Research methods in psychology and psychiatry Flashcards
1
Q
OBSERVATION
A
- self-selection environment
- perceptual - biased of your own experiments
- bias - ideas/consistent opinions pushed against people?
- messages from society bombarded - artificially inflated your fear of likelihood of being attacked
2
Q
Strengths of observations
A
- See how people behave rather than how they say they behave.
- Allows us to study variables it would be unethical to manipulate e.g. behaviour in prisons.
- Useful as pilot to generate hypothesis for future research.
3
Q
Weaknesses of observations:
A
- Difficult to replicate
- Does not provide us with thoughts or feelings, only behaviour
- No manipulating variables, so can’t establish cause and effect
- Observer bias
- Observer effect
- Time consuming and requires careful preparation
4
Q
To increase validity of observations:
A
- Carry out a covert observation so participants don’t change their behaviour (observer effect)
- Double blind observations to reduce observer bias
- Clearly operationalised coding system.
5
Q
To increase reliability of observations:
A
- Clearly operationalised coding system
- Check inter-rater reliability
- Train researchers to use coding system to ensure there is a consistent understadning of the behavioural categories
- Conduct a pilot study to check behaviour categories
6
Q
QUANTITATIVE
A
- Correlation data
- statistics
- experiment for cause
- theories
- surveys
- The strength of quantitative data is that it is objective.
- This is because numbers mean the same thing to everybody so no personal bias comes into interpreting them.
- Quantitative data can also be used to make comparisons and, if it is converted into statistics, whole groups can be analysed.
- However, quantitative data is reductionist.
- It only shows a superficial layer to human behaviour and doesn’t explore meaning.
- It can also be misleading.
- For example, two people could get the same quantitative score in completely different ways (eg answering questions completely differently).
7
Q
QUALITATIVE
A
- interviews
- thematic analysis
- grounded theory
- narrative analysis
8
Q
strengths of qualitative
A
- descriptive nature
- allows more depth of analysis
- leads to more meaningful conclusions about the participants views
- increases validity
9
Q
weaknesses of qualitative
A
- difficult to draw comparisons between groups
- difficult to arrive at a reliable conclusion about a specific thing
- more time consuming to achieve
- not reliable - cannot replicate and achieve same data
- Qual data can be quantified but it shouldn’t be. Qual data comes from a philosophical standpoint → there’s no one truth because it relies on different perceptions
10
Q
Differences between cross sectional and longitudinal designs
A
- Longitudinal studiesdiffer from one-off, orcross-sectional, studies.
- The main difference is thatcross-sectionalstudies interview a freshsampleof people each time they are carried out, whereaslongitudinal studiesfollow the samesampleof people over time.
11
Q
features of cross-sectional studies
A
-one point in time
-different samples
-snapshot of a given point in time, change at a societal level
-e.g. British social attitudes survey
12
Q
features of longitudinal studies
A
-several points in time
-same sample
-change at the individual level
-e.g. British birth cohort studies
13
Q
experimental
A
- An experiment is an investigation in which ahypothesis scientifically tested.
- An independent variable (the cause) is manipulated in an experiment, and the dependent variable (the effect) is measured; any extraneous variables are controlled.
- An advantage is that experiments should be objective. The researcher’s views and opinions should not affect a study’s results.
- This is good as it makes the data morevalid and less biased.
- Random allocations in an experiment is not a true experiment. e.g IQ, depression, anxiety etc cannot be randomly allocated.
-In order to get the truth you have to theorise and test theories using statistical/quantitative methods → amalgamise what’s true based on different sources.
14
Q
Laboratory Experiment
A
- the experimenter manipulates one or more independent variables and measures the effects on the dependent variable under controlled conditions.
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Strength:
- It is easier to replicate (i.e., copy) a laboratory experiment. This is because a standardized procedure is used.
- They allow for precise control of extraneous and independent variables. This allows a cause-and-effect relationship to be established.
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Limitation:
- The artificiality of the setting may produce unnatural behavior that does not reflect real life, i.e., low ecological validity. This means it would not be possible to generalize the findings to a real-life setting.
- Demand characteristics or experimenter effects may bias the results and become confounding variable
-
Strength:
15
Q
field experiment
A
- takes place in a natural, real-world setting. The experimenter manipulates one or more independent variables and measures the effects on the dependent variable.
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Strength:
- behavior in a field experiment is more likely to reflect real life because of its natural setting, i.e., higher ecological validity than a lab experiment.
- Demand characteristics are less likely to affect the results, as participants may not know they are being studied. This occurs when the study is covert.
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Limitation:
- There is less control over extraneous variables that might bias the results. This makes it difficult for another researcher to replicate the study in exactly the same way.
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Strength:
