The Scientific Process: Year 1 Flashcards
What is an aim?
A general statement of what the researcher intends to investigate.
What is a hypothesis?
A statement that can be tested.
What is an alternative hypothesis?
The alternative hypothesis states that there is a relationship between the two variables being studied (one variable has an effect on the other)
The alternative hypothesis predicts that change in the Independent Variable WILL result in SIGNIFICANT changes in the Dependent Variable.
What is a non-directional (two tailed) hypothesis?
Predicts that a change in the IV WILL lead to a SIGNIFICANT change in the DV but does not predict the direction of the change in the DV.
What is a directional (one tailed) hypothesis?
This predicts that a change in the IV WILL lead to a SIGNIFICANT change in the DV in a particularly stated direction.
What is a null hypothesis?
It states that change in the IV WILL NOT result in a SIGNIFICANT change in the DV and that any small changes that do occur will be due to chance factors only.
What does population mean in psychology?
All people or animals who possess a particular characteristic.
What is a target population?
The target population is a group of individuals who meet a particular set of sampling criteria.
E.G = female, 18 years or older, new diagnosis of type II diabetes, not on insulin.
What is a sample?
A group of participants that are selected from a population or a target population.
What is a representative sample?
One which has the same characteristics as the target population AND so can generalise the results to the target population.
What are the different sampling techniques?
1) random sampling
2) stratified sampling
3) systematic sampling
4) volunteer sampling
5) opportunity sampling
What is random sampling?
Selecting the sample in a way that every member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected.
How can random sampling be carried out?
- Give each member of the target population a number)
- Use a random number generator (on a computer) to generate as many numbers/participants as you need.
Give strengths of random sampling?
- Less potential for researcher bias in the selection of participants.
- With a large enough sample there is a good possibility that there will be some participants from all “subsets” of the target population AND SO fairly representative of the target population and so can be generalised back to them.
- Prevents from choosing people who may support their hypothesis
Give weaknesses of random sampling?
- It can be impractical (or not possible) to use a completely random technique, e.g. the target group may be too large to assign numbers to.
- Difficult and time consuming to conduct.
- Small minority groups within your target group may distort results, even with a random sampling technique - may still be unrepresentative.
What is stratified sampling?
Most representative sampling method and should be used if the target population contains subsets - a small group in a larger group.
How is stratified sampling carried out?
Here the sampler divides or ‘stratifies’ the target group into sections, each showing a key characteristic which should be present in the final sample.
Then each of those sections is sampled individually.
The sample thus created should contain members from each key characteristic in a proportion representative of the target population.
Within each subset ensure each member has an equal chance of being selected using random sampling techniques.
What are the strengths of stratified sampling?
- very representative SO can be generalised back to target population
- Free from researcher bias.
- provides a more accurate sampling of population.
What are the weaknesses of stratified sampling?
- It takes more time and resources to plan.
- Care must be taken to ensure each key characteristic present in the population is selected across strata, otherwise this will design a biased sample.
What is systematic sampling?
This involves selecting participants at fixed intervals.
How is systematic sampling carried out?
A systematic method is chosen for selecting from a target group, e.g. every fourth person in a list could be used in the sample.
It differs from random sampling in that it does not give an equal chance of selection to each individual in the target group.
The researcher will decide on an “interval” before selecting the participants so as to gain an appropriate number of participants form the target population.
What are the strengths of systematic sampling?
- It is an unbiased method of sampling as once the researcher has decided on a “system” they cannot then change their minds and not select them as a participant.
Assuming the list order has been randomised, this method offers an unbiased chance of gaining a representative sample.
What are the weaknesses of systematic sampling?
- Less likely to give a representative sample of the target population because not random so we should be cautious about generalising results.
- If the list has been assembled in any other way, bias may be present. For example if every fourth person in the list was male, you would have only males in your sample.
What is volunteer sampling?
It is made up of people who offer to take part in a study, often by responding to an advert.
What are the strengths of volunteer sampling?
This often achieves a large sample size through reaching a wide audience, for example with online advertisements.
Relatively simple sampling style as they are giving consent by volunteering and most likely to turn up for the research and do what they are asked to do (practical benefit).
What are the weaknesses of volunteer sampling?
- will give a biased sample as people who respond may not be typical of the target population.
- may be looking for demand characteristics and respond to them (expectancy effect) and in turn help or hinder the experiment.
- Those who respond to the call for volunteers may all display similar characteristics thus increasing the chances of yielding an unrepresentative sample.
What is opportunity sampling?
This involves selecting a sample from people who are willing and able to take part in an experiment when asked to do so.
How is opportunity sampling carried out?
- The researcher approaches who they think would be suitable participants from those available to them.
- those approached then agree or disagree to take part.
What is are the strengths of opportunity sampling?
- quite simple to use and allows the researcher to be more selective in who they approach than simply advertising for volunteers SO the participants should be suitable for the study.
- This method is easy and inexpensive to carry out.
What are the weaknesses of opportunity sampling?
- Biased and unrepresentative SO must be cautious when generalising to the target population.
