research methods part 2 Flashcards
what 2 things do psychological investigations need to work ?
people
animals
what is a population ?
a group of people who are the focus of the researchers interest
a sample is taken from this
what is a sample ?
a group of people who take part in a research study
it is drawn from the target population
they try to make the sample represent the target population
what do they tend to want to do with the findings ?
generalise the findings to the wider population
why do they use sampling techniques ?
as isn’t possible to test everyone in the target population
want a technique to represent the population as a whole
is is difficult to get a truly representative sample ?
yes
what are the 5 types of sampling ?
random
systematic
stratified
opportunity
volunteer
what is random sampling ?
a sample in every member of the population has an equal chance of being chosen
what are examples of random sampling of how it may be done ?
get a list of everyone in population
give all a number
add into a random computer generator
randomly generate the amount u want in ur sample
or
write names on lollypop sticks
what are strengths of random sampling ?
-free from researcher bias
- more representative of target population
what are weaknesses of random sampling ?
-complete list of target population is difficult to obtains
- people selected may refuse to take part
what is systematic sampling ?
sampling frame is made
an organised list of the people in the target population
what is an example of systematic sampling and how it may be done ?
every nth term number of the target population is selected
what are the strength of systematic sampling ?
-avoids researcher bias
-fairly representative
what are the weaknesses of systematic sampling ?
can take time to conduct
what is stratified sampling ?
it is sophisticated form of sampling
hardly ever used
sample is a direct reflection of the sub-groups in the population
what is an example of stratified sampling or how it may be done ?
identify the strata that makes up the population
the proportion needed for sampling to be representative are worked out
what are the strengths of stratified sampling ?
-avoids researcher bias
- representative sample
what are the weaknesses stratified sampling ?
identified strata cant reflect all the ways the people are different
what is opportunity sampling ?
most used
consists of taking the sample from people who are available at the time of the study is carried out and fit the criteria
what is an example of opportunity sampling and how it is done ?
approach people in public and ask if they are willing
what is a strength of opportunity sampling ?
convenient as saves time
what are the weakness of opportunity sampling ?
-unrepresentative sample
-researcher has complete control over the selection
what is volunteer sampling ?
also known as selected sampling
consists of pps becoming part of a study because they volunteer when asked or in response to an advert
what is an example of volunteer sampling and how it is done ?
place an advert or newspaper, magazine or on a notice board asking people to volunteer
what is a strength of volunteer sampling ?
easy as least time consuming out of
what is a weakness of volunteer sampling ?
volunteer bias as asking for volunteers tends to attract a particular type of people
what are observations ?
they allow researches to observe individuals behaviour, in a number of different settings
what is a natural observation ?
it is carried out in an everyday setting
observer doesn’t interfere or change any variables
just observe the behaviour in question
what is a controlled observation ?
certain variables have been controlled by the observer
controlled conditions
what is a covert observation ?
observing people without them knowing
this is to avoid them changing their behaviour
what is an overt observation ?
pps are aware they are being observed
this can lead to demand characteristics
what is a participant observation ?
observations are made by a person who has become part of the group being observed
what is a non-participant observation ?
the observer is separate from the groups being observed and doesn’t become involved
what is a strength of naturalistic observation ?
high external validity
- as findings can be generalised
what is a weakness of naturalistic observations ?
lack of control over the research
- so can’t replicate the findings
what is a strength to controlled observation?
extraneous variables
- maybe less of a factor so replication if the observation becomes easier
what is a weaknesses of a controlled observation ?
can’t be readily applied to real life
what is a strength for covert observations ?
behaviour is natural
- increases validity
what is a weaknesses of covert observation ?
ethics
- as people may not of wanted to be observed
what is a strength of overt observation ?
more ethically acceptable
- as the pps are aware
what is a weakness of overt observation ?
knowledge of knowing so significant influence on characteristics
what is a strength of participant observation ?
increased insight
- as the researcher experience it in the same way
- increases validity
what is a weakness of pps observation ?
they can identify w the pps too much so be objective
- may forget there the researcher and be naive
what is a strength of non pps observation ?
