Research methods and statistics in psychology

Question 1

Primary purpose of psychological research?

Answer 1

test hypotheses (i.e., statements of cause-and-effect that are derived from a given theory and tested in research)

Hence is theory based

Question 2

What are some research methods that can be used?

Answer 2

1. Experimental Method
2. The quasi-experimental method
3. The survey (or correlational) method
4. The case study method

Question 3

Describe the experimental method

Answer 3

common research method that manipulates a theoretically relevant variable and to examine the effect of this manipulation on an outcome variable

manipulation a = outcome b

Question 4

What are the different components of the experimental method?

Answer 4

Experimental Group - the group receiving treatment

Control Group - compared to

Experimental treatment - the administration of experimental treatment in experimental group is a difference between experimental and control gorpu

Random allocation of subjects are made in accordance to the conditions (condition that experimental group is in and condition that control group is in)

Question 5

Why is there random allocation of subjects to experimental and control group?

Answer 5

Lower chance of systematic differences such as intelligence, personality

• Better representation of population which means the theory can be better generalized
• unsystematic allocation of participations to conditions

Question 6

What is a method that may be used for random allocation?

What may not be a method to use

Answer 6

Flipping a coin

First 50 followed by next 50, assigning numbers

Question 7

Experimental Method

What is the difference between the dependent and independent variable?

Answer 7

Dependent variable is fundamentally, the outcome of the experiment that relies on the treatment

Independent variable is the manipulation introduced by the researcher and is known as the **treatment variable **

E.g., 1: Does my physical training regime increase cognitive processing? ?
IV = physical training, DV = cognitive processing

, 3: Does watching violent TV result in more violent behaviour?
DV = degree of violent behaviour, IV = amount of violent TV

Question 8

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the experimental method?

Answer 8

Strengths:

1. Researchers have control of IV in experiments
2. when there is a significant change in the DV, Causal inference can be made has to be a result of the manipulation of IV
3. by appropriate use of statistics and sufficiently large experimental samples, results can reflect the larger, general population. Participants representative of general population

Weaknesses:

1. Results from experiments can be invalid when IVs don’t really manipulate what researchers think they’re manipulating.

Threat to internal validity that may be through experimental confounding (unintended manipulation of IV)

such as heat being a confound in the experiment to measure whether crowding causes stress, diet, age, the participant’s knowledge they are participating in an experiment.

Question 9

When is the quasi-experimental method used?

Answer 9

When random allocation of subjects in groups cannot be achieved because it’s impossible or for unethical reasons

Question 10

What is the quasi-experimental method and how does it differ from the experimental method?

Answer 10

It does not use random allocation of subjects, if so, the casual inference will be invalid

This is because the independent variable cannot be manipulated eg. gender, age

Question 11

What are variables that cannot be controlled in a study?

Answer 11

Extraneous Variables

Confounds are part of extraneous variables

Question 12

Strengths and weaknesses of quasi- experimental method?

Answer 12

Compared to the experimental method, there is much less control over the IV (and hence we can’t conclude that it is necessarily responsible for change in the DV).

Despite the fact we try and Match our groups as closely as possible

Question 13

What research method may be used when finding naturally occurring patterns of variables in real world? give an example

Answer 13

survey or correlational method

wealth and attitudes to education

Question 14

Strengths and weaknesses of the survey method

Answer 14

• Make predictions based off results
• Discover issues in real world
• explores number of different variables and their correlation
• useful for making predictions, based on observed relationships (e.g., that people who are overly stressed will suffer heart attacks).

Weakness:

• Results are generally more descriptive than those obtained using experimental methodology.
• Does not provide evidence to results as an experimental method would
• Correlation does not equate to causation

Question 15

What research method measures individuals? Give an example

Answer 15

Case studies

Brain trauma

Question 16

Advantages of case studies?

Answer 16

Very detailed providing insight to an individual’s mental processes and behaviour

Question 17

Why is choice of different methods beneficial?

Answer 17

In view of the potential limitations of any one method, many researchers use (or at least consider using) multiple research methods in order to explore the same issue in many different ways

Question 18

How can experimental pitfalls be overcome?

Answer 18

good experimental design such as counterbalancing and using appropriate control groups

Question 19

Distinguish Between subjects vs Within Subjects designs

Answer 19

between subjects: The experimental manipulation occurs between the control and experimental groups

within subjects:

The same subjects are exposed to the IV at different times

i.e., the experimental manipulation occurs within the subjects.

Question 20

Reliability in psychological research

Answer 20

Reliability: same or similar results will be produced when the study is conducted again in the future

Question 21

Validity in psychology

Answer 21

the study measures what it is meant to measure

Question 22

What are three types of validity

Answer 22

Internal Validity: does the outcome really reflect the experimental manipulation?

• What was the experimental manipulation, where and how was the study conducted

External validity: How well can we generalise?

• .Who was the subject population

Construct validity: Correspondence between the theory (construct) and the measurement used.

• . Was only one measure* used or were *multiple measures used to achieve triangulation

Question 23

What is goal in selecting IV and DV?

