Research Methods Lessons 6-10

Question 1

What is a target population?

Answer 1

This describes the group who researchers are studying and want to generalise their results to

Sampling techniques are used to obtain a sample of the target population and are essential to avoid studying entire populations, which would take too long and be too expensive

Question 2

What is a sample?

Answer 2

A sample should be representative of the population from which it is drawn and should therefore have the same characteristics as the population.

Question 3

What is random sampling

Answer 3

Random sampling is when every member of the target population has the same chance of being selected.

The easiest way to do this is to place all names from the target population in a hat e.g. 100 possible participants. We then select our sample, e.g. the first 20 participants’ names that are drawn from the hat.

Question 4

What are the advantages and disadvantages of random sampling

Answer 4

advantages:
1) If the target population is large and a large sample is drawn, then it is likely the sample will be representative and therefore results can be generalised from the sample to the target population.

2) There is no researcher bias when selecting the sample, this is because the sample have been chosen by chance without any conscious choice from the researcher. Everyone has an equal chance of being selected.

Disadvantages:

1) It is sometimes difficult to get full details of a target population from which to select a sample.

2) Not all members of the target population who are selected to take part will be available or willing to take part, making the sample unrepresentative. Some people might refuse to take part in a study. This could reduce your sample size dramatically too.

Question 5

What is Systematic sampling

Answer 5

Systematic sampling is a sampling strategy where participants are selected by taking every Nth person from a list.

Question 6

What are the advantages and disadvantages of systematic sampling

Answer 6

Advantages:
1) Systematic sampling is far simpler than random sampling as it only requires a list of the target population, and then the researcher decides to select every nth person. Random sampling requires a lot more time and effort

Disadvantages:
1) The process of selection can interact with a hidden periodic trait within the population. If the sampling technique coincides with the periodicity of the trait, the sampling technique will no longer be representative.

2) Not all members of the target population who are selected to take part will be available or willing to take part, making the sample unrepresentative. Some people might refuse to take part in a study. This could reduce your sample size dramatically too.

Question 7

What is stratified sampling

Answer 7

Stratified sampling involves classifying the population into categories and then randomly choosing a sample which consists of participants from each category in the same proportions as they are in the population.

The population are divided into strata in terms of characteristics. A sample is then selected that reflects these characteristic.

Data about the sample in the UK can be gained from the Census.

Stratified samples can ensure that the sample is representative.

Question 8

What are the advantages and disadvantages of stratified sampling

Answer 8

Advantage:
1) The strength of stratified sampling is that all groups within a population are included, therefore the sample should be representative of the population.

Disadvantage:
1) Stratified sampling can be very time consuming as the categories have to be identified and calculated. If you do not have details of all the people in your target population or the relevant strata, you would struggle to conduct a stratified sample.

Question 9

What is opportunity sampling

Answer 9

Opportunity sampling involves selecting participants who are readily available and willing to take part.

This is sometimes known as convenience sampling. This involves selecting participants simply because it is convenient to do so.

Question 10

What are advantages and disadvantages of opportunity sampling?

Answer 10

Advantage:
1) This is the easiest and most practical method of ensuring large samples especially when compared to stratified sampling which might be very time consuming and expensive to carry out.

Disadvantage:
1) There is a high chance that the sample will not be representative of the target population. Sometimes people feel obliged to take part in research (especially if someone they know is conducting the research) even when they do not want to, which is unethical.

Question 11

What is volunteer sampling

Answer 11

Volunteer sampling involves people volunteering to participate in a study. The researcher will usually advertise for people to take part in their research. It allows people to take notice of the information and can then decide if they would like to take part in the research.

Question 12

What are advantages and disadvantages of volunteer sampling?

Answer 12

Advantage:
1) This method saves the research time and effort. The researcher needs to construct some kind of advertisement for the study and then just needs to wait for the participants to come to them to volunteer their time and involvement. This is better than other sampling methods where the researcher needs to ask people to take part and needs their full commitment.

Disadvantage:
1) A certain type of person tends to volunteer (interested in your topic) and this means that there is a very high chance that the sample obtained will be unrepresentative and will not accurately reflect the target population (volunteer bias).

Question 13

What are pilot studies?

Answer 13

pilot study is an initial run-through of the procedures to be used in an investigation; it involves selecting a few people and trying out the study on them. It is possible to save time, and in some cases, money, by identifying any flaws in the procedures designed by the researcher.

