Unit 2 WJEC Psychology questions and answers with complete top solutions

Unit 2 WJEC Psychology questions and answers with complete top solutions What is an aim? A general statement of what the researcher intends to investigate What is a confounding variable? a factor other than the independent variable that might produce an effect in an experiment What does debriefing mean? To inform the participants of the true nature of the study and the restore them to the same state as they were beforehand. Avoids ethical issues what is a DV? The variable you measure What is an ethical issue? Concern questions of right of wrong. Does the benefits of the experiment outweigh the negatives What is an experiment? A research method where a casual conclusions can be drawn because of a manipulated on an IV to observe the effect on the DV What is a hypothesis? A hypothesis is a statement that can be tested What is an IV? variable that is manipulated What does the term operationalise mean? Ensuring that the variables are in a form that can be easily tested What is a standardised procedures? procedures that are the same for all ppts in order to be able to repeat the study. What is valid consent? ppts must be given comprehensive information concerning the nature and purpose of the research and their role in it, in order that they can make an informed decision about whether to participate. What is external validity? the degree to which the investigator can extend or generalize a study's results to other subjects and situations. (repeatability) What is an extraneous variable? a variable other than the IV that could cause changes in the value of the DV. (doesn't act as the IV like confounding variables) What is internal validity? The degree to which an observed effect was due to the experiment manipulation not confounding/extraneous variables What is mundane realism? refers to how a study mirrors the real world What does reliability mean? consistency (can the research be carried out multiply times and get the same results) What does validity mean? accuracy/legitimacy. does it represent reality What does split half method mean? the questions are split in half and the same ppts answer one set some time before the second set. If the scores of each half are similar, it is said the the test is reliable What does inter-rated/observer reliability mean? People are notorious for their inconsistency. We are easily distracted, we get tired of doing repetitive tasks. Using 2 observers makes the results more reliable, IF THEY'RE FINDINGS ARE SIMILAR. What does test-retest mean? redoing the experiment, if the results are similar there is a high external validity. However, risks observer bias. What is a questionnaire? a series of written questions a researcher presents to subjects Strengths of questionnaires + Cost effective + Can gather large amounts of data quickly + Can be completed without the researcher being present Weaknesses of questionnaires - Can produce response bias - Ppts may misunderstand the question or read it incorrectly - Demand Characteristics / Social Desirability may occur What does qualitative data mean? literature based data What does quantitative data mean? numerical based data Strengths of qualitative data +Rich in detail +Allows for in-depth analyse Weaknesses of qualitative data - difficult to analyse -difficult to compare people or groups Strength of quantitative data +easier to analyse +Easier to compare groups/people Weaknesses of quantitative data - not detailed - potentially superficial Opened questionnaires + allows justification + generates qualitative data Closed questionnaires + Restricted respondent to a predetermined set responses + Generate quantitative data What is an interview? one-to-one conversation with propose What is a structured interview? an interview in which a set of standardised questions having an established set of answers is used What is a unstructured interview? No preset questions which allows the interviewer to explore the areas further with questions arising from the respondents answer Strengths of structured interviews +Allowed more targeted questioning and allows some questions to produce quantitative data. Weaknesses of structured interviews - doesn't allow the researchers to pick up on interesting comments - time-consuming as they interview ppt individually and then that data in transcribed and analysed. Strengths of unstructured interviews + More flexible in how the questions are asked + Allows for a sensitive approach to issues that is lacking other methods Weaknesses of unstructured interviews - Hard to standardise so hard to generalise - Very time consuming as analysing the results will take a very long time What is correlation? relationship between two variables What is a correlation coefficient? A numerical index of the degree of relationship between two variables. significant correlation A stats to mean that if the results are big enough not to ignore, we accept the experiment hypothesis and reject the null-hypothesis Features of case studies Focus on a sample of either one individual, group or organisation They study that sample in-depth A type of descriptive research where IV and DV are not used to test cause and effect Methods used in case studies. Unstructured and semi-structured interviews, observations and past records, medical histories; diaries etc. Bowlby's study was essentially a series of case studies of children uses of case studies Atypical behaviour/conditions Unusual situations, Usually small samples as not many are affected Give insight into how to help What's going on 'normally' and prevention; give in-depth insight. Strengths of case studies - offer high levels of validity as they go into depth and give insight - Allows researchers to study that event when it can't redo that circumstance due to ethical issues - Learn about issues not yet understood - Takes one to disprove a theory Weaknesses of case studies - difficult to generalise - bias, if researchers get too involved they lose objectivity and misinterpret data - difficult to id the cause and effect -extraneous variables aren't controlled What is content analysis? - a type of research method - used to quantify the content of different types of media - content analysis summarises the content by counting various aspects of the content Strengths of content analyse - High ecological validity - Findings can be easily replicated - No ethical issues, as the people aren't being dealt with in person weaknesses of content analysis - observer bias as they are recording it -- they chose what to record to fit their hypthesis What is a pilot study? A small-scale trial run of the actual investigation to spot any methodology issues What is a confederates? When the researcher has someone play a role in an experiment or other investigation e.g Milgram's the experimenter was a confederate Weaknesses of Repeated measures -Order effects (learning, fatigue) -Demand characteristics -Different tests may be needed Methods of dealing with the disadvantages of repeated measures two different tests - reduces practice effect -- can be done by constructing a test of 40 items to test A and test B cover story - reduce the changes of the ppts finding the true aim of the experiment Disadvantage of independent groups Participant variables are an issue (different abilities, characteristics of each ppts) as they could become confounding variables More ppts are needed Methods of dealing with the disadvantages of the independent groups - Randomly allocate ppts to conditions Disadvantages of Matched pairs - time consuming as you have find people with the same characteristic (e.g IQ) - no possible to control all ppts variables as you can only match on variables known to be relevant Methods to deal with the disadvantages of the matched pairs - restrict the number of variables to match - conduct a pilot study to consider key variables What is counterbalancing? an experiment technique used to overcome order effects when using repeated measure, this ensures that each condition is tested first or second in equal amounts What is an order effect? in a repeated measure design, an extraneous variable arising from the order in which conditions are presented (practice and fatigue) Way 1 of counterbalancing (AB or BA) group 1 - A then