research methods lessons 7-12

Question 1

what are the stages in writing a psychological report

Answer 1

1) Title - involve clear focus of study and key variables
2) Abstract - summary of main concepts. Involve: aims, hypotheses, experimental design, sample used
3) Introduction leading to aims/hypothesis - general discussion
4) Method section - experimental design, sample, apparatus/materials, procedure
5) Results section - descriptive stats: tables and charts. Stat tests used
6) Discussion section - summary of results, relationship to background research, limitations.
7) Reference section - Name, Date, Title of article, Journal title, issue number, page number

Question 2

what are the types of correlation

Answer 2

Positive
Negative
No correlation

Question 3

what indicates the strength of a correlation

Answer 3

correlation coefficient between -1 and +1

Question 4

evaluation of correlations

Answer 4

Adv - establishes the strength between variables. Once correlation has been conducted predictions can be made
Dis - doesn’t establish cause and effect. Could be a third confounding variable involved. Only measure linear relationships and not curvilinear

Question 5

what is the level of statistical significance definition

Answer 5

level at which decision to reject null hypothesis is. how sure we can be that the IV is affecting the DV and not due to chance

Question 6

chance definition

Answer 6

Something has no real cause

Question 7

why is the 5% significance level used

Answer 7

1) not too strict or too lenient
2) minimises chance of making a type I or type II error

Question 8

what is a type I error

Answer 8

when you reject null hypothesis but results are actually due to chance so should have accepted null hypothesis

Question 9

what is a type II error

Answer 9

when you accept the null hypothesis but results are significant so should have rejected null hypothesis