A pilot study can help the researcher spot any ambiguities or confusion in the information given to participants or problems with the task devised.

Sometimes the task is too hard, and the researcher may get a floor effect, because none of the participants can score at all or can complete the task – all performances are low. The opposite effect is a ceiling effect, when the task is so easy that all achieve virtually full marks or top performances and are “hitting the ceiling”.

When using self-report measures it is important to check as part of the pilot study:
The participants understand the questions and are prepared to answer them
That closed questions offer suitable options
Whether open questions are also needed to elicit unpredictable responses
Whether the reporting method is appropriate, e.g. if a face-to-face interview is too intimidating should it be changed to a questionnaire?

In observations it is important to check:
Observers agree on operational definitions of behavioural categories
Inter-observer reliability
The behavioural categories include all the important behaviours
The behavioural categories do not overlap
Whether the participants are affected by the observers – should they be covert?

Question 14

What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing a pilot study ?

Answer 14

.

Question 15

What are experimental designs and give 3 examples

Answer 15

how the participants are organized within the experiment.

There are three main types of experimental designs:
Independent groups
Repeated measures and
Matched pairs.

Question 16

What is experimental treatment!

Answer 16

This involves a group of people who are exposed to the independent variable

Question 17

What is a control group?

Answer 17

This group receives no treatment and are used as a base line level to compare results against

Question 18

What is randomisation?

Answer 18

The use of chance in order to control for the effects of bias deciding the order of conditions.

This is especially important if you are using a repeated measures design and the same participants are taking part in two different conditions.

Question 19

What is standardisation

Answer 19

Using exactly the same formalised procedures and instructions for all participants in a research study – this improves the reliability of the study

Question 20

What is random allocation?

Answer 20

An attempt to control for participant variables in an independent groups design which ensures that each participant has the same chance of being in one condition or the other

Question 21

What is an independent groups design?

Answer 21

In this design, different participants are used in each of the conditions. Therefore each group of participants are independent from one another.
Participants are usually randomly allocated to each condition to balance out any individual differences.

Question 22

What are advantages and disadvantages of independent groups design?

Answer 22

Advantages:

1) Order effects will not occur as there are different participants in each condition. Order effects are when the sequence in which participants take part in conditions influences their performance or behaviour. Participants may also get tired or bored when being asked to take part in more than one condition.

2) The chance of demand characteristics is reduced as participants take part in only one condition each and so have less chance to guess the aim of the study which could affect their behavior and the data collected.

3) Participants are not lost between conditions because they only take part in one condition and then leave the study. However in a repeated measures design where participants are used for two conditions, there is a higher risk of participants being lost between conditions.

Disadvantages:
1) More participants are needed for this experimental design compared to a repeated measures design. In an independent groups design there are usually 2 experimental conditions with different participants in each group

2) There is always a chance that the different results gained between the two conditions are due to individual differences rather than manipulation of the independent variable. This is because two separate groups of people are used and they might be very different.

Question 23

What is a repeated measures design

Answer 23

In the repeated measures design each participant is tested in all conditions of the experiment

Question 24

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a repeated measures design

Answer 24

Advantages:
1) As the same people are used in all of the conditions, there are no individual differences between the conditions. Therefore the study is more valid as we are really only measuring the effect of the IV on the DV.

2) Half as many participants are needed in this design compared to an independent groups design. This is because one group of participants are used in condition 1 and again in condition 2. However an independent groups design would need 20 participants in condition 1 and 20 participants for condition 2.

Disadvantages:
1) Order effects may affect the results. One way to avoid order effects is counterbalancing, this is when half the participants do condition A first and then condition B second and the other half of the participants do condition B first and condition A second. Changing the order of the tasks helps to reduce order effects and negative impacts on data collection.

2) Demand characteristics are more likely to occur using repeated measures design as participants are involved in the entire study and take part in two conditions. They might guess the aim of the study and therefore this might affect their behavior and the data collected.

Question 25

What is a matched pairs design?

Answer 25

In the matched pairs design, different participants are used in all of the conditions, just as with the independent groups design.
However, participants in the two groups are matched on characteristics important for that study, such as age, gender, etc

Identical twins are often used in matched pairs designs.

Question 26

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a matched pairs design

Answer 26

Advantages:
1) There is less risk of order effects using a matched pairs design as participants only take part in one conditions only (compared to repeated measures design).

