Research Methods Flashcards
What is a laboratory experiment?
A laboratory experiment is a type of experiment carried out in artificial controlled conditions, usually in a lab.
The IV is changed to see the effect on a DV with every other possible variable controlled to see a clear cause and effect.
What are the disadvantages and advantages of a laboratory experiment?
Advantages:
Highly controlled environment allows for a clear cause and effect to be established as confounding variables are removed
Since the experiment is strictly controlled, it is usually more reliable than other experiments
Disadvantages:
Low ecological validity - laboratory experiments are done in artificial conditions and so this cannot be representative of the general population.
Demand characteristics can occur often in laboratory experiments as it’s hard to get someone into an artificial, controlled setting without them even knowing they’re in a study.
What is a Field experiment?
A field experiment is an experiment similar to a laboratory experiment, but done in a natural, less controlled setting.
A field experiment aims to manipulate the IV to find the DV, but in a less controlled setting. These are usually done outside in a natural setting.
What are the disadvantages and advantages of a Field experiment?
Advantages:
Much easier to observe participants without knowing they’re in a study as they are in their normal, natural environment, therefore reducing the chance of demand characteristics.
Ecologically valid, as participants are in a natural setting and so field experiments are often more ecologically valid.
Disadvantages:
Field experiments often risk confounding variables because the environment used is not controlled. Due to this, it can be hard to establish clear cause and effect between 2 variables.
What is a Natural experiment?
A natural experiment is an experiment similar to a field experiment, however the IV is not able to get manipulated by the researchers because they physically can’t.
Researchers wait for the IV to happen to see the effect on the DV.
An example of an IV that can’t be manipulated is a natural disaster - you cannot manipulate it to happen at a certain point.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a Natural experiment?
Advantages:
Compared to a laboratory experiment, it is much easier to study people without knowing they’re in an experiment as this experiment is usually done in a natural setting.
As a result, demand characteristics is less likely.
Ethical - Some things are unethical to be manipulating but with a natural experiment you don’t manipulate anything at all, therefore you’re not being a disturbance.
Ecological validity is extremely high in Natural experiments as the environment they are used in are usually not artificial and so are more representative to the real world.
Disadvantages:
Cause and effect is much harder to establish because you cannot control anything, not even the IV - this means that you are much more likely to run into confounding variables you can’t fix.
As a result, natural experiments aren’t very reliable.
IV can’t be manipulated so researchers have to literally wait for the IV to happen naturally. This can take a while.
What is a Quasi experiment?
A quasi experiment is similar to a laboratory experiment, as it is done in controlled conditions to establish a casual relationship. However:
In a quasi experiment, the researcher is not able to use random allocation to put participants in different conditions.
This is usually because the independent variable is a particular feature of the participant, such as gender or the existence of a mental disorder.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a Quasi experiment?
Advantages:
Quasi experiments are often done in controlled conditions. This means that cause and effect is easily established.
This also means that the study is more reliable as confounding variables are eliminated.
Disadvantages:
Depending on the IV, Quasi experiments can be potentially ecologically invalid.
For example, if your IV is a mental illness, people may act much differently in an artificial environment, making cause and effect much less representative of the population with the same illness.
Cause and effect is harder to establish as you cannot directly manipulate the IV to your best interests.
You are not able to randomly allocate participants to each condition in an experiment.
This is because you are looking for certain unique participants, and to get a proper sample you may need to look outside your target population.
As a result of this, confounding variables may occur between the participants as the location at where the participant was raised would vary.
The way you are raised might cause confounding variables when trying to conclude cause and effect within the participants, therefore making quasi experiments less representative.
What is a Research Aim?
A general statement about what the researcher intends to investigate; the purpose of the study.
Dave, a middle-aged male researcher, approached an adult in a busy street. He asked the adult for directions to the train station. He repeated this with 29 other adults.
Each of the 30 adults were then approached by a second researcher, called Sam, who showed each of them 10 photographs of different middle-aged men, including a photograph of Dave.
Sam asked the 30 adults to choose the photograph of the person who had asked them for directions to the train station.
Sam estimated the age of each of the 30 adults and recorded whether each one had correctly chosen the photograph of Dave.
Identify one aim of this experiment.
The aim of the experiment was to:
Observe the effect that age has on the ability to identify a person previously seen from a photo line up.
