Week 4: Psychological Discovery: Research Ethics & Measurements

Question 1

What are research ethics?

Answer 1

Ethics are a system of moral principles and a branch of philosophy that defines what is good for individuals and society. Therefore, research ethics governs the moral conduct of research conducted with people, and also research conducted about people that uses their data, or bio-specimans (such as human tissue).

Question 2

What is the Nurumberg Code? (1947)

Answer 2

Asserted participants rights to voluntary participation and informed consent (after horrific cruel research conducted on concentration camp prisoners)

Question 3

What did the Declaration of Helsinki declare? (1964)

Answer 3

• Human research should follow successful work in labs or animals - Value/benefit must outweigh the risks or potential harms - Researchers needs to be competent - Review of written protocol (research proposal) by an external, unbiased committee - Background: statement of recommendations from the World Medical Association in 1964

Question 4

What was the National Research Act and how did it come about? (1974)

Answer 4

-Because in the Tuskege Syphilis (1932-1972) study men with syphilis were monitored but withheld from treatment after it was available. -So the U.S created formal review boards for the protection of human subjects of biomedical and behavioural research to develop ETHICAL GUIDELINES FOR HUMAN RESEARCH

Question 5

What is the Belmont Report? (1979)

Answer 5

-The national commission published a set of guidelines for ethical research with humans based on discussion at conference. -Distinguishes research and clinical practice -Defined key ethical principles to guide human research: RESPECT BENEFICENCE JUSTICE -Guidelines for the selection and consent (e.g additional protection when individuals cannot provide informed consent)

Question 6

How do you conduct research in Australia?

Answer 6

• Research projects conducted in Australia must adhere to the national ethical standards as set out in The National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research 2007 (updated 2018) which can be accessed via the link here. - The National Statement was developed jointly by the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council and Universities Australia and is reviewed regularly and updated as necessary. - In addition to national bodies, there are other bodies that govern research projects to ensure that they are undertaken in an ethical manner. Each health profession may have its own additional guidelines for the conduct of research.

Question 7

Five key principles when conducting research ethically:

Answer 7

• Integrity of the researcher, and research merit - Respect for persons, and consent - Fidelity and Responsibility - Beneficence (to do good, and maximizing benefits), and safety - Justice (people treated fairly and equitably)

Question 8

General guidelines when conduction research ethically:

Answer 8

• Participation should be voluntary and informed. Participants should be aware of the risks associated with the study, provide consent to participate, and be allowed to end their participation whenever they choose. - Participants should not be exposed to harmful or dangerous procedures (both physical or psychological harm). Participants need to be fully aware of potential discomfort - Deception is permitted only when necessary to maintain the integrity of a study when no other alternative exists. When deception is used, participants must be formally debriefed about the deception in order to clear up any misunderstandings - Participants in study should have expectation of confidentiality (ie privacy). The identity of a participant and any person information obtain should never be divulged to others without first obtaining consent from the individual - All proposals for research must be reviewed and approved by the institutional ethics committee. All results must be reported fully and accurately.

Question 9

What is an independent variable?

Answer 9

The variable that is manipulated or controlled by the experimenter. In a well-designed experimental study, the independent variable is the only important difference between the experimental and control groups. For instance, in the image above, the independent variable is amount of water - where the plant in the experimental group is given water while the plant in the control group is not watered at all.

Question 10

What is a dependent variable?

Answer 10

The variables that the researcher OBSERVES to examine changes in - the researcher observes how manipulations affect these variables. E.g observing changes in depression levels as anti-depressant drug dosages are manipulated. In this case, depression levels would be the dependent variable. In other words, a dependent variable concerns: The effect of the manipulation The response The outcome What is being measured

Question 11

What are hypotheses?

Answer 11

Hypotheses are brief, tentative statements about what the researcher expects to find. Hypotheses should specify: What the IV is and how it will be manipulated, What the DV is, and Prediction about how the DV is expected to change with manipulation of the IV

Question 12

What is the name for variable which cause unwanted or nuisance effects?

