Scientific Inquiry Skills

Question 1

What is the biopsychosocial model used for?

Answer 1

The biopsychosocial approach is used to frame an understanding of behaviour, that is, behaviour is analysed and described in terms of biological, psychological and sociocultural factors.

Question 2

Describe the biological component to the BPS

Answer 2

The Biological component contributes genetic factors including neurochemistry and previous experience of trauma.

Question 3

Describe the psychological component to the BPS

Answer 3

The Psychological component contributes factors such as cognitive distortions which can trigger the onset or perpetuation of mental illness and psychological distress such as Depression and Anxiety. Psychological trauma and neglect, particularly in childhood can shape thinking and create negative schemas which often reinforce attitudes and beliefs alongside elevated sensitivity of feelings and emotions.

Question 4

Describe the socio-cultural component to the BPS

Answer 4

It can involve deeply entrenched belief systems based on cultural values, religion, family, and social expectations. Social expectations and pressures continue to inform and reinforce cognitive distortions previously discussed in the Biological component.

Question 5

What are examples of Psycho Factors?

Answer 5

Attention
Learning
Emotions
Thinking
Attitudes
Memory
Perceptions
Beliefs
Coping strategies

Question 6

What are examples of Bio Factors?

Answer 6

Genetics
Neurochemistry
Hormones
Brain structure
Illness and disease
Injury
Age
Sex
Medications/drugs
Inmune response
Fight-flight response

Question 7

What are examples of social factors?

Answer 7

Family background
Social support
Education
Interpersonal relationships
Cultural traditions
Socioeconomic status
Poverty
Physical exercise
Biofeedback
Gender

Question 8

What are the steps for research?

Answer 8

1. Deconstruct: identify the area for future research and determine the research aim.
2. Deconstruct: background research and collect information.
3. Design: identify the research question and formulate a hypothesis.
4. Design: Design a research method to test the hypothesis
5. Collect, present, summarise and analyse the data.
6. Evaluate procedures and data.
7. Draw a conclusion.
8. Report the findings.

Question 9

What is a variable?

Answer 9

A variable is a researchable factor that can increase or decrease in amount or kind. In psychology we tend to be interested in things that vary from per-son to person, or within the same person but varying at different times.

Question 10

What is an independent variable?

Answer 10

An independent variable (IV) is deliberately manipulated, or changed, by the researcher to determine its effect on another variable. The researcher plans to manipulate this variable when they are designing their investigation.

Question 11

What is an dependent variable?

Answer 11

The dependent variable (DV) is what is measured in the research. Its value depends on the IV which is why it is called the dependent variable.

Question 12

How to formulate a hypothesis?

Answer 12

Once a researcher has identified the variables they are interested in researching, they need to make an educated guess about what will happen in the re-search, in other words, they will hypothesise about the relationship between the IV and the DV.

Question 13

What is a hypothesis?

Answer 13

A hypothesis is a statement, or testable prediction about the likely results of the research. It is what the researcher believes is likely to occur as a result of conducting the research. A hypothesis should clearly state the population about which the researcher intends to research so that similar research can be conducted and repeated in the future.

Question 14

What four things should a hypothesis contain?

Answer 14

1.A testable prediction about the direction of the interaction between the variables (i.e. – is the DV going to increase or decrease, it is going to be higher or lower as a result of the IV).
2.The population from which the sample is going to be drawn (who are the participants in the research).
3.The independent variable that is being manipulated.
4.The dependent variable that is being measured.

Question 15

Describe a qualitative research question?

Answer 15

1. Usually start with ‘what’ or ‘how’ (avoid beginning qualitative questions with ‘why’ as this im-plies cause and effect).
   2.Identify the central phenomenon you plan to explore (tell in your question what you are going to describe, explore, generate, discover, understand)
   Generally these are followed by sub questions to help answer the overall questions.

Question 16

What is a constant?

Answer 16

A constant is a value that remains the same. When conducting an experiment, it is important for the researcher to maintain control over the many variables that could affect what they are trying to investigate. Ideally, when a researcher designs the research, the only thing that should vary is the IV that is being studied. All other factors that could affect the outcome must be strictly controlled by keeping them constant

Question 17

What are extraneous variables?