Answer 23

in selecting an IV and DV to identify that variable which approximates most closely to the theoretical variable of interest.

eg. unethical to induce depression, use melancholy music instead to achieve desired DV

Question 24

How can improper selection of DV and IV influence validity

Answer 24

Improper choice or manipulation of the IV and/or DV can result in serious violations of internal and external validity.

Question 25

What can threats to internal validity lead to?

Answer 25

researchers interpret effects they obtained incorrectly

Question 26

Threats to internal validity

What does maturation effects refer to?

Answer 26

when we use a situation where time passes,

The longer the time between the pre-test and post-test, the more likely the post-test is likely to reflect maturation effects

Question 27

Threats to internal validity

History effects

Answer 27

changes in society

Question 28

How might the testing situation itself result in threats to interval validity?

Answer 28

Testing effects reflect the situation where for one reason or another, the original testing situation (O1) influences the subsequent testing situation (O2 ).

Participants might be less motivated in the second half “here we go again”, or they might be more motivated “I want to do better this time” (psychological changes)

The therapist’s room may have been re-decorated (and made less drab). (physical changes)

Question 29

Threats to internal validity

Hawthorne effect

Answer 29

subjects simply respond to he fact that they are part of the research

Question 30

Threats to internal validity

mortality effects

Answer 30

subjects drop out of study

Question 31

What are experimental designs that can overcome internal validity threats?

Answer 31

involves getting rid of the first observation, so that there is no pre-test for the experimental treatment to react with:

This control condition involves different participants but a pre-test and post-test that are identical in every respect:

Question 32

What is experimenter bias and How can this bias threaten external validity?

Answer 32

Any behavior by the researcher that prevents a fair test of the experimental hypothesis.

The experimenter may react more positively to responses that are to his or her liking (for example, by nodding or smiling)

• harder for experimental results to be reflective of external world

Question 33

How can problems with demand characteristics be overcome?

Answer 33

–Problems associated with demand characteristics can also be addressed by concealing the purpose of an experiment. This can be done by means of deception — either misinforming participants about the purpose of an experiment or using concealment to avoid telling them the whole truth.

Question 34

Threats to internal valdity

Fatigue Effects

Answer 34

even short delays between pre and post-test

eg. children get tired quickly

Question 35

Threats to external validity

demand characteristics

Answer 35

demand characteristics: subjects react to cues in research which seem to indicate how they ought to respond.

Person may respond to the question ‘Are you sure you’re anxious?’, by saying ‘No’ (when they actually are anxious), because they think the response ‘No’ is being demanded of them.

Question 36

What is difference between survey and experiment?

Answer 36

in an experiment we manipulate the IV, and measure the DV.

In a survey, we measure **what we think may be causing the behaviour **(the IV) and also measure the behaviour (the DV).

Question 37

what characteristics do surveys exhibit?

Answer 37

• naturally-occurring and enduring relationships between variables
• description than with explanation.
• representative of population of interest

Question 38

Surveys:

What does correlation does not equate to causation suggest?

Answer 38

no relationship between variables this allows us to conclude that one does not cause the other

Question 39

Survey

What are design issues survey may encounter?

Answer 39

a) sample selection
b) sample size
c) Type of surveys

Question 40

Surveys

How can sample selection be a design issue?

Answer 40

To generalize results to the larger population, survey researchers need to ascertain their sample is representative random sample of population.

–survey must obtain data from a random sample of the population that has the same characteristics as the population.

Question 41

Example of when sample selection lead to wrong prediction

Answer 41

–the Literary Digest

Question 42

Survey Design Issues

Sample Selection: What does convenience sampling refer to?

Answer 42

–generally the population in which researchers are interested is all people who display the psychological process they are investigating.

No matter how narrowly people are chosen, they should be representative of this population

Question 43

Survey

Design Issues: Sample Size

Benefits and disadvantages

Answer 43

–larger sample size reduces uncertainty about the inferences drawn from sample data. More reflective of population

Disadvantages of larger sample size

• systematic bias can occur

–size will be reduced by non-responses.

• mortality and reactivity. If particular people (e.g., lazy ones, or people who are offended by the survey) don’t respond this can bias the sample.

Question 44

Survey

Design Issues:Type of surveys

Limitations

Answer 44

• Socially desirable responding: people respond in ways they think they should, rather than as they normally would .
• In this way, data can be biased by a concern to provide socially desirable responses.
• Reactivity
• Mortality rate

Question 45

What is a way to overcome problem of demand characteristics in surveys?

Answer 45

use non-obtrusive measures, which ensure that the participants are not aware that they are being involved in the research process

Question 46

Overall, what are survey designs that can help overcome limitations?

Answer 46

ncarefully worded so as not to be misleading.

Question 47

what is triangulation? what is the benefit?

Answer 47

Triangulation in research increases the credibility of the research by drawing on multiple viewpoints.

**Increases construct validity of research **

Question 48

construct validity

Answer 48

Construct Validity refers to the ability of a measurement tool (e.g., a survey, test, etc) to actually measure the psychological concept being studied.