Answer 12

Extraneous or nuisance variables EV reduce our “signal to noise” ratio, making it more difficult to detect the effects of the variables we care about.

Question 13

What are the different types of extraneous variables?

Answer 13

• Individual differences (participant or subject variables) (e.g age, sex, handedness) - Situational or Environmental Variables (e.g time of day, temperature, lighting, noise) - Experimenter (Researcher) Variables (characteristics of experimenter conducting the research. This could be stress felt, or even personal bias)

Question 14

What is another way of classifying extraneous variables?

Answer 14

-Random variables (specific to participants and have random effects - cannot be calculated. Makes it harder to detect a real effect, and is comparable between groups - doesn’t affect one group more than the other) -Confounding variables (systematically vary with level of independent variable, resulting in SYSTEMATIC changes in the dependent variable. Systematically differ between groups, and may cause the differences we see between groups. So we want to make sure we don’t have any confounding variables that are accounting for our true effect)

Question 15

What are the consequences of extraneous variables?

Answer 15

• They can provide an ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATION for your results aside from the effects of the independent variable (e.g changes in the DV may be due to a confounding variable instead of the IV) -They add VARIANCE (NOISE) into the data, so harder to find differences between groups and may introduce erroneous patterns and lead to inaccurate conclusions

Question 16

What is operationalizing a variable?

Answer 16

Stipulating in details how the variable in question is to be defined, observed, and measured. Straightforward if variables can be measured directly.

Question 17

If our variables consist of unobservable (latent) constructs (hypothetical attributes/entities derived from theory which are intangible and cannot be directly observed), how can they be developed into definitions?

Answer 17

• Intelligence - IQ is an operationised concept of intelligence - Depression Symptoms - operationalised using scores on a scales, such as a depression scale

Question 18

When dealing with operational variables, what does “measurement” mean?

Answer 18

The assignment of a number to an operationalised variable

Question 19

How many scales of measurement are there and what are they called?

Answer 19

Four 1. Nominal (categories) 2.Ordinal (Likert-type scales) 3. Interval 4. Ratio (NOIR) Simplest to most complex

Question 20

What are the three major methods for acquiring measurements?

Answer 20

1. Self-report measures 2. Physical measures 3. Behavioural measures

Question 21

What are the two criteria for evaluating the quality of our measurement options?

Answer 21

Validity and reliability.

Question 22

How is the reliability of an instrument indicated?

Answer 22

By the consistency of the measures it yields over repeated measurements

Question 23

What does reliability refer to?

Answer 23

The consistency of a measure. If the construct of interest did not change, a reliable measure will yield the same score across repeated measurements It is the extend to which the measurements obtained are affected by error (more reliable = less error)

Question 24

What is “measured score?”

Answer 24

True Score + Measurement Error

Question 25

When measuring a dependent variable, what do we consider when looking at properties of data?? (or characteristics of the data)

Answer 25

Identity - a property measurement in which objects that are different receive different scores Magnitude - A property measurement in which the ordering numbers reflects the ordering of the variable Equal unit size - A property of measurement in which a difference of 1 is the same amount throughout the entire scale Absolute zero - A property of measurement in which assigning a score of zero indicates an absence of the variable being measured

Question 26

True or false: the level or scale of measurement depends on the properties of the data

Answer 26

True

Question 27

What is a nominal scale?

Answer 27

A scale in which objects or individuals are assigned to categories that have no numerical properties It has the characteristic of identity but no other properties *1 out of 4* Examples are ethnicity, gender, political affiliation. We can assign numerical values to the levels of nominal variable, but they don’t carry numerical weight - they are just names for categories.

Question 28

What is an ordinal scale?