Answer 17

An extraneous variable, by definition, is any variable other than the IV that could cause an unwanted or unplanned change in the DV.

Question 18

What are experimenter variables

Answer 18

Personal characteristics of the experimenter and their behaviour during the experiment may unintentionally affect the way in which the research participants respond. Factors such as the experimenter being tired, in a bad mood, unwell or bringing bias to the way instructions are provided to different groups of participants are examples of experimenter effects.

Question 19

What are demand characteristics?

Answer 19

Occasionally participants behave in a socially desirable way in attempt to live up to the experimenters expectations and in attempt to support the hypothesis, otherwise known as the good-participant role. The negative-participant role is where the participant attempts to discern the experimenter’s hypotheses, but only to destroy the credibility of the study.

Question 20

What are situational variables?

Answer 20

There can also be differences in how participants react in the experimental environment. All participants in the different groups of the experiment must be tested under the same conditions and in the same situation in order for the experimenter to more confidently conclude that any change in the DV is as a direct result of the IV. It is therefore important to standardise each test and its procedures so that the test and all test conditions are the same each time the test is administered, including the way the instructions are given.

Question 21

What are confounding variables?

Answer 21

If extraneous variables are not controlled, and they do have an effect on the DV, they become confounding variables. This means that an EV, not the IV caused a change in the results

Question 22

What is a population?

Answer 22

The population is the entire group of people belonging to a particular category that you are interested in researching.

Question 23

What is a sample?

Answer 23

The group of participants who are selected and participate in the research are called the sample. It is important that the sample of participants most closely matches the population and minimises any participant extraneous variables. This way the researcher can be confident that the sample accurately represents the whole population, and therefore any conclusions drawn from the sample, can be generalised (or applied) to the whole population

Question 24

What is convenience sampling?

Answer 24

It is quick and convenient It involves selecting the sample from a group of people that the research has access to. It would take a lot more time, effort, communication and persistence to gather a sample randomly selected from across South Australia for the purposes of research. The main advantage of this technique is that it is convenient, however this sampling technique may contain a range of bias, in the form of participant variables, as the students all live in the same geo-graphic area, all go to the same school, have the same teachers. This sample therefore does not represent the population accurately.

Question 25

What is random sampling?

Answer 25

Researchers prefer to use random sampling wherever possible as it is a more systematic and carefully planned process for selecting the re-search sample. With random sampling, every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected in the sample. The main advantage of using this process is that it is quick, and easy to use if the names of the population are known, and is not biased. However, by chance, the sample may still not be completely random, as it may accidentally select an uneven number of males and females for example.

Question 26

What is stratified sampling

Answer 26

It breaks the population down into smaller groups, and random samples are taken from the smaller groups in the same proportion as they appear in the population. If you wanted a sample from your school, you would select your sample of males and females, different cultural groups, and year levels in the same proportion as the population. If there are less year 12s, than year 7s in the school, then the sample would also have less year 12s than year 7s. The greatest ad-vantage is that samples selected using this method are the most representative of the population, there-fore eliminating participant extraneous variables.

Question 27

What is an experimental design?

Answer 27

The participants to two types of groups – an experimental group(which is exposed to the IV) and a control group(which does not experience the IV). For example, if testing the effectiveness of a new teaching method-ology a teacher who has 2 classes may use the new technique with one class (the experimental group) and not use the teaching technique with the other class (the control group).

Question 28

What is a control group?

Answer 28

The control group creates baseline data to com-pare the impact of the IV on the DV. This allows the teacher to compare the effect of the teaching technique to see which class understood the topic better.

Question 29

What is a longitudinal study?

Answer 29

One variation of the repeated measures design is a longitudinal study, where the same tests are repeated over a number of weeks, months or even years. Repeating similar tests over a long period of time however may affect results as participants “learn” the test and get used to being tested.

Question 30

What is an observational design?

