Psychological skills- methods

Qualitative data are rich, detailed, in-depth and like a story.

Advantages of qualitative data are that they have a richness and detail that is hard to find any other way. They're holistic in focusing on a whole situation. 

Disadvantages pf qualitative data are that they are hard to compare as they involve someone's own meetings. There are in the moment too;at some other time somone might respond differently. 

Quanatative data feature numbers such as miles or age.

Advantages are that statistics can be used to test how far results might be due to chance and how significant they are. They can also be compared to heelp understanding. 

Disadvantages are that they oftern force someone to give a response that might not suit thier 'real' ideas and feelings, so they tend to lack validity. They are also reductionst. 

Random sampling is when each person has an equal chance of being picked. Names are put into a hat and drawn one by one. 

Advantages of random sampling is that it represetns that target population as there is no bias in choosing participants. 

Disadvantages are that it can be time consuming to do and you may not have the whole of the target population avaloible to be in the sample. 

Volunteer sampling is when someone puts themself forward for a study. Like in Milgram (1963).

Advanatages are that the participants are willing to take part.

Disadvantages are that they're likely to be particular types of people and this can give bias in the data. 

Opportunity sampling is taking who is avaliable at the time to fit what is required. 

Advantages are that it can be quick and easy to carry out and relitively cheap. 

Disadvantages are that the smaple is likley to be biased as you are likley to choose those you can get on with or think you can work with, it is not always representative either . 

Open questions gather qualitative data and leave the answer open for the respondent rather than giving a forced choise of answer. 

Advantages of open questiones are that they anable the respondent to expand on their answers, making the data more valid. 

Disadvantages are they are to hard to compare with another as interpretation of terms and issues can be different. 

Closed questions resrtict chouce of answer, such as having a list for a respondent to choose from, or yes/no choices. May use Likert scales such as "agree or stronly disagree". May use ranked scales when someone might be askedto rank their opinion. 

Advantages are that a set of data can be compared as they are all answering the same questions with same responses. 

Disadvantages are tht respondents may not want to use any of the offered answers but are forced to do so, so lack validity. 

Vallentine et al (2010) uses interviews in clinical psychology. 

Structured interviews are like a questionnaire becuase the questions will be the saem for all interviewees. It is likely to gather quantitaive data. Questionas are planned before the intwerview is conducted. Telephone interviews are more likely to be structured. 

Advantages of structured interviews are that data can be compred and ther interviews can be replicated. 

Disadvantages of a structured interview is that participants cannot expad on their answers, meaning a possible lack of validity.

Unstructured interview would still have an idea of the area to be covered to guidethe interview. 

Advantages are that they are flexiable and each participant can give answers which suit them.

Disadvantages are that the interview is hard to replicatet becuase the interviewee can lead the interview, leaving underlining issues with reliability. 

The mode is the most usual score that appears the most oftern.

The median is the middle score in a data set and if there is not an exact middle, you can calculate the exact middle score. 

The mean is the averange, where you total the scores and then divide by the number of scores there are. 

A bar chart represents data in two vertical or horizontal bars to display data clearly. It is useful when displaying catergories as it just has the one score on the y axis, the categories are on the x axis. 

Scatter diagrama are used for correlation dta and involves inserting a plot for each set of two scores with the x axis having one variables and the y axis having the other variable. 

A frequency table sets out the score in ascending order, starting with the lowest score, and then uses tallying to see how many times each scores is found in a data set. 

A histogram is a graph that can show the distribution of numerical data and usually scores are grouped to diplay that data more effevtively. 

The BPS code of Ethics and Conduct (2009) has four principles and within those prinicples there are important ethical issues to follow when carrying out research in psychology. The four prinicples are:

Respect is about respecting others' dignity and explaining the ethics of a study. It involves privacy, confidentaility, informed consent and the right to withdraw. 

Responibility is not doing harm or causing distress. A debrief at the end of a study can help minimise harm.

Competence is about the researcher's ability to rub the study, knowing what they're doing, indivudlas hvaing the competence.

Integrity is about being honest and accurate, publishing results honestly amd giving any conflicts of interest. 

