Official Research Methods Flashcards

Question

What is opportunity sampling?

Answer 1

Ppts happen to be available at the time which the study is being carried out so are recruited conveniently

Answer 2

Time Saving and less costly

Answer 3

-not representative -researcher bias

Answer 4

When all members of a population have the same chance of being selected Each ppts is assigned a random number and picked from a random number generator

Answer 5

No researcher bias

Answer 6

-time consuming -volunteer bias- ppts can refuse to take part so might end up with an unrepresentative sample

Answer 7

A predetermined system is used whereby every nth member is selected from the sampling frame this numerical selection is applied consistently

Answer 8

Avoids researcher bias and fairly representative

Answer 9

Not truly unbiased

Answer 10

Composition of the sample reflects the varying proportions of people in particular subgroups within the population Firstly you identify strat then you calculate the required proportion needed for each stratum based on the target population then select sample at random from each stratum using a random selection method

Answer 11

-no researcher bias -representative data due to the proportional strata

Answer 12

-time consuming -identified strata can’t reflect all the differences between the people of the wider population

Answer 13

Involves self selections whereby the ppts offers to take part in experiment

Answer 14

Quick access not time consuming Ppts are more likely to corporate in the study

Answer 15

-volunteer bias-might attract a particular person -motivations like money could be driving participation so participants may not take study seriously

Answer 16

Ppts only perform in one condition of the IV

Answer 17

-no order effects -demand characteristics are eliminated

Answer 18

-no control over ppt variables -need more ppts to gather the same amount of data

Answer 19

Random allocation each ppts has the same chance of being in one condition of the IV as another

Answer 20

The same ppts take part in all conditions of the IV

Answer 21

-eliminates ppt variables -not as time consuming

Answer 22

Order effect

Answer 23

Counterbalancing when half of the ppts do conditions in one order and the other do it the opposite order

Answer 24

Pairs of ppts are first matched on some variable that has been found to affect the DV then one member of each paid does one condition and the other does another

Answer 25

-no order effects -less demand characteristics

Answer 26

-time consuming and expensive -large pool of potential ppts needed -difficult to know which variables are appropriate for the ppts to be matched

Answer 27

A small scale version of an investigation which is done before the real investigation is undertaken

Answer 28

A research method in which the researchers don’t tell the ppts if they are being given a test treatment or a control treatment

Answer 29

Neither ppt or researcher know who is receiving a particular treatment

Answer 30

Watching and recording behaviour in the setting where it would normally take place

Answer 31

-high ecological validity -high extrernal validity

Answer 32

-low ecological validity -replication can be difficult -uncontrolled confounding and extraneous variables are present

Answer 33

Watching and recording behaviour in a structured enviroemtns

Answer 34

-researcher is able to focus on a specific aspect of behaviour -more control over extraneous variables and confounding -easy replication

Answer 35

-more likely to be observing unnatural behaviour -low mundane realism so low ecological validity -demand characteristics present

Answer 36

Ppts are watches and their behaviour is being recorded with them knowing they’re being watched

Answer 37

-ethically acceptable as informed consent is given

Answer 38

More likely to be recording unnatural behaviour as they know they’re being watched -demand characteristics likely

Answer 39

Ppts are unaware that their behaviour is being watched and recorded

Answer 40

-natural behaviour high internal validity -removes participant reactivity where ppts try to make sense of the situation and guess the aim

Answer 41

Ethical issues presented and no informed consent is given

Answer 42

The researcher who is observing is part of the group that is being observed

Answer 43

More insightful which increases valditity

Answer 44

Ppts might change their behaviour if they know they’re being watched Researcher may lose objectivity

Answer 45

Researcher observes from a distance so isn’t part of the group being observed

Answer 46

Researcher can be more objective

Answer 47

Open to observer bias Researcher may lose some valuable insight

Answer 48

When an observers reports are biased by what they expect to see

Answer 49

Many researchers conducting the observation study their reports are compared and a score is calculates

Answer 50

Total number of agreements x 100 and any score above 80% is a high inter observer reliability

Answer 51

Consists of continuous recording where the researcher writes everything they see during the observations

Answer 52

More richness and depth of detail

Answer 53

Produces qualitative data which is more difficult to record and analyse Greater risk of observer bias

Answer 54

Researcher quantifies what they are observing using predetermined list of behaviours and sampling methods

