scientific processes

What is the difference between aims and hypotheses?

Aim: what the study is trying to find out.

• A researcher needs to think about an aim after deciding a research question

• Could be a general aim or a more specific one

Hypotheses: a prediction about the variables in the study

• Could be called the Alternate or Research hypotheses

• Must state the outcome of the research (e.g. effect of IV on DV)

What are the 2 types of alternate hypotheses?

Directional hypotheses: indicates which direction the results will go

• Usually has previous research (keywords: higher/lower/more/less…)

Non directional hypotheses: there will be a change or an effect, but doesn’t indicate the direction

• Maybe has no previous research

• Or has contradictory research/results

What is a null hypotheses?

Null hypotheses is a scientific convention.

• It is a statement to describe our results when they do not support our alternate hypotheses.

• Stating that there is no change/difference

What are operational definitions?

The variables in a study have to be optionalised, meaning a clear definition of how they will be measured.

E.g. stating how ‘fear’/‘love’/‘aggression’ will be measured in a research as they have no set values

What are the 4 types of experimental methods?

How/what happens to the variables?

Laboratory experiment: takes place in a laboratory (controlled environment) and the researcher manipulates the IV

Field experiment: takes place in the real world - participants’ natural environment, and the researcher manipulates the IV

Natural experiment: researcher studies a natural change or event an the researcher doesn’t manipulate the IV

Quasi experiment: researcher studies a pre-existing difference (e.g. age/gender…) and researcher doesn’t manipulate the IV

What are the advantages(+) and disadvantages(-) of laboratory experiments?

+: high control over extraneous variables = ensure that IV caused the effect on DV - high internal validity

+: replication is more possible because of the high level of control = can check that the results are valid, instead of just a one-off

-: may lack generalisability because lab environment may not reflect real life = low external validity - results cannot be generalised to other settings/situations

-: participants are usually aware that they are being tested, so could behave unnaturally

-: tasks carried out in a lab may not represent real life experiences - low mundane realism

What are the advantages(+) and disadvantages(-) of field experiments?

+: higher mundane realism than lab experiments because the environment is more natural = more valid, especially as participants don’t know they’re being studied = high external validity

-: less control over extraneous variables, so effect between IV and DV is harder to establish = replication is often impossible

-: ethical issues, as participants cannot give consent, so the research could be invading their privacy

What are the advantages(+) and disadvantages(-) of natural experiments?

+: allows research to take place that might not be ethical otherwise (e.g. children’s mental health after an earthquake)

+: high external validity, as they involve the study of real life situations

-: a natural change/event might rarely happen = less scope for generalising findings

-: participants might not be randomly allocated to experimental conditions = less sure than the IV affects the DV

What are the advantages(+) and disadvantages(-) of quasi experiments?

+: carried out under controlled conditions = high control over extraneous variables = high internal validity

+: replication is more possible

+: less chance of bias (no manipulation of researcher)

-: cannot randomly allocate participants to experimental conditions = there might be confounding variables - can affect results and impact validity

What are order effects, investigator effects and demand characteristics?

Order effects: e.g. boredom, fatigue, practice… - occur within the participant

Investigator effects (experimenter bias): occur when the researcher’s behaviour unintentionally influences the participant’s behaviour

Demand characteristics: participants knew that they’re being tested on (possibly guessed the aim)

What are the 3 types of experimental design?

Repeated measures design

• Participants take part in all conditions of the experiment (1 group)

Independent measures design

• Participants only take part in one condition of the experiment (seperate groups)

Matched pairs design

• Participants are matched in each condition for characteristics that may have an effect on their performance (e.g. memory test)

What are the advantages(+) and disadvantages(-) of repeated measures design?

+: avoids the problem of participant variables

+: fewer people needed

-: order effects are more likely to occur

-: demand characteristics are more likely as participants might guess the aim as they take part in all the conditions

What are the advantages(+) and disadvantages(-) of Independent measures design?

+: avoids order effects (if a person is involved in several tests, they may become bored or tired)

+: less demand characteristics as they only participate in one condition

-: more people are needed than the repeated measures design

-: differences between participants in the groups may affect results, for example: variations in age, sex or social background - participant variables

What are the advantages(+) and disadvantages(-) of matched pairs design?

+: reduces participant variables

+: avoids order effects

-: very time consuming trying to find closely matched pairs

-: impossible to match people exactly

-: requires more participants

What are the different types of control?

• Random allocation: participants allocated to conditions in an independent groups design using a random method to control for participant variables

• Counterbalancing: control order effects in a repeated measures design - alternating the order in how participants perform in different conditions

• Randomisation: use of chance when designing investigations to avoid bias

• Standardisation: using exactly the same formalised procedures for all participants in a research study - difference in procedures could act as an extraneous variable

• Control groups: acts as a ‘baseline’ and helps establish causation - independent group measures (act as comparison) - repeated measures design (act as a baseline)

What are the code of ethics of the British Psychological society?

