research methods overview

Question 1

define aim

Answer 1

• doesn’t make a prediction but instead it states what is it that we want to look at.
• it is a statement of what the researcher intends to find out in a research study

Question 2

what is a directional hypothesis

Answer 2

• indicates the direction of the prediction

- e.g. ‘music will negatively effect recall’

Question 3

what is a non-directional hypothesis

Answer 3

• states something is going to happen but not the direction of the prediction.
• e.g. ‘there will be a difference in recall between the music and no music condition’

Question 4

what is a null hypothesis

Answer 4

-predicts that there will be no difference, only difference is just due to chance

Question 5

independent variable

Answer 5

• the thing the researcher is able to manipulate between the different conditions
• the thing that is changed

Question 6

dependent variable

Answer 6

-the thing that is measured

Question 7

how do you operationalise hypotheses/IV’s/DV’s . How do you make it measurable ?

Answer 7

ask yourself can I count this easily? If the answer is no then it is not operationalised

Question 8

situational variables

Answer 8

• things to do with the situation
• e.g. lighting, instructions, time of day.
• overcome by standardisation (making everything the same for all conditions)

Question 9

participant variables

Answer 9

• things to do with the participants
• e.g. age, Intelligence, gender, personality
• overcome by random allocation or measured/matched participants

Question 10

what are the two extraneous variables

Answer 10

situational variables

participant variables

Question 11

confounding variable

Answer 11

a type of IV that varies systematically between conditions

Question 12

investigator effects

Answer 12

-an experimenter may accidentally give cues to make partisans respond in a certain way

• can be over come by;
  1. using standardised instructions to stop the experimenter leading the participant.
  2. using a double blind technique where both the participants and the experimenter don’t know the aim of the experiment

Question 13

independent measures

Answer 13

-group of participants, split them in half. Half of the participants do the first condition of the IV and the second half do the 2nd condition of the IV. Compare the performance of both groups.

Question 14

evaluation of independent measures

Answer 14

advantage = you don’t get order effect as participants are only doing one condition of the IV so they don’t get use to what’s happening.

disadvantage =no control of participant variables and you need twice as many participants

overcoming these problems = random allocation of participants which theoretically distributes participant variables evenly.

Question 15

repeated measures

Answer 15

-group of participants take part in all levels of the IV. Same participants in all conditions of the IV

Question 16

evaluation of repeated measures

Answer 16

Advantage = fewer participants. No individual differences as participants are taking part in all conditions of the IV

Disadvantage = you might get an order effect. Participants may do better on 2nd test due to practice effect. May guess experiment purpose and change their behaviour.

overcoming these problems = use 2 different tests to reduce practice effect. Counterbalancing can be used to deal with order effect- cover story can be presented to the participants about the purpose of the test.

Question 17

matched Paris design

Answer 17

• 2 groups of participants but match them on key characteristics believed to effect performance on the DV
• 1 member of pair is allocated to group a and the other group b. Procedure is then the same for independent groups.

Question 18

evaluation of matched pairs design

Answer 18

advantages = controls some participant variables, participants won’t guess the studies aim. As a result of having different participants for each condition there is no order effect.

disadvantages = achieving matched pairs is difficult and time consuming. May not control all participant variables

overcoming these problems = restrict the no. of variables to the matched one. A pilot study to show key variables that need to be matched

Question 19

random sampling

Answer 19

• everyone in the target population has an equal chance of being selected.
• can be done through generating random numbers of simply picking names out of a hat.

Question 20

opportunity sample

Answer 20

-people who are available at the time the study is carried out. e.g. people in the common room.

Question 21

volunteer sample

Answer 21

-participants are recruited for through an advert, newspaper, Internet etc

Question 22

systematic sample

Answer 22

• a system is used to select participants e.g. every 4th person to leave the canteen. The numerical interval is applied consistently.

Question 23

stratified sampling

Answer 23

• subgroups within the population are identified e.g. gender.
• participants are obtained from each of the subgroups in proportion to their occurrence in the population
• selection from the strata is done using a random technique

Question 24

1 strength and 1 weakness of random sampling

Answer 24

strength = least biased 
weakness = difficult to achieve in practice as target population could be huge so time consuming

Question 25

1 strength and 1 weakness of volunteer sampling

Answer 25

``` strength = gives access to a variety of participants weakness = tends to be a certain type of person that volunteers. e.g. highly motivated, so could be biased ```

Question 26

1 strength and 1 weakness of opportunity sampling

Answer 26

strength = easy and less time consuming to allocate sample weakness = biased as sample is drawn from a small part of the population

Question 27

1 strength and 1 weakness of stratified sampling

Answer 27

``` strength = less biased as proportional and randomly selected representation of subgroups weakness = time consuming to identify subgroups and then randomly select participants ```

