AQA Psychology - Research Methods

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1
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What is a general statement about what the researcher intends to study; the purpose of the study?
aim
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What is a precise, testable, measurable statement that states the relationship between variables?
hypothesis
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What are the three types of hypothesis?
directional, non-directional and null hypotheses
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Which type of hypothesis only simply states that there will be an effect but does not state which way that effect will go.
non-directional (hypothesis)
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Which hypothesis states that there will be an effect and states which way that effect will go?
directional (hypothesis)
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What is a negative version of the research hypothesis, a statement which predicts there will be no effect?
null hypothesis
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What is the condition/variable that is manipulated in an experiment?
independent variable (IV)
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What is the variable that is changed as a result of changes in the independent variable?
dependent variable (DV)
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What are the variables or conditions that are kept the same throughout the experiment?
control
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What is something other than the IV that could influence the DV or the result if not controlled?
extraneous variables (EV)
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What is the process of clearly defining variables so that they are measurable and testable; making the variable specific?
operationalisation
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What is an extraneous variable that have already affected the result; they can be controlled but was overlooked or cannot be controlled at all?
confounding variable
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Name the four types of experiment.
lab, field, natural and quasi
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What is a type of experiment takes place in a highly controlled, artificial setting?
lab experiments
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What is an experiment takes place in a natural setting?
field experiment
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What type of experiment involves researchers taking advantage of a pre-existing IV?
natural experiment
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What type of experiment involves the IV being a pre-determined characteristic that are different between people, the IV is not manipulated?
quasi experiment
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What is the difference between natural and quasi experiments?
The IV in natural experiments vary naturally whereas in a quasi, it does not vary at all
19
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What are the three experimental designs?
independent measures design, repeated measures design, matched pairs design
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Which type of experimental design involves participants being matched into pairs based on a characteristic and then each member of the pair takes part in a different condition?
matched pairs
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What are individual differences between participants, usually affect the internal validity of an experiment called?
participant variable
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Which type of experimental design involves all participants completing all conditions of the experiment?
repeated measures
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Which type of experimental design involves participants being placed in separate groups and complete only one condition of the experiment?
independent groups
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What happens when performance is affected by conditions that the participant experienced first like practice effect or boredom effect?
order effects
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How can participant variables be controlled?
use of random allocation
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How can order effects be controlled?
(use of) counterbalancing
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What is the extent to which the results can be generalised to real life?
ecological validity
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What is the extent to which the results of a study can be generalised over time?
temporal validity
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What is validity within the experiment, whether the researchers tested what they expected to test?
internal validity
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What EV is the study suffering from when participants in a study being aware that they are taking part in a study and act unnaturally to satisfy the researcher?
demand characteristics
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What is the extent to which findings from a study can be generalised to other contexts: ecological and temporal validity are examples of external validity)?
external validity
32
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What is the morality of the experiment?
ethics
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What are the five ethical issues?
deception, lack of informed consent, lack of rights to withdraw, lack of protection from harm, lack of confidentiality
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What is the solution for deception?
debriefing participants at the end
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What is the solution for lack of informed consent, if deception was used?
use of presumptive consent
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What is happening when participants are deliberately misled about the nature of the study; they are not told the true aims of the study?
deception
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How can researchers ensure participants' rights to withdraw?
constantly remind participants that they have the right to withdraw at any point, even after the experiment is over
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How can researchers ensure that participants are protected from harm?
ethics board or ethical committee (can decide whether the experiment can take place); researchers can abandon the study
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How can researchers ensure confidentiality?
use of pseudonyms (when referring to participants in reports)
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What type of research analyses the strength and direction of a relationship between two co-variables?
correlations
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Which type of data are measurable and are often numerical data?
quantitative data
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Which type of data are often more difficult to analyse since it is descriptive?
qualitative data
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What are the three main types of correlations?
positive, negative and no correlations
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What can't correlations establish?
cause-and-effect
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Which type of research methods can establish causal relationships?
experiments
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What is the number that represents the strength and direction of the relationship between two co-variables?
correlation coefficient
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What is the correlation coefficient for a perfect negative correlation?
-1
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What is the correlation coefficient for a perfect positive correlation
+1
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What is the correlation coefficient needed to say that there is a strong correlation between two co-variables?