4 ethical principles:

• Respect

• Competence

• Responsibility

• Integrity

All researchers/psychologists have to follow this code of ethics when conducting experiments/research

What are the ethical issues of psychological studies? How to deal with them?

PPCWCDD

Protection from physical and physiological harm

• Participant’s psychological and physiological safety must be ensured

• They must leave in the same state as which they entered

• Cannot expose them to a greater risk than normal life experiences

Privacy

• Tricky if conducting observations as people are unaware that they are being watched, but we should still maintain their right to privacy

• Only observed people where they are expect to be observed (e.g. public places)

(Informed) Consent

• Participants should be briefed with as much information about the study as possible to make an informed judgement to take part or not

• However, not everyone is capable of giving informed consent (e.g. children, head injuries, learning difficulties…)

(Right to) Withdrawal

• Make participants aware that they are free to leave a study at any time, even when they’re paid

• They can also refuse permission for their data to be used

• Brief and debrief is used

Confidentiality

• Participant’s information s protected by the Data Protection Act (now: GDPR)

• Participants must not be identifiable in published research (referred as numbers, codes or initials)

Deception

• Only be used if there’s no alternative

• Should seek approval from the ethics committee (cost vs benefit)

• Debriefing doesn’t justify deception

Debriefing

• Always debrief participants after a study to allow them to ask questions, tell them the full aim and remind them of their right of withdrawal (can withdraw their data)

• (Briefing happens before the study)

What are the 3 alternative ways to get consent?

1. Presumptive consent: assume people are happy to be a part of the study

2. Prior general consent: participants gives general consent to take part (might be deceived) - (e.g. Reicher and Haslam)

3. Retrospective consent: ask after the research

How to deal with deception and protection from harm?

Full debrief (may include follow ups)

• Right to withdraw

• Aims

May offer reassurance about results - only use counselling if it impacts on well being

What are the 3 categorical types of observations?

• Controlled / naturalistic

• Participant / non-participant

• Overt / covert

What are the advantages (+) and disadvantages (-) of each observation?

Controlled

+: less cofounding/extraneous variables

+: replication is easier

-: findings cannot be generalised to everyday life

Naturalistic

+: high external validity - findings can be generalised

-: lack of control - replication difficult

-: may be uncontrolled cofounding/extraneous variables

Participant

+: researcher can experience the situation - increased insight and increase external validity

-: researcher may come too strongly - lose objectivity (‘going naive’), line between participant and researcher becomes blurred

Non participant

+: researcher can maintain an objective psychological distance from participants

-: may lose vulnerable insight -too far removed from the people and behaviour

Overt

+: ethically acceptable

-: increases demand characteristics - knows they’re being watched

Covert

+: removes demand characteristics

+: increases internal validity

-: ethics may be questioned- deception

What are the 2 self report techniques?

1. Interviews

2. Questionnaires

What are the different types of interviews?

Structured interviews

• Predetermined set of questions that are asked in a fixed order

• Like a questionnaire in real time

Unstructured interviews

• Like a conversation, no set questions

• General aim that a certain topic will be discussed, interaction tends to be free flowing

• Interviewee encourages to expand and elaborate their answers

Semi-structured interviews

• a list of questions that have been worked out in advance, but interviewers are also free to ask follow up questions based on previous answers

What are the 3 different ways to design questionnaires?

Likert scale

• when the respondent indicates their agreement with a statement using a scale of usually 5 points

Rating scale

• gets respondents to identify a value that represents their strength of feeling about a particular topic

Fixed choice option

• includes a list if possible options and respondents are required to indicate those that apply to them

What is acquiescence bias?

The tendency to agree with items on a questionnaire regardless of the content of the question

What are the advantages of using open or closed questions in a questionnaire?

Open: to gain more insight on the interviewee

Closed: to easily gain data

Compare questionnaires to interviews (advantages of both)

Main difference: questionnaire usually done on paper or online, while interviews are done face-to-face or on the phone

Advantages of questionnaire over interview: can access a lot of people at once - time and cost effective

Advantages of interview over questionnaire: can build rapports - get more valid answers

What are pilot studies and the aims of piloting?

A pilot study: small-scale trial run of the actual investigation

• involves a handful of participants, rather tam the total number, in order to ‘road test’ the procedure and check the investigation runs smoothly

• Not restricted to experimental studies, it is helpful to try out questions in advance when using self reporting methods

• A way of checking coding systems in observational studies before the real investigation is undertaken

= allows the researcher to identify any potential issues and to modify the procedure - saves money and time in the long run

What are the 3 types of observational designs? (Advantages and disadvantages)

Behaviour categories

• target behaviour which is being observed is broken up into more precise components, which are observable and measurable

• (E.g. aggression can be broken down into shouting, punching…)

Event sampling

• counting the number of times a particular behaviour occurs in a target individual or group

+: useful when the target behaviour happens quite infrequently and could be missed

-: if the specific ‘event’ is too complex, the observer may overlook important details

Time sampling

• recording behaviour within a pre-established time frame

+: reduces the number of observations that have to be made

-: those instances when behaviour is sampled might be unrepresentative of the observation as a whole

What are different ways of sampling?