Question 28

1 advantage and 1 disadvantage of systemic sampling

Answer 28

``` advantage = unbiased as participants are selected using an objective system weakness = not truly unbiased unless you select a number using a random method and start with this person and then selected every nth person. ```

Question 29

lab experiment

Answer 29

- involves manipulation of IV whilst trying to keep all other variables content. - participants are aware they are taking part in an experiment but may be unsure of the true aims of the study

Question 30

field experiment

Answer 30

- the IV is manipulated in a natural setting e.g on a train | - participants are often unaware that they are taking part in the experiment

Question 31

natural experiment

Answer 31

- study in which a naturally occurring IV is investigated - the IV is not deliberately manipulated by the researcher - generally used when it's not possible/practical ethically to manipulate the IV

Question 32

Quasi experiment

Answer 32

- IV is naturally occurring - DV can be measured in a lab - key feature is that the IV isn't actually 'manipulated' or made to vary by anyone-it is simply a difference that exists. - e.g, gender as the IV

Question 33

naturalistic observation

Answer 33

- carried out in everyday setting | - investigator doesn't interfere in any way but just observes the behaviours

Question 34

controlled observation

Answer 34

-behaviour is observed but under conditions where certain variables have been organised by the researcher

Question 35

overt observation

Answer 35

participants are aware that their behaviour is being studied

Question 36

covert observation

Answer 36

observing people without their knowledge

Question 37

participant observation

Answer 37

observations made by someone who is also participating in the activity being observed

Question 38

non participant observation

Answer 38

the observer is separate from the people being observed

Question 39

unstructured observation

Answer 39

- researcher records all relevant behaviours but has no system - problem is that there may be too much to record and the behaviours recorded will often be those which are most visible

Question 40

structured observation

Answer 40

- likely to use behavioural categories (operationalised behaviours that you are likely to see) - tally each time you sport these behaviours

Question 41

behavioural categories

Answer 41

- e.g. when observing infant behaviour, we can have a lost including things like smiling, crying, sleeping etc - behavioural categories should be objective, cover all possible component behaviours and be mutually exclusive.

Question 42

sampling procedures

Answer 42

event sampling= counting the number of times a certain behaviour occurs in a target individual/individuals time sampling = recording behaviours in a given time frame. e.g. noting what a target individual is doing every 30 seconds

Question 43

structured interview and evaluation

Answer 43

pre determined questions strength = easily be repeated as the questions are standardised so answers from different people can be compared and it is easier to analyse weakness = comparability may be a problem if the same interviewer behaves differently on different occasions. Low reliability

Question 44

unstructured interview and evaluation

Answer 44

starts off with general aims but the interviewee's answer quint subsequent questions strength = provides more detail weakness = require interviewers with more skill as they have to develop questions of the spot

Question 45

two types of questionnaires

Answer 45

``` open questions (qualitative data) closed questions (quantative data) ```

Question 46

two strengths of questionnaires

Answer 46

- sample a lot of people in a short space of time as researcher doesn't need to be there - doesn't produce investigator effect

Question 47

1 weakness of questionnaire

Answer 47

- some groups in society that can't answer questionnaires -those who can't read or write - sample is therefore biased

Question 48

correlation co-efficient

Answer 48

a numbers cal measure of some type of correlation, meaning a relationship between two variables

Question 49

3 strengths of correlations

Answer 49

- can allow us to study naturally occurring variables - can measure things we can't experimentally (due to ethics) - can suggest patterns which then lead to experiments

Question 50

2 weaknesses of correlations

Answer 50

- just because there is a relationship it doesn't necessarily mean a cause and effect relationship - may be a third intervening variable that is responsible for the relationship

Question 51

case study

Answer 51

an in-depth investigation, often of a single individual. They are often longitudinal (over time)

Question 52

3 strengths of case studies

Answer 52

- give very detailed information - can be used to investigate very rare behaviours - interaction of many different things

Question 53

4 weaknesses of case studies

Answer 53

- each case is unique so can't be generalised - may have to recall past (introspective recall). Not reliable - bias of researcher - problems of confidentiality due to personal information

Question 54

what are the three measures of central tendency

Answer 54

mean median mode

Question 55

advantage and disadvantage of mean

Answer 55

advantage = most useful as it is made up of all of the values in the data set disadvantage = sometimes produces a value that can't work with certain data. e.g. 2.4 children

Question 56

advantage and disadvantage of median

Answer 56

advantage = less effect by extreme scores than the mean disadvantage = not very useful on smaller data sets

Question 57

advantage and disadvantage of mode

Answer 57

advantage = can be used for categorical data disadvantage = useless if you have lots of modes within the data

Question 58

primary data

Answer 58

- first hand | - collected directly by researcher for that study

Question 59

secondary data

Answer 59

- second hand | - data originally collected for another purpose other than the current one

Question 60

internal validity

Answer 60

does the research measure what it intends to measure ?

