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70 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What are the advantages of questionnaires?
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• Time and cost efficient
• Investigator effects are reduced as the researchers do not have to be present (increases validity) • Results are replicable |
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What are the disadvantages of questionnaires?
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• Sample may be biased towards more literate people
• Participants may be unable to ask about unclear questions • Social desirability bias |
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What are the advantages of interviews?
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• More appropriate for dealing with sensitive issues (researcher can tell if participant is distressed)
• Researcher is present and so can follow up on information • Gives rich data |
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What are the disadvantages of interviews?
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• Social desirability bias
• Low inter-rater reliability due to interviewer differences (e.g. age, gender, etc) • Time consuming |
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What are the advantages of case studies?
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• Useful for when it would be impractical or unethical to research something experimentally
• Can challenge theories or suggest new areas of research • Allows complex interaction to be studied instead of simple cause-effect relationships |
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What are the disadvantages of case studies?
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• Can’t generalise from case studies or replicate them
• There may be ethical issues (participants are often young or have serious disorders) • Researcher bias if they become too involved |
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What are the advantages of observations?
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• Useful for when it would be impractical or unethical to research something experimentally
• Can be used as a preliminary tool to produce a hypothesis • Naturalistic observations have high ecological validity |
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What are the disadvantages of observations?
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• Overt observations have low ecological validity• Covert observations have ethical issues (e.g. consent)
• Behaviour is often unique and so has low reliability, and observers can often disagree on judgements |
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What are the advantages of content analysis?
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• Easily replicated using archived materials
• High ecological validity • Effective way of presenting qualitative data |
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What are the disadvantages of content analysis?
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• Time consuming
• Validity may be low (researchers may impose their own meaning) • Ethical issues (consent of people who created the materials) |
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What are the advantages of correlation analysis?
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• Useful for when it would be impractical or unethical to research something experimentally
• Precise method • Time and cost efficient (data can be secondary) |
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What are the disadvantages of correlation analysis?
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• Impossible to establish cause-effect
• Inaccurate conclusions are commonplace • Only measures linear relationships |
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What are the advantages of lab experiments?
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• Cause-effect can be inferred with reasonable confidence
• Replicable and reliable • Specialist equipment can be used |
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What are the disadvantages of lab experiments?
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• Lack ecological validity
• Demand characteristics • Cannot be used when manipulating the IV would be unethical or impractical |
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What are the advantages of field experiments?
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• Higher ecological validity
• Lower demand characteristics • Still possible to determine cause-effect |
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What are the disadvantages of field experiments?
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• More extraneous variables
• Participants may become distressed by IV manipulation • No control over who participates |
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What are the advantages of natural experiments (where the IV is naturally changing)?
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• Useful for when it would be impractical or unethical to research something otherwise
• High ecological validity • Demand characteristics are reduced |
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What are the disadvantages of natural experiments (where the IV is naturally changing)?
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• Extraneous variables can’t be eliminated
• Ethical issues (e.g. consent if unaware of participation) • Difficult to replicate |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of an independent groups design?
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• One set of stimulus materials
• Order effects are low • More participants and so more expensive • Individual differences |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of a repeated measures design?
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• Fewer participants so less expensive
• No individual differences • High order effects (but counterbalancing can be used) • More sets of stimulus materials are needed which increases extraneous variables |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of a matched pairs design?
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• One set of stimulus materials
• Low order effects • Time consuming, and matching may be inaccurate • If one participant drops out then so must their partner in the other condition (double the loss of data) |
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What is a directional hypothesis?
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A hypothesis with a specific outcome. A one-tailed test is used.
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What is a non-directional hypothesis?
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A hypothesis with a general outcome. A two-tailed test is used.
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What is a null hypothesis?
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A hypothesis that suggests that there will be no effect. The null is rejected if the directional or non-directional hypothesis is accepted.
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What could a researcher do to ensure protection from harm?
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• Ask colleagues/committees to help spot problems
• Ask for pre-existing mental and medical conditions before the study starts • Stop at the first sign of harm • Debrief participants |
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What could a researcher do to get informed consent?
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• Ask adults to read and sign a consent form
• Have parents give consent on a child’s behalf |
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What could a researcher do to avoid deception becoming an issue?
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• Debrief
• Point out retrospective right to withdraw |
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What could a researcher do to keep data confidential?
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• Allocate numbers or codes to participants’ data• Ask for consent when confidentiality is impossible
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How could a researcher give participants the right to withdraw?
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• Inform and remind participants of their right, without adding pressure for them to stay
• Task avoidance should be seen as wishing to withdraw in children |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of random sampling?
