Psychology Research Methods

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A level Psychology Flashcards on Psychology Research Methods , created by Libby Collingwood on 29/11/2016.
Libby Collingwood
Flashcards by Libby Collingwood, updated more than 1 year ago
Libby Collingwood
Created by Libby Collingwood over 7 years ago
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Question Answer
Psychology: research methods Part 1
What are the two variables used in research methods? A. Independent variables (IV) Dependent variables (DV)
What are independent variables? A. It is the thing being manipulated by the experimenter to see what effects it can cause on another variable
What are dependent variables? A. It is the thing that is being measured in the experiment
What is a Hypothesis? A. It is a testable statement which predicts how one variable will influence the other
What variables must the hypothesis use? A. Operationalised Varibales
What is a operationalised variable? A. It means the IV and DV are stated precisely - easy to test and measure
Name the 3 control conditions A. .The IV is absent .Compare data from experimental data .Only 1 condition is experimental
What are the two types of Hypothesis? A. Experimental/Alternate hypothesis Null hypothesis
What does experimental hypothesis mean? A. It states the difference you expect to find between the levels of IV
What does Null hypothesis mean? A. States there is no difference between the levels of the IV
When should the experimental hypothesis only be used? A. Only when using experimental methods i.e Lab or Field
What are the two types of experimental hypothesis? A. Directional (one-tailed) hypothesis Non-directional (two-tailed) hypothesis
What does directional hypothesis mean? A. States thee will be a difference between the conditions of the IV and states the expected direction
What does Non-directional hypothesis mean? A. Predicts there will be a difference between the conditions of the IV, but does not state the direction
What are extraneous variables? A. Not intentionally studying in your experiment or test
What are the 3 parts to extraneous variables? A. .Participants variables .Situational variables .Participants effect
What are participant variables? A. Participant variables are the individual differences between participants, could affect their responses in a study
What are situational variables? A. Factors in the environment that can affect the DV
What can the participant effects do? A. Occur when participants need cues on how they behave because they want help
What is Social Desirability? A. When the participant responds in a certain way to present them in the best possible light
What does extraneous variables change into when not controlled? A. They become Confounding Variables
What is a pilot study? A. A pilot study is often conducted prior to an experiment
The purposes of a pilot study are...? A. .Participants follow standardised instructions .Apparatus and materials are appropriate .Extraneous variables are being controlled .Will not lead to demand characteristics .Order effects are reduced
What is Random Allocation? A. When participants are put into a condition randomly
What are the three experimental designs? A. Independent groups Repeated measures Matched pairs
What do Independent groups mean? A. Participants only take part in one condition of the experiment
What do Repeated measures mean? A. When the participants take part in all the levels of the IV
What do Matched Pairs mean? A. Participants are matched in each condition for characteristics that may have an effect on their performance
Name an advantage and disadvantage of Independent groups A. Advantages: .No order effects as thee are different participants for each level of IV Disadvantages: .Participants may respond to demand characteristics as they can see the experimental task
Name an advantage and disadvantage for Repeated measures A. Advantage: .The participants in both conditions are the same, no individual differences to distort the IV Disadvantage: .Participants may know its an experiment, so could respond to demand characteristics
Name an advantage and a disadvantage for Matched pairs A. Advantage: .Demand characteristics are only seen once by the participants, means they are reduced Disadvantage: .Matching is time-consuming and difficult, so not always successful
When do order effects occur? A. Participants take part in all conditions of an experiment
What are the two ways on dealing with order effects? A. Randomisation Counterbalancing
How does Randomisation deal with order effects? A. Order of participants that take part in a random condition
How does counterbalancing deal with order effects? A. Alternating the order in which participants do different conditions of n experiment
What are demand characteristics? A. Its features in the environment that make it possible for the participant to guess what the aim is
What is a single blind procedure and a double blind procedure? A. SBP - Participant is unaware of the level of IV DBP - When the experimenter and the participant do not know the level of IV
Name the 4 experimental methods A. .Lab .Field .Quasi .Natural
What is the description for Lab? A. .Carried out in a controlled environment .Standardised procedures are used .Participants are randomly allocated
Name a advantage and disadvantage of using Lab A. Advan - It allows a tight control over extraneous variables therefore increasing the reliability of the validity Disad - The tasks set may lack mundane realism - demand characteristics