Answer 55

Easier as more systematic Quantitative data east to analyse Less risk of observer bias

Answer 56

Not much depth of detail Difficult to achieve high inter observer reliability

Answer 57

Target behaviour being broken up into more precise components which are observable and measurable

Answer 58

Recording of behaviour within a timeframe that is preestablished before the obersvational study

Answer 59

Reduces the number of observations that has to be made so less time consuming

Answer 60

Unrepresentative of the observation as a whole if you collect small data

Answer 61

Involves the counting of the number of times a particular behaviour is carried out by the target group your watching

Answer 62

Good for infrequent behaviours

Answer 63

Important details of behaviour might be overlooked Counting errors Difficult to judge the beginning and ending of a behaviour

Answer 64

A mathematical technique that is used to investigate an association between two variables which are called covariables An association is found if no cause and effect relationship is found

Answer 65

No cause and effect relationship was found

Answer 66

Determines the strength and the relationship between two variables

Answer 67

When one variable increases the other decreases the When data is presented on a scattergram the line of best fit has a negative gradient it has a correlation coefficient of less than 0

Answer 68

When one variable increases the other also increases when the data is presented on a scattergram the line of best fit has a positive gradient it has a correlation coefficient of more than 0

Answer 69

No relationship is found between the co variables when the data is presented on a scattergram no line of best fit can be drawn as the points are random

Answer 70

As one variable increases so does the other but only up to a certain point after which as one variable continues to increase the other begins to decrease on a graph it forms a u curve E.g. yerkes-Dodson law curve anxiety from memory

Answer 71

-can be used as starting points to assess patterns between co variables before committing to conducting an experimental study -quick and economical to carry out -secondary data can be used which makes it less time consuming

Answer 72

-difficult to establish a cause and effect relationship -there’s a chance of a third variable that the researcher is unaware of that is responsible for the relationship between the co variable -correlations tend to be misused or misinterpreted

Answer 73

The two facotrs collected by the researchers and then compared to each other

Answer 74

A graph used to plot the measurements of two co variables Usually display the relationship between 2 co variables

Answer 75

Represents both the strength and direction of the relationship between the covariabels as a number between -1 and +1

Answer 76

Correlation doesn’t show causation

Answer 77

-correlation studies can highlight potential causal relationships these can be tested with experimental methods to discover cause and effect relationships -often the covariable data already exists and is easily accessible -correlation coefficient is a useful tool in describing both the direction and strength of relationship between factors

Answer 78

An indirect obersavtional method that is used to analyse human behaviour investigating through studying human artefacts

Answer 79

1.decide a research question 2.select a sample 3.coding- research decides on categories/coding units to be recorded 4.work through the data -tally number of times categories appear 5.data analysis

Answer 80

Run the content analysis again on the same sample and compare the two sets of data

Answer 81

A second rater also performs the content analysis with the same set of data and the same behavioural catergoties compare the two sets of data

Answer 82

Range of data collected from an individual, group or institution manly data is collected using interviews and observations Usually qualitative data collected Longitudinal case studies

Answer 83

States that there is a difference in the measurement of the dependant variable but not the direction the results will go

Answer 84

States that there is a difference in the measurement of the dependant variable and says which direction the results will go

Answer 85

Any theory even well established theories backed up with a significant amount of prior evidence have to be open to the possibility that new research will emerge that contradicts its basic principles

Answer 86

Practicing psychologists are expected to design and conduct research that follows a set of guidelines published by the BPS (British psychological society)

Answer 87

-informed consent -right to withdraw -protection from harm -deception -confidentiality -debriefing

Answer 88

-informed consent -prior general consent -retroactive consent -researcher asks for consent after the ppt has taken part in the study -presumptive consent- researcher asks a group similar to the sample if they would agree to take part in the research if the group agrees the researcher assumes that the ppts would also agree

Answer 89

The author doesn’t know who the peers are

Answer 90

Aurthor doesn’t know who the peers are and the peers don’t know who the author is

Answer 91

The philosophical position that factual knowledge can only come from out experience with the world this means that ideas supported only by speculation locgical argument,beleif,accepted wisdom or direct from theory aren’t empirical

Answer 92

Data should be collected and interpreted in ways that avoid bias

Answer 93

Data gathering is carefully planned out and consistent for each participant the data collection measures like questionnaire questions or experimental procedures should be carefully designed or the researcher should use established questions or tests

