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87 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Define External Validity |
The extent to which a study can be generalised, including:
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Define Internal Validity |
Whether the study has tested what it meant to test and can be generalised beyond the experimental setting |
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Difference between confidentiality and privacy |
confidentiality is the right to have personal information protected privacy is the right for an individual to control the flow of information about themselves |
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What is deception |
Participants are not told the true aims of the study and thus cannot give true informed consent |
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What is protection from harm |
Participants should not experience harmful psychological or physiological effects |
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What is informed consent |
The participants right to be given comprehensive information concerning the nature and purpose of the research and their role within it, so that they can decide whether they wish to participate in the experiment |
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What is the right to withdraw |
Participants should be have the right to leave the study at anytime if they feel uncomfortable |
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Informed consent - How do you deal it and what are the limitations that come with this? |
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Deception - How do you deal with deception and what are the limitations of this |
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Right to withdraw - How to deal with it and limitations with this method? |
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protection from harm - how to deal with it what are the limitations to this method? |
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Confidentiality - how to deal with it and limitations to this method |
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Privacy - limitations and how to deal with this ethical issue |
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What is a directional hypothesis |
States the predicted difference between two conditions eg. there will be a higher recall of words when using a mnemonic technique than when not using a mnemonic technique |
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What is a non directional hypothesis |
States that 'There will be a difference', However does not state direction the difference will be |
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What is a null hypothesis |
States there will be NO difference Has no direction or prediction |
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What is a pilot study |
Small scale investigation used to iron out any potential errors in the study before the real experiment takes place, with a view towards making improvements |
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limitations of repeated measures design |
Each participant repeats every condition - therefore, may be subject to practice effects, fatigue effects, extraneous variables, participant variables, and demand characteristics |
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Limitations of independent groups design |
Participants are allocated to two or more conditions, each with a different experimental condition Therefore, can be subject to participant variables, you need twice as many participants |
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Limitations of the matched pairs design |
Participants are matched due to their key variables - However, there may not be control over all these variables and this is very time consuming |
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Dealing with the limitations of repeated measures design |
1) use counterbalancing (where each participant does every condition and it is therefore measured in equal amounts) e.g. ABBA or AB BA 2) you can use a cover story (single blind) |
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Dealing with the limitations of independent groups design |
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Dealing with the limitations of matched pairs design |
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What are demand characteristics |
A cue that makes participants aware of what the researcher expects to find Participants may change their behaviour to confirm the expectations |
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What is social desirability bias |
Tendency for participants to answer questions that will put them in a better light |
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Give examples of situational variables |
Time of day, temperature, noise |
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Give examples of participant variables |
Age, intelligence, motivation, experience, gender |
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Give the three measures of central tendency and state their limitations and strengths |
Mean: uses all values; subject to extreme values and cannot be used with nominal data Mode: Not subject to extreme values; can be used with nominal data; cannot be used when there are two modes; does not take into account all numbers Median: not affected by extreme scores; but does not reflect all values |
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Advantages and disadvantages of the two measures of dispersion |
Range: Is easy to calculate and provides you with direct information, however it is affected by extreme values and doesn't take into account the number of observations Standard deviation: More precise measurement because it takes into account all of the values, however is may hide extreme values |
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Definition of a lab experiment |
An experiment that is conducted in a highly controlled environment attempting to remove extraneos variable in order to study an IV with a DV |
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Definition of a field experiment |
An experiment carried out in a more natural environment where the IV is still manipulated by the experimenter though with less control of extraneous variables than in a lab |
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Definition of a natural experiment |
The experimenter does not directly manipulate the IV so causal conclusions cannot be made. e.g. the study of Romanian orphans |
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Advantages and disadvantages of a lab experiment |
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Advantages and disadvantages of a field experiment |
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Advantages and disadvantages of a natural experiment |
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Difference between event and time sampling |
event: the number of times a behaviour occurs time: behaviour recorded periodically e.g. every fifteen seconds |
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What is a controlled observation |
Behaviour is observed under controlled conditions |
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What is a naturalistic observation |
Behaviour is observed in a naturalistic setting, where the investigator does not interfere in any way but merely observes the behaviour in question |
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a) what is a behaviour checklist? b) what is a coding system? |
a) A list of behaviours to be recorded during an observational study b) A systematic method for recording behaviours in which individual behaviours are given a code for ease of recording |