What does the Field method mean? A. .Placed in a real world setting .The IV is manipulated by the experimenter .The variables are controlled .Participants can be randomly allocated to conditions
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Field? A. advan - Less likely for participants to react to demand characteristics as it in a real environment disad - It can become unethical if participants don't know what they are taking part in
The definition of Quasi? A. .Random allocation of participants isn't possible .The IV occurs naturally
What are advantages and disadvantages of Quasi? A. advan - The participants are not allocated to conditions so can reduce demand characteristics disad - There are no controls over the variables as the IV is naturally occurring
What does Natural method mean? A. .The IV occurs naturally .An event occurs naturally and the researcher takes advantage of it
The advantages and disadvantages of Natural? A. advan - Can be a higher ecological validity disad - Participants are not randomly allocated to conditions so the individual differences are not controlled
Name the 5 methods used for section of participants A. .Random .Opportunity .Self-selected .Stratified .Systematic
What are the descriptions for Random and Opportunity? A. Random -Trying to make things equally fare when picking participants Opportunity - Selecting people when they are available
what are the descriptions for self-selected and stratified? A. Self-selected - Participants are invited to participate Stratified - By dividing the population into strata
What does Systematic mean? A. Taking the nth person from a list i.e. the 3rd person
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Random? A. Advan - Each participant has a equal chance of being selected will go through a wider range of population Disad - Sample may become biased
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Opportunity? A. Advan - It is quicker and easier than other methods as participants are readily available Disad - Participants can decline to take part - becomes self selected
What are the advantages and disadvantages of self -selected? A. Advan - easy and convenient to obtain large samples with little effort Disad - Demand characteristics may be more likely as participants are eager to please
What are the advantages and disadvantages of stratified? A. Advan - should be representative Disad - It is time consuming to divide the population
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Systematic A. advan - Unbiased selection therefore more likely to obtain a representative sample Disad - Not everyone has an equal chance to be selected therefore making it biased
Name all of the ethical issues (D.R.I.P)? A. .Deception .Right to withdraw .Informed consent .Protection from harm Privacy and confidentiality
How do you avoid ethical issues? A. .Presumptive consent .Prior general consent .Retrospective consent
What does a reliability mean? A. The test or measure produces consistent results
What does internal reliability and external reliability mean? A. In - consistency of a test within itself ex - stability of a measure across time
Name the 2 reliabilities A. Internal External
What does validity mean? A. Results/tests accurately measure what they are supposed to be measured
What are the 2 validities? A. Internal External
What does internal validity mean? A. Refers whether the effects observed in a study are due to the manipulation of the independent variable
What does external validity mean? A. The extent to the findings that can be generalised beyond the research study
What are Self - reports used for? A. Used to collect data about participants thoughts, feelings or beliefs
What 2 types of questions are asked in interviews? A. Open questions Closed questions
What are open and closed questions? A. open - participants can respond in any way they wish - not restricted by categories Closed - Participants are selected in their response from a choice i.e. tick boxes
What can open and closed questions produce? A. open - Qualitative data closed - Quantitative data
Name a strength and weakness of open questions A. Strength - Generates qualitative data = detailed responses and explanations weakness - May end up with smaller samples
Name a strength and weakness for closed questions? A. strength - Quantitative data - easier to analyse/interpret weakness - reduced validity - choices may be restricting
What scales can self-report use? A. Rating scales Likert scales
What are rating scales? A. It is a numerical scale on which respondents indicate their choices by selecting a number
What kind of data can rating scales generate? A. quantitative data
name a strength and weakness of rating scales A. strength - Quantitative data = easy to analyse - can calculate modes and plot graphs weakness - Response can be bias = extreme or middle values will affect the validity
What are Likert scales? A. measures attitudes by giving participants a statement to which they respond by how much they agree
Name a strength and weakness for likert scales A. strength - uses quantitative data - large amounts of data can be collected weakness - lack of detail in participants answers
What are Questionnaires? A. More structured than interviews - involve participants answering series of written questions
Name the 2 types of questionnaires A. Filler questions Lie detector questions
