What are lab experiments? What are strengths and weaknesses of lab experiments? Where is it used in psychology?
Experiments done in a controlled environment
Used in: Baddeley, Sebastián and Hernández-Gil, Loftus and Palmer, etc.
+You can control extraneous variables (easier to establish cause and effect)
+Scientific
+Easier to replicate
- No mundane realism (so less ecological validity)
- Demand characteristics (as participants are more aware that they are in an experiment
What are field experiments? What are strengths and weaknesses of field experiments? Where is it used in psychology?
Experiments done in the everyday environment of the participants
Used in: Valentine and Mesout, Rosenhan, Sherif et al, etc.
+High mundane realism (so high ecological validity)
+Less demand characteristics
- Less scientific
- Difficult to control extraneous variables (so difficulty establishing cause and effect )
- Difficult to replicate
What five things are needed in a hypothesis?
- Both conditions of the IV
- The DV
- The word ‘significant’
- Difference, relationship, or association
- Operationalisation of variables
What are the three types of hypotheses?
- Directional/one-tailed (significantly less/more)
- Non-directional/two-tailed (significant difference)
- Null (no difference; all differences are due to chance variables)
What is an independent measures design? What are strengths and weaknesses of IMD?
All participants take part in one condition. The statistical test to be used is chi-squared and Mann Whitney U
+No order effects (one condition so no practice or fatigue effects)
+Less demand characteristics (exposure to one condition means they are less likely to guess the aim)
- Individual differences between groups (groups might not be the same to begin with; difficulty generalising to target population; can be overcome with repeated measures design)
- More participants required
What is repeated measures design? What are strengths and weaknesses of RMD?
All participants take part in all conditions. The statistical test being used is Wilcoxon
+No individual differences (participants in each group are the same people)
+Fewer participants required
- Order effects (fatigue and practice effects)
- demand characteristics (more likely to guess aim)
What is matched pairs design? What are strengths and weaknesses of MPD?
Participants are placed in groups of people with the same variables. It is a form of independent groups design
+No individual differences between groups (as they are matched to their conditions)
+Less demand characteristics
- More time consuming
- More participants required
Ways to overcome problems in experimental/participant design?
Repeated Measures
- Counterbalancing: Arranging conditions or treatments (which participant starts with what) to avoid order effects
- Randomisation: Allocating participants to tasks, selecting samples of participants, and so on, should be left to chance as far as possible, to reduce the investigator’s influence on a study
Independent Groups Design:
*Use matched pairs design
What are the variables in research?
- Independent (in charge of changing)
- Dependent (what you measure)
- Control (doesn’t change)
- Confounding (emerged later; out of the experimenter’s control but they affect the DV)
- Extraneous (general variable that affect the DV)
- Participant (characteristics of a participant that could influence outcome of research)
- Situational (characteristics of the environment that could influence outcome of research)
What are variables that affect validity of research (internal)?
- Experimenter bias
- Biased interpretation of research
- Creating the research leading to the favouring of one group
Participant Effects on DV
- Demand characteristics
- Social desirability bias
- Hawthorne effect (people change their behaviour once observed)
What is the use of a single blind procedure?
Reduce demand characteristics in participants
What is the use of a double-blind procedure?
To reduce demand characteristics in participants and researcher bias
What is the use of a control?
To compare easily between different variables and conditions
What is a random sample? What are its strengths and weaknesses?
Any member of the target population can be selected
+Eliminating sampling bias from the researcher
- Slow and inconvenient
- Lack of control means a likelihood of an unrepresentative sample
What is an opportunity sample? What are its strengths and weaknesses?
Taking a sample from people yo have the opportunity of studying
+Quick
+Convenient
- Experimenter bias
- May be unrepresentative
What is a volunteer/self-selecting sample? What are its strengths and weaknesses?
Volunteers. Participants who respond to advertisements, for example.
+No experimenter bias
- May be slow to collect willing volunteers
- People who volunteer have a specific type of personality (results may be unrepresentative)
What is a stratified sample? What are its strengths and weaknesses?
Making it so that the quota from each category is proportional to the numbers in the population as a whole
+No bias
+Representative of strata used
- Very slow and inconvenient
- May ignore important strata
What are the two types of observational sampling? What are its strengths and weaknesses?
Time sampling is the technique of recording behaviours in a given time frame
+helps with standardising the procedure
-may not be valid as more of the behaviours may occur in non observation times
Event sampling involves identifying a behaviour that needs to be counted
+behaviour won’t be missed
-if too many observations happen at once, it may be difficult to record anything
What ethical considerations should psychologists take into account according to the British Psychological Society (BPS)
- Consent
- Deception
- Debriefing
- Right to withdraw
- Confidentiality
- Protection from harm
- (In an observational research) only take place where the participant expects to be observed by strangers
- (If giving advice) the psychologist should be qualified
What are the standards of Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC)?
- Character (character reference, criminal convictions, cautions, etc.)
- Health (issues)
- Proficiency (professional autonomy and accountability)
- (Clinical) Conduct, Performance, and Ethics
- (Clinical) Continual Professional Development
- (Clinical) Education and Training
- (Clinical) Prescribing
What are the Three Rs? (Animal ethics)
- Replace (find new ways to perform tests without the need for animal models)
- Reduce (minimise number of animals used)
- Refine (minimise potential suffering, pain, and distress to animals during testing)
What is the Animal Act (1986)?
Anyone carrying out research must hold a personal licence, work in a licensed establishment, and must hold project license. Therefore, they must have the approval of the home office
What does Bateson’s Cube evaluate?
- The degree of animal suffering
- The quality of research
- The potential (medical) benefit
