Section 7 : Research Methods Flashcards
What are the different types of experiments
- Laboratory
- Field
- Natural
- Quasi
What are the strengths of Lab experiments
- Control; effects of confounding variables are minimised
- Replication; strict control means you can run the study again to check findings
- causal relationships; ideally possible to establish whether one variable causes change in another
What are the limitations of lab experiments
- Artificial; lacks ecological validity, might not measure real life behaviour
- demand characteristics; participants may respond to what they think is being investigated (bias results)
- ethics; deceptions is often used, making informed consent difficult
What are the strengths of field experiments
- Causal relationship; can still establish causal relationship by manipulating key variable and measuring the effect, tough to do on field experiments though
- ecological validity; field experiments are less artificial, relate to real life better than lab experiments
- demand characteristics can be avoided if participant doesn’t know if they are in the study
What are the limitations of field experiments
- less control; confounding variables may more likely in a natural environment
- ethics; participants may experience distress because they didn’t agree to take part or be debriefed. Observation must respect privacy
What are the strengths of natural experiments
- ethical; possible to study variables that it would be unethical to manipulate
- demand characteristics; participants might not know they are in a study, behaviour likely to be more natural
- ecological validity; tend to be less artificial and so likely relate better to real life
What are the limitations of natural experiments
- causal relationships; hard to establish causal relationship due to key variable not being manipulated
- ethics; deception often used, informed consent is difficult. Confidentiality may be compromised if community is identifiable
What are the strengths of quasi experiments
- control; quasi experiments are often carried out under controlled conditions
- ecological validity; research often less artificial than lab studies, more likely to be able to generalise the result to real life
What are the limitations of quasi experiments
- participant allocation; can’t randomly allocate participants to each condition, confounding variables can affect results
- causal relationship; can be hard to establish cause and effect because independent variable isn’t being manipulated
What are naturalistic observations
- Observing subjects in their natural environment
- researchers have to take great care not to interfere in any way with the subjects they are studying
What are the strengths of naturalistic observation
- ecological validity; participants behaviour is natural and there are no demand characteristics, as the participant is unaware of being observed
- theory development; these studies can be a useful way of developing ideas about behaviour that could be tested in more controlled conditions later
What are the limitations of naturalistic observations
- extraneous variables; cannot control variables that may affect behaviour
- observer bias; observer’s expectation may affect what they record or focus on, affects reliability, other observers may have come up with other results
- ethics; should only conduct observations where people might expect to be observed by strangers, limits where naturalistic observations can be done, debriefing is difficult, must respect privacy, informed consent is tricky
what does correlational research look for
- relationship between two variables
- as these variables arent manipulated it is not possible to state that just these two variables rise and fall together
what are the advantages of correlational research
- casual relationship, can be ruled out if no correlation exists
- ethics, you can study variables that would be unethical to manipulate
what are the limitations of correlational research
- casual relationships, these cannot be assumed from a correlation whihc could be caused by a third unknown variable
- ethics, misinterpretation can be an issue. sometimes the media infer causality from a correlation
What are the self-report techniques
- Questionaires
- Interviews
What are the strengths of questionaires
- practical, you can collect a large amount of information quickly and relatively cheaply
What are the limitations of questionnaires
- Bad question, leading or unclear questions can affect data
- biased sample, some people are more likely to respond and makes results unrepresentative
- self report, people often give socially desirable results meaning they aren’t reliable
- ethics, confidentiality can be a problem especially a round sensitive issues
What is the difference in structured and unstructured interviews
- Structured interviews follow a fixed set of questions that are the same for all
- Unstructured interviews may have discussion topics, but less constrained about the conversation
What are the strengths of interviews
- Rich data, fewer constraints than questionnaires
- pilot study, useful in getting information before a study
What are the limitations of interviews
- self report, can be unreliable and affected by socially desirability bias
- impractical, can be time-consuming and requires skilled researchers
- data analysis, can be tricky to analyse as there could be large amount of qualitative data
- ethics, confidentiality can be a problem
What are the strengths of case studies
- Rich data, researchers have the opportunity to study rare phenomena in a lot of detail
- unique cases, can challenge existing ideas and theories and suggest ideas for future research
What are the limitations of case studies
- causal relationships, cause and effect of a relationship can’t be established
- generalisation, only studying a single case makes generalisation of results difficult
