Research methods (A2) PAPER 2

Question 1

Outline what is meant by ‘replicability’ and ‘falsifiability’ in psychological research

Answer 1

Replicability - the extent to which scientific procedures and findings can be repeated by other researchers.
Falsifiability - A theory cannot be considered scientific unless it has the possibility of being proven untrue

Question 2

What is meant by paradigm and paradigm shifts in scientific research

Answer 2

Paradigm - A shared set of assumptions within a scientific discipline
Paradigm shift - when there is too much contradictory evidence, you question the accepted paradigm

Question 3

discuss the importance of theory construction and hypothesis testing in scientific research

Answer 3

theory constructions happens through gathering evidence from direct observations. Hypothesis testing ensures a theory can be falsified

Question 4

Outline one way psychologists can assess the reliability of the questionnaire

Answer 4

measure using test-retest method,
The two sets of data should exceed a correlation of .80
if the questionnaire produces low test-retest reliability then some questions should be removed or rewritten

Question 5

define correlation

Answer 5

relationship between two co variables

Question 6

Distinguish between a Type 1 and Type 2 error