What are filler and lie detector questions? A. Lie detector - to see if people respond to social desirability - bias Filler - to disguise the true aim of the questionnaire
Name a strength and weakness for questionnaires A. strength - Gain valid responses - participants may be more truthful than a face to face interview weakness - Response bias - use of rating scales may affect validity
Name the 3 types of interviews A. Structured semi - structured unstructured
What do structured, unstructured and semi - structured mean? A. Structured - questions are scripted semi -structured - certain questions are pre - set can introduce additional questions Unstructured - set topic for discussion but no fixed questions
Name a strength and a weakness on semi - structured, unstructured and structured A. Strength: Semi/un - Interviewer can adapt questions to gain specific detailed info Structured - easy to analyse and replicable Weakness: Semi/un - less reliability as question is not the same for all participants Structured - limited by fixed questions
What are the 2 ways to assess the reliability ? A. .split - half method .Test - retest assessment
What does split-half method and Test-retest assessment mean? A. split-half - the items within self report tool are measuring the same thing test-assessment - The same participants will respond to the same test in the same way if they complete it again
What is Internal validity? A. Related to whether the questionnaire or interview really measures what is intended to measure
What are the common ways to assess internal validity? A. Concurrent validity Face validity
what does concurrent and face validity mean? A. Concurrent - compare the test to an existing measure that is known to be valid Face - a measure appears at face value to test what it calms to
What is external validity? A. It concerns the extent to which the findings can be generalised to other situations and other people
When is observational methods used? A. Used when watching participants in order to obtain data and gather information about their behaviour
What are the 2 observations? A. Naturalistic observations Controlled observations
What does Naturalistic and controlled observations mean? A. Naturalistic - Carried out in a natural setting and the investigator does not interfere Controlled - behaviour is observed under controlled conditions
Name a strength and weakness for Naturalistic observations A. strength - higher in ecological validity as participants are engaging in their natural behaviour Weakness - May not obtain consent from participants which raises ethical issues
Name a strength and weakness for controlled observations A. strength - Likely to have obtained consent from participants = more ethical weakness - low in ecological validity s participants are observed = not natural
what is unstructured observation? A. Observer records all relevant behaviour but without a system such as behavioural categories
What is structured observation? A. Involves behavioural categories and sampling techniques
what must the behavioural categories be? A. Pre-determined defined
what are the strengths and weaknesses of structured and unstructured? A. structured - strength - generates quantitative data weakness - does not allow explanations of behaviour unstructured - strength - may reveal deeper insights into behaviour weakness - difficult to replicate
what are the different types of observation? A. Participant non-participant
what does participant and non-participant mean? A. participant - researchers are involved in the social situation non-participant - researcher is not involved in the situation
What are overt and covert observations? A. Overt - participants are aware that they are being observed as part of research Covert - participants are unaware they are being observed
what are the strengths and weaknesses of overt observation? A. strengths - more ethical because participants give their consent to be observed weakness - may respond to demand characteristics as they know they are being observed
what are strength and weakness of covert observation? A. Strength - unlikely to be affected by demand characteristics weakness - practicalities of staying covert
Name the data collection technique? A. Event sampling Time sampling
what is event and time sampling? A. Event - uses checklist time - observation is divided into time periods
Name strength and weakness on event sampling? A. strength - records every occurrence of behaviour throughout the study weakness - cannot see behaviour change over time
Name strength and weakness on time sampling? A. strength - gives an indication of behaviour change over time weakness - some behaviours may be missed if they occur outside specific time period
what does inter-rater reliability? A. produce the same records when they watch the same event
how can inter-rater reliability be improved? A. .Both observers working to define the behavioural categories .observers practising and being trained to use the behavioural categories .conducting a pilot study .making sure categories are clearly defined
what are the 2 types of validity observations? A. Internal External
What does internal and external validity mean in observations? A. Internal - Behavioural categories are clearly defined and they do not overlap external - natural behaviours are more likely to be higher in ecological validity
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