Introduction to psychological research

What is empirical research?

Gathering and analysing original research, using real-world evidence

What is a hypothesis?

Clear, testable prediction or idea about what you expect to happen

What is a theory?

A broader, established explanation of behavior/experience based on multiple studies

What is quantitative research?

Numerical data

What is qualitative research?

Non-numerical data

What is experimental research? (3)

• Quantitative

• Manipulate control variables

• Random assignment

What is quasi-experimental research? (3)

• Quantitative

• No random assignment

• Measuring cause and effect relationships

What are the 4 types of non-experimental research?

• Correlation

• Descriptive

• Survey

• Observational

What is ethnography research?

• Qualitative

• Immersion into culture/daily life of participants

What is phenomenology research?

• Qualitative

• Studying an event or activity as it happens from different perspectives/insights

What is a case study?

• Qualitative

• In-depth understanding of one participant

What is narrative research?

• Qualitative

• Gathers data from participant(s) over time, focusing on the experience of the individual

What is an extraneous variable?

Other factors that could influence the DV but are not the main focus (should be controlled)

What is a confounding variable?

A variable which overlaps with the IV and affects the DV

What are demand charactersits?

Participants chanting their behaviour

What 6 ways can we control for extraneous variables?

• Control groups

• Randomization

• Grouping participants based on certain characteristics

• Statistical control

• Holding variables constant

• Pre-screening participants

What is volunteer sampling?

Participants sign up through adverts

What is opportunity sampling?

People who are available and willing to take part

What is random sampling?

When everyone from the target population has an equal chance of being picked

What is systematic sampling?

A system to pick participants (eg. The Nth person)

What are the 3 types of reliability?

• Test-retest- the test produces similar results over time

• Inter-rater- degree of agreement among different raters when assessing the same phenomenon

• Internal consistency- How well the items on the test measure the same concept

What are the 4 types of validity?

• Face- does it measure what it is meant to

• Construct- does it measure the theory it’s meant to

• Criterion- how well one measure predicts an outcome based on another measure

• External- can the findings be generalised/used in other contexts

What are the pros of qualitative research? (4)

• Detailed

• Patterns and themes

• Flexible

• Contextualises data

What are the cons of qualitative research? (5)

• Limited generalisability

• Time consuming

• Bias

• Complexity in analysis

• Researcher presence

What is primary qualitative data?

Collected through interviews or first hand descriptions

What is secondary qualitative data?

Analysing existing documents

What is a structured interview?

Highly controlled with closed-ended questions

What is a semi-structured interview?

Has a guide for questions but can ask additional questions

What is an unstructured interview?

No set questions (just a topic) just open ended ones, with natural flow

What is thematic analysis?

Identifying patterns or ideas across data

What is content analysis?

Analysing various sources of data to quantify data (counting occurrences of themes/words)

What is narrative analysis?

Examines stories from individuals to understand how they contrast

What is grounded theory?

To develop a theory grounded in data collected

What is discourse analysis?

To study language use and communication

What is interpretative phenomenological analysis?

Lived experience of individuals

What are Braun and Clarke’s 6 steps to thematic analysis?

1. Data Familiarisation

2. Initial coding generation

3. Search for themes

4. Review of themes

5. Theme definition and labelling

6. Report writing

What is nominal data?

Categories/lables

(E.g. fruit: Apples, Bannanas, Oranges…)

What is ordinal data?

Categories are ranked/ordered with a logical relationship

(E.g. Eduation: High school, Bachelor’s, Master’s, PhD

What is interval data?

Numerical values with no ‘true zero’

(E.g. Dates on a calendar)

What is ratio data?

Numerical data with ‘true zero’ were all mathematical operations work- you can calculate ratios

(E.g. Income)

What is true zero?

Represents complete absence of the measure- 0° doesn’t mean ‘no heat’

What are inferential statistics?

Uses sample data to make predictions, decisions or generalisations about a population

What does variance tell us?

Higher variance= data points more spread out

Lower variance= data points closer together/clustered

What is positively skewed data?

Data skewed to the right- tail is longer on the right, but most data is on the left

What is negatively skewed data?

Data skewed to the left- tail is longer on the left, but most data is on the right

What is kurtosis?

How sharp the shape of the distribution is

What is Bimodal Distribution?

Data with two clear peaks- typically occurs when data comes from two different groups

How do we calculate the Z-score?

Z=\frac{X-\mu}{\sigma} where X = observed score, \mu = population mean, \sigma = standard deviation

What is the Empiral Rule?

68% of data falls within 1 standard deviation of the mean

95% of data falls within 2 standard deviations

99.7% of data falls within 3 standard deviations

What is the central limit theorem?

The sampling distribution of the mean approaches a normal distribution, as the sample size increases

What are the 3 key features of a hypothesis?

1. Tesatble

2. Specific

3. Falsifiable

What is a null hypothesis?

There is no effect or relationship

What is an alternative hypothesis?

There will be an effect or relationship

When should your alternative hypothesis be one tailed?

When there is a specific direction of change

When do you reject the null hypothesis?

If p<0.05 this is a significant result so you can reject null hypothesis

What is a type 1 error?

Rejecting the null hypothesis when you should accept it

What is a type 2 error?

There is an effect, but we fail to reject the null hypothesis

What is statistical power?

If an effect truly exists, power is the likelyhood you will detect it

What is a Chi-squared test called when there is 1 variable?

Goodness of fit

What is a Chi-squared test called when there are two variables?

Test of association

What must the expected frequency of a cell be in the Chi squared test?

At least 5

What does the chi squared test tell us?

Whether the observed frequency is different from the expected frequency (yes or no)

How do you know degrees of freedom?

For one variable: Number of cells - 1

For two variables: (Number of rows - 1)(Number of columns - 1)

How do you write up a Chi-squared test in APA standard?

\chi2 (df, N=XX) = XX.XX, p = .XXX

N = number of participants

What result should you put if JASP gives .000?

p < 0.001