RM booklet 2 Flashcards
Three areas of psychology that impact the economy
Effective psychotherapy EWT research Attachment
How does effective psychotherapy effect the economy
10% of population will spend time in a mental institute 1 in 3 will seek help for mental health Making sure effective psychotherapy is provided will increase the ability of people, meaning they can stay in work
How does EWT research effect the economy
If an EWT is more accurate it leads to more reliable evidence which leads to a lower chance of court cases falling apart, court cases are expensive
How does attachment effect the economy
Increasingly fathers remain at home and therefore contribute less to the economy. Consequently more mothers may return to work and contribute to the economy.Changing laws on paternity leave - gov. funded so affects the economy and the impact this has on employers.
What is a self report
A method of gathering data where participants provide information about themselves without interference from the experimenter.
Example of a self report x2
Survey and questionnaire
What does an open question allow
respondents to answer in their own words - this produces qualitative data.
What is this an example of ‘describe your child’s behaviour’
A question that will yield qualitative data An open question
One adv of open questions
Provides rich and detailed data
One disadv of open questions
Difficult to statistically analyse
One adv of closed question
Easier to statistically analyse
One disadv of closed question
Don’t allow for detail
Why is internal validity compromised in surveys
Social desirability Respondents may try to create a favourable impression of themselvesData will not reflect the true picture
Why is population validity lowered by sampling biases
The representativeness of the sample can sometimes be reduced dependent on how the questionnaire is distributed and the sampling technique employed
What will happen in a structured interview
the interviewer will mostly ask questions that have been pre-written
What will happen in an unstructured interview
The interviewer will have very few predetermined questions; rather they will have a number of topics they want to explore.
How can interviews be more helpful then surveys
As they can also identify body language and other non-verbal behaviours.
3 disadvantages of interviews
1) time consuming 2) hard to statistically analyse 3) May lack internal validity as pts answer in accordance to a social desirability bias
3 advantages of interviews
1) Allow detailed info to be obtained as use both open and closed questions2) Psychologist can also judge body lang/ non-verbal behaviours 3) Combo of both unstructured and structured interviews encourages participants to be honest and allows them to express themselves whilst at same time allowing the researcher to analyse the responses using graphs- increases validity
Four key features of field experiments
1) Conducted in a more natural environment2) Deliberate manipulation of the IV3) Measures the DV4) Experimenter controls some of the extraneous variables
What happens in a natural experiment
the researcher makes use of naturally occurring situational variables.E.g covid
What happens in a quasi experiment
the researcher makes use of a naturally occurring participant (internal / dispositional) variable.E.g gender
Two advantage of independent measures
It is fairly easy to run and can be used in a wide range of situations.- quick The will be no problems with order effects. Where the p’s performance in the second condition (B) may be affected (positively or negatively) by their performance in the first condition (A), due to tiredness, boredom or practice.
Two disadvantages of independent measure
There may be important individual differences between the participants. Random Allocation should be used to eliminate this.A fairly large sample is required as each participant is only used once.
Two advantages of repeated measures
It requires fewer participants.There is no risk of individual differences confounding the results of the study.
What is counterbalancing
Where the group of pts are split in two and perform the task in a different order.Ensures the each condition is tested first or second in equal amounts
How are partcicpants matched in a matched pairs design
By doing a pre-test
Two advantages on a match pairs design
There are no order effects. There is a much more reduced risk of individual differences between the participants in each condition confounding the results of the study
Two disadvantages of matched pairs
Matching pairs is time-consuming and expensive, requiring a large number of participants to begin with. It can be difficult to ensure that the pairs are matched as adequately as needed.
Three advantages of case studies
Rich detail Sometimes the only option – Sometimes behaviour is so rare it is limited to a few people in the world. Can successfully refute established theories
Three disadvantages of case studies
Not representative – Results can obviously not be generalised to other people. Researcher bias – It is possible the researcher feels very passionate about the area they research. .Reliance on memory – Most case studies will get the participant to look over their lifespan in order to get a full view of the unique behaviour. This involves memory which is notoriously unreliable.
What is content analysis
Content analysis involves quantifying qualitative data through coding units (like coding schemes in observations).
Four ways to qualify quantitative data
Word – The number of slang words usedTheme – The amount of violence on TVCharacter – The number of female commentators there are on sports TV showsTime and space – The amount of time and space dedicated to eating disorders (on TV or newspapers)
Two strengths on content analysis
Ease of application – Very easy to perform, cheap and non-invasive. You don’t even need to recruit participants for them!Complements other methods – Can be used in conjunction with other methods to add validity to results.
Three weaknesses on content analysis
Descriptive – Content analysis is effectively turning qualitative data into quantitative data, so an obvious weakness would be that we find out what, but not why. Flawed results – results may not be able to be applied or reflective of society. For example, negative events get more coverage, but this is not necessarily reflective. Low in reliability – A different researcher may interpret other codes that should be counted, so a content analysis will not always produce the same codes or results, therefore they can be low in reliability.
How is thematic analysis carried out
It is done by identifying trends within the data and slowly adjusting the trends as you get further into the dataset.It involves analysing every word in a qualitative piece of data and arranging them into these changing themes.
Six steps of thematic analysis
- Familiarisation with the data – involves intensely reading the data, becoming immersed in the data.2. Coding – involves generating codes/labels that identify features of the data important to answering the research question. 3. Searching for themes – involves examining the codes/labels and determining if there are themes within the dataset. 4. Reviewing themes – checking the potential themes against the data. Themes are refined, with the researcher sometimes splitting or discarding one.5. Defining and naming themes – detailed analysis of each theme and creating a name that encapsulates the theme6. Writing up – involves combining together the information to write up the research.
Two weaknesses of thematic analysis
Very subjective- researchers have to create their own themes - may make it unreliable Hard work