Answer 94

Empirical method Objectivity Replicability Falsifiability Paradigm shift

Answer 95

Popper gave the example theory ‘all swans are white’ as an example of a falsifiable theory

Answer 96

Thomas Khun Paradigms are a set of established assumptions and sometimes they change and new evidence proves they changed

Answer 97

A statement that there is no significant relationship of difference between the variables being studied

Answer 98

Data has equal intervals and is more mathematical

Answer 99

My data is in categories or order less mathematical

Answer 100

Summary of research 100-300 words It’s the first section of a report Includes the aim,methods,results, conclusion

Answer 101

Some control of variables including control of CV/EV

Answer 102

Nominal: mode,n/a for dispersion Ordinal: median,range Interval: mean,standard deviation

Answer 103

Data which is displayed in words, is non numerical

Answer 104

data which is displayed in words, is non-numerical.

Answer 105

- More richness and depth of detail. - Allows participants to further develop their opinions hence has greater external validity. - A more meaningful insight into the participants' views is achieved.

Answer 106

- Difficult to analyse. - Difficult to make comparisons with other data. - Researcher bias presented as conclusions rely on the subjective interpretations of the researcher (interpretative bias).

Answer 107

Data that is numerical

Answer 108

- Can be analysed statistically so converted to graphs or charts. - This makes it easy to make comparisons with other data.

Answer 109

- Lack of depth in detail. - No meaningful insight into participants' views. - As participants are not able to develop their opinions the results have low external validity.

Answer 110

Obtained first hand by researcher

Answer 111

-Targets the exact information which the researcher needs, so the data fits their aims and objectives

Answer 112

Requires time and effort and can be expensive

Answer 113

Collected by someone else but used for their own investigation ‘desk research’

Answer 114

Expensive Requires minimal effort

Answer 115

Outdated or incomplete May not be reliable

Answer 116

- this is when a researcher combines results from many different studies and uses all the data to form an overall view of the subject they are investigating.

Answer 117

More generalisability is possible as a larger amount of data is studied. - The researcher is able to view the evidence with more confidence as there is a lot of it

Answer 118

Publication bias such as the file drawer problem may be presented- this is when the researcher intentionally does not publish all the data from the relevant studies but instead chooses to leave out the negative results. This gives a false representation of what the researcher was investigating.

Answer 119

Total of all values and divided by the number of blaues

Answer 120

Makes good use of all values Good for interval data

Answer 121

Influenced by outliers so it can be unrepresenatative

Answer 122

Arrange data from lowest to highest then find central value

Answer 123

Not affected by extreme scores Good for ordinal data

Answer 124

Doesn’t use all of data

Answer 125

Most frequent occurring value in a set of data

Answer 126

Useful for nominal data

Answer 127

Not useful when there are several modes

Answer 128

Minus the lowest from the highest score

Answer 129

Easy to calculate Affected by extreme values Doesn’t use all data

Answer 130

Square root of the variance calculates SD a low SD means that more data is clustered close to the mean hence there is less data spread

Answer 131

Precise measure where all values taken into account

Answer 132

Diifuclt to calculate Affected by extreme values

Answer 133

This way of representing data allows for differences in data to be seen more clearly. They are used for discrete data, which describes data that has been divided into categories. The bars do not touch each other which shows that we are dealing with separate conditions. The amount of frequency for each category is plotted on the y-axis (vertical axis) whilst the categories (below these are condition A and B) are plotted on the x-axis (horizontal

Answer 134

In this form, the bars touch each other unlike in bar charts and this represents that we are dealing with continuous data rather than discrete. Therefore the x-axis has equal sized intervals of one category (e.g. scores of an english test in intervals 0-10, 11-21, 22-32, etc.) whilst the y-axis represents the frequency (the number of people that score each mark).

Answer 135

These are used to show associations between co-variables rather than differences hence we came across them in the correlations topic. Either of the co-variables can occupy the x-axis or the y-axis, and each point displayed on the graph coincides with the x and y position of the co varables

Answer 136

- Led to police using the cognitive interview which reduces wrongful convictions hence reduces waste of money and space in jail.

Answer 137

Health campaigns. - Unions strike- make working conditions better. - Environmental campaigns-like getting companies to reduce their waste and use of non-renewable energy.

Answer 138

Mothers can return to work. - More flexible working arrangements within families. - Can maximise their income and effectively contribute to the economy.