Question 61

external validity

Answer 61

the extent to which the findings can be generalised

Question 62

population validity

Answer 62

how results cans be generalised to other groups of people

Question 63

ecological validity

Answer 63

if it reflects real life

Question 64

time validity

Answer 64

if results can be generalised to other time periods

Question 65

external reliability

Answer 65

- whether a experiment measures consistently over time/people - e.g. an IQ test on Monday should produce the same results a week later if it has external reliability

Question 66

internal reliability

Answer 66

- whether an experiment is consistent within itself | - e.g. scales should measure the same weight between 50 and 100g and 150 and 200g

Question 67

when to use a sign test

Answer 67

- when looking at paired or related data - the 2 pieces of data could come from a repeated measures design, I.e. the same person is tested twice. - can be used in matched pairs design as participants are paired and count as 1 person tested twice

Question 68

how to do a sign test

Answer 68

- state hypothesis. Directional means one-tailed test, non directional means two-tailed test. - record the data and work out the sign (either + or -) - find calculated value. Add up pluses, add up minus and select smaller value. E.g. if there are 3 minus which is the less frequent sign then S = 3. This is the calculated value - find critical value of S. N = total no. of scores ( not including any zeros). E.g. one-tailed test is used. Use table of critical values. Locate the column headed 0.05 and the row which begins with N value. - check result is in the right direction

Question 69

Quantative

Answer 69

represents behaviour in numbers

Question 70

Qualitative

Answer 70

descriptive data that represents the quality of something

Question 71

how to turn qualitative into quantitative

Answer 71

place into categories then count up

Question 72

bar charts

Answer 72

- height of each bar represents the frequency of each item | - space left between each bar

Question 73

histogram

Answer 73

- the area within the bars must be proportional to the frequencies represented. - no gaps between bars

Question 74

normal distribution

Answer 74

- bell shapes curve - it is the predicted distribution when considering an equally likely set of results - mean, median and mode are all in the exact mid point - the distribution is symmetrical - the dispersion of scores either side of the mid point is consistent and can be expressed in SD

Question 75

skewed distribution

Answer 75

-when there is a number of extreme values to one side or the other of the mid point

Question 76

negative skewed distribution

Answer 76

most of the scores are bunched towards the right

Question 77

positive skewed distribution

Answer 77

most of the scores are bunch towards the left

Question 78

what are the 6 ethical issues

Answer 78

``` P = privacy C = confidentiality D = deception R = right to withdraw I = informed consent P = protection from harm ```

Question 79

informed consent

Answer 79

- from the researchers point of view it means revealing the true aims of the study. - from the participants point of view they should be told what they will be required to do so the can make an informed decision about whether they want to take part - to deal with it particles ta have to sign a document which contains info about the nature and purpose of the experiment

Question 80

deception

Answer 80

-from the researchers point of view it can be necessary to deceive participants about true aims of study otherwise participants may alter their behaviour. -from the participants point of view it is unethical as researcher .should not deceive anyone without good cause. Deception prevents participants being able to give informed consent. -to deal with it participants should be fully debriefed afterwards

Question 81

the right to withdraw

Answer 81

- from the researchers point of view if participants leave then this will make the findings biased as those who stay are likely to be more obedient. - from the participants point of view if they feel uncomfortable then they should be able to withdraw themselves. Especially important if participant has been deceived about aims. - to deal with it participants should be informed at the beginning of the study that they have the right to leave.

Question 82

protection from physical and psychological harm

Answer 82

- from researchers point of view studying some of the more important questions in psychology may involve a aspect of distress in participants. - from participants point of view nothing should happen in a study to cause them harm. - to deal with it avoid any risks greater than experienced in everyday life

Question 83

confidentiality

Answer 83

- from researchers point of view it may by difficult to protect confidentially as they will want to publish findings. - from the participants point of view the data protection act makes confidentiality a legal right - to deal with it researcher should not record any names of participants but instead use fake names or numbers

Question 84

privacy

Answer 84

- from researchers point of it it may be difficult to avoid invasion of privacy when studying participants without their awareness like in a field experiment - from participants point of view they do not expect to be observed by others in certain situations like in the privacy of their own homes - to deal with this researcher shouldn't study anyone without their consent unless it is in a public place and public behaviour

Question 85

2 examples of how psychology has been used in the economy

Answer 85

memory: cognitive interview used to reduce crime by catching the correct criminals social influence: reducing smoking and alcoholism, so costing NHS less

Question 86

purpose of peer review

Answer 86

- allocation of research funding - publication of research in journal articles - assessing the research rating of university departments

Question 87

issues in peer review

Answer 87

- finding an expert - anonymity - publication bias - preserving the status quo

Question 88

How do you know what the value of s is when calculating the sign test

Answer 88

S is the total for the least frequently occurring sign