RESEARCH METHODS

What is an IV? Give an example.

An independent variable is the variable the experimenter changes in naturally occuring features. There can be different levels of an IV.

I.E. gender.

What is a DV? Give example.

The variable that the experimenter is measuring after research and any changes in the DV should be caused by changes in the IV.

I.E. grade due to teaching.

What is a hypothesis?

A clear, precise, testable statement that is written at the start of an investigation. It states the relationship between the variables being investigated. There are alternative and null hypothesis.

What does it mean if an experiment non-directional?

Non-directional states there will be change, but doesn't state the direction of the results.

What are investigator effects? Give one example.

Any effects of the investigator's behaviour (conscious or unconscious) on the research outcome (DV).

I.E. being nicer to one participant.

What is randomisation?

The use of chance during research so that key elements aren't decided by the psychologist, reducing bias. Random allocation reduces the likelihood of participant or investigator effects as subjects are distributed amongst randomly.

What are the 3 experimental designs?

Independent groups

Repeated measures

Matched pairs

What happens in an independent group during an experiment?

This is when participants are allocated to separate groups or conditions of the IV and each group does one level of the IV.

Give 3 strengths of individual groups.

- Easy to organise

- Less likely to have demand characteristics

- No practice effects.

Give 3 limitations of individual groups.

- More likely to be participant variables

- Needs more participants than repeated measures

- May cost more

What happens in repeated measures during an experiment?

Participants take part in all conditions under investigation.

Give 3 strengths of repeated measures.

- Same persons opinion

- Smaller sample

- No participant variables

Give 2 limitations of repeated measures.

- order of conditions may affect performance (order effect)

- demand characteristics more likely.

Give 3 strengths of matched pairs.

- Less participant variables

- no order effects

- less demand characteristics

Give 3 limitations of matched pairs.

- time-consuming and difficult to match participants.

- may have to start with a large group

- impossible to control pvs

What are practice effects?

Participants which have completed the task before may show an improvement in the 2nd condition.

What are fatigue effects?

Participants which have completed the task before may become bored and fatigued, leading to a decline in their performance in the 2nd conditions.

What is counter-balancing?

An experimental technique to overcome order effects when using repeated measures design.

What is the ABBA method? Explain each trial.

All participants take part in each condition twice:

trial 1 - condition A (morning)

trial 2 - condition B ( afternoon)

trial 3 - condition B (morning)

trial 4 - condition A (afternoon)

Scores are compared in trials 1 and 4 and 2 and 3.

What are the 4 types of experiment?

Laboratory, field, natural, quasi.

What is a laboratory experiment?

An experiment conducted in highly controlled and artificial environments, where the IV is deliberately manipulated.

Give 2 strengths of a lab experiment.

- They have high internal validity because extraneous variables are controlled. We can prove a cause-and-effect relationship.

- They are repeatable (therefore have high validity)

Give 3 limitations of a lab experiment.

- difficult to generalise

- more demand characteristics

- low mundane realism

What is a field experiment?

An experiment which is conducted in a more natural environment, where the IV is still controlled.

Give 2 limitations of a field experiment.

- less control over the EVs

- ethical issues due to invasion of privacy and not having informed consent

What is a natural experiment?

An experiment where researchers haven't manipulated the IV due to ethical issues, so the IV must occur naturally.

Give a strength of a natural experiment.

- often well-controlled- often repeatable, so higher validity.

Give a limitation of a natural experiment.

- no random allocation so may cause confounding variables

What is a quasi experiment?

An experiment where the IV is naturally occurring - it has not be made, it is simply a difference between people.

Give two strengths of a quasi experiment.

- opportunity to study areas otherwise difficult to research

- Enables psychologists to study in a real setting (so increased mundane realism and ecological validity).

Give 2 limitations of quasi experiments.

- randomly occuring IV may occur rarely.

- cannot randomly allocate PPs to conditions therefore, creating confounding variables.

What are ethics?

Guidelines followed by all psychologists when doing research in order to prevent any harm. All plans for research must be submitted for approval by the ethics committee.

What is DRIP CIA?

Deception, Right to withdraw, Informed consent, Protection from harm, Confidentiality, Invasion of privacy, Animal research.

What is deception?

Withholding information from or misleading participants, which removes the ability for the participant to give fully informed consent.

Explain why deception is sometimes allowed.

- Less demand characteristics

How can you resolve deception?

- debriefed

- approved by the ethics committee

What is the right to withdraw?

Participants should be able to leave an experiment at any time.

How do you resolve Rtw? Why might it be a challenge?

- Told before and during but it may still be hard to leave the study.

What is informed consent?

Participants should be aware of the nature and the purpose of the experiment, the more dangerous the experiment, the more the PPs should know.

What are the limitations of IC?

- produces demand characteristics

How do you resolve the limits of IC?

- consent forms

- presumptive consent

- RtW

What is Protection from Harm?

Researches are obligated to protect their participants from any situation which may cause the PP to experience negative feelings anymore than what they experience in everyday life.

What are the limits of protection from harm?

- Risks may only be obvious after the study.

How can you resolve harm?

- avoiding risks greater than everyday life

- stopping study

What is confidentiality?

The identities of all PPs must be protected.

How can you resolve confidentiality?

- names not recorded

What is invasion of privacy?

In naturalistic settings, observation is acceptable in public places, however experimenters have to be sensitive when observing private behaviour.

How do you resolve IoP?

- don't study without full consent, unless in a public space.

What is animal research?

Researcher conducted on animals due to ethical or impractical reasons.

What are animal research issues?

- no consent

- harm

- can you generalise appropriately from humans and animals?

What is a structured observation?

An observation carried out using various systems to organize their findings. This may be categories and behaviour sampling procedures.

