research methods

Independent-

the thing that you manipulate in a study to see the effect it has on another variable 

Dependent-

the thing that you measure in a study

Operational-

the specific way in which its measured in the study

Extraneous-

any variable apart from the iv that may affect the dv, impacting the validity. anything that could impact the performance(situational; time, weather, noise. participant; age, mood, IQ)

Confounding-

have caused an influence on the study 

external-the degree to which the findings can be generalised to other settings

internal-the degree to which an observed effect was due to manipulation or other variables 

ecological-the extent to which the results can be generalized to real life settings

face-when a study completes its aim

population-how well a sample can be generalized to the whole world/target population 

temporal-refers to the validity of the findings in relation to the progession of time (is it a "child of it's time"?)

• Repeated measures, each participant receives all the conditions

- the order of the conditions may impact results=order effects 

- can guess the purpose=demand characteristics 

• Independent groups, only participates in one condition

- can't control the effectsof participant variables 

- needs double the amount of participants= costly

• Matched pairs , two groups matched on key characeristics, only participates in one condition 

- time consuming and difficult to match 

- not possible to control all participant variables 

• you can... counter balance (ABBA), randomly allocate( number from hat) conduct pilot study

• labatory 

conducted in a special environment with high control

normally artificial tasks, participants are aware they're in a study 

+ high control over variables, high internal validity, standardised  

- low ecological validity, demand charcteristics, can't be generalized  

• field 

conducted in everyday setting of participants

IV is still manipulated, participants not usually aware 

+ higher ecological validity

- hard to control variables, ethical issues 

• natural

conducted in everyday environment, but the IV is naturally occuring

+ high ecological validity, less demand characteristics, allows research on normally unethical things, get to study real life problems

-only a correlation as IV isnt manipulated, no control over variables, threat to internal validity 

• quasi 

the IV is naturally occured but the DV is measured, the IV has not been made to vary but its pre existing features (gender, ethnicity, age, LoC, sexuality) 

+ allows comparisons between different types of people 

- demand characteristics, impacts internal validity, normally artificial task= low ecological validity

• opportunity those convenient or avaliable  

+ easy, less time consuming

- biased (confident ones or those who don't work) 

• random random number generator, lottery method, random table number

+ unbiased, everyone has an equal chance of selection

- time consuming

• volunteer advertise the study 

+ access to a variety, less biased and more representitive

- volunteer bias (more helpful, confident, more time)

• stratified

subgroups within a population are identified,selected through random allocation

+ representative 

- very time consuming

• systematic

pretermined system (every nth person), the interval is applied continuously

+ unbiased

- bias unless you use random selection, then every nth person 

• informed consent
  • RPOV, revealing true aims, but then they may guess (demand characterisitcs)
  • PPOV, basic human right of whether to participate 
• deception
  • RPOV, necessary to hold truth, you can withhold some aims but not provide false aims
  • PPOV, unethical, leads to psychologosists seen as untrustworthy,wont want to participate
• right to withdraw 
  • RPOV, if they leave then the strong ones are left, biased sample
  • PPOV, withdraw if uncomfortable, money or a reward are given which forces them to stay
• confidentiality
  • RPOV, may be difficult if they're wanting to publish results, may only guarantee anonimity
  • PPOV, only acceptable for a persons data to be recorded if the data hides the participant
• privacy
  • RPOV, hard to avoid if you're doing a field/natural study 
  • PPOV, they won't be expecting to be studied, invasion of privacy
• protection from harm
  • RPOV, vital questions may cause distress, difficult to predict outcomes, not guaranteed
  • PPOV, must leave the study in the same state they arrived, no extra harm 

• BPS guidelines
• cost benefit analysis
• ethics committee
• punishment of psychologist

• informed consent= presumptive, prior, parental consent
• deception= debriefing
• right to withdraw= told at start their right 
• protection from harm= stop study if there's harm, avoid risks greater than everyday life
• confidentiality= shouldn't record names, just as numbers
• privacy= don't study anyone without informed consent 

• demand characteristics
  • the totality of cues that convey the experimental hypothesis to the participant that becomes determinates of the participants behaviour- Orne
  • in experients, participants are unsure of what to do, they actively look for clues to see how they should behave. 
  • acts as an extraneous variable 
• investigator effects
  • any cues from an investigator that encourage a certain behaviour which will lead to the fulfiment of the experimentors expectations
  • indirect- refers to situations where an investigator may not clearly specify the standardised procedure, leaves room for the results to be influenced by the experimenter.
• dealing with these issues
  • single blind design
    • participant is not aware of the aims/condition they're recieving
  • double blind design
    • both participant and experimentor are blind to the aims
  • experimental realism
    • if the task is engaging they'll focus on the study, not that they're being observed 

