Methods - learning theories

Question 1

What is observational research?

Answer 1

Watching or listening to what participants do
+ High validity
- Observer bias

Question 2

What is event sampling?

Answer 2

Drawing up a list of behavioural categories and counting each time each of the behaviours occurred in a specified time period
+ Observing behaviour is more manageable
- May decrease validity if important behaviour occurs outside behaviour interval

Question 3

What is content analysis?

Answer 3

-Used to examine different media sources
-Changes qualitative data into quantitative data
-Researchers create categories to measure common themes of content
-Researchers tally and analyse their findings to uncover themes

Question 4

What are advantages and disadvantages of content analysis?

Answer 4

+ High ecological validity because its based on observations of what people actually do
+ Content analysis can be replicated and therefore can be tested for reliability
-Observer bias reduces objectivity and validity of findings because people may interpret categories differently

Question 5

What is a participant observation?

Answer 5

Observing the participant whilst being present
+ May see behaviour in greater detail
- Objectivity in greater detail
- Study could become overt

Question 6

What is a non participant observation?

Answer 6

Observer isn’t a participant in the behaviour being observed
+ Increased objectivity
+ Can observe unobtrusively
- Observer may see less or misinterpret behaviours

Question 7

What is a structured observation?

Answer 7

Some variables are changed by the researcher
+ Controlled environment allows focus on particular aspects of behaviour
- Environment may feel unnatural so lacks ecological validity
- Participants may find out they are being studied

Question 8

What is a naturalistic observation?

Answer 8

Everything is left as usual
+ Likely to behave normally
- Observation will be covert, which raises ethical issues

Question 9

What is an overt observation?

Answer 9

Participant is aware of being observed
+ Easier to see everything going on as participant doesn’t have to hide
- Participants may alter their behaviour

Question 10

What is a covert observation?

Answer 10

Observations made without participant knowledge
+ Participants behave more naturally
- Raises ethical issues

Question 11

Arguments for animal research

Answer 11

+ Behaviourists argue that conditioning processes are the same in all animals. This means we conduct experiments with animals and generalise the results to human behaviour.
+ It is preferable to use animals as there are fewer ethical issues - informed consent is not required and psychological harm is more acceptable
+Environmental factors can be better controlled when using animals in research than humans. This would make studies more internally valid as extraneous variables should not impact on research

Question 12

Arguments against animal research

Answer 12

• May not be justifiable to generalise from animals to humans because when more complex behaviours are studied it may not be appropriate to generalise from apes to humans as human behaviour is more controlled by higher cognitive thinking
• Animal experimentation may be unethical as pain and suffering are unavoidable e.g. Harlow’s experiment with monkeys

Question 13

Examples of animal research

Answer 13

Conditioning:
-Pavlov and Skinner used animals in their experiments to demonstrate conditioning
-In Pavlov’s research dogs were used. However, little harm or distress was caused but he did conduct experiments on involuntary reactions to stress and pain
-Skinner used rats and pigeons for operant conditioning. Some chambers contained electrified floors as punishment

Attachment:
-Harlow placed monkeys in a cage with two wire mothers. Monkeys spent most of the time with cloth-covered mother over feeding bottle mother demonstrating the importance of contact comfort
-They couldn’t socialise with other monkeys and rejected their own infants

Question 14

Ethical controls of animal research

Answer 14

Scientific Procedures Act and Home office regulations
-Act relates to only vertebrate animals
-Where possible animals should be replaced with suitable alternatives. If not possible number of protected animals used must be at a minimum
-Methods used in breeding/accommodation must be refined to reduce any possible pain/suffering

BPS guidelines
-Confinement, restraint stress and harm should be minimised
-Different species should be considered to minimise pain and discomfort
-Caging should be appropriate
-Deprivation should be considered in the light of needs of the species