maintains an objective psychology logical distance
- less danger of nativity
what is a weakness of non pps observation ?
lose the valuable insights
- researcher is too far removed from the ppl there studying
what is unstructured observation ?
simply write down everything they see
- gives lots of rich, detailed information
- only possible with small groups of pps
what is a more structured approach ?
researcher quantify a their observations
- they produce a pre-determined list of catergories
when should target behaviour be decided ?
decided and defined before the study takes place
why must behavioural categories be clearly defined ?
as often more than one researcher
- need to make sure all identifying the same thing
why is it better to have more than one observer ?
one in their own may miss some important details
and may end up with biased observations if not
what way should data me recorded ?
objectively and unbiased
why do observers need to be trained beforehand ?
to ensure that they have inter rater reliability
what does training the observers include ?
- should be familiar w the behavioural categories
- do a pilot study to check the categories are appropriate/ not missing anything/ clearly defined
- compare the data they have found and discuss any differences in interpretation
- do the real observation
- analyse the data and correlate the findings to get a final figure
what is continuous recording ?
a feature of instructed observations where detailed notes are recorded
really difficult to do and rarely practical
what is event sampling ?
counting the number of times a certain number behaviour (events) occurs in a target individual (s)
what is time sampling ?
recording behaviours in a given time frame
what is strength of structured observation ?
- make recording of data easier and more systematic
- produces quantitive data and this makes data easier to analyse and compare
what is a weakness of structured observations ?
the observation can loose some ‘meaning’ if all we have are numbers
what is a strength of u structured observation ?
produce qualitative data so the data is rich and detailed
what is a weakness of unstructured observations ?
-qualitative data is harder to record and analyse
- lack of behavioural categories mean some important ones may be missed
what is a strength of behavioural categories ?
makes data more structured and objective
what are weaknesses of behavioural categories ?
- isn’t always easy to make them measurable
- some categories can be unexpected so can be missed off
- categories need to be distinctive and not overlap at all
what is strength for event sampling ?
useful if the behaviour doesn’t happen very often
what is a strength to time sampling ?
reduces the number of observations that need to be done
what is a weaknesses to time sampling ?
might result in an unrepresentative observations
what is a questionnaires ?
- a type of self-report technique
-they involve respondent answering a set of written questions about something that the psychologist is interested in - mixture of open and closed questions
what is an open question ?
cant be answered with yes or no or statically
long response
what is a close question ?
a question that can be answered w a yes or no
short response
what variable may questionnaires be used to assess ?
dependent variables
what principles need to be followed for good questionnaires ?
- not ambiguous or worded in a confusing way (no jargon)
- shouldn’t be biased or using emotive language
- no leading questions
- usually do a pilot study first
- don’t use double negatives
what is an interview ?
involve direct verbal questioning of the pps by the researcher
- they ask pps face to face
- vary in the amount of structure
what are the different types of structures in interviews ?
structured
unstructured
semi- structured
what is structured interviews ?
-have set or pre- determined questions
- used same questions for all pps
- don’t change along the way
what is an unstructured interviews ?
- have less structure
- new questions developed as the interview questioning
- researcher asks questions depending on answers
- a bit like a conversation
what is a semi- structured interview ?
- many interviews tend too
- bit like a job interview
- set questions
- but interviewee can ask questions if they wish and it’s appropriate
what principles do good interviews follow ?
- us a interview schedule
- try to avoid interviewer bias
- decide if group or one-to-one interview
-start w neutral questions to build up rapport
-remember ethical issues
what are strengths of questionnaires ?
- cost effective-gather large amount quickly
- researcher doesn’t need to be involved during completion
- straight forward to analyse if closed questions used-as fixed answers so easy to compare
- easy to replicate as a standard set of questions-as standard questions
what are weaknesses of questionnaires ?
- answers may not always be truthful- as keen to show themselves in a positive light
- often produce response bias
what is an interview schedule ?
the list of questions that are going to be asked
what is a strength for structured interviews ?
easy to replicate as standard set of questions
what is a weakness of structured interviews ?