• naturalistic
  • natural situation where everything is left as it was 
  • researcher does not interfere with the environment 
  • observing people in their natural environment (e.g child in nursery)

+ realistic, high ecological validity

- little control over other things that may impact their behaviour, unethical 

• controlled
  • variables are regulated by the researcher 
  • allows them to investigate the effects of certain things on another

+ able to establish cause and effect, highly controlled

- lack validity, demand characteristics if it isn't natural 

• overt, participant knows they're being observed 

+ can gain informed consent 

- investigator effects, demand characteristics, social desirability bias

• covert, participants unaware they're in a study

+ behaviour is natural, investigator effects are unlikely

- unethical

• participant, researcher is part of the group being observed

+ obtain in depth data 

- presence might influence their behaviour, could be risky and dangerous is caught 

• non-participant, observes from a distance and doesn't interact 

- might overlook or miss important behaviours

• unstructured observation
  • record all relevant behaviour with no system 
  • too much to record, only record the eyecatching/visible behaviour 
  • may use this approach as a pilot study for a structured observation later on 
• structured observation
  • aims to be objective and rigorous
  • main two ways of observing is behavioural categories or sampling procedures
• behavioural categories
  • should be objective
  • cover all possible behaviours without having a waste/other category
  • be mutally exclusive/specific, the behaviour shoudl fit into only one category
• sampling procedure 
  • event sampling
    • counting the number of times a certain behaviour occurs in a target individual
  • time sampling
    • recording behaviours in a given time frame 

• questionnaire
  • set of written questions, to gain both quantitative and qualitative data, always structured

+ distributed to large number, high pop validity, reduces social desirability bias if anonomous

- biased sample, only those who can read or write or those with extra time 

• structured interview
  • pre-determined questions, a face-to-face questionnaire 

+ standardised, easily repeated, 

- interviewer bias, social desirability bias 

• unstructured interview 
  • new questions are developed during the interview, known also as a "clinical interview"

+ more detail obtained

- social desirability bias, interviewer effects, trained interviewer=more costly 

• questionnaire construction
  • writing good questions
    • clarity
    • bias 
    • analysis 
      • open/closed questions
  • writing a good questionnaire 
    • filler questions
    • sequence for the questions
    • no leading questions
    • pilot study 
• design of interviews
  • recording the interview 
  • the effect of the interviewer 
    • non verbal communication
    • listening skills
  • questionning skills in unstructured interview 

• correlation
  • systematic assosiation between two continous variables
  • positive= two variables increase together 
  • negative=one variable increases as another decreases 
  • zero=no relashionship between the variables 
• scattergrams
  • way of presenting a correlation
  • the scatter of the dots indicate the degree of correlation
• correlation coefficient 
  • a measure of the extent of correlation that exists between the two variables 
  • it is a number, maximum being +1, lowest being -1
  • tells us how closely the variables are related 
  • to find out if it is significant, you have to use the table

• central dendency, tells us the central value of a set of data 
  • mean
    • sensitive, takes account of all numbers= easily distorted 
  • median
    • not affected by extreme scores, not sensitive enough
  • mode
    • unaffected by extreme values, not useful when there are multiple modes 

• measures of dispersion, tells us how spread out the data is 
  • range
    • easy to calculate, affected by extreme values, fails to take into account the distribution
  • standard deviation
    • precise measure of dispersion, easy to calculate, may hide some of the extreme values 

• displays 
  • tables
  • bar charts
  • histograms
  • line graph 
  • skattergram
• data distribution
  • normal
    • classic bell shaped curve 
    • predicted distribution when considering an equal likely set of results
  • skewed
    • not equally distributed around the mean 
      • postive (right foot shaped)
      • negative (left foot shaped)
      • think the shape of a foot (big toe to little toe)

• qualitative
  • how/what they feel and think
  • in depth detail, hard to analyse
• quantitative
  • how many, how long, how much 
  • forced answer, easy to analyse
• primary
  • first hand data gathered by researchers themselves
  • time consuming, expensive
• secondary
  • data collected from someone else earlier
  • quick and easy, economical 

• peer review
  • assesment of scientific by others 
  • serves 3 main purposes:
    • allocation of research funding
    • publication of research in academic journals and books 
    • assessing the research rating of a universities department 
• evaluation
  • hard to find an expert to analyse or review it 
    • poor research is passed on due to them not understanding, smith 1999
  • anonymity is used so reviewers can be honest and objective
    • however as it is a competitive environment, they may review them badly 
  • pulications tend to be positive and paid for, don't have true information
    • publicator bias
  • it results in theorys that follow existing theories being published, rather than contraversial ones
  • still published if deemed poor research, we are eposed to unvalid research
  • as the people reviewing th work are in the smae field, they may prevent it from being published on purpose as there is limited funding, and there's high competition.