What the paired types of observation?

covert and overt, participant and non-participant, naturalistic and controlled.

Explain covert and overt observations.

covert- PPs don't know they are being studied.

overt - PPs know they're being studied.

What are the strengths of c(overt) observation?

COVERT: more natural behaviour due to unawareness of being studied, so no investigator effects or demand characteristics.

OVERT: informed consent (ethical)

What are the limits of c(overt)?

COVERT: less ethical due to PP unawareness

OVERT: behaviour may be distorted by demand or characteristics or investigator effects.

Explain what (non)participant observations are.

PARTICIPANT: researcher takes an active part in the observation

NON-PP: researcher watches from afar and doesn't take part in the experiment.

What are the strengths of (non)participant observations?

PP: may provide more insight into behaviour

NON-PP: researchers may be more objective because they don't take part.

What are the limits of (non)participant observations?

PP: more likely to be overt and have participant awareness.

NON-PP: more likely to be covert (ethical problems)

Explain what controlled and naturalistic observations are.

C: carried out under lab styled conditions

N: carried out in the PPs natural environment.

What are the strengths of controlled and naturalistic observations.

C: Researcher can focus on one particular behaviour.

N: realistic spontaneous behaviour, less ecological validity.

What are the limits of controlled and naturalistic observations.

C: environment may feel unnatural to PP (more unnatural behaviour).

N: Little control of all other aspects happening.

What is random sampling?

Every member of a population has an equal chance of being selected to participate in research. In order to be representative, a large sample is needed.

What is psychology?

The scientific study of the human mind and it's functions affecting behaviour in a given context.

What is a research aim? Give the glasses example.

The general statement that tells people the purpose of the investigation.

I.E. to investigate whether wearing reading glasses affects performance on a reading task.

What is a research question? Give the glasses example.

The question a researcher aims to answer after conducting research.

I.E. does wearing glasses affect performance on a reading task.

What is an experimental method?

Where causal conclusions can be drawn because an IV has been deliberately manipulated to observe the causal effect on the dependent variable.

I.E. a lab

What is a non-experimental method?

An experiment where the IV is not affected to find the conclusions.

I.E observation.

What is operationalisation?

When the variable is defined by the researcher and a way of measuring it is developed for the purpose of research.

What are the 2 types of hypothesis?

Alternative and null.

Explain an alternative hypothesis? Give an example.

States there are relationships between the two variables (cause-and-effect relationship).

I.E. students will do less work (time spent working) on a Friday afternoon than any other afternoon of the week.

Explain a null hypothesis? Give an example.

States there is no relationship between the variables being researched.

I.E. there will be no difference of amount of time spent working on Friday afternoon than the rest of the week.

What does it mean if an experiment is directional?

It states the expected direction of the results.

What is an extraneous variable?

An extra variable which interferes with the IV and DV, meaning it may not be the IV affecting the DV. It doesn't systematically vary within the IV (it affects randomly).

What are confounding variable?

A type of extraneous variable that varies systematically within the IV. It may affect the DV so we can't be sure what's causing the changes to the DV. It affects one group.

What are the 4 types of extraneous variable?

Participant

Situational

Demand

Investigator.

Explain participant variables. Use an example.

Personal differences that may affect individuals performance on a task.

I.E. skill, ability, concentration or mood.

Explain situational variables. Use examples.

Things in the environment which affect the performance of participants.

I.E. lighting, temperature.

What are demand characteristics?

When participants pick up cues about the purpose of the study and unconsciously change their behaviour accordingly.

What is standardization?

The idea that all subjects should be subjected to the same research environment and all procedures should be standardised to prevent variation in how research is conducted from becoming an EV.

What happens in matched pairs during an experiment?

Participants are matched with each other in terms of key variables (i.e. gender, age, IQ) and both are allocated to 2 different conditions.

What is the AB or BA method?

Participants are divided into 2 groups:

Group 1 - participants do A and the B.

Group 2 - participants do B and then A

Give 2 strengths of a field experiment.

- higher mundane realism

- higher external validity

What are the strengths and weaknesses of structured observation?

Strengths: easier to conclude evidence

Limits: difficult to decide what behaviours to include

What is an unstructured observation?

An observation carried out using no system to record or organize their ideas and observations, all behaviours are recorded.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of unstructured observation?

Strengths: can be used in new research

Limits: too much data collection and may miss some behaviours.

What are the strengths of observational studies in general?

- high validity

- may catch spontaneous behaviour

- fundamental method of gathering data.

What the weaknesses of observational studies?

- observer bias: expectations distort observation

- no introspection

What is sampling?

A smaller group of people which is drawn from the wider population. It's the process of creating a sample is called sampling. The sample should be representative and typical of the research population.

What's the equation for percentage?

number of (e.g. blue sweets)/ total number (of sweets) X 100

Population meaning.

A large group of people you're interested in studying.

Target population meaning.

People from your population with desired characteristics.

Sample meaning.

A small group taken from the target pop. who will take part in the research.

What are the 5 sampling techniques?

random, opportunity, volunteer, systematic, stratified

What is random sampling?

Every member of a population has an equal chance to take part in an experiment.

Give the strength and limit of random sampling.

S= limited investigator bias (representation increases)

L= time-consuming.

What is opportunity sampling?

A type of non-representative sampling, it's when people who are easier to access are used for research.

Give the 2 strengths and limit of opportunity sampling.

S= less time-consuming

=little effort by researcher

L= much less representative than RS (bias of characteristics)

What is volunteer sampling?

Where participants volunteer to take part in the research, like through posters.

Give the strength and 2 limits of volunteer sampling.

S= easy (so little effort by researcher)

L= not representative

=only particular characteristics

What is systematic sampling?

This is when every nth person in the sample frame is selected to participate in the research.