It is thought that colors might affect our performance when carrying out certain tasks.
Research in this area has been inconclusive. Some studies have shown that red improves performance but others have found the opposite. It could be that these contradictory results have arisen because red is beneficial only for certain kinds of mental processing.
Some psychologists tested this hypothesis in a series of independent-groups design experiments using students at a Canadian university.
The experiments involved computer tasks, with either a red, blue or neutral background appearing on the monitor. The researchers found that participants were better at a word-recall task and a spell-checking task when the screen background was red rather than blue or neutral.
However, participants thought of more creative ideas when the screen was blue rather than red or neutral. The researchers concluded that red is beneficial for tasks that require attention to detail whereas blue aids creativity.
What were the researchers’ aims in this study?
The research aim in this study is to investigate the effect background color has on performance and creativity, projecting spell-checking and word-recall tasks onto a computer with a background that was either blue, neutral or red.
The researchers wanted to see how correct and creative the groups would be with the tasks given relating to the color background presented to them.
What is an Independent Variable (IV)?
The Independent Variable is the variable in the experiment that you directly change in order to see the effect on the Dependent Variable.
What is a Dependent Variable (DV)?
The Dependent Variable is the variable in the experiment that researchers are looking to measure, relating to the impact the Independent Variable has on it directly.
For example, the Independent Variable might be the type of pondweed used in water, and the Dependent Variable would be the rate of photosynthesis.
What does it mean to Operationalize something?
Operationalization is a process of defining the measurement of a phenomenon that is not directly measurable.
Which one is Operationalized, and which one isn’t?
1 - Number of words accurately recalled 2 - Resources selected 3 - Punishment given 4 - Reaction time in seconds 5 - Intelligence level 6 - Number of faces accurately recognized
1 - Operationalized 2 - Not Operationalized 3 - Not Operationalized 4 - Operationalized 5 - Not Operationalized 6 - Operationalized
Identify and operationalize the IV and the DV in the following hypotheses:
Male participants will throw a rugby ball further than female participants.
IV = Male or Female DV = Distance the rugby ball is thrown in meters
Identify and operationalize the IV and the DV in the following hypotheses:
Females with an eating disorder will score lower on a self-esteem questionnaire compared to females who do not have an eating disorder.
IV = Eating Disorder diagnosis or no Eating Disorder diagnosis
DV = Number of points scored on questionnaire
Identify and operationalize the IV and the DV in the following hypotheses:
Participants will move more counters when completing a counter moving task on their own compared to when observed by an audience.
IV = Observing audience or no observing audience DV = Amount of counters moved by the participant
A psychologist used an independent groups design to investigate whether or not a cognitive interview was more effective than a standard interview, in recalling information.
For this experiment, participants were recruited from an advertisement placed in a local paper. The advertisement informed the participants that they would be watching a film of a violent crime and that they would be interviewed about the content by a male police officer.
The psychologist compared the mean number of items recalled in the cognitive interview with the mean number recalled in the standard interview.
Identify the independent variable and the dependent variable in this experiment.
Independent Variable = Cognitive interview or standard interview
Dependent variable = Mean number of items recalled from the film of a violent crime
Identify the IV and DV for the following hypothesis:
Older people play more hours of video games in a week than younger people.
IV = Older or younger people
DV = Hours of video games played
What is a hypothesis?
A hypothesis is a statement made by the researcher of an experiment reflecting what they believe as true.
What’s a non-directional hypothesis?
A non-directional hypothesis simply states that there will be a difference between the two groups/conditions but does not say which will be greater/smaller, quicker/slower etc.
What’s a directional hypothesis?
A directional hypothesis is made by the researcher predicting a difference between two different groups in the experiment and stating what the difference will be between them.
For example, students who use a revision guide in a test will score higher marks on the test than students who don’t.
Independent Variables must feature two conditions.
List two conditions of an IV related to how often students use revision guides.
DV = Marks gained in test
State a directional and non-directional hypothesis from these conditions.
IV conditions:
Never
Always
Directional:
Students who always use revision guides will gain more marks on a test than students that never use it.
Non-directional:
There will be a difference in the marks gained on a test between students who always use a revision guide and students that never use them.
Write a non-directional hypothesis for the following research questions.
1 - Does the time of day effect performance on a word recall task?