In research in psychology there is a risk to the participants, the researcher and to others, at risk must be managed. The highest managment is about considering the likelihood that something will happen and the severity of it, if it does happen. RIsk can and should be mitigated by taking steps to avoid it, it can be transferred such as taking out insurance, or it can be accepted. 

A hypothesis is the statement of what is expected to happen. 

A null hypothesis states that there will not be a expected difference or relationship and any difference or relationship that is found will be down to chance.

The alternate hypothesis states what is expected to happen. 

A directional hypothesis is when a hypothesis predicts direction.

A non-directional hypothesis is when no direction is given. 

The indpendant variable in an experiment or study is the one that the researcher is making chnages to and wants to test. 

The dependant variable is what is being measured and what changes are a result of what the researcher is doing. 

Operationalising variables means making them full measurable so that what is done in a study is precise, replicable and clear.  

Independant groups mean that the different participants do each condition of the independant variable.

Repeated measures means the same participants do all the conditions. 

Matched pairs means that different participants do each condition but they are matched in ways that the researchers think are important fiven then research question. 

Order effects involve fatigue and and practice effects. The fatigue effect can affect results and is when someone is more tired in a second condition becuase of doing the first condition.

The practise effect can affect results and is when someone gets practice from the first condition which affects ther performance on the second condition. 

Counterbalancing means alternating the order conditions are done in. A particpant does Condition A and then Condition B and then the participant is also asked to do Condition A and then Condition A. This helps to balance out any order effects. 

Randomising the order of conditions can also work, such as tossing a coin to decide which of two conditions a particpant does first and doing that each time.

Socail desirbility is a form of bias in results if it occurs. It refers to how people might resond in a study according to what they think is socailly desireable, which willl have afffected thier response. 

Demand characteristics means that particiapants are responding to help the study i they guess ir think they guess what it is about. 

Experimenter bias refers to the characteristcs in the reseacher that affect the results. These can be features of the researcher such as tone of voice, dress, age or gender. 

Confouding variables are variables that have cuase bias in results and have affected the reultsinstead of or as well as the independant variable. 

Extraneous variables are any variables other than the IV and the DV that can affect then esults and they include situational or particpant variables as well as other variables. 

Situational variables are features of the situation that need to be controlled, such a noise. 

Particpant variables are featurees of the particpant that much be controlled for, hunger or age.

A laboratory experiment is set in an artificial, controlled setting that can help with claiming cause and effect conclusions becuase all other variables are controlled for. 

Advanatages of a lab experiments are that the control over the enviornment helps in avoiding confounding variables and extraneous variables can be controlled for. 

Disadvantages of a lab experiment are that external validity is compromised becuase generalising to the real world is limited. 

A field setting is when the study takes place in the participants natural setting. 

Advantages of a field experiment arethat they are in natural setting and there is external validity. 

Disadvantages include a lack of internal validity as there is less control over things in the field and there may be confounding variables. 

CAT scanning uses x ray images to give pictures of slices of the brain. Thye show brain structure but not activity. 

PET scanning uses radioactive chemicals injected into the blood stream that can then be used to produce images of an active brain. 

fMRI uses magnets to pick up changing blood flow in the brain, which shows brain activity. 

Raine et al (1997) used PET scanning. 

Twin studies are used to look at how far genes can explain a characteristic. The underpinning point is that MZ (idential) twins share 100% of their genes and then DZ (non-identical) share 50% of their genes. If a characterstic is found in one twin and it is found more in the other twin in MZ twins than in DZ twins, then is seems likely that the characteristic has at least some genetic case. 

Gottesman and Sheilds (1966) is a twin study to look at schizophrenia in clinical psychology. 

Pavlov's and skinners work in Learning theories was on animals. 

We use animals becuase they're easier to handle than humans, they have similar brain structures to a reasnable extent, can do things with animals without breaking the ethical guidleines. 

There are reasons against using animals which are there are differences in brain structure and functioning so generalising may not be sensible which would lack validity.

Validity overall means whether something measures what it claims to measure. 

Internal validity has been mentioned and refers to how far findings from an experiment can be seen to be casue-and-effect conclusions. 

Predeictive validity refers to how far scores gathered in a study predict measures on another scare or another way of measuring the DV.

