Research Methods Key Words Flashcards
- )Directional hypothesis
2. ) Non- directional hypothesis
- ) A hypothesis suggesting the direction of the difference or relationship. A hypothesis predicts outcome of results. A directional hypothesis is a 1 tailed test.
- ) A hypothesis not suggesting the direction result will go of difference or relationship but instead just suggests a chance will occur.
Operationalise
Extraneous variables
- ) Operationalising variable is how you define and measure specific variable in your studies providing a clear and objective definition eg. GCSE maths results.
- ) An extraneous variable is any variable that you are not intentionally measuring in your study that could affect your results. They can prevent cause an effect between IV and DV and are known as nuisance variables. They don’t vary systematically with the I.V
Confounding variables
Demand characteristics
- ) Any variable other than I.v that has effect on D.V stopping you knowing true cause of change in D.V IT varies systematically with the D.V
- ) A cue from the researcher about the purpose of the study which can cause p’s to change their behaviour
Investigator effects
Random allocation
Any effect of investigators behaviour on the outcome of the study. This can include anything from investigators interaction with p’s or design
Tries to control effect of p’s variables in an independent groups design so each participant has the same chance of being in a condition as another. You number p’s eg.1-10 then random number generator or hats numbers for each group.
Counterbalancing
Experimental design
Counterbalancing tries to control for the effects of order in a repeated measures design. Half the group does one condition first and half the group does the other condition first [AB, BA]
The different ways of asserting p’s / splitting participants into groups in an experiment eg . Repeated measures design, independent groups design etc.
Thematic analysis
Qualitative data
A method of assessing/ analysing qualitative data that involves looking for themes/ patterns in data after they have been coded
Data that doesn’t usually involve numbers and instead uses words including questionnaires , interviews etc. Qualitative data is generally ore subjective than quantitative however it may produce more info about the participant. Qualitative data can be converted to quantitative.
Quantitative data
Coding
Quantitative data is generally nominal data that can be expressed as numbers. It can be statistically analysed.
Content analysis stage where you analyse p’s communication then their behaviour/ communication is grouped into categories.
Case study
Time sampling
In depth investigation, description or analysis by an individual, a group or an institution. They collect large amounts of data and often study unusual phenomenons.
Time sampling is a sampling method used in observation studies where p’s are observed by a researcher at specific, defined intervals such as every minute.
Event sampling
Inter- rater reliability
Sampling method used in observational research to see how many times a specific event occurs in a time frame such as how may times a baby seeks proximity.It will collect nominal data.
Inter rater reliability is the amount / degree of agreement between raters/ researchers between their ratings.
Content analysis
External validity
Content analysis is a method used to analyse qualititative data. It is useful when converting qualitative data into quantitative data (numerical data) and an example is coding.
External validity is the extent to which your results can be generalised to the whole population.
Validity
Reliability
Is if the data we collected genuine and does it represent reality or has something interferes with our results. Internal val is inside study and external val is outside the study.
Reliability is the extent to which consistent results are achieved every time a test is carried out. For a result to be reliable we would have to get the same result if we carried out the test another day. It’s linked to replication
Empirical method
Falsifiability
Empirical method is where objective, quantitative and systematic observations occur in a controlled environment which can be replicated. This helps to test if a theory is repeatable.
Falsifiability is proving a hypothesis is valid by proving that the null hypothesis is false or invalid
Objectivity
Replicability
Something that’s not affected by personal feelings or experiences and researcher should stay value free or unbiased when carrying out research
Replicability means the same results should be able to be attained if the same experiment was carried out by the same or another researcher.
Theory construction
Paradigm , paradigm shift
A theory is a general law or principle explaining events or behaviours. Theory construction occurs due to gathering evidence through direct observation or the empirical method. A theory to be trusted she be rigorously tested and gave experiments supporting it.
A paradigm is a clear, distinct concept accepted by most people in a scientific field. Paradigm shift is when an accepted paradigm is questioned due too lots of contradictory evidence which can cause a change of belief and of what is generally accepted.
What’s a correlation?
How would you show a correlation?
Difference in appearance between negative and positive correlation?
What’s zero correlation?
What do correlation coefficients show?
Correlation is a relationship between 2 variables. It’s a statistical technique used for data analysis.
Scatter diagrams
Positive correlation shown by roughly forming line bottom left to top right. Negative correlation is bottom right to top left
No dots pattern shows zero correlation and no relationship at all.
Closeness of relationship is shown by correlation coefficient with 1 and -1 shoeing perfect correlations..