What are issues that can arise with sampling/what are they often criticised for?
1, being androcentric
2. being ethnocentric
What does androcentrism mean?
It means centred around males WHICH CAN BE AN ISSUE IF the results are also applied to women (beta bias).
What does ethnocentrism mean?
It means centred around one particular culture (most commonly white, western, middle class culture) WHICH CAN BE AN ISSUE IF the results are applied to all cultures (beta bias).
What is a pilot study?
A small-scale trial run of the investigation in which the researcher will keep a record of any problems they encounter and any changes that need to be made.
They will even ask participants at the end whether they understood the instructions clearly or can point to flaw in the design.
What do pilot studies ensure?
That the design and materials researchers have selected are appropriate for their aims and also use it to help eliminate and control for Extraneous Variable’s.
This will increase the chances of conducting reliable and valid research and thus being able to draw strong conclusions from the results.
What is a repeated measures design?
The same participants are used in both conditions.
What are the advantages of the repeated measures design?
- Individual differences are eliminated so this removes subject extraneous variables.
- the most sensitive design as most able to show the effect of IV on the DV as the participants own scores are compared to each other
- it requires less participants than other designs so easier to get the sample.
What are the disadvantages of the repeated measures design?
- order effects (refers to how the positioning of tasks influences the outcome e.g. practice effect or boredom effect on second task) may be experienced
- it may be necessary to use different test materials in each condition (which must be of equal difficulty otherwise introduces a constant error)
- participants are more likely to guess the hypothesis, which may alter their behaviour (help or hinder).
- repeated measures cannot always be used e.g. when the IV is a subject variable.
What are order effects?
They occur when a participants score in whichever condition they experience second, is influenced by the fact they have already experienced the first condition.
What are the two types of order effects?
- practice effect
- fatigue effect
What are practice effects?
This is when the participant’s performance in the second condition is better than it would otherwise have been, because they have already experienced the first.
What are fatigue effects?
This is when the participant’s performance in the second condition is worse than it would otherwise have been, because they have already experienced the first.
Fatigue effect may also include boredom effect.
What can limit order effects?
Counterbalancing
What is counterbalancing?
half the participants experience the conditions in one order, and the other half in the opposite order.
e.g. AB, BA
What is an independent groups design?
Each participant is allocated to one condition only, on a random basis.
What are the advantages of independent groups design?
- the same test materials can be used in each condition
- there are no order effects
- participants are less likely to guess the hypothesis
- suitable for almost any experiment
What are the disadvantages of independent groups design?
- although partially controlled by randomisation there may be individual differences or subject extraneous variables
- the least sensitive of the designs (least likely to show the effects of the IV on the DV).
- needs more participants than repeated measures design.
What is a matched participants design?
Each participant is paired with another participant who is very similar to them on the basis of important subject extraneous variables for the particular experiment.
When the participants have been put into pairs, one member of each pair is randomly allocated to each condition. Each participant therefore only completes one condition.
What are the advantages of matched pairs design?
- minimises subject extraneous variables
- same materials can be used in each condition
- no order effects
- participants are less likely to guess the hypothesis
What are the disadvantages of matched pairs design?
- may not be possible to match everyone into pairs SO some participants may not be used
- we cannot always be sure we have matched on all the important criteria.
- matching participants into pairs is time consuming.
What are behavioural categories?
When a target behaviour is broken up into components that are observable and measurable (operationalised).
An observational technique wherein participants’ possible behaviours are separated into more specific components. This allows for operationalisation of the behaviour. For example, splitting aggression into categories of “swearing” and “punching”.
What is Time sampling?
When the researcher records all relevant behaviour at set points.
E.g. Everything for 15 seconds, every 10 mins over a 1 hour observation.
What are the strengths of time sampling?
Strength - More flexibility to be able to record unexpected types of behaviour.
you can manage the observations more rather than being overwhelmed by every single behaviour that occurs
Less likely to miss behaviours as the researcher usually has a short time to focus on recording behaviour, therefore is more likely to be accurate.
It can give an indication of how much time is spent on each behaviour.
What are the weaknesses of time sampling?
Behaviours that occur outside the time intervals are not accounted for, therefore may reduce validity as important behaviours may be missed.
Can be hard if lots of behaviour occurs at once
Can miss events not coded for – reducing validity
What is event sampling?
It is where an observer records the number of times a certain behaviour occurs - via tallies for example.
What are the strengths of event sampling?
Strength - Records are easy to obtain and analyse as researchers can clearly see the total number of behaviours foe each event. This can make analysis extremely quick and easy, especially when looking for most or least common behaviours.
More reliable observations as the events are already planned, therefore it could be easily replicated to measure consistency of observational behaviours.
What are the weaknesses of event sampling?
Weakness - if too many behaviours occur at once they will be missed, this reduces the validity of the study.
It gives no indication of the amount of time spent on each behavioural category, therefore it can sometimes lead to less valid conclusions about behaviour.
Can miss important behaviours due to having set events already planned, other behaviours that were not considered are missed – reducing validity.
What are questionnaires?
A set of written questions used to collect information about a topic(s).