1 - There will be a difference in the correct answers gained in a word recall task depending on if it’s 1:00 AM or 1:00 PM.
A Psychology student carried out a laboratory experiment to investigate encoding in STM.
She used an opportunity sample of 20 participants. Two lists of letters were read out to participants. List 1: P V E D B C G T (letters that sound the same). List 2: Y Z O A N F X R (letters that do not sound the same).
All 20 participants listened to list 1 and then tried to recall the letters. Next, they all listened to list 2 and then tried to recall these letters. Write a non-directional hypothesis for this experiment.
There will be a difference in the ability to recall letters between list 1 and list 2.
What’s an extraneous variable?
Extraneous variables are variables in research which can manipulate the DV of the experiment but are not the IV.
In a normal experiment, EVs must be controlled in order to establish cause and effect between the IV and DV without interference from the EV causing the result.
What happens if extraneous variables are not controlled?
If extraneous variables are not controlled, the internal validity of the research will be damaged.
They become confounding variables.
Extraneous variables can confound the results of the DV not related to the IV and so you cannot establish cause and effect, making the experiment much less reliable.
What are confounding variables?
Confounding variables are variables not related to the IV which have affected the results of the DV as they have not been controlled by the researcher.
Due to this, you cannot say the IV causes the DV because it could be the CV.
List two types of extraneous variables.
Participant variables
Situational variables
Investigator effects
What is a participant variable?
A participant variable is something about the participant that could affect the DV other than the IV.
What is a situational variable?
Anything to do with the environment the study was conducted in which can affect the DV other than the IV.
What is the Hawthorne Effect?
The Hawthorne Effect is a participant variable.
It refers to when a participant is affected by an awareness that they are being observed.
What is Social Desirability Bias?
Social Desirability Bias is a participant variable.
It refers to when a participant feels influenced to act a certain way to keep into social norms.
What are Investigator Effects?
Investigator Effects refers to when conducting research, researchers may be influenced to bias the final outcome of the study in a number of ways.
This usually happens unconsciously, but sometimes, investigators may do it on purpose.
What is Expectancy Bias?
Expectancy Bias is an Investigator Effect.
Expectancy Bias refers to when an Investigator is influenced to bias the final outcome of a study due to what they are expected to find.
What is Demand Characteristics?
The term ‘Demand Characteristics’ refers to when participants form an interpretation of the experiment’s purpose and subconsciously change their behavior to fit that interpretation.
This diagram represents the three different stages at which investigators look at, from the initial sample of people they wish to draw from to the final group.
List A to B:
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/352951793187029005/809168146036424775/unknown.png?width=616&height=563
A = Population B = Target Population C = Sample
What is Random Sampling?
Random sampling is a type of sampling where each individual in a target population has an equal chance of getting chosen.
What is Systematic Sampling?
Systematic Sampling is when every nth name from a sampling frame (a record of all names in a population) is taken.
For example, every 3rd name from a school register.
What is Stratified Sampling?
The population is divided into sub-groups relevant to the study.
The Number (%) of participants selected in the study represent the proportions found in the population.
What is Opportunity Sampling?
Opportunity sampling is when the researcher samples whoever is available and willing to be studied.
Since many researchers work in universities, they often use opportunity samples made up of students.
What is Volunteer Sampling?
Volunteer sampling is a type of sampling where individuals picked for the research experiment put themselves forward to be a participant.
For example, if you want people into your experiment so you advertise it, people come forward that want to be part of it - volunteer sampling.
What type of sampling technique is:
To print out all of the school registers; cut them up so that each name is on a separate piece of paper; then put them all in a huge hat and pick out names with his eyes closed.
Random
Give an advantage and disadvantage of random sampling.
Advantage:
Random sampling is often representative of the population as every single person in the population has a chance to be picked.
It is free from researcher bias as random sampling does not get affected at all by what the researcher does.
Disadvantages:
Random sampling can often be laborious and so it can take a while to generate your sample.
What type of sampling technique is:
To print out all of the school registers and select every 5th name until he has selected 50 students.
Systematic
Give an advantage and disadvantage of Systematic sampling.
Advantages:
Systematic sampling is often a very easy and efficient way to gather participants randomly.
Systematic sampling is mostly free from investigator bias.
Disadvantages:
Systematic sampling does not mean every person in the population has an equal chance of being picked.
