RM low stakes part 1 Flashcards
What type of sampling is the following example - The psychologist uses lists of students in a university and selects every tenth student to take part
systematic
Name two reasons why the mean is a good measure of central tendency to use?
representative & sensitive
Give me the steps involved in peer review:
* independent scrutiny by other psychologists working in a similar field
* work is considered in terms of its validity, significance and originality
* assessment of the appropriateness of the methods and designs used
* reviewer can accept the manuscript as it is, accept with revisions, suggest the author makes revisions and re-submits or reject without the possibility of re-submission
* editor makes the final decision whether to accept or reject the research report based on the reviewers’ comments/recommendations
* research proposals are submitted to panel
Discuss the strengths of using close -ended questions in questionnaires-
the ability to collect large amounts of data relatively quickly and conveniently; standardisation and replication
strength of median
Any outlier values/extreme values be ignored/would not form part of the average measurement.
even sampling vs time sampling
Observers / researchers decide on a specific event relevant to the investigation + relevant event is recorded every time it happens. Event sampling is representative of the entire time periods, whereas time sampling is observing behaviour at particular time intervals.
Explain what is meant by qualitative data and name one way of collecting it.
Qualitative is non-numerical and uses words to give a full description of what people think. Open-ended interview questions.
What is meant by reliability
Reliability refers to consistency over time, this includes procedure, measuring tool and findings.
Explain how the reliability of scores recorded in an interview could be checked
The interviews could have been filmed and given to another trained therapist to assess. A strong correlation between the scores given by each psychologist would demonstrate reliability.
Outline TWO ways researchers could avoid investigator effects in an observation study
Discussion of separate observation by the two researchers and comparison – inter-rater reliability; Filming the discussions so there is a permanent record that can be checked by peer review of the data to confirm the scores / ratings.
Explain why it was appropriate for the student teacher to use a correlation study rather than an experiment when investigating whether reading fiction is associated with empathy
unethical / impossible to manipulate these variables (reading and empathy in children) to investigate cause and effect
Outline two ways to assess the validity of an empathy questionnaire
Most likely answers will address face validity or concurrent validity
pilot study why
Check procedure/ethics/instructions
Why should researchers randomly allocate participants?
Increased validity as the researcher will not be biased in how students are allocated. Utilising chance to minimise bias,
A psychologist decides to modify a memory test with a negative skew so that it will produce a more normal distribution. Briefly explain how she might achieve this.
A) Adjust the difficulty of the test b)To make the test more demanding/harder c) So that fewer people get a very high mark d) Most people get a medium mark (a few people get a very low mark and a few people get a very high mark) e) So it will achieve a more normal distribution.