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Difference between covert and overt observations |
Covert- observing without participants knowledge Overt- observing with the participants knowledge |
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Advantages of observational research |
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Weaknesses of observational research |
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Define and evaluate an opportunity sample |
participants chosen by selecting people who are most easily available easy to find participants Cheap to find participants biased because it is not random as the sample may be all from the same social group, age group, etc. |
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Define and evaluate a volunteer sample |
Relies on volunteers to make up the sample
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Define and evaluate a random sample |
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Define and evaluate a systematic sample |
Selecting every (Nth) person. e.g. every tenth person on a list |
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Define and evaluate a stratified sample |
Sample obtained according to their frequency in the population. e.g. if 20% of your population is female then 20% of your sample should be |
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What is an unstructured interview |
No set questions, just a general area of questioning. This allows the participant's answers guide the subsequent questions |
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Advantages and weaknesses of questionnaires |
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Advantages and weaknesses of structured interviews |
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Advantages and disadvantages of unstructured interviews |
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Advantages and disadvantages of a correlational analysis |
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Advantages and disadvantages of a case study |
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What is content analysis and how would this be performed on say, a magazine |
Behaviour is observed indirectly on verbal or written material 1) select sample method 2) select behavioural categories - quantitative or qualitative |
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Advantages and disadvantages of content analysis |
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What is attrition |
The loss of participants from a study over time |
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What are cohort effects |
A group of participants may have unique characteristics because of time specific experiences. People born in the 1950's are different to people born in the 1990's |
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What is a control group |
Acts as a baseline measurement in an experiment |
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Definition of a quasi experiment |
Researcher is unable to use random allocation because the IV is a particular feature of the participant e.g. gender or a mental disorder |
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Advantages and disadvantages of quasi experiments |
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What are research aims |
The aims of a study should be stated BEFORE the research begins and are the studies purpose e'g. Milgram's aim might have been to study the effect of authority on obedience |
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What is the dependant variable |
The dependent variable is the variable you think will be affected by changes in the independent variable |
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What is the independent variable |
The independent variable is the variable directly manipulated by the researcher |
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What is a variable |
A variable is a quantity whose value can change |
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What is operationalisation |
Operationalisation is describing the process by which the variable will be measured |
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What are the difficulties with operationalisation |
Some things are easy to measure such as height, speed or weight, but how do you measure 'love'? |
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What is the purpose of the experimental design |
An experimental design must make the hypothesis testable which requires an operationalised dependent variable |
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Why does research need to be highly controlled |
To avoid the effects of extraneous variables by exposing all participants to them or removing them all together |
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Define counterbalancing |
Counterbalancing is mixing up the order of tasks to solve the problem of order effects |
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What are order effects |
If a person is involved in several conditions they may become bored, tired and fed up by the time they come to the second condition |
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What is random allocation |
Random allocation means that every participant has an equal chance of doing either condition in an independent groups design |
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What are standardised instructions |
A method of ensuring that every participant is given exactly the same instructions in an experiment to avoid researcher bias |
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Strengths and weaknesses of overt observation |
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Strengths and weaknesses of covert observation |
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Advantages of a controlled observation |
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Disadvantages of a controlled observation |
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What is an operationalised definition |
A way of categorising behaviour for an observation by operationalising the concepts. e.g. what constitutes 'aggression' (punching, kicking, etc.) |
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What is rating behaviour |
Behaviours are often a matter of degree rather than absolutes so each behaviour could have several categories or a scale to show this |
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What is event sampling |
A researcher only records the events they are interested in
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What is Time Sampling and what are the advantages and disadvantages |
A researcher only records behaviours at specific intervals
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What is Inter-Observer Reliability |
A method used to ensure that all observers are defining and catagorising behaviours in the same way |
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Things to consider and avoid in questionnaire design |
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Things to consider in data analysis |
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What is primary data |
Information collected during a researchers direct observations of participants |
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What is secondary data |
Information collected from other studies |
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What is a meta-analysis |
This is the summarising of the results of a number of different studies |
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of qualitative data |
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