This can mean you can miss certain sub-groups in the population that might impact your study. This can damage how representative the study is to the population.
What type of sampling technique is:
To prints out all the names on the school register and divide them into sub-groups, e.g. Sex and year group
Then pick at random from these sub-groups.
Stratified
Give the disadvantages and advantages of Stratified sampling.
Advantages:
Often representative of the general population to a more accurate degree than the other sampling techniques as you get a more representative sample.
Avoids researcher bias as you pick from random.
Disadvantages:
Some subgroups may be missed.
It can take a lot of time and money to do it as well, since it also uses the random aspect to sample.
It can be difficult to identify certain traits and characteristics, such as people’s backgrounds effectively enough to stratify samples properly.
What type of sampling technique is:
To go into the dinner hall and common room at lunch and ask some students if they want to take part in the research.
Opportunity
Give an advantage and disadvantage of Opportunity sampling.
Advantages:
Quick and easy, cheap way to get participants
Disadvantages:
Investigator bias can often happen as you subconsciously influence yourself to go to certain people to ask if they want to be in the study.
Since you are only asking certain people (for example those who are actually not at home that you can ask), subgroups can be missed which can make your sample less representative.
What sampling technique is:
To create posters and put them up around the school, anyone that is interested can take part (e.g. meet after school Tuesday).
Volunteer
Give a disadvantage and advantage of Volunteer sampling.
Advantages:
Easy and quick way to get participants, requires minimal effort from yourself as people go to you
Disadvantages:
Certain types of people are much more likely to respond to an advertisement for a study. Due to this, the sample can often be unrepresentative of the general population as those types of people are probably going to act differently than the general population.
Researchers wished to study the link between early attachment and later adult relationships.
They surveyed a stratified sample of 100 18 year old students from four different schools. Some schools have a large number of students and others have a smaller number of students.
Explain how the researchers could have obtained a stratified sample from the four different schools (4 marks)
The researcher could work out the ratio of sub-groups of students in each of the four schools and calculate the proportions they require.
They would then select a random sample from each sub-group by putting names into a hat and picking out the proportional number required for their sample.
What is Quantitative data?
Quantitative data is a piece of data that is numerical.
For example, the amount of times a child picks up a pen (e.g. 5 times) is a piece of quantitative data.
What is Qualitative data?
Qualitative data is a piece of data which is not numerical.
For example, hair color (e.g. brown) is a piece of qualitative data.
What is Primary data?
Primary data is a type of data that is collected by researchers directly from main sources through interviews, surveys, experiments, etc.
What is Secondary data?
Secondary data is information collected from other studies or sources, like a book, article or journal.
What is a Meta-Analysis?
Meta-analysis is the statistical procedure for combining data from multiple studies.
This is done by investigators to compare the results of each study done and come up with a conclusion as a result of all of them.
What is Order Effects?
Order effects refer to the order of the conditions having an effect on the participants’ behavior.
Performance in a second condition may be better because the participants know what to expect (i.e. practice effect).
Their performance might be worse in the second condition because they are tired (i.e., fatigue effect).
What is a Repeated Measures design?
A Repeated Measures Design is an experimental design where participants take part in both conditions featured in the experiment.
Give an advantage and disadvantage for Repeated Measures design.
Advantage:
Less participants needed, this means it can be easier to manage and is cheaper.
Disadvantage:
Since participants are in both conditions, they are subject to issues such as order effects, a situation where a participant gets better at doing a certain or similar task when they do it the second time over.
What is Independent Measures design?
An Independent Measures design is an experimental design where a group of participants only participate in one condition in the experiment.
Give an advantage and disadvantage for Independent Measures design.
Advantages:
Order effects are overcome because participants only participate in one condition, therefore they are typically only needed for one attempt
Disadvantages:
Requires more participants to keep the sample representative of the general population compared to a Repeated Measures design.
Individual differences between participants can cause confounding results, as they won’t play a part in the whole experiment, only a single condition.
What is a Matched Pairs design?
A matched pairs design is an experimental design where participants only take part in one condition in the experiment, but are matched by certain variables.
Give an advantage and disadvantage of Matched Pairs design.
Advantage:
No order effects as participants take part in only one condition in the experiment therefore only one attempt is needed
The experimental design acknowledges individual differences between participants and matches participants similarly.
This means the results are more likely to be reliable as participant effects have been minimized.
