c

Answer 14

A strength of Naturalistic Observations is that they have external validity since behaviour being observed occurs in the environment it would normally occur in.

A limitation of Naturalistic Observations is that they can’t be replicated because of the lack of control and this also introduces extraneous variables which make it hard to identify patterns in behaviour

In addition, a limitation of controlled Observations are that they produce findings that can’t be generalised to real life settings however extraneous variables also become less of a factor meaning strong internal validity but overall low ecological validity

Question 15

Observational Techniques (evaluations) C+O

Answer 15

One strength of covert observations is that it removes the problem of participant reactivity and ensures behaviour observed is natural thus increasing the validity of the data gathered

A limitation of covert observations however is that one may not wish to have their behaviour recorded meaning there is an issue with the ethics fo using covert studies

On the other hand, a strength of Overt observations is that it is more ethically acceptable as participants have knowledge of being observed however a counter is that they this knowledge could influence their behaviour.

Question 16

Observational Techniques (Evaluations) P+NP

Answer 16

A strength of participant observations is that it gives an increased insight into the lives of people being studied meaning researchers get to experience the situations

A limitation for participant observations however is that the researcher may come to identify more strongly with the ones they ate studying and this decreases the objectivity of data as the lines between participant and researcher is blurred

A strength of Non participant studies is that a researcher can maintain an objective psychological distance between the researcher and the participants meaning less chance of identifying with the participant

However, a limitation of non participant observations is that the love valuable insight compared to a participant observation since they could be too far removed from the people they are studying

Question 17

Pilot studies + procedures

Answer 17

Pilot studies are a small scale investigating which takes place before the real investigation in order to check the procedure,materials and any variables that need to change - allows the investigation to run smoothly

Single blind procedures - in attempt to reduce the effect of confounding effects such as demand characteristics via placebo effect, participant unaware of an important detail

Double Blind procedures - procedures in which the researcher nor the participant know about the aim of the investigation - double blind drug trails

An experimental condition can be the actual drug, a control condition can be the placebo and this sets a baseline and also allows for comparison, if behaviour of experimental and control condition is vastly different, cause and effect established

Question 18

Ethical issues

Answer 18

Ethical issues arise when conflict exists between the right of participants and the goal of research to produce authentic,worthwhile data.

Informed Consent - when the participant is aware of the aims of the research,procedure and the rights they have such as the right to withdraw. Participants should make an informed judgement if they want to take part in the study however it may also mean participant behaviour is not natural

Deception is deliberately misleading or withholding information and this means they don’t receive adequate information thus they can’t give informed consent. However it can be argued that by deceiving participants, it adds legitimacy to their behaviour

Protection from harm is making sure the participant isn’t placed in any risk that would affect their daily lives such as psychological or physical harm in addition to embarrassment or stress. The important feature is that participants are reminded of their right to withdraw from the investigation

Privacy and Confidentiality is important as this is right of the participant and is a law under the data protection act and this can extend to privatisation of info about location of study

Question 19

Ways of dealing with Ethical issues

Answer 19

BPS code of conduct is a quasi legal statement that instructs psychologists what behaviour is acceptable and what isn’t. The BPS code of conduct is built around respect, competence , responsibility and integrity.

When dealing with informed consent, they should be given consent letters and all relevant information before taking part in the study and there are 3 types of consent, Presumptive, prior general and retrospective

Deception / protection from harm - all participants should be debriefed and be made aware of true aims not given in the study such as experimental conditions. Participants should also have the right to withhold data and also be reassured in debriefing that their behaviour was normal and if stress was induced, the participant should be given counselling

When dealing with confidentiality, personal details are protected and they are allowed to maintain priority. They can do this as well by referring to participants by their initials or numbers. In debriefing, participants must also be reminded that their data is protected through the process.

Question 20

Populations and samples

Answer 20

Population is a group of people that are in focus of the researchers interest called the target population and from this subset, a sample is drawn which is representative of the target population. This allows generalisation to occur however it is difficult to do this due to the diverse nature which induces bias. Thus sampling techniques are used

Random Sample - Sampling in which all members have an equal chance of being selected, this is done by the assigning of numbers and then the use of a lottery method

Systematic Sample - sampling in which every nth member of the target population is selected. A sampling frame (list) is first established and then a sampling system is chosen randomly or by researchers until sampling is complete

Stratified Sample - sampling people who represent the proportion of sub groups in the target population. To this, one must first identify a strata and then proportionate them so they are representative and finally, participants from each strata are then randomly picked

Opportunity sample - sample that represent the target population are difficult to obtain so researchers may pick whoever is around at the time of their study

Volunteer sample - self selecting samples are volunteers selecting themselves t be part of the sample such as willing participants raising their hands to participate when asked.