2) Individual differences are less likely to occur as the groups have been closely matched on specific characteristics (less likely to occur compared to independent groups design).

Disadvantages:
1) Twice as many participants are required compared with a repeated measures design. Researchers need to gain access to a large number of participants, as different participants will appear in each condition.

2) The matching process is incredibly difficult and time consuming; even two closely matched individuals have different levels of motivation and fatigue at any given time. Therefore individual differences cannot be completely controlled and removed.

Question 27

What is reliability?

Answer 27

Reliability refers to the consistency of a research study especially when a study is repeated again and the same results are gained on both occasions.
There are two types of reliability.
External validity
Internal validity

Question 28

What is external reliability?

Answer 28

This is whether a test and the results gained are consistent over time.
The test-retest method can be used to assess external validity. A research study is conducted once, and then it is conducted again in the future. If the results gained from the both tests are similar then the study can be said to be reliable.

Question 29

What is internal reliability?

Answer 29

This is whether a test and the results gained are consistent within itself.
The split-half technique assesses the internal reliability of questionnaires.
The questionnaire is split in half and if participants score similarly on both halves of the questionnaire then the questions are measuring the same factors and the questionnaire has internal reliability.

Question 30

What is validity

Answer 30

Validity means that a study is measuring what it intends to measure when referring to the aim of the study.

Question 31

What is external validity (ecological validity)

Answer 31

This is the extent to which the findings of a study can be generalised to other settings.

Question 32

What is participant validity

Answer 32

The results from the participants used in the study can be generalised to the target population

Question 33

What is temporal validity

Answer 33

The results from the study can be generalised to people in today’s contemporary society

Question 34

What is internal validity

Answer 34

This is when the outcome of the study is a direct result of the manipulation of the independent variable (IV) upon the dependent variable (DV) and has not been affected by extraneous variables (EV).

Question 35

What are the 3 categories of EVs

Answer 35

Participant Variables
Situational variables
Experimenter variables

Question 36

What are participant variables

Answer 36

These are characteristics of the participants which may affect the DV .

Choosing an appropriate experimental design can help to try and overcome these type of extraneous variables. Matched pairs and repeated measures design can help to avoid participant variables.
However, repeated measures can lead to order effects, so counterbalancing should be used to avoid this. Random allocation of participants to conditions should also ensure that groups are not biased.

Question 37

What are situational variables

Answer 37

These are factors in the environment where the experiment is conducted that could affect the dependent variable

A way to resolve this issue is to use standardisation ( making sure that all the conditions, materials, and instructions are the same for all participants).

Question 38

What are experimenter variables

Answer 38

These are factors to do with the experimenter which can affect the dependent variable.

Standardised instructions should ensure that the experimenter acts in a similar way with all participants and follows a script and speaks to everyone in the same manner and tone.

Question 39

What is investigator effects

Answer 39

Investigators may inadvertently influence the results of their research.
Certain physical characteristics of the investigator can influence the behaviour of participants which therefore affects the data that is collected from the research.

If investigators know the hypothesis they may also inadvertently be biased in their interpretation of the results. Observer bias and interviewer effects are a type of investigator effects.

Investigator effects can be overcome by the double blind technique. This is when neither the participants nor the investigator knows the aim of the study and hopefully this will mean the data collected will be more valid.

Question 40

What are demand characteristics

Answer 40

One common extraneous variable is demand characteristics. There are many features of research studies that may enable participants to guess the main aim of the research and what is expected of them. This can lead to the participant trying to please the experimenter by giving the results they think the experimenter wants. Or participants might try to annoy the researcher by giving incorrect results (the screw you effect), acting unnaturally out of nervousness, or acting unnaturally out of social desirability.

Demand characteristics can be overcome by the single blind technique. This involves making sure participants do not know what the aim of the study is so that hopefully this will not influence their behavior unduly. This is more difficult to accomplish in a repeated measures design.

Question 41

What are ethical guidelines and provide examples

Answer 41

Ethical guidelines are necessary to ensure psychological research is acceptable.

Examples:
- fully informed consent
Deception
Debriefing
Right to withdraw
Confidentiality
Protection of participants from psychological harm
Observational research
Giving advice

Question 42

What is informed consent

Answer 42

Whenever possible investigators should inform participants of the objectives of investigations and gain their informed consent to take part.