Disadvantage:
It is unlikely this design will be effective to be worth it unless participants are matched on multiple variables. This can take a while.
People are different to each other in some unscientific ways, like IQ, memory, childhood and cognitive function (way of thinking).
Investigators will often ignore these differences as it is considerably difficult to match people scientifically on behalf of those characteristics, and since they are part of how we define ourselves, a matched pairs design often fails from being too difficult to be fully effective.
Match the type of experimental design to the definition:
A- Participants only take part in one condition of the IV, but they are matched with another Participant on key characteristics who takes part in the other condition of the IV.
B- Participants take part in all conditions, often used for comparison studies.
C- Participants are placed in separate groups, each group does one level of the IV.
A = Matched Pairs Design B = Repeated Measures Design C = Independent Measures Design
What is an observation?
An observation is a type of research method in which researchers observe the person of interest to record information about them.
It is usually carried out in a natural environment.
Give a disadvantage and advantage of carrying out an observation.
Advantages:
No demand characteristics as you usually observe people without them knowing, making the behavior demonstrated by the individual more natural.
Ecologically valid - person usually doesn’t know they’re in a study and it’s done in a natural environment, usually.
Disadvantages:
Unethical - if participant did not consent to be observed it can be distressing to know you’re being watched without being asked.
The notes you may take on the individual you are observing are likely to be shallow as there is not much you can say unless you interact with them.
Why might psychologists choose to conduct an observation?
To observe people in their natural setting - this allows the gathering of representative and ecologically valid information.
Behaviors can be studied in an observation where otherwise it would be unethical to manipulate in an experiment.
What is a Controlled Observation?
A Controlled Observation is an observation where the investigator regulates some variables of the environment they are observing in, to make the observation more controlled.
What is a Natural Observation?
A Natural Observation is an observation where the investigator observes the participant in it’s fully natural environment - the environment is not manipulated or changed in any way.
What is a Covert Observation?
A Covert Observation is an observation wherein participants are unaware that they are being observed.
What is an Overt Observation?
An Overt Observation is an observation wherein participants are aware that they are being observed.
What is a Participant Observation?
A participant observation is an observation where the observer also participates in the activity being observed.
What is a Non-Participant Observation?
A Non-Participant Observation is an observation where the observer does not participate in the activity being observed.
The observer is separate and keeps away from the people being studied - they simply watch/listen.
Give a disadvantage and advantage of a Controlled Observation.
Advantages:
Since the environment is controlled, there is a lower chance of confounding variables occurring which makes the observation more reliable, and cause and effect is easier established.
Disadvantages:
Controlling an environment meaning you are artificially manipulating the environment, meaning the environment is not as naturalistic anymore.
This can reflect the participant, who might act differently to the change in the environment, making the observation less ecologically valid.
Give a disadvantage and advantage of a Naturalistic Observation.
Advantages:
Ecologically valid as the environment that is being observed is fully natural and reflects the participant’s natural behavior fully.
Disadvantages:
Confounding variables can occur often due to the fact that the environment is not controlled, meaning cause and effect is much harder to establish in naturalistic observations, making the observation unreliable.
Give a disadvantage and advantage of Covert observations.
Advantages:
It is much less likely for the participant being observed to realize they’re in an observation, making demand characteristics unlikely.
Disadvantages:
Highly unethical. People can often feel distressed realizing people have been watching them without their consent which can make people feel unsafe.
Give a disadvantage and advantage of Overt observations.
Advantages:
Ethical - people have consented to be watched in their own environment.
Disadvantages:
It is much more likely for the participant being observed to develop demand characteristics, making the behavior unnatural and less representative to the general population.
Give a disadvantage and advantage of Participant observations.
Advantages:
More in depth information can be formed by being part of the observation as you can directly interact with people you are observing and ask specific questions.
Disadvantages:
Demand characteristics are much more likely to develop, and so observers must be careful with the types of questions they ask the participant if they wish to ask them anything.
Social desirability bias can occur, especially if the participant was alone before you came, to act socially acceptable. This might mask their natural behavior and so make the observation less representative.
Investigator effects are more likely as you may develop a connection with the person you are observing while you interact with them which may affect how you evaluate them after your observation ends.
Give a disadvantage and advantage of a Non-Participant observation.