- cant deviate from the questions
so if researcher interested in a response cant find out more about
what are strengths for unstructured interviews ?
- more flexible so can gain insight to interviewees mind
-produce qualitative data so more rich detail
what are weaknesses for unstructured interviews ?
- analysing data is difficult and time consuming as takes to long to go through all responses
-risk of social desirability bias but interviewer should but smart to build a honest rapport
what is a strength for semi- structured interviews ?
more flexible than structured so allows for exploration in answers
what is a weaknesses for semi-structured interviews ?
can be difficult to analyse due to the range of questions included
what is response bias ?
respondents tend to answer in a similar way
what is social desirability bias ?
respondents are keen to show themselves in a positive light so they lie in their answers
what does a correlation illustrate ?
the direction and strength of a relationship between 2 or more co-variables
what is a co-variable ?
a thing being measured
what is a positive correlation ?
when high values of one variable are associated with high values of the other
eg) hotter weather is more ice cream sold
what is a negative correlation ?
this is when high values of one variable are associated with low valuables of another
eg) hotter weather means less hot drinks
what is a no correlation ?
there is no relationship between the 2 variables
eg) the number of freckles you have and shoe size
what are the strengths of correlation ?
- give precise and quantifiable measure of how things are related
- can asses patterns
- quick and economical as don’t need to manipulate variables
- can involve using secondary data
-can be used when it would be impractical or ethical to manipulate the variable - can be repeated again to check reliability
what is the weaknesses of correlations ?
- no manipulation of variables so cant say 1 variable caused the other so cant establish the effect
- cant establish direction of causality
- may be other variables intervening that can affect the results
what does correlation coefficient mean ?
what does intervening variables mean ?
- sometimes known as the 3rd variable
- variables that aren’t being studied
- can come between the variables being studied
why cant correlations have a casual relationship ?
- but correlations cant establish them as there isn’t a IV
- as there are 2 co-variables
- experiments have an IV and a DV
what is a casual relationship ?
having a cause and a effect
what is quantitative data ?
data in form of numbers
- this is particularly useful for measuring the strengths of relationship between various factors
what is are advantages of quantitative data ?
- broader study as involves greater number of pps
- research can be replicated as standard
- easily analysed and applied with other studies
- personal bias easily avoided
what are the disadvantages of quantitative data ?
- results are limited as provide numerical descriptions not detailed
- allows for pre set answers so wont reflect pps actual feelings
what is qualitative data ?
all data that isn’t in a form of numbers
- type of data which often provided richer and more in depth picture of social life than quan
what are the advantages of qualitative data ?
- depth and detail so deeper recording of attitudes, feelings and behaviours
- can create a detailed picture as why ppl act certain ways
- created openness encouraging people to expand on their responses so can open topics that weren’t initially covered
what are the disadvantages of of qualitative data ?
- fewer ppl in the study as more time consuming
- less easy to generalise as smaller sample size
-dependent on skills of the researcher as they conduct it eg) interviews
what is primary data ?
information that wasn’t present before the research began
- been generated by the researcher
what is an advantage for primary data ?
- can conduct research in the way it is needed specifically for the topic to be studied
what are the disadvantage of primary data ?
- take time to produce
-usually only a small sample so difficult to generalise
what is secondary data ?
refers to data that already exists
what are the advantages of secondary data ?
- qual sec sources are very useful at providing rich detail
- cheap
- easy to access
what are the disadvantages of secondary data ?
- need to approach w caution
- can be issues w the authenticity, credibility and representativeness
what is meta- analysis ?
- uses secondary data
- process where a large number of studies that have all investigated the same research topics using the methods are combined
eg) strange situation by von Ijendoorm and kroonberg
what is a quan. approach on meta-analysis ?
perform a statistical analysis of the combined data
what is a qual. approach to meta-analysis ?
just discuss findings and conclusions
what are the advantages of meta-analysis ?
- allow us to view data with much more confidence
-as can be applied across a wider population
what are the disadvantages of meta-analysis ?
publication bias
- only the studies that support the hypothesis are looked at and the rest are left out
what is publication bias ?
selective publication of research studies based on their results