Question 21

Sample (evaluations)

Answer 21

Random Sample
STR: one strength of random sampling is that its free from researcher bias an has no influence over who is selected
LIM: one limitation of random sampling is that it is difficult and time consuming to conduct. In addition, it may still by unrepresentative as random isn’t 100% representative and also some of the selected participants may not want to volunteer meaning its moe like a volunteer sample

Systematic sample
A strength of Systematic Sample is that it avoids researcher bias since researcher has no influence over who is chosen. It is also fairly representative

Stratified sample
One strength of stratified sample is that it avoids researcher bias since target population is sub-divided into strata and also the sample is representative since it reflects the composition of the target population allowing generalisation to take place however, it can not reflect all the ways people are presented meaning complete representation isn’t possible

Opportunity sample
One strength of opportunity ample is that it saves time and effort in picking a sample and is also muh less costly however a large limitation of opportunity sample is that it is unrepresentative since sample comes from the same place and thus can’t be generalised and also the researcher has control over the partisans picked meaning subject to researcher bias

Volunteer sample strengths consist of having minimal input from the researcher and is also less time consuming but a limitation is that volunteers may only attract a specific profile of a person which limits its generalisation

Question 22

Laboratory experiments

Answer 22

Laboratory experiments are experiments that take place in a controlled environment in which the researcher manipulates the IV and observes the effect it has on the DV

One strength of Laboratory Experiments are that it has high control over extraneous variables and this ensures the DV is likely to be affected from the manipulation of the IV only meaning it demonstrates cause and effect and thus has high internal validity

Another strength is that they are very replicable since extraneous variables don’t affect an experiment when repeating and this allows the results to be replicated in order to find it it was a one off or is valid

One limitation of laboratory experiments are that they lack generalisability since they usually use artificial stimuli and this may mean they behave in unusual ways which can not be generalised to real life situations and thus has low external validity

Another limitation of laboratory experiments is that participants are aware that they’re being tested in a lab and so may show demand characteristics which is a sign of unnatural behaviour.

Question 23

Field Experiments + Quasi Experiments

Answer 23

Field experiments are experiments which take place in a natural setting and a researcher manipulates the IV and records the effect on the DV

One strength of Field experiments is that they have higher mundane realism that lab experiments since the environment is more natural and this means behaviour more valid and authentic which thus means there is high external validity

One limitation fo field experiments is that since it occurs in the natural environment, there is a lack of control over extraneous variables and thus there may be unaccounted factors at play and thus it is harder to establish and replicate studies.

Quasi Experiments are studies that have no determined IV and the variable simply exists meaning it isn’t an experiment.

A strength of Quasi-experiments is that they are often carried under controlled conditions and have the strengths of lab experiments

A limitation of Quasi experiments is they can’t randomly allocate participants to conditions and thus there are confounding variables

Question 24

Natural Experiments

Answer 24

Natural experiments are experiments where the IV changes but is not directly observed since the researcher is not aware of it. Researchers in natural experiments record the effect the DV has on the environment

One strength of natural experiments is that they may be undertaken in which otherwise would be unethical or unpractical such as studies on institutionalised orphans

Another strength of Natural experiments is that they often have high external validity since they study real life issues such as the levels of stress when doing a specific behaviour

A limitation of Natural experiments is that it is a naturally occurring event and so it only happens very rarely thus reducing opportunity to research and this reduces the scope to generalise findings to other situations

Another limitation of natural experiments is that participants aren’t randomly allocated to experimental conditions and so the researcher is naturally less sure whether the IV really affects the DV and so there are confounding variables that may affect the DV

Question 25

Experimental design (Independent groups)

Answer 25

Experimental design - different ways in which a participant can be tested in relation to experimental conditions

Independent groups - in independent groups each group represents a specific individual conditions or an Independent variable where one may be the experimental condition and one may be the control condition. Comparisons are then drawn and a mean can be made from the results

A strength of the independent groups is that order effects are not a problem like repeated measure designs and also people are less likely to guess the aims.

However a limitation of independent groups is that the participants in each group is different. This means that personal differences at influence the dependent variable and random allocation must be used.

Another limitation of Independent groups is that they are less economical than repeated measures since in independent groups, the participant only contributes to a single result meaning many more participants would be needed to produce data similar to repeated measure designs

Question 26

Experimental design (repeated measures)

Answer 26

Repeated measures - in repeated measures, all participants take place in all conditions of the experiment. The results are then repeated and the similarities between the experimental and control condition is compared

A strength of Repeated measures is that there is no room for any personal differences from the participants that influence the dependent variable and that participant variables less likely to affect the results

A limitation of repeated measures is of order effects. By doing multiple conditions, the participants may be mentally fatigued and this may deteriorate their performance which affects their results on the second condition. This acts as a confounding variable and it’s effect is greater on skill-based tasks however can use counterbalancing (halving groups)

Another limitation of repeated measures is that by doing so many conditions, participants can easily guess the aims of the study which may lead them to perform demand characteristics. This is called order effects and performance may also improve.