Advantages:
Demand characteristics are less likely to occur due to the fact that the researcher is not interacting with the participant.
Disadvantages:
You are limited to the types of information you can pick up about a person as you are not able to interact with them.
Information gathered about the observed is generally less in depth due to the fact that you are not directly with them to ask any questions or etc.
What is inter-observer reliability?
Inter-observer reliability refers to the degree to which different raters/observers give consistent estimates of the same phenomenon.
In other words, it refers to how similar the conclusions or findings gained in an observation are between different observers.
What is counterbalancing?
Counterbalancing is a technique used to deal with order effects when using a repeated measures design.
With counterbalancing, the participant sample is divided in half, with one half completing the two conditions in one order and the other half completing the conditions in the reverse order.
What is a single blind experiment?
A type of clinical trial in which only the researcher doing the study knows which treatment or intervention the participant is receiving until the trial is over.
What is a double blind experiment?
A type of clinical trial in which neither the researcher or the participant know which treatment or intervention they are administering/receiving until the trial is over.
What’s an Unstructured Observation?
An unstructured observation is a type of observation wherein you record anything on behalf of what you see as interesting.
They produce qualitative data.
What’s a Structured Observation?
A structured observation is a type of observation wherein the investigator observes behavior by using certain pre-determined listing techniques, such as behavioral checklists and sampling.
They generally produce quantitative data.
What is Event Sampling?
Event sampling is when a researcher records a certain behavior for every time it happens.
For example, ticking a box every time the person they’re observing picks their nose.
Give an advantage and disadvantage of event sampling.
Advantage:
Event sampling is relatively easy as you just observe and tick a box when you see a certain behavior shown.
It also produces quantitative data which you can use to establish scientific conclusions easier.
Investigator bias is not an issue during the observation as the behavior is directly observable and just requires a tick rather than an inference or assumption.
Disadvantage:
If many things happen at once in the observation, it may be difficult to record it all.
You are only able to observe behavior that is directly observable, meaning you are limited to what you can observe.
Depending on what you observe, making conclusions could require an inference which can keep you open to investigator bias.
It can be pretty tiring as you are constantly observing and this can risk you missing certain behaviors that are being displayed through tiredness.
What is time sampling?
Time sampling is a type of sampling during an observation where the observer records behavior from a specific cycle of time, for example, every 10 seconds.
Give an advantage and disadvantage of time sampling.
Advantages:
There is a higher likelihood that you won’t get tired as you are only observing in short bursts, keeping the accuracy of the observation constant.
Disadvantages:
You may miss certain key behaviors displayed during the time in which you don’t have to observe.
This can make your observation less representative.
How may you check a study for investigator bias?
One of the main issues concerning investigator bias is that the investigation will not be reliable or consistent with other observations with the same purpose:
A good way to check for investigator bias in a study is by checking its inter-observer reliability.
The results of the study should be compared with other observations of the same study done by different people to collect how similar their results are. If the results are high in inter-observer reliability, this means that the results of the observers are consistent.
This means that the study is unlikely to have been effected by bias.
What is a questionnaire?
A questionnaire is a set of written questions in which are pre-determined.
They can produce qualitative or quantitative data.
In a questionnaire, it is important to write good questions.
Give two features of a question which make it bad.
Do not make double-barreled questions.
Do not use leading questions.
What is a leading question?
A leading question is a question which subtly prompts the respondent to answer in a particular way.
Leading questions are generally undesirable as they result in false or slanted information.
What is a double-barreled question?
A double-barreled question is a question which touches on multiple issues but only allows the responder to reply once.
What is an open question?
An open question is a question which allows for a custom, free-form answer.
What is a closed question?
A closed question is a question which have answer options that limit the responder to a finite list of given answers, such as ‘Yes’, ‘No’ and etc.
For example, the ‘From a scale of 1 to 10’ questions are also closed questions.
Give an advantage and disadvantage of open questions.
Advantages:
Answers are more likely in depth, giving the person reading the answer more information
Disadvantages:
Answers are generally much longer and harder to digest when reading as there might be a large amount of qualitative data. This may require inference which can lead to subjectivity issues and bias.
Give an advantage and disadvantage of closed questions.
Advantages:
Answers are much easier to digest, as they have much less qualitative data and generally don’t require inference if made properly, meaning they are more objective.