This can be defined as, “It is the right of the participants to provide voluntary informed consent. They should be informed about what will be required of them, the purpose of the research, their rights e.g. right to withdraw. Participants should understand what they are agreeing to take part in.”

Informed consent might not be able to be gained in some situations, for instance people who have mental disorders might not be able to give consent; young children below the age of 16 (or very young children) might not be able to give their consent, as well as participants who have severe disabilities. In these situations you would ask family or immediate kin to give consent on behalf of the individual.

In some cases it is not possible to gain informed consent as it would cause participants to alter their behaviour.

Question 43

What is presumptive consent

Answer 43

This is consent gained from people of a similar background to participants in a study. If they agree and are willing to participate in the study (despite the deception) then it is assumed that the actual participants will also be willing to take part in the study (we presume that they would give their consent)

Question 44

What is prior general consent

Answer 44

This involves participants agreeing to be deceived without knowing how or when this will occur. You can ask a group of participants for example, “Would you be willing to take part in a future study, whereby the true aim of the study might be withheld?” If the participants agree, then you can conduct the study knowing that you have gained their informed consent prior the actual study. However, if participants know they will be deceived at some point in the future it can affect their behaviour.

Question 45

What is retrospective consent

Answer 45

This involves asking participants for consent after they have already participated in the study. However, they may not consent and yet they have already taken part. This would often result in their data being destroyed.

Question 46

What is protection from harm?

Answer 46

Investigators have a responsibility to protect participants from physical and psychological harm during the study. Risk of harm should be no greater than in ordinary life. Psychologists must stop any study immediately if they suspect a participant may be harmed. Participants should leave the research in the same condition they entered it.

Question 47

What is right to withdraw

Answer 47

At the start of the research all participants must be made aware that they can leave the study at any time. This is difficult to implement during covert observations. Participants should also be aware that they can withdraw their data at any point in the future. If participants appear distressed during a study they should be reminded of their right to withdraw.
Participants must be free to leave the study without having to offer any explanations.

Question 48

What is confidentiality

Answer 48

Participants’ data is confidential and should not be disclosed to anyone unless it has been agreed in advance. Numbers or letters should be used instead of names if the research is published to help protect participant’s identity. Confidentiality means that the data can be traced back to a name (but it should not be shared with others) whereas anonymity means that data cannot be traced back to a name as the participants have not provided their name.

Question 49

What is deception?

Answer 49

The withholding of information or misleading participants in a research study is unacceptable, especially if participants are likely to show unease once they know they have been deceived.

Intentional deception of the participants over the purpose and general nature of investigations should be avoided whenever possible. Participants should not be deliberately misled without scientific or medical justification.

Sometimes deception is unavoidable as if participants knew the true nature of the research they would change their behaviour (demand characteristics).

An ethics committee must approve all research before it begins. They conduct a cost-benefit analysis to determine if the research should be carried out. This is when the potential harm of doing research is weighed against the potential gains.

Question 50

How can we overcome the ethical issue of deception by debriefing

Answer 50

If deception is used then the real purpose of the experiment, and what occurred in the other conditions needs to be explained to participants after the study. Participants also need to be told why deception was necessary. This occurs in the debriefing session. A conversation between the researcher and the participant takes place after the research. During a debriefing session, participants should also be reminded of their right to withdraw and right to confidentiality, as well as the need to show respect to other participants (e.g. maintain their confidentiality). Debriefing does not provide justification for unethical aspects of research. The debriefing also allows the participant to ask questions about the research.

Question 51

Ethical guidelines: observational research

Answer 51

Observational studies must respect the privacy and psychological well-being of the individuals studied. Unless consent has been given, observational research is acceptable in public situations only when one would expect to be observed by strangers.

Question 52

Ethical guidelines: giving advice

Answer 52

Research might reveal physical or psychological problems of which the participant is unaware. It is the researcher’s responsibility to inform the participant if it is felt that to not do so would endanger the participant’s future well-being.

Question 53

What is meant by the term peer review

Answer 53

Peer review is the process by which psychological research papers, before publication, are subjected to independent scrutiny by other psychologists working in a similar field who consider the research in terms of its validity, significance and originality.