Answer 28

A scale in which objects or individuals are categorized, and the categories form a rank order along a continuum. This has two properties of measurement - but not equal unit size and absolute zero. E.g reporting on how students did on an exam based on their rank (highest score, second highest score etc)

Question 29

What is an interval scale?

Answer 29

A scale in which the units of measurement (intervals) between the numbers on the scale are all equal in size. E.g Farenheit temperature scale It has three properties of measurement - just not absolute zero (cannot form ratios with this scale )

Question 30

What is a ratio scale?

Answer 30

A scale in which, in addition to order and equal units of measurement, an absolute zero indicates an absence of the variable being measured Ratio data have all four properties of measurement. Examples of ratio scales of measurement include weight, time and height.

Question 31

What are discrete variables?

Answer 31

Variables that usually consist of whole number units or categories and are made up of chunks or units that are detached and distinct from one another

Question 32

What are continuous variables?

Answer 32

Variables that usually fall along a continuum and allow for fractional amounts.

Question 33

What is a variable?

Answer 33

Any characteristic or condition that can have more than one value, or that can vary across organisms, situations or environments (e.g age, intelligence, stress, extroversion)

Question 34

What does an empirical study involve?

Answer 34

Observing, manipulating, and measuring variables in various conditions, and under varying degrees of control (there variables need to be operationally defined)

Question 35

What are quasi-independent variables?

Answer 35

Variables that the researcher INDIRECTLY manipulates. That is, for practical or ethical reasons, these variables cannot be directly manipulated, but since there are pre-existing levels, the research can utilise them. (e.g sex is a variable, can be used as a quasi-independent variable)

Question 36

What is a Nominal scale of measurement?

Answer 36

A measurement scale consisting of categories which are differentiated only by qualitative names. No particular ordering makes sense e.g sex (male/female), marital status (single, married, divorce)

Question 37

What is an Ordinal Scale of measurement?

Answer 37

A measurement scale consisting of orderings/rankings where the distance between rankings is not the same throughout (e.g all likert-type scales)

Question 38

What is an Interval Scale of measurement?

Answer 38

An ordered, constant measurement

Question 39

What are the THREE major methods for acquiring measurements?

Answer 39

Self-report measures: participants provide information about themselves Physical measures: these are physical or physiological measurements recorded by the equipment Behavioural measures: these are measurements take of observed behaviour

Question 40

How do we decide which method is best to measure variables in our research?

Answer 40

By assessing the measurements VALIDITY and RELIABILITY

Question 41

What is the RELIABILITY of an instrument?

Answer 41

It is indicated by the consistency of the measures it yields over repeated measurements. It is the extent to which the measurements obtained are affected by error (more reliable = less error)

Question 42

What is the VALIDITY of an instrument?

Answer 42

It refers to whether it measures what it is supposed to measure

Question 43

Measured Score = ?

Answer 43

True Score + Measurement Error

Question 44

True or false: measurements can be reliable but not valid?

Answer 44

True Examples: measuring personality through body shape - this is easy to measure and yields consistent results, but none relate to what is meant to be measured.

Question 45

What are the reasons for why an instrument might have low reliability?

Answer 45

• Observer Error (human error) -Environmental Changes -Participant Changes

Question 46

What are the four different ways of assessing reliability?

Answer 46

• Test-retest (is there consistency between two scores on the same measure taken at different times?) -Parallel or equivalent forms (is there consistency between two forms which are designed to be equivalent?) -Inter-rater reliability (is there consistency between the measures of two observers?) -Split-half reliability (the measure is split in half - is there consistency between the two halves?)

Question 47

What are the ways in which VALIDITY can be examined?

Answer 47

Content validity - do the measure’s items cover a representative range of the behaviours being measured? Face validity - does a measure appear to measure what it claims to? Concurrent validity - is a new measure consistent with other more established measures of the same variable? Predictive validity - does the measure predict what it is supposed to? Construct validity - do the measurements of the construct behave the same as the variable itself?