Disadvantages:
Answers in closed questions are not able to be free-formed by the person filling in the questionnaire so you might miss out on in depth information which might’ve been useful to pick up on.
Compare closed questions to open questions.
Closed questions only allow the person filling in the questionnaire to answer from a set list of pre-established options, whereas, in Open questions, the person filling in the questionnaire is able to answer in any way they feel and they are not forced to answer from a pre-established list of options.
What is a filler question?
A filler question is a question irrelevant to the purpose of the questionnaire to distract the respondent from what they think the purpose of the questionnaire is.
What is a pilot study?
Pilot studies are small, trial versions of proposed studies to test their effectiveness and make improvements.
They are helpful in identifying potential issues early, which can then be rectified before committing to the length and expense of a full investigation.
Evaluate the use of questionnaires.
Advantages:
No special training is needed to hand out or carry out questionnaires, something that interviews require.
It is relatively cheap to distribute.
People who respond to the questionnaire may feel more confident about releasing confidential and sensitive information.
Disadvantages:
Questionnaires can only be filled out by those who read and write, and so excludes a certain small subgroup of people, making it less representative.
People who are filling out the questionnaire may be biased, for example social desirability bias can still occur as people still want to seem desirable and so might lie about things such as their income.
Can take a while to design properly, as questions need to be thought out beforehand
What is a structured interview?
In a structured interview, the questions the interviewer asks are pre-established and have been made before the interview has actually been started.
There is no deviation from the original questions - you cannot ask your own questions even if you pick up on something interesting that won’t be covered.
It’s basically a questionnaire but with a real person.
What is an unstructured interview?
In an unstructured interview, the questions that the interviewer asks are not pre-established, they are being made as the interview goes along.
The questions are generally determined from the answers that are given.
Give the advantages and disadvantages of a structured interview.
Advantages:
Requires a less experienced interviewer as they are just asking from a list of questions and don’t actually need to interact much with the person they’re interviewing. As a result, you usually don’t need to hire an interviewer and so it’s generally cheap.
If you interview multiple people, since you are using the same questions, the results can be compared.
Disadvantages:
In a structured interview, you cannot deviate from the answers you are given. This means that you may miss out on asking about certain details you see in the interview.
This leads to structured interviews lacking depth.
Give the advantages and disadvantages of an unstructured interview.
Advantages:
Likely to be much more in depth as you are able to make your own questions and reflect them on details you may see in the interview that are interesting and might be valuable knowing.
Disadvantages:
Requires a skilled interviewer. This can mean unstructured interviews can often be expensive, especially if it’s done with many people.
You cannot compare the results of interviews with other people as the questions given are not the same - they vary depending on the person.
The quick nature of developing questions during the interview may cause the interviewer to miss out on certain details that might’ve been worth picking up on.
You have been asked to construct questions for an interview about peoples attitudes towards smoking.
1 - Write one closed question and one open question for this interview.
2 - Evaluate the use of an interview.
1 - Closed question = Do you think smoking is healthy?
Open question = Can you describe your opinion about smoking?
2 - Advantages:
An interview for this type of investigation will allow for more in depth information to be collected.
The questions in an interview may not be pre-established. This means that you are able to make sure you collect all the necessary details as accurately as possible as well as extra details that may be useful to the investigation.
Disadvantages:
Interviews can take a while and do take longer than questionnaires on average, as well as requiring a person to actively be working on asking questions to individuals.
This can make it more costly, and longer to gather data.
In order to get an interview with more rich data, which requires generally open questions, you may need a skilled interviewer. This can be expensive.
Questionnaires and Interviews are both self-report techniques.
Explain one disadvantage and one advantage of using a questionnaire rather than an interview.
Disadvantages:
The questions shown in questionnaires have to be pre-established questions formed by the investigators.
This can be an issue, as if you miss a certain detail and release the questionnaire, it may be too late to change the questions to include it.
Questionnaires are often made for people who know how to read and write. This can exclude certain subgroups of people, making the data collected less representative.
Advantages:
Questionnaires are more likely to produce quantitative data, which is easier to analyze.
Questionnaires don’t carry on extra costs, such as the cost for using a skilled interviewer which may be needed for interviews.
As well as this, questionnaires do not require someone like an interview to collect data, it is usually a question sheet done on paper or technologically which means it is much less laborious to carry out.
What is a case study?