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• Unlikely to be biased
• Difficult to obtain list of entire population • Can be unrepresentative by chance |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of opportunity sampling?
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• Easy
• Biased • Consent issues (ie students in teacher’s research) |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of stratified sampling?
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• Representative
• No researcher bias • Time consuming |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of systematic sampling?
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• Easy
• Might not be representative |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of volunteer sampling?
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• Possibly the only way to locate a niche group
• May not be representative (only cooperative people from that group will take part) • Sample may be small |
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What is reliability?
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The consistency of findings
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What is split-half reliability and how can it be improved?
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Splitting the data into two halves to find a correlation (usually odd and even questions on surveys). Select items that produce the greatest similarity.
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What is inter-rater reliability and how can it be improved?
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Having two or more raters correlate their findings. Standardised procedures and instructions and using a double blind test.
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What is test-retest reliability and how can it be improved?
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Having the same participants do the test twice and comparing results. Standardised instructions and procedures and using a double blind test.
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What is validity?
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The extent to which a test measures what it intends to measure.
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What are the three types of validity?
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Ecological, temporal and population.
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How do situational variables affect validity and how can it be fixed?
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Could affect DV (eg poor lighting in a test). Standardised procedures.
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How do participant variables affect validity and how can it be fixed?
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Could affect DV (eg one group may perform better because they're younger). Using a repeated measures or matched pairs design.
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How do investigator effects affect validity and how can it be fixed?
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Could affect DV (ie leading questions). Using a double blind test.
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How do participant effects affect validity and how can it be fixed?
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Could affect DV (ie demand characteristics). Creating a situation where they can't guess the aim.
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What is face validity and what is its outcome?
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On the 'face' of it, does it measure what it intends? The test looks like it works but this is not proven.
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What is content validity and how is it assessed?
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Does the method measure what it intends to measure (eg do IQ tests measure intelligence or just puzzle skills)? A panel of experts are asked to measure for validity.
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What is concurrent validity and how is it assessed?
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How well does the measure agree with others (eg two IQ tests)? Test participants using both and compare.
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What is construct validity and how is it assessed?
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Is the test measuring all parts (eg a maths test for intelligence doesn't measure all intelligence)? Define what you aim to measure and ensure that all parts of the definition are measured.
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What is predictive validity and how is it assessed?
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Does the test predict behaviour (eg an IQ test predicting GCSE scores)? Follow-up study.
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of quantitative data?
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• Easy to analyse
• Over-simplified, not rich data |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of qualitative data?
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• Rich, useful data
• Difficult to analyse |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of a mean value?
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• Uses all data
• Numerical centre point of all actual values • Not always an actual amount (e.g. 2.4 kids) • Easily skewed by anomalies |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of a median value?
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• Unaffected by extreme scores
• Easy • Not useful for small data sets with a large range • May not be an actual amount if there is an even number of scores |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of a modal value?
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• Always an actual score
• Not distorted by extreme values • Sometimes data has no mode or many modes • Doesn’t use all data |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of ranges?
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• Easy
• Takes extreme values into account • Ignores most data • Easily distorted by extreme values |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of standard deviation?
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• Precise (all values taken into account)
• Detailed conclusions can be made • Difficult and time consuming |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of changing qualitative data into quantitative data?
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• Patterns are easier to see
• Easier to summarise • Detail is lost • Coding units can be biased |
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What must parametric tests have?
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• Interval data
• From a normally distributed population • Homogeneity of variance (similar deviation) of conditions |
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What test should be used for repeated measures or matched pairs designs with nominal (category) data?
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Sign Test
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What test should be used for independent groups designs with nominal data?
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Chi-Squared Test
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What test should be used for correlations with nominal data?
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Chi-Squared Test
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What test should be used for repeated measures or matched pairs designs with ordinal (scores) data?
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Wilcoxon Test
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What test should be used for independent groups designs with ordinal (scores) data?
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Mann-Whitney U Test
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What test should be used for correlations with ordinal (scores) data?
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Spearman's Rho Test
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What test should be used for repeated measure and matched pairs designs with interval (parametric) data?
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Related T Test
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What test should be used for independent groups designs with interval (parametric) data?
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Unrelated T Test
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What test should be used for correlations with interval (parametric) data?
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Pearson's Test
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What level of significance do psychologists use?
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P < 0.05 (This means that we are 95% confident that results are not due to chance)
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What is a type 1 error?
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When we incorrectly reject the null hypothesis because we allow too much chance (eg P < 0.1)
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What is a type 2 error?
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When we incorrectly accept the null hypothesis because we allow too little chance (eg P < 0.01)
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