Flashcards
Research methods
Cards in this deck (35)
- 1What is content analysis?A type of observational study which behaviour is observed indirectly, in written or verbal material.
- 2What is the independent variable?What the experimenter manipulates.
- 3What is the dependent variable?What the experimenter measures.
- 4What is a field experiment?Experiment conducted in natural environment where the experimenter controls the IV.
- 5Strengths of content analysis?-Readily understood.
-Inexpensive.
-Unobtrusive.
-Doesn't require contact with people. - 6Weaknesses of content analysis?-It's only descriptive.
-May not reveal underlying motive. - 7What is a quasi experiment?An experiment where the IV is naturally occurring e.g. gender, age, etc.
- 8What is a naturalistic experiment?An experiment in a natural environment where the IV is naturally occurring. E.g. the effects of introduction of TV into a society.
- 9Advantages of experiments?-If we control all the extraneous variables we can be confident that the IV is what CAUSED any difference in the DV
(So we are able to test Cause and Effect).
-Naturalistic and quasi experiments can also be used when it is unethical to manipulate the IV. - 10Disadvantages of lab experiments?Lab experiments are artificial and may cause artificial behavior (i.e. they lack Ecological Validity). Participants may guess what the psychologist is looking for and behave accordingly (Demand Characteristics)
- 11Disadvantage of field experiment?Field Experiments (Outside the Lab) allow us to see how people behave naturally but it is harder to control the variables.
- 12What is a hypothesis?A prediction of what we expect the results to show.
- 13What is an observational method?It's a way of finding out how people behave in everyday life + involves watching people when they're unaware of being observed. (Sometimes video recordings may be made).
- 14Different types of observations?-Participant.
-Non participant.
-Covert observation.
-Overt observation. - 15What is a participant observation?Where the researcher takes part in the activity that is being observed.
- 16What is a non participant observation?Where the researcher observes without taking part.
- 17What is a covert observation?Where the people being observed are unaware that they are being observed.
- 18What is an overt observation?Where the people being observed are aware that they are being observed.
- 19Advantages of observations?They allow us to see people behaving naturally and the results may be used as a basis for further research.
- 20Disadvantages of observations?-Trained people are needed (Expensive).
-The observers may make biased interpretations. - 21What do descriptive statistics describe?Describe basic features of quantitate data.
- 22Two main types of statistics?-Measures of central tendency – these describe the middle of the data.
-Measures of dispersion – these describe the spread of scores. - 23When to use what measure?If there are extreme scores in the sets of data then it can give a distorted view on what's going on (median and mode will be more accurate).
- 24What is standard deviation?Sometimes calculating the middle score is misleading. How far the individual scores are, on average, from the mean score.
- 25What does the Y axis stand for when plotting data?Frequency.
- 26What does the X axis stand for when plotting data?Represents item of interest.
- 27What does a normal distribution look like?-mean, median, mode are all in mid point.
-symmetrical around midpoint. - 28What is a population?The group of everyone or everything that you are interested in.
- 29Requirements of a sample?Must be representative of a population.
- 30What is an opportunity sample? An example?-Availability and willingness to respond are overriding factors in selection of participants.
-Participants wanted and advertised in newspaper. - 31What is a random sample? An example?-This is where all people in the population have an equal chance of being selected.
-Put all the names of students at Grantham College into a hat and select 100 at random. - 32What is Systematic Sampling? An example?-This is random sampling with a system
- from a sampling frame a starting point is chosen at random and thereafter at regular intervals
-not always representative
-giving a questionnaire to every tenth person. - 33What is a Stratified sample? An example?-When the population is divided into important subgroups + people are then chosen at random from these subgroups
-choosing a sample from a population of mothers with children under 5. - 34What is a Quota sample? An example?(Similar to stratified sampling in that important sub-groups are decided upon)
-the participants are then chosen opportunistically until the required number of people in each sub-group is reached
-waiting in the street and approaching anybody who seems to fit the characteristics of each subgroup. - 35—
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- AS - Level Psychology Flashcards on Research methods, created by hanna akhrass on 27/11/2015.
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