An in-depth study that gathers a lot of detail about one person or a small group.
Give an advantage of a case study.
Case studies allow researchers to obtain rich data in a lot of detail.
Give a disadvantage of a case study.
Ethics are often an issue as if the case study is done on an individual person or group, gaining informed consent can be very difficult, if not impossible.
You can’t generalize case studies, it’s research on a very small sample.
Case studies often take a long time.
What is content analysis?
Content analysis is a research method used to analyze secondary data.
It involves splitting the data into assigned categories.
Give an advantage of content analysis.
Fairly inexpensive
Participants aren’t directly involved in this research method and so ethics are often not an issue.
Give a disadvantage of content analysis.
The data you will see in content analysis is up for interpretation, therefore there is a risk for subjectivity.
Causality cannot be established as it merely describes the data.
The British Psychological Society is responsible for making sure that psychological experiments are done ethically.
List three features shown in their ethical guidelines.
Confidentiality - none of the participants in a psychological study should be identifiable from any reports that are produced.
Informed Consent - Participants must be given informed consent. They should be told the aims and nature of the study before agreeing to it.
Right To Withdraw - Participants can leave the study at any time.
Deception - If participants have been deceived, then they cannot have given informed consent.
Protection From Harm - participants in the experiment should have a risk of harm no greater than they would face in their normal lives.
The BPS (British Psychological Society) states that psychological experiments must offer Informed Consent.
In this context, what is Informed Consent?
Informed Consent is when a participant consents to being part of a psychological study, while being fully informed on what the study will subject them to.
However, researchers often do not reveal every single detail about the experiment, such as the true intention, as it is important to decrease demand characteristics to keep experiments effective.
The BPS (British Psychological Society) states that psychological experiments must maintain Privacy.
In this context, what is Confidentiality?
Privacy in psychological experiments refer to the fact that participants in the study should not be able to identified by any reports published or otherwise.
If there is not full privacy, participants in the study must be warned beforehand.
The BPS (British Psychological Society) states that participants in psychological experiments must not be deceived.
In this context, what is Deception?
It can be necessary to deceive (lie) about the true aims of a study otherwise participants may alter their behavior.
The BPS has argued that if deception occurs, participants were not given informed consent. However, they see this as justified if there is strong scientific justification for the case.
The BPS (British Psychological Society) states that participants in psychological experiments must be protected from harm.
In this context, what is Protection from harm?
It has been stated that the psychological or physical harm on participants should not be greater than what they experience in their normal lives.
It is hard to accurately assess this, however.
Explain why a researcher would conduct a pilot study
A researcher may want to conduct a pilot study as it is a great way to check for issues concerning the actual experiment before releasing it on a large scale, in order to make sure it is as effective as possible in the safest way.
One situation in which disruption of attachment can occur is when a mother of a young child is admitted into hospital. A researcher decided to study the behavior of a two year old boy who experienced this disruption of attachment.
She decided to use naturalistic observation of the boy both before his mother was admitted into hospital and after she returned home. Each period of observation lasted for one hour.
Explain why the psychologist might want to carry out a pilot study before the main observation. (2 marks)
The psychologist might want to carry out a pilot study before the main observation to identify any weaknesses in her naturalistic observation beforehand in order for them to be solved.
So, when the real observation begins, there is less chance for error and the experiment is more likely to be valid and reliable.
In statistics, what is a correlation?
A correlation is a term in statistics used to highlight the relationship between two variables.
What is a negative and positive correlation?
A negative correlation is a correlation where there is a negative relationship between the two variables being measured. For example, when one increases, the other decreases.
A positive correlation is a correlation where there is a positive relationship between the two variables being measured. For example, when one increases, the other increases.
The line on a graph is upwards sloping.
The graph has variables labelled on both the x and y axis.
What correlation does the 2 variables have?
Positive
The line on a graph is downwards sloping.
The graph has variables labelled on both the x and y axis.
What correlation does the 2 variables have?
Negative
Describe the correlation coefficient.
The correlation coefficient is a scientific way to measure at what extent the correlation between 2 variables are at.
if x increases by 5 (+5) causing y to decrease by 5 (therefore -5), what is the correlation value?
-5/5 = -1 (-100%)
if x increases by 10 (+10) causing y to decrease by 6 (therefore -6), what is the correlation value?
-6/10 = -0.6 (-60%)
