Terms

Question 1

Extraneous variables

Answer 1

Variables that may effect the DV, other than the IV.

Question 2

Deception

Answer 2

Participants are not told the true aim of the study.

Question 3

Participant observation

Answer 3

Observers take part in the activity with participants.

Question 4

Field experiments

Answer 4

Takes place in a natural environment.
+ High ecological validity.
- Hard to control external variables.

Question 5

Snowball sampling

Answer 5

Participants recruit others.
+ Access difficult to locate groups.
- Not a good cross-section of the population.

Question 6

Confidentiality

Answer 6

Concerns the communication of personal information and that it’s protected.

Question 7

Independent groups design

Answer 7

Different participants in each condition.
+ Can control extraneous variables.
- Difficult to control participant variables.
- Need more participants to get enough data.
Deal with issues: randomly allocate to conditions.

Question 8

Covert observation

Answer 8

Participants don’t know they are being observed.

Question 9

Mean

Answer 9

Add up, divide by number of data.
+ Sensitive- uses all data.
- Easily distorted by anomalous data.

Question 10

Median

Answer 10

Middle number.
+ Not easily distorted.
- Not as sensitive.

Question 11

Mode

Answer 11

Most frequent.
+ Easy to find.
- Useless.
- Not sensitive.

Question 12

Self-selected sampling

Answer 12

Advert - volunteers
+ Variety - representative, less bias.
- Volunteer bias.

Question 13

Opportunity sampling

Answer 13

Easy to access.
+ Quick and easy.
- May not be representative.

Question 14

Time sampling

Answer 14

Count number of behaviour that occurs in time frame.

Question 15

Matched pairs design

Answer 15

Participants matched in ways that matter to the study.
+ External variables controlled.
- Difficult to match.
- Time consuming.

Question 16

Privacy

Answer 16

Participants right to control the flow of information about themselves.

Question 17

Operationalisation

Answer 17

Ensure variables are in a form that is testable and measurable.

Question 18

Non-participant observation

Answer 18

Observer is separate from participants.

Question 19

Overt observation

Answer 19

Participants know they are being observed.

Question 20

Observer bias

Answer 20

Researchers expectations effect what they see and hear.

Question 21

Stratified (quota) sampling

Answer 21

Randomly selected from sub-groups of target population.
+ Representative.
- Difficult to identify sub-groups.
- Time consuming.

Question 22

Event sampling

Answer 22

Number of time me a behaviour occurs at occasion.

Question 23

Content analysis

Answer 23

A way to observe behaviour indirectly through written material.
+ Can be used for many forms of media.
+ High ecological validity.
+ Not ethical issues.
- Behaviour studied out of context.
- Categories chosen beforehand- based on researchers expectations.
- Possibly subjective as categories could be interpreted differently.

Question 24

Demand characteristics

Answer 24

Cue that informs participants of the true aim of the study.

Question 25

Valid consent

Answer 25

Participant is give comprehensive information on the study so they can make an informed decision in their participation.

Question 26

Lab experiments

Answer 26

Controlled environment. + External variables controlled. - Low ecological validity.

Question 27

Random sampling

Answer 27

Everyone has an equal chance of being chosen. + No researcher bias. - May not be representative. - Time consuming.

Question 28

Online experiments

Answer 28

``` Assess participants via Internet/social media. + Assess large samples. + Diverse. + Cost effective. + Quicker analysis. - Difficult to deal with ethical issues. - Limited methods used. ```

Question 29

Risk of harm

Answer 29

Possibility of participants experiencing psychical or psychological harm, above what is normal.

Question 30

Repeated measures design

Answer 30

All participants perform in each condition. + External variables controlled. - Practice effect (order effect, boredom, guessing). - Reduces validity. Deal with issues: use different tests.

Question 31

Systematic sampling

Answer 31

Every nth number of the target population. + No researcher bias. - May not be representative.

Question 32

Inter-rater reliability

Answer 32

The extent to which two observers agree. The general rule is if there is more that 80% agreement on the observation then there is inter-observer reliability.

Question 33

Test-retest reliability

Answer 33

Used to assess external reliability. Participants are tested then sometime later, when they have forgotten, they are retested and the responses compared.

Question 34

Split-half reliability

Answer 34

Used to assess internal reliability. Participants given a test and then responses spilt and compared.

Question 35

Concurrent validity

Answer 35

A way of establishing external validity by comparing an existing test or questionnaire with the one you are interested in.

Question 36

Predictive validity

Answer 36

Correlating the results of a test with some other examples of the behaviour that is being tested.

Question 37

Face validity

Answer 37

A form of external validity - the extent to which the tests items look like what the test claims to measure.

Question 38

Content validity

Answer 38

This aims to show that the content, like questions on the test, represent the area of interest (internal validity).

Question 39

Construct validity

Answer 39

The extent to which performance on the test measures an identified underlying construct (internal validity).

Question 40

Frequency table

Answer 40

Used to display raw data that is easy to understand and interpret.

Question 41

Bar charts

Answer 41

Used with interval and ratio data. Used to display data or information that changes continuously over time and allow us to see overall trends such as an increase or decrease in data over time.

Question 42

Histograms

Answer 42

Use continuous data rather than discrete data in a bar chart. The variable in the horizontal is a scale of something such as length or mass. Used with ordinal data.

Question 43

Pie charts

Answer 43

Shows the differences in frequencies or percentages amongst categories of a nominal or ordinal data.

Question 44

Scatter diagrams

Answer 44

Used to display data when the study is correlational.

Question 45

Brain scans - EEG

Answer 45

Electrodes placed on the scalp and electrical activity in different areas can be recorded. Dement and Kleitman - detected different stages of sleep.

Question 46

Brian scans - CAT

Answer 46

Taking a series of x-rays to form a 2 or 3 dimensional picture. Usually a dye is injected as a contrast and the patient is placed in the CAT machine.

Question 47

Brain scans - MRI

Answer 47

Use of a magnetic field that causes the brain to emit radio waves, a detector reads these and uses them to map the structure of the brain.

Question 48

Brain scans - PET

Answer 48

Slightly radioactive glucose is given to patient. The most active areas of the brain use glucose and radiation detectors “sees” this area so building up a picture of activity in the brain.

Question 49

Longitudinal studies

Answer 49

Research conducted over a long period of time to observe long term effects. Case studies are often longitudinal. Often used by developmental psychologists.

Question 50

Cross-sectional studies

Answer 50

One group of a younger age are compared to another group of an older age at the same point in time to investigate the effect of age on behaviour.

Question 51

Data distributions | Normal distribution

Answer 51

Classic bell-shaped curve. It is the predicted distribution when considering an equally likely set of results. Features: Mean, median, mode in exact mid point. Distribution symmetrical at mid point. Dispersion of scores either side of the mid point is consistent and can be expressed in standard deviations.

Question 52

Data distributions | Left skewed or negative skewness

Answer 52

Some population scores are not distributed equally around the mean. In an easy exam most people would get high scores - producing a negative skewed distribution.

Question 53

Data distributions | Right skewed or positive skewness

Answer 53

Some population scores are not distributed equally. In a test on depression where 0-50 represents normal behaviour and 50+ represents clinical depression we would expect most test results of 100 people to be nearer the low end. Produces a positive skewed distribution. The few extreme high scores have a strong effect on the mean- the mean is always higher than the median and mode in a positive skew.