What are the strengths and weaknesses of questionnaires?
✔️Can be distributed to lots of people
✔️respondents may be willing to “open up” because its anonymous
✖️responses may not always be truthful (social desirability bias)
✖️response bias
What makes a good question?
avoid jargon
avoid double barrelled questions
avoid leading questions
What is a closed question?
Limited answer is given - yes or no
data is quantitative
What is a strength and weakness of closed questions?
✔️ * easier to analyse
✖️ * respondents are restricted
What is an open question?
Answer is expressed in words in more detail.
Data is qualitative.
What is a strength and weakness of open questions?
✔️ * respondents not restricted, can provide more detail.
✖️ * difficult to analyse
What is an interview?
Face to face interaction between an interviewer and interviewee
What is an unstructured interview?
State strengths and weaknesses.
Interviewer sets out a general topic they are interested in and is then guided by the interviewee with further questions (conversation like)
✔️ * there is greater flexibility
✖️ * difficult to analyse
What is an structured interview?
State strengths and weaknesses.
Predetermined questions, essentially a questionnaire that is delivered face to face. No deviations from the questions.
✔️ * easy to replicate
✖️ * interviewees cannot elaborate
What is an semi structured interview?
List of we have been worked out in advance but interviewers are free to ask follow up questions when appropriate
What are 6 ways research can be controlled to eliminate extraneous variables?
- Random Allocation
- Counterbalancing
- Randomisation
- Standardisation
-Demand characteristics
- Investigator effects.
What is Random allocation?
a technique that chooses individuals for conditioned groups and control groups entirely by chance with no regard to the will of researchers or patients’ condition and preference.
What is Randomisation?
The use of chance when designing investigations to control for the effects of bias
What is standardisation?
Using exactly the same formalised procedures for all participants in a research study
What are demand characteristics?
Cues which may appear to reveal the experimental hypothesis and so suggest to the participant what result the experimenter hopes to obtain (which can lead to expectancy effects).
What are expectancy effects/ demand characteristics?
When the participant acts in the way he thinks the researcher wants them to act (help).
Alternatively the participant may wish to “prove the researcher wrong” and thus purposely act in a way contrary to what he thinks is expected (hinder).
What is used to control expectancy effects/demand characteristic?
1) single blind technique
2) placebo’s
What is a single blind technique?
This means that participants do not know who is in the experimental group and who is in the control SO making it more difficult to guess the hypothesis.
What is a placebo?
An inert substance (or condition) which is fake and prevents the participants from realising they are in the control group.
What are investigator effects?
Any effects of the investigator’s behaviour (conscious or unconscious) on the research outcome (DV).
This may include everything from the design of the study, to the selection of and interaction with the participants during the research process.
What is used to control investigator effects?
1) double blind technique
What is the double blind technique?
In this neither the participant, nor the person collecting the data knows which participant is in which condition SO all bias is removed.
What are standardised instructions?
Standardised instructions are directions that are given to research participants in the same way.
This means that the study is “scripted” so that each participant in one condition is treated exactly the same way.
What is an extraneous variable?
Any variables other than the independent variable that seem likely to influence the dependent variable in a specific study
What are subject extraneous variables?
These are characteristics of the participant which are capable of affecting the DV.
e.g. gender, age, intelligence etc.
What is a confounding variable?
A confounding variable is a type of extraneous variable that not only affects the dependent variable, but is also related to the independent variable.
What is a control condition?
A condition in which the IV is absent.
Why are control conditions used?
A control condition is used to establish a baseline to compare with the experimental condition and therefore to show whether the IV affects the DV.
A control condition may be necessary to show that ONLY the IV has brought about the change in an experiment and nothing else.
What are ethical considerations in psychological research?
Issues that might impact on participants’ well-being and how to deal with them.
The British Psychological Society Code of Conduct (BPS Code of Conduct) is a quasi-legal document to protect participants.
Ethics committees weigh up costs (potential harm) and benefits (value of research) before deciding whether a study should go ahead.
What is confidentiality?
Concerns the communication of personal information from one person to another, and the trust that the information will be protected.
What is deception?
A participant is not told the true aims of a study (eg what participation will involve) and thus cannot give truly informed consent
What is informed consent?
Participants must be given comprehensive information concerning the nature and purpose of the research and their role in it, in order to make an informed decision about whether or not to participate
What is privacy?
A persons right to control the flow of information about themselves
What is protection from harm?
During a research study, participants should not experience negative physical or psychological effects, such as physical injury, lowered self-esteem, or embarrassment
What is right to withdraw?
Participants can stop participating in a study if they are uncomfortable in anyway.
What is debriefing?
A post-research interview designed to inform participant of the true nature of the study and to restore them to the state they were in at the start of the study. A means of dealing with ethical issues
What is presumptive consent?
Rather than getting consent from the participants themselves, a similar group of ppl are asked if the study is acceptable. If this group agree, then consent of the original ppts is ‘presumed’.
What is prior general consent?
ppts give their permission to take part in a number of different studies - including one that will involve deception.
By consenting, ppts are effectively consenting to be deceived.