Strengths of correlation
Negatives
Allows investigators to measure relationships between variables without manipulation or control.
Significant correlations justify further research.
They can be repeated to justify findings.
Correlations very rarely perfect eg +1 or -1 therefore researcher will only find out if there’s a significant relationship. Correlation doesn’t mean causation. Intervening variables may explain why co- variables are linked.
Case study definition
Why does it use objective and systematic methods.
How do they collect the data?
Are case studies longitudinal?
The detailed study of a single individual, group or event. Example of evidence based research where psychologists look at individual cases partially to look at unusual behaviour and partially to look in greater detail at any type of behaviour.
To make findings scientific
Psychologists may use use IQ tests or personality tests or some other type of questionnaire to produce psychological data. Findings then grouped into themes and may be shown in qualitative or quantitative fashion
Yes they follow a group over extended period of time.
Strengths of case studies
Limitations
Provide a great amount of detail
Sometimes it’s only method you can use such as an example of rare behaviour.
Hard to generalise individual cases to whole population so not representative. There may be some elements of researcher bias if researcher becomes too involved. There are psychological issues like confidentiality, informed consent and psychological harm.
What’s content analysis?
Researcher has to make decisions about following ?
Strengths
Weakness
Research looks at the content of something and then analyses it eg. In a book they may identify patterns.
Sampling method , coding the data + method of representing the data
Has high eco validity as if it’s based on observations of what people actually do. Content analysis also can be replicated to increase reliability/ validity
Observer bias may reduce objectivity and validity of findings as different researchers observe categories differently. Content analysis may also experience culture bias. Love
How to summarise qualitative data?
Intentions of thematic analysis?
Look for common themes and analyse.
Quantitative can be prayers easily with graphs or measures of central tendency or dispersion.
To impose order on data that is representative instead of preconceptions. To summarise data, identify themes and allow conclusions too be made.
Experimental designs are ways to allocate participants to different conditions in an experiment. These include:
- ) ?
- )?
- )?
- ) Independent groups design is where different participants are in different conditions. Can be done by random allocation
- ) repeated measures design: p’s do both conditions. Order effect in this is limited by counterbalancing (AB, BA)
- ) Matched Pairs uses different p’s however similar p’s are chosen eg. Similar p’s are grouped into pairs and one of each pair goes into an individual condition.
Pros and cons of experimental designs:
Independent groups design
Repeated measures design
Matched pairs
- ) helps avoid order effect although more people are needed than repeated measures design.
- ) for repeated measures as same p’s are used it reduces p’s variables. Order effects however may occur - countered by counterbalancing
- ) time consuming in matching pairs and may experience order effects.
Pilot study
Peer review
Small trial version of a study that occurs before the actual study that helps check for any errors and make improvements. Can help test many things such as: validity of way of measuring.
Occurs before a paper is published to check the validity of research and quality and it also ensures that research contributes to its field. Research is checked by experts in the field
Normal distribution -
Skewed distribution -
symmetrical data arrangement forming a bell shaped curve where mean, median and modes are in the middle at highest peak.
data frequency is not evenly spread and data is clustered at one end . Positively skewed then tail will go to the right and negatively skewed tail will go to the left. Positive skew= mean greater than median but negative skew median is greater than mean.
Implications of psychological research on economy
Psychological research may contribute to prosperity economically. Better research into treatments means more efficient work force and less people missing work meaning more employment and less days missing jobs so less stress on taxpayer , NHS etc
Types of experiment?
What is lab experiment?
What is a field
Natural experiment
Quasi
Lab, natural , field, quasi
Controlled environment where researcher manipulates I.V and sees effect on D.V. Extraneous variables are strictly controlled.
Researcher carried out experiment in natural setting and researcher manipulates IV and sees effect on DV
An experiment where change in the I.V naturally occurs and researcher records effect on the dependent variable.
Quasi is where- the independent variable is not manipulated by researchers and co-variables simply exist.
Sampling
Systematic sampling?
Random
Stratified
Opportunity
Volunteer
A method of choosing a representative sample by choosing every nth number
Number p’s put numbers in hat and draw out or use random number generator.
Sampling method where groups of participants are selected due to their frequency in the whole pop to try and provide a representative sample.
Opportunity sample is where the most easily available people at the time are picked.
Volunteer sample - relies on people volunteering to take part.
Type of observations
Naturalistic observations, covert, overt, participant and non participant
Naturalistic- watching and recording behaviour that would normally occur
Covert- Participant behaviour is recorded and watched without participant knowing
Overt- participant behaviour is recorded and watched with participants knowing