Opportunity sampling

• taking the sample from people who are available at the time of the study is carried out and fit the criteria you’re looking for

Random sampling

• every member of the population has an equal chance of being chosen

Stratified sampling

• classifying the population into categories and then choosing a sample which consists of participants from each category in the same proportions as they are in the population

Self selected sampling

• participants becoming part of a tidy because they volunteer when asked or in response to an advert

Systematic sampling

• uses a predetermine system to select the participants from a target group (e.g. every nth person)

What are the advantages and disadvantages of each method of sampling?

Opportunity sampling

+: quick and convenient

-: unrepresentative of the target population

Random sampling

+: best chance of an unbiased representative sample of the target population

-: difficult to do when the target population is large

Stratified sampling

+: more representative of the wider population than opportunity sampling as all categories of the target population are represented

-: difficult and time consuming

Self selected sampling

+: convenient

+: no bias from the experimenter in the choice of participants

-: often unrepresentative

-: biased on the part of the participants - volunteers different from non volunteers

Systematic sampling

+: eliminates research bias

-: doesn’t give an equal chance of selection to each individual in the target group

Name the sections of a psychological report

(Title page)

1. Abstract

2. Introduction - overview, existing theories…

3. Method - participants, apparatus, design, procedure

4. Results - findings, statistical analysis conclusion, graph summarising data, statistical significance used

5. Discussion - explanation of findings, implications of the study, limitations and modifications relationship to background research mentioned in the introduction

6. Referencing

7. Appendix - any materials: e.g. sample questionnaires, raw data…

Why do we reference?

• To avoid plagiarism

• To give credit to other researchers and acknowledge their contributions to the field

• To allow other academics to follow up any research of interest citied in your work

• To demonstrate that your arguments are clearly supported by evidence

• To follow the good practice of academic values and give your work integrity

Where does the reference section appear? (2)

After the main report discussion sections (1), but before the appendix (1)

How do you reference?

SID The PlatyPus

Surname

Initial

Date

Title

Place of publication

Publisher

E.g. Duck S. (1992). Human Relationships. London. Sage

What goes in an abstract?

An abstract summarises, usually in one paragraph of 300 words or less, the major aspect of the entire paper that includes:

• The overall aim the study investigated

• The basic design/procedure/special apparatus of the study

• Major findings or trends found as a result of your analysis; including any statistical conclusion

• A brief summary of your interpretations and conclusions and limitations/areas for future studies

What is content analysis?

It is a non-experimental method and it analyses qualitative data

What are some examples of content analysis?

• Themes in political speech

• Roles of gender in adverts

• Themes of negative thought emerging in diaries of people diagnosed with depression

What is the process of content analysis?

1. Sampling: the researcher must decide which material to use

2. Coding units: the researcher must decide how to categorise the analysed material

3. Pilot: before the actual content analysis takes place, the researcher must become familiar with the types of material likely to be encountered and construct a system for categorising the data

4. Coders: categorise the data - this produces data at the nominal level of measurements

What are the advantages and disadvantages of content analysis?

+: high ecological validity

+: can be ethical - no participants are used

+: cheap as no money spent on data collection

-: time consuming

-: little or no control of extraneous variables

-: can be unethical - invasion of privacy, cannot get informed consent

-: open to bias - researcher has to interpret the content in order for the data in the coding units - depends on the interpretation of the material =can be fixed through inter-rater reliability (having one more researcher)

What are the aims/purposes (positives) of peer review?

• Maintain the credibility of psychology

• Inform on whether research should be funded/published

• Make sure that the work is methodologically sound, valid and does not involve plagiarism of other people’s researches

• Finding are novel, interesting and relevant, and add to knowledge of a particular research area

• Make sure that the authors are not making unjustified claims about the importance of their findings

• Maintains the standards of published work and allows the University research departments to be rated and funded in terms of their quality

• Ensure that poor quality work is not published in reputable journals

What is the process of peer review?

1. Research is submitted and anonymously to other academics in the field

2. Read and checked for ethics, data accuracy, design qualities

3. Appropriate credit is given to other researcher’s’ works within the report

4. Feedback is given on whether research is fit for publication

What are the negatives of peer review?

• Publication bias occurs towards prestigious researchers and research departments

• Bias in favour of ‘established’ research areas - novel or unusual research is hard to publish

• Time consuming and expensive - peer review can take months, or in some cases where revisions are necessary, years, so delaying publication of important findings

• A temptation to delay or even prevent the publication of competing research - reviewers are usually working in the same field as the submitted work and are competing for limited research funds

• Fails to prevent scientific fraud

What are the features of science?

PC NED FROG

Prediction (hypothesis), Paradigm/ Paradigm shift

Control, Cause and effect

Nomothetic (general laws and principles)

Empirical methods (IV, DV, quantitative data)

Deterministic

Falsifiability

Replicable, Reductionist

Objective

Generalisability