Answer 30

In research topics where it is unethical to deliberately expose a group of people to an independent variable, for example when researching the effect of using illicit drugs during pregnancy, or the impact of sleep deprivation on year 12 students completing an exam, an observational design makes it possible to continue this research, but without experimenting.

he greatest advantage of an observational de-sign is that topics that are unethical, too costly, impractical, impossible to experiment on are able to be researched, as people who take drugs, children who watch violent video games, people who commit murder, and parents who smack their children all exist, we just have to find them, and seek permission to gather data from them. Deliberately asking parents to smack their children for the purpose of research, is not OK, and would not pass an ethics committee in order to conduct experimental research in this field. The disadvantage of observational designs is the lack of control in planning, hence the inability to create constant variables is a limitation. This limits causation (cause and effect link) and the ability to confidently conclude that a change in the IV cause a change in the DV.

Question 31

What is a naturalistic observational design?

Answer 31

A naturalistic observation involves observing and recording variables of interest in a natural setting without interference or manipulation. For example, a researcher interested in aspects of social influence in a classroom such as conformity to behaving as others do, obedience to the teacher, or attitudes to learning, might use naturalistic observation as part of their research. This design is well-suited to studies where researchers want to see how variables behave in their natural setting or state. In some cases, it might be the only method available to researchers; for example, if lab experimentation would be precluded by ac-cess, resources, or ethics. It might be preferable to not being able to conduct research at all, but the method can be costly and usually takes a lot of time. Naturalistic observation presents several challenges for researchers. It does not allow them to control or influence the variables in any way nor can they change any possible external variables. It also does not mean that researchers will get reliable data from watching the variables, or that the information they gather will be free from bias.

Question 32

What is a longitudinal observational design?

Answer 32

A longitudinal design is another example of an observational design and uses the repeated measures principle in that the research is repeated with the same people. Instead of the research being completed in a short space of time, they occur over a longer time interval, often over several years, or even decades.

The advantages of a longitudinal study are that there is less bias from participant variables, as the participants remain the same, and direct changes in the participant can be observed. They are how-ever time consuming, expensive, and participants may drop out over the months, or years that the study is conducted.

Question 33

What is an observational cross-sectional design?

Answer 33

In research designs where the independent variable is age, a cross-sectional study may be used. Researchers are often interested in researching across a wide range of age groups. Cross-sectional studies are observational in nature and are not causal or relational, meaning that you can’t use them to determine the cause of something.

Question 34

What is a qualitative design?

Answer 34

Qualitative research serves a very important purpose and is often conducted before other experimental or observational research commences. Qualitative research can help generate new and interesting re-search questions and hypotheses for future research using more scientific research designs. There are different types of qualitative research designs including interviews, focus groups and the Delphi technique.

Question 35

What is a focus group for a qualitative design?

Answer 35

The term focus group is used to refer to a group interview technique that obtains data through discussion between research participants in a group setting. An important feature of the focus group method is the use of group interaction. Participants (typically between 6-8) are encouraged to talk to one another, ask questions, exchange personal experiences and points of view and comment on each other’s experiences and opinions

Question 36

What is the Delphi technique for qualitative design?

Answer 36

This technique is useful to obtain information about a research question or problem from experts or a group of individuals, each of whom has individual expertise about a topic, but it is not possible to bring the participants together. Used for complex problem solving and the aim is to obtain a consensus of opinion in a group.

Question 37

What is quantitative data?

Answer 37

Quantitative Data are represented by numbers and can be statistically analysed and presented in table, or graph format making interpretation of the results simpler for the end reader of the research. Quantitative data allow the researcher to draw conclusions quite easily, however also restrict participants from providing in depth reasoning, or elaboration on the thinking behind their responses.

Question 38

What is qualitative data?

Answer 38

Qualitative Data are often expressed in words, or sentences and describe the quality of behaviour. There is of-ten a story, reasoning, justification, or background to a person’s responses which provides the researcher with in depth detail about what a person thinks, feels or believes. Participants can be unrestricted in their responses, however are much more difficult to summarise or compare with other data.

Question 39

What is objective data?