Question 27

Experimental design ( Matched pairs)

Answer 27

A matched pair design is when pairs of participants are matched on some variable that affect the DV and then one is assigned to different conditions

A strength of Matched pairs is that this way participants are less likely to find the aim of the study and then show demand characteristics

A limitation of matched pairs is that participants are still not completely matched meaning there is still a chance that personal differences may affect the DV

In addition, another limitation of Matched pairs is that making these groups up is difficult and may take a lot of time and money especially if a pre-test is required

Question 28

Variables (D+C+D)

Answer 28

Extraneous variables are any variables that affect the DV which are unaccounted by the IV. Extraneous variables are variables that are easy to control and may not necessarily change the results but may make it harder to detect results

Confounding variables do change systematically with the IV and we can not be sure what the source of the change of DV is. Confounding variables systematically vary with the IV meaning they are part of the study.

Demand characteristics are behaviours a participant may show when they know the aims of the study. By knowing the aims of the study, the participant may try to work out what is going on and so their behaviour may change within the research situation affecting the results

Question 29

Control of variables (I+R+S)

Answer 29

Investigator effects are the effects an investigator may have on the participant (conscious or unconscious) which may have the chance of affecting the DV. It also refers to any actions such as the selection of participants or the interactions with the participants during the research process

Randomisation is a process that reduces the chance of extraneous/confounding variables affecting the DV. Randomisation means also changing the order of conditions so it isn’t a progressive or gradual increase / decrease. Reduces chance of investigator effects or demand characteristics.

Standardisation is the idea that all participants are subject to the same conditions, environment and experience. This means there are standardised instructions and rules of what exactly is done. This makes sure that non - standardised conditions don’t act as extraneous variables

Question 30

Experimental Methods

Answer 30

An aim is a general statement of what the researcher intends to study whilst a hypothesis is a clear precise and testable statement that tests the relationship between variables.

Directional Hypothesis: a statement that makes the difference clear using words such as faster / higher
Non-directional Hypothesis : a statement of a difference between two variables using words such as differ

Directional Hypothesis are used when previous studies have established a particular outcome already whilst using a non directional hypothesis when earlier studies are contradictory or no previous research established

To test the effect of the IV, we must compare using a control condition in order to estabilish effect and so control and experimental conditions are needed and this connection needs to be discussed in the hypothesis.

Finally, it is important to make sure that the hypothesis is operationalised in order to reduce any fuzziness so its easy to identify effect. USe scientific terminology and numbers

Question 31

Statistical testing

Answer 31

Statistical testing allows us identify if hypotheses should be rejected or accepted. In order to identify if the study conducted actually is significant, we must use the sign test.

The sign test is a statistical test used to analyse the difference in scores between related items meaning we look for a difference, must use a repeated measures design and also use nominal data

When an experimental hypothesis is established, a level of probability is used of 5% which tells us if the experiment was due to chance or mainly due to the manipulation of the IV. The lower the probability level, the more significant the results must be.

To do this - in a test of positive and negative scores, add up all the participants which went against the hypothesis(S), then with the number of participants, find the critical value with a probability of 0.05 and compare the number of negative to the critical value. If Value is less than or equal to S, then difference is significant

Question 32

Correlations and evaluations

Answer 32

A correlation is a relation between two co-variables and are plotted via scattergram. The difference between correlations and an experiment is that an experiment manipulates the IV and observes the effect on the DV whereas in a correlation, no manipulation occurs and thus cause and effect is not established since there are other (intervening) variables at play.

One strength of correlations is that they are useful preliminary tools for research as they provide a measure of how closely two variables are related and so can be used as a starting point.

They’re also cheap economical and can be collected from secondary data meaning less time consuming.

One limitation of Correlations is that since a cause and effect is not established, there is a third variable at play which may be misinterpreted or misused by the media which can state them as casual facts even when it is merely a relation and thus correlations can easily be misused/abused.

In addition, another limitation is that Correlation does not mean causation and thus we aren’t certain which co-variable affects which. People who drink coffee causes anxiety or anxious people drink more coffee?

Question 33

Graphs

Answer 33

Summary tables represent data and are used to explain the results in which one must talk about the IV affects the DV in different ways.

A bar chart is used for data that can be summarised into means and is used specifically for data that is discrete meaning it can be divided into categories

A scattergram is usually used for correlations and thus co - variables on x,y axis thus scattergram are used for associations not differences

A histogram shows continuous data meaning the lines touch and can have the x axis broken into categories whereas the y axis is a frequency

Question 34

Distributions

Answer 34

A distribution is the spread of data and there are two types. The two types are normal and skewed distributions.

Normal distributions are a symmetrical spread of frequency data which forms a bell shaped pattern and the mean,median and mode of the data can all be found on the highest point of the bell

Skewed distributions are spreads of frequency data that is not symmetrical meaning the data clusters on one end of the graph.

If the data clusters to the left meaning it has a long tail on the right, it is a positive skew and this means that the mode is on the peak, the median is to the right of the mode and the mean is to the right of the mode.

Where if there is a negative skew, it means that the data clusters greater to the right and has a long tail on the left. This means that the mode is at the peak but the median is to the left of the mode and the mean is to the left of the median