Ecological validity refers to how representative of real life studies are. 

Reliability is found when a study is repeated and the same results are found. 

Generalisability means findings can be said to be true of the target population not just that sample used. 

Objectivity in results is found when there is no researcher bias from setting up the study. 

Subjectivity is usually seen as not required becuase it can give bias.

Credibility in research in psychology refers to having a believable set of results. 

Correlations relate to looking for a co-relationship netween two variables, which are covariablse.

Covariables are found in correlations and the idea is that the two variables chnage together, which means they co vary and they are covariables rather tha IV and DV, which are found if a difference is looked for. 

Structured observation is where a situation is set up rather than a natural situation being observed. 

Advantages are that there is some control over what os being observed. 

Disadvantages include that the observation is artificial so the data may not be valid.

Naturalistic observation is the opposervation is the opposite of structured as there is no interference with the natural situation that is being observed. 

Advantages are that enables natural behaaviour to be observed and it will have ecological validity. 

Disadvantages include not being able to record all what is goin on when there is no control over what is happeneing. 

Structured observation is where a situation is set up rather than a natural situation being observed. 

Advantages are that there is some control over what os being observed. 

Disadvantages include that the observation is artificial so the data may not be valid.

Naturalistic observation is the opposervation is the opposite of structured as there is no interference with the natural situation that is being observed. 

Advantages are that enables natural behaaviour to be observed and it will have ecological validity. 

Disadvantages include not being able to record all what is goin on when there is no control over what is happeneing. 

Time sampling is a way of recording data when doing an obervation. It measn recording what is happeneing at regular time intervals. 

Event sampling is iseful as well, especially if the event of interest does not happen that oftern. 

Covert is when the particpants do not know that theyr're being observed.  

Overt is when the participants know that they are eing observed. 

If the observer is part of what is going on then they are a participants observer. 

If the observer is not taking part is the then they are a non-participant obsever and they are seperate from what is happening. 

Nominal data will be numbers in certain categories.

Ordinal data are ranked data. 

Interval data are mathmatical numbers. Such as height or seconds. 

Thematic analysis involves developing codes that data can be fitted into so that qualitative data can be made sense of in a way that does not require all readers of a study to look at the whole of the data. It can be done by using theory to generate the ideas for codes or by using te data to drive decisions about codes. 

Advantages are that there is flexibility in how to choose categories and how to do the coding and thematic analysis can be done using any background theory.

Disadvantages include that there can be subjectivity. 

Grounded theory means to generate the htoery from the data. 

Advantages is that there is lesss likley going to be bias. 

Disadvantages of grouded theory are that there is likley going to be a theory in the researchers mind that they cannot get rid of and at first data is goingto be hard to generate. 

Primary data is data which is gathered first hand by a researcher. 

Advnatges are that it tends to be more reliable becuase they're collected by the researcher for a specific purpose. 

Disadavnatges are that it is very expensive to collect primary research.

Secondary data is data which has already been gathered, oftern for a different purpose. Can come from the intenet or newspapers. 

Advantages are that it can cost less and it less time consuming as the dat already exists. 

Disadvantages unclude the fact that the dat was collected for a different purpose and wuality of the data may be affected. 

Longitudinal designs aew when data is collected from the same person or group of people over a long time period so that patterns can be discovered. 

Advantages are that the same people are involved so there are no individual differences. 

Disadvantages include the fact that people may drop out overtime. 

Cross-sectional are when data is gathered from different people over a range of ages with a range of differences so that developmental patterns can be uncovered. 

Advantages are that the data can be collected in one moment in time. 

A meta-analysis is an analysis of analyses, becuase it involves looking at a lot of studies in a particular area of interest and summarising their results to get an overall result.

It can show trends and suggest relationships becuase results from different studies can be compared.

Advantages are that they can help pool together and draw firm conclusions without having to use more participants.

Disadvantages include propblems with pooling data from studies when the studies may not have gathered that data in exactly the same way.  

Case studies refer to a in-depth detailed study of one person or small group of people. 

Laverenne et al (2013) looks at a small group of out-patients all with schizophrenia. 

Advantages are that they are done in very in-depth detail. 

Disadvantages are that it is hard to generalise to a wider popualation.