- ethics, informed consent can be difficult to obtain in some cases
What is content analysis
- research method used to analyse secondary data and data you’ve already collected
- it involves splitting data into categories
What are the strengths of content analysis
- inexpensive and easy
- ethics, may be fewer ethical issues as participants aren’t directly involved
What are the limitations
- data analysis can be time-consuming
- subjectivity, interpretation and categorising the data can be subjective
What is an aim
A statement of a study’s purpose
What is a hypothesis
A hypothesis is worded in a way that states a prediction of what will be shown by the research
What are the four types of hypothesis
- Null
- Alternative
- Directional
- Non-Directional
What is a null hypothesis
- what you’re going to assume is true during the study
- any data is going to back this assumption or not
- if data doesn’t support it you reject it and go with your alternative hypothesis
How might you be able to identify a null hypothesis
Usually states there there will be no relationship between key variables or no difference between the scores from the various conditions of an experiment
What is an alternative hypothesis
- The opposite of the null hypothesis
- you accept this if data rejects your null hypothesis
What is a directional hypothesis
a hypothesis that states there is a positive or negative correlation between two variables
what is a non directional hypothesis
a hypothesis that states a difference but wouldn’t say which group would do better
what is the independent variable
the variable which gets manipulated
what is the dependant variable
the variable that you think will be affected by changes in the dependant variable
what is an extraneous variable
any variable other than the IV that can affect what you’re trying measure. if they influence the DV then they are called confounding variables
what does it mean to operationalise variable
means describing the process by which the variable is measured. it allows others to see exactly how you’re going to define and measure your variables
what is independent groups design
where there are different participants in each group.
what are the advantages of independent groups design
- no order effects ; no one gets better through practice or gets worse
- avoids any improvement in performance if participants did both conditions
what are the disadvantages of independent groups design
- participant variables; differences between the people in each group might affect results
- number of participants; twice as many participants are needed to get the same amount of data
what is repeated measures design
where all participants do the task in both conditions
what are the advantages of repeated measures design
- participant variable; the same people do the test in both conditions any differences shouldn’t affect results
- number of participants; fewer participants are needed to get the same amount of data
what are the disadvantages of repeated measures design
- order effects; participants do it once in one condition any improvements in performance could be due to practice
what is matched pairs design
- different participants in each condition but they’re matched on important variables
- e.g. participants are matched on age and put in a pair then randomly assigned a condition meaning each condition has a similar age range
what are the advantages of matched pairs design
- no order effects because there are different people in each condition
- participant variables, important differences are minimised through matching
what are the disadvantages of matched pairs design
- number of participants; need twice as many people compared to repeated measures
- practicalities; time-consuming and difficult to find participants who match
what are control groups
groups that have not experienced any manipulation of the IV that an experimental group might have. allows the researcher to make comparisons between them
why does research need to be controlled
to avoid the effects of extraneous variables
what are the way in which research can be controlled
- counterbalancing
- random allocation
- standardised instructions
- randomisation
what is counterbalancing
half the participants do the task starting with one condition first then the the other condition after, while the other half of the participants do the task starting with the other condition and then the first condition. this equals out any potential order effects across conditions
what is random allocation
means everyone has an equal chance of doing either condition. any difference in performance could be due to extraneous variables rather than the IV. this should ensure that groups arent biased
what is standardised instructions
should ensure the experimenters act in a similar way with all participants/-
What is randomisation
Is when the material is presented to the participants in a random order. This avoids any possibility of order effects. For example, in a repeated measures memory experiment, participants may be asked to learn a list of words in two different conditions. In each condition, the words on their lists would be in a random order
Why is it good to run a small pilot study first?
1) to help for see any problems, a small scale pilot study can be run first - this can determine if, the design works, the participants understand the wording in instructions or something important has been missed out.
2) they also give researchers practice at following the procedures. Problems can be tackled before running the main study so it can save time and money
3) pilot studies allow the validity and reliability of the test to the assessed in advance, which then gives the opportunity for improvements to be made.
Why is Ethics an important issue in Psychology ?
Psychological research and practice should aim to improve our self-understanding, be beneficial to people and try to improve the quality of life for individuals.