Answer 139

Study into a person life with covers detail into their background looks at past and present

Answer 140

- Detailed so able to gain in depth insight. - Forms basis for future research. - From studying unusual cases you are able to infer things about normal usual behaviour of humans. - Permits investigation of situations that would be otherwise unethical or impractical.

Answer 141

Not generalisable to wider populations as data is only gathered from one person. - Various interviewer biases are presented like social desirability bias (from the unique person's side) and interpretative bias (from the researcher's side). - Retrospective studies may rely on memory which can be inaccurate. - They are time consuming and difficult to replicate.

Answer 142

• Abstract - this part includes a summary of all the key details of the research report. These key details include the aim, hypothesis, method, results and conclusion. It is usually about 150-200 words long and is the part that is supposed to be read to know whether the research study is worth examining any further. • Introduction - This includes information of past research on a similar topic whereby relevant theories, studies and concepts are mentioned. At the beginning it tends to be broad but as it continues towards the end the information becomes more specific until the aims and hypotheses of the study are presented. • Method - This part includes a description of what the researchers exactly did when they undertook the study. This includes the design, sample collected (specific details e.g. target population, sampling method, demographic data of participants), materials used, procedure (specific e.g. standardised instructions for each participant), ethics etc. There should be sufficient detail included so that any other person is able to read this part of the report and replicate the investigation precisely. • Results - This includes all the findings from the study, presented even with inferential and descriptive statistics. If qualitative data is collected then this section may include a thematic analysis. • Discussion - This is where the researcher considers what the findings exactly mean for us and for psychological theories. Usually the findings are summarised here then they are discussed in context to the introduction. Limitations thus ways of improving the study and the wider implications it may have for society may also be discussed here. • Referencing - This is the last part of the scientific report which is basically a list of all the sources that were quoted or referred to in the report. These can vary - journal articles, websites, books- and full details are given so that a reader is able to find the exact source the researcher was referring to.

Answer 143

order: authors), date, title of book (in italics or underlined), place of publication, publisher.

Answer 144

authors), date, title of article, journal name, journal volume, issue number (all appear in italics or underlined apart from author, date and title of journal article), page range.

Answer 145

Open Question - This is when the questions are phrased in a way that the participant is free to answer however they like, there are no restrictions. This type collects qualitative data.

Answer 146

Closed Question - In contrast, this type of questionnaire consists of questions which restrict you to a fixed number of responses. This type collects quantitative data.

Answer 147

Strength - Cost-effective. - Gathers large amounts of data quickly. - The researcher does not need to be present. - They are easy to analyse. - As responses can be anonymous this usually means participants are more open.

Answer 148

- Difficult to know whether the target population it was intended for answered it e.g. if it is online. - They take a long time to design. - It is difficult to assess the validity as biases such as social desirability bias (when the participant wants to present themselves in a positive light so is not truthful) are presented. - Participant bias presented from factors such as time, age, gender. -response bias

Answer 149

• Clarity - the questions should be phrased in such a way that it is clear for the respondent on what answer is needed from them. • Avoid overuse of jargon, emotive language, double-barrelled questions, double negatives and leading questions. All these can cause biases which affects the validity of the results. • Sequencing questions - easy ones can be first then followed by the harder ones. This allows a build up of confidence in each participant. • Filler questions - these are questions which have nothing to do with the aims of the investigation and are put in to distract the participant from guessing the real aim of the study. Therefore these eliminate demand characteristics. • Pilot study - can be carried out to ensure that the questionnaire is suitable and if not amendments and improvements can be made.

Answer 150

• Recording information - this can be done in various ways e.g. writing down answers, using a video recorder, using an audio recorder. • Ethical issues - Informed consent is needed from the participant for the researcher to obtain and keep the data. The participant should be reminded that their answers will be kept confidential. • Location - A quiet room away from other people is the most appropriate as this location is likely to get the participant to feel comfortable and open up. • Neutral questions - These are usually started with to make the participant feel relaxed and help establish a rapport.

Answer 151

How consistent the findings from investigation are

Answer 152

Refers to the extent to which a psychological measure comapres to a similar existing measure

Answer 153

Researchers label their data using codes then categorise their codes into themes to find reoccurring themes

Answer 154

The lowest number found is the s value

Official Research Methods Flashcards

(181 cards)