+0.8
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What is an advantage of using a correlational analysis?
easy to analyse, prompt new lines of research
51
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Are observational techniques experimental or non-experimental?
non-experimental
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Which type of observation involve the observation being carried out in the natural setting, and the researcher does not influence the situation?
naturalistic observations
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Which type of observation involves the observations being carried out in a regulated setting?
controlled observations
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What are some strengths of naturalistic observations?
high ecological validity, low demand characteristics
55
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What are some strengths of controlled observations?
high internal validity, easy to replicate and check for reliability
56
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In which type of observations are participants aware that their behaviour is being watched and recorded?
overt observations
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In which type of observations are participants not aware that their behaviour is being watched and recorded?
covert observations
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Which ethical code of conduct are covert observations violating?
lacked of informed consent
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What is a strength of covert observations?
lower chance of demand characteristics
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In which type of observations are researchers part of the group that they are observing?
participant observations
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In which type of observations are researchers not part of the group they are observing - they observed as an outsider?
non-participant observations
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What is a strength of participant observations?
having first-hand insights, clearer details, higher internal validity
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What is a weakness of participant observations?
investigator effects, researcher bias, low internal validity, lose objectivity
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What is the term used to describe when observer's expectations influence what the researcher sees or hears or even the data that they recorded?
observer bias
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What is the technique of choosing which behaviours to observe and record that records behaviour at specific time intervals?
time sampling
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What is the observation technique that involves continuously watching a certain behaviour and counting the number of times that even occurs in the targeted group?
event sampling
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What is a strength of event sampling?
infrequent behaviours can be recorded
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What is a strength of time sampling?
easy to carry out due to a reduced number of observations
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What is a set of specific, observable, clearly operationalised behaviours that is created as a subset of a target behaviour called?
behavioural categories
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What is a set of written questions on a topic to assess participants' thoughts, feelings and opinions?
questionnaires
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What type of question is used in a questionnaire that offers a fixed number of responses and produced quantitative data?
closed questions
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What type of question is used in a questionnaire that does not have a fixed range and collects qualitative data?
open questions
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What is a weakness of using closed questions?
response set bias (where they would respond in similar way at the same end of the rating scale)
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How can we chance whether the questions on the questionnaire is ambiguous or not?
use a "pilot study"
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What will the research suffer from if participants are not honest when answering, and would answer differently to put them in a more positive light (seen as right)?
social desirability bias
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What is a solution to social desirability bias?
ensure confidentiality
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What is a self-report technique that involves asking participants questions face-to-face or over the phone on a topic to assess participants' opinions and thoughts?
interview
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What are the two types of interviews?
structured and unstructured interviews
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What the type of interview that is a mixture of both structured and unstructured interviews?
semi-structured
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Which type of interview is made up of a pre-determined set of questions that are asked in a fixed order, similar to designing a questionnaire?
structured interviews
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Which type of interview allowed more free-flowing conversations with no set questions and questions will be developed as the interview progressed?
unstructured interviews
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What is a strength of structured interviews?
easy to replicate, quick, cheap
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What is a strength of unstructured interviews?
rich and more detailed, give insights, able to observe body language
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What is a weakness of structured interviews?
social desirability bias, restrictive (no elaboration), lower generalisability
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What is a weakness of unstructured interviews?
interviewer bias, interviewers need to be trained, social desirability bias
86
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What type of question is allowed in semi-structured interviews?
follow-ups
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What is a type of non-experimental study that involves an in-depth investigation of a single, unusual individual, group, institution or event?
case studies
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What are some famous examples of case studies?
Genie, Clive Wearing, KF, PM
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What techniques can be used in case studies?
observations, interviews, tests (IQ), experiments
90
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What is the word used to describe studies that go on for a long period of time?
longitudinal
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What is the word used to describe the use of a variety of different research methods?
triangulation
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What are some advantages of case studies?
detailed data, allows rare/usually-unethical behaviours to be studied
93
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What are some disadvantages of case studies?
lack population validity, raises ethical issues
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What is defined as a large group of individuals who share specific characteristics that a research is interested in studying?
(target) population
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What is the process of drawing out a representative group from the population?
sampling
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Which type of sampling technique involves selecting anyone who is willing and available to take part at the time?
opportunity sampling
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Which sampling technique involves selecting individuals who have put themselves forward to take part in research?
volunteer sampling
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Where do researchers advertise in volunteer sampling?
newspapaers, posters, in universities
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What is an advantage of opportunity and volunteer sampling?
quick, convenient, economical
100
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What is a disadvantage of using volunteer and opportunity sampling?
can be biased and unrepresentative