Answer 39

Objective Data can be verified by other researchers, increasing the reliability and validity of the data. Objective data are typically quantitative which is in the form of numbers. Data collect-ed in quantitative (numerical) format are easy to statistically analyse, are readily measured and compared with other similar numerical data. Quantitative data are able to be represented graphically.

Question 40

What is behaviour count?

Answer 40

Examples of behaviour counts use measurement tools such as a stopwatch, ruler, check-list, and measure things such as running speed, shoe size, height, the number of times a person touches their face, number of correct responses on a test, number of errors in a driving simulator. These behaviours can be measured by multiple researchers, and the results verified, therefore reducing any bias.

Question 41

What are physiological measures?

Answer 41

Physiological measures are objective data as they are able to be measured and verified by more than one researcher, and they are quantitative in nature as they are able to be measured using a numerical measuring tool. Examples of physiological measures include heart-rate, blood pressure, brainwave activity during sleep on an EEG machine or galvanic skin response (which measures the conductivity of the skin).

Question 42

What is subjective data?

Answer 42

Data that is opinions or a rating scale of a person, not numerical.

he advantage of subjective data is that participants are able to provide greater insight into their own personal beliefs, feelings and ideas. These types of topics are unable to be measured with a tool such as a ruler, as the information only exists inside the participant’s mind. The limitation of subjective data is that it is difficult to compare with other data and is subject to bias and interpretation.

Question 43

How can you measure subjective data?

Answer 43

Interviews and self reports

Question 44

What is reliability?

Answer 44

It is a measure of consistency, if a particular measurement is repeated and the same result is obtained then it is described as being reliable.* Test-retest reliability – Assessing the same per-son on two different occasions which shows the extent to which the test produces the same answers. Tests, questionnaires and other measurement tools need to give consistent results over time and items in the test need to be consistent with each other.* Inter-observer reliability – the extent to which there is agreement between two or more observers. The extent to which different observers, scoring the same participants, achieve consistency.

Question 45

What is validity?

Answer 45

it is concerned with the extent to which something measures what it sets out to measure.* Internal validity is concerned with the extent to which research findings are due to the mechanisms suggested. For instance, are results due to some unwanted variable (e.g., individual differences, effects of practice, researcher effects, demand characteristics) rather than the IV?
Internal validity is also compromised if no effect is found when in fact an effect actually exists.
External validity is the extent to which the re-sults found in research can be generalised to an entire population. Gathering data from an un-representative sample increases the likelihood of sampling bias which limits the researcher’s ability to make conclusions to the wider population. In this case the results are considered to have low external validity. An additional challenge in making definitive or generalised conclusions arises where research is completed in a laboratory or any other artificial setting.
Ecological validity is the extent to which results can be generalised to other situations (real life). If the experiment was conducted in a lab, we generally state that the results lack ecological validity due to the low mundane realism (meaning it does not necessarily reflect situations in the real world outside the lab).Ecological validity is a subtype of external validity.

Question 46

What are ethical considerations for an experiment?

Answer 46

Freedom from coercion/voluntary participation
Informed consent
Deception only when necessary
Adequate debriefing
Confidentiality
No psychological harm or physical harm
Withdrawal rights
Privacy

Question 47

What are the two communication and collaboration SHE concepts?

Answer 47

Science is a global enterprise that relies on clear communication, international conventions, and review and verification of results.
Collaboration between psychologists and stakeholders advances research and understanding. It requires shared evidence from many sources in a multidisciplinary approach.

Question 48

What are the two development and application SHE concepts?

Answer 48

Developments in research and technology lead to advances in psychological understanding.
The application of psychological understanding can enable scientists to develop solutions, design actions, and evaluate and respond to economic, sociocultural, and environmental factors

Question 49

What are the two influence SHE concepts?

Answer 49

Psychological knowledge and its application are both influenced by, and influence economic, sociocultural, religious, ideological, political, and environmental perspectives in a local, national, and global context.
The use of psychological knowledge may have positive, negative, or unexpected consequences that require monitoring, assessment, and evaluation. The use of psychological knowledge must take into account risks and ethical considerations.