Who is the BPS?
The British Psychological society - has developed ethical guidelines for psychologists to follow when they’re designing studies, so that participants are protected. They are formal principles for what is considered to be acceptable or unacceptable, and include advice on deception, consent and psychological harm.
What is informed consent?
- BPS guidelines state that participants should always give informed consent.
- They should be told the aims and nature of the study before agreeing to it.
- They should also know that they have the right to withdraw at any time.
where can Informed question be questioned?
1) if the participant is under 16 years of age they can’t legally give consent (although a parent can).
2) In naturalistic observation studies, consent is not obtained. In this case the research is acceptable provided that is done in a public location where people would expect to be observed by others.
3) Even when informed consent is supposedly obtained, issue may be raised. Menges (1973) reviewed about 1000 Americans studies and found that 97% had not given people all the information about the research.
What is deception?
- If participants have been deceived then they cannot have given informed consent
- However, sometimes researchers must withhold information about the study because the participants wouldn’t have behave naturally if they knew what the aim was.
Where can deception be acceptable?
1) the BPS guidelines state that deception is only acceptable if there is strong scientific justification for the research and there’s no alternative procedure available to obtain the data.
2) Researchers can also ask independent people if they would object to the study. If they wouldn’t, it may be done with naïve participants (although they may not agree with others’ opinions about the study).
3) Participants could just be given general details — although if too little is said they may feel deceived (but if participants know too much then they may not behave naturally).
4) The Severity of deception differs, e.g research on memory May involve unexpected memory tests (that participants weren’t informed about). This is less objectionable than the deception involved in Milgram’s study.
What is Protection from harm?
The BPS guidelines say that the risk of harm to participants should be no greater than they would face in their normal lives. It’s not hard to accurately assess this.
Where can protection from harm not be wrong?
1) research procedures can involve physical and psychological discomfort, e.g. Glass and Singer (1972) exposed participants to noise to make them stressed, and participants in Milgram’s research suffered extreme distress.
2) Some people face risks in their work (e.g. soldiers), but this doesn’t not mean they can be exposed to risks in research.
3) Research don’t always know in advance what might be distressing for participants
What’s is debriefing?
- Debriefing is supposed to return participants to the state they were in before the research
- It’s especially important if deception has been used.
What happen during a debrief?
1) Researchers must fully explain what the research involved and what the results might show.
2) Participants are given the right to withdraw their data.
What is Confidentiality?
- None of the participants in a psychological study should be identifiable from any reports that are produced
Why is confidentiality important?
1) Data collected during research must be confidential — researchers can’t use people’s names in reports.
2) Data collected during research must be warned if their data is not going to be completely anonymous.
3) However, some groups or people might be easily identifiable from their characteristics — more so if the report says where and when the study was carried out, etc.
what does reliability refer to
how consistent or dependable a test is
a reliable test carried out in the same circumstances on the same participants should….
always give the same results
what is internal reliabilty
- where different parts of the test should give consistent results
- e.g. an IQ test contains sections of supposedly equal difficulty, participants should achieve similar scores on all sections
what is external reliability
- the test should produce consistent results regardless of when it is used
- e.g. if you took the same IQ test on two different days you should achieve the same score
what is inter-observer reliability
- the test should give consistent results regardless of who administers it
- e.g if two researchers observe behaviour and categorise infants as showing signs of a strong attachment attachment or weak attachment, they should both record the same score
how do you test for each of the reliability types
- internal; split-half method (you split the test in two halves and the results from each half should produce a high positive correlation
- external; test-retest (involves repeating the test using the same participants) or equivalent forms test (compares participants scores on two different but equivalent versions of tests)
- inter-observer reliability; assessed by correlating scores that each researcher produces for each participants, high correlation should be found
what does validity refer to
- how well a test measures to what it claims to
- an IQ test with only maths Qs would not be a valid measure of general intelligence
what is face validity
the extent to which the test looks, to the participants, like it will measure what it is supposed to be measuring
what is concurrent validity
the extent to which the test produces the same results as another established measure. e.g. two different IQ tests produce the same measure of IQ.
what is ecological validity
the extent to which the results of the test reflect real-life
what is temporal validity
the extent to which the test provides results that can be generalised across time