Question 54

Explain why peer review is important in psychological research (5 marks)

Answer 54

Peer review is an important part of the process because it provides a way of checking the validity of the research, making a judgement about the credibility of the research and assessing the quality and appropriateness of the design and methodology. Peers are also in a position to judge the importance or significance of the research in a wider context. They can also assess how original the work is and whether it refers to relevant research by other psychologists. They can make a recommendation as to whether the research paper should be published in its original form, rejected or revised in some way. The peer review process helps to ensure that any research paper published in a well respected journal has integrity and can, therefore be taken seriously by fellow researchers and others.

Question 55

What is peer review (process)

Answer 55

A psychologist completes a piece of research/article.
• The university will send their work to a another psychologist(s) working in a similar field (who are usually
experts) so that the work can be independently scrutinized
• The work is considered for publishing, (but only if the work is of a high standard and quality, high in validity,
significant and original).
• If the work is of a good quality then it can be published in a psychological journal.
• The peer reviewers report on the quality of the research
• Their views are considered by the research panel.
• Usually a double blind peer review process occurs whereby the established psychologist(s) carrying out
the peer review are anonymous – so that the psychologist who wrote the research does not know who will
peer review their work, and also the peer reviewer will not know whose research they are analyzing

If the research does not meet high standards and is of poor quality, then the research will not be published
• The work would be sent back to the researcher so that they can correct and modify their work
• Some academic journals are more prestigious than others, e.g. “Nature and Science” is very prestigious and
some research might never be published in this journal because some psychologists might feel, “The work is not good enough in terms of quality.”

Question 56

What is Open Access: Online peer reviews

Answer 56

• This is a process where new knowledge can be viewed online by the scientific community and the general public, so that anyone can access the research and judge it.
• This combines the idea of peer review and the fact that the research can appear in an online journal
• The work deemed to be of good quality can be trusted and will be accepted and published
• Work that is rated as poor quality and will not be accepted or published.
• Scientific information is now available on numerous blogs and online journals, such as Wikipedia.
• Such information is usually policed by the knowledge of the public.
• Readers decide if work is valid or not and leave comments.
• Several online journals ask readers to rate articles.
• Some journals articles are ranked by peer review and the peer reviews can be read by anyone.

Question 57

Publishing Psychological Work:

Answer 57

When new research has been conducted in the field of psychology, it is important that it should be published so that:
1) The work can appear in journals that are used internationally and the research will be disseminated and shared across the
world.
2) The work will be debated and new ideas can develop which could help establish new theories/research.
3) The scientific community will have confidence that the work is of a good quality due to the process of peer review
4) It will increase the reputation of the researcher and also offer them a chance to gain funding for their research in the
future.
5) The institutions e.g. university also looks good if many psychologists have conducted research that has been published.
Many universities receive government grants for their research, so the university will gain more money.

Question 58

The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology suggests that peer review serves three main functions. What are they?

Answer 58

1) Allocation of research funding
Research is paid for by various governments and charitable bodies. The organisations spending this money have a duty to spend it responsibly. Public bodies like the Medical Research Council require peer reviews to enable them to decide if research is likely to be worthwhile.
2) Publication of research in academic journals
Peer review prevents publication of irrelevant findings, unwarranted claims, unacceptable interpretations, personal views and deliberate fraud. It should also improve the quality of research published and so ensure that published research is taken seriously because it has been independently scrutinised. Peer review also increases probability of weaknesses/errors being identified before publication.
3) Assessing the research rating of university departments
All university science departments are expected to conduct research and the quality of this research is assessed so that the department can be given a rating to reflect the standard of this research.

Question 59

Evaluation of peer review

Answer 59

Advantages

1) It is important because is provides a way of checking the validity and credibility of the research, and assessing the quality and appropriateness of the design and methodology.
2) Peers can be neutral and non biased, especially as the process is a double blind whereby the person who conducted the research is kept anonymous, and they do not know who will peer review their work.
3) Peer review involves a specialist psychologist in the field judging the work, and they will have exceptional knowledge and expertise in order to make the best judgement.

Disadvantages

1) Can be an unfair process whereby some specialists have connections with certain universities/institutions, and therefore favouritism or bias might occur due to the institution the writer originates from.
2) Some academic journals are more prestigious than others, and therefore only excellent work would be published in such journals. For low quality journals, they might accept psychological work of a lower standard.

3) Some of the research might be ground breaking in the field of psychology, but due to being presented in a poor quality fashion, might be rejected.