RESEARCH METHODS- Pilot study, validity, referencing

Question 1

Pilot study

Answer 1

• Small scale study done before main study
• Purpose is to check/ test procedural details

Question 2

Why do we run pilot studies?

Answer 2

• Don’t want to waste time during real experiment
• Don’t want to waste money on resources
• An opportunity to change things so findings are more SUFFICIENT

Question 3

Things to check for in a pilot study (5)

Answer 3

• Do participants understand instructions
• Does equipment work
• Check ethics- are participants upset in any way?
• Timing- try different amount of time
• Ask a few participants about their experience of taking part

Question 4

Test- retest reliability

Answer 4

• Testing experiments/observations etc over time
• Results are reliable over time or only over 1 period of time- bound to time period- check not one off results

Question 5

Inter- rater reliability

Answer 5

• Inter-rater reliability is how much two or more people AGREE when they judge or score the same thing.
• It shows whether different raters give similar results when looking at the same data.
• High inter-rater reliability means the results are consistent, while low reliability means the scores are very different.

Question 6

How to improve reliability?

Answer 6

Re- write behaviour categories- make more specific
Re- train observers

Question 7

Reporting psychological investigations

Answer 7

• Standardised structure- way we write up psychology experiments

Question 8

Procedure of reporting psychological explanations

Answer 8

• ABSTRACT- short summary of whole study
  PURPOSE:
• Other researchers read it to see if your study is relevant to their research
• INTRODUCTION- review of previous research done around topic
  PURPOSE:
• Explains how we’ve got to aims and hypothesis of present research
• METHOD- allows replication of study
  PURPOSE:
• Provide a clear and detailed description of how the study was conducted
• RESULTS- Include descriptive statistics and inferential statistics- see whether we accept or reject the hypothesis
  PURPOSE:
• Present findings so readers can see the outcomes easily
• DISCUSSION- Draw conclusions from findings, relate it to previous research, applications of research

Question 9

Referencing

Answer 9

• Use Harvard referencing
• Credit previous researchers
• No plagiarism

Question 10

Referencing:
1. Journal
2. Book
3. Web

Answer 10

1. author, date, title, page numbers
2. author, date, title of book, place of publication, publisher
3. Web- source, date, title, weblink, date accessed

Question 11

Extraneous variables

Answer 11

Variables we try to control

Question 12

Confounding variables

Answer 12

Changes with IV/ Vary with IV

Question 13

Face validity

Answer 13

• How much a test or measurement appears to measure what it’s supposed to, just by looking at it.
• It’s about whether it seems relevant at first glance.

Question 14

Concurrent validity

Answer 14

• When you do a second measure to see if you get the same results

Question 15

Ecological validity

Answer 15

• How well the results of a study APPLY to real-life settings outside the research environment.

Question 16

Temporal validity

Answer 16

• How well the results of a study remain TRUE over time and APPLY to different time periods.

Question 17

How do we do an assessment of validity?

Answer 17

We assess validity by comparing the test or study results with established measures or evaluating how well it reflects the concept it aims to measure.

Question 18

How do we improve validity?

Answer 18

We improve validity by using well-designed procedures, real-life scenarios, and validated measurement tools that accurately capture the intended variables.

Question 19

Bar chart

Answer 19

• Discontinuous data
• Bars NOT touching

Question 20

Histogram

Answer 20

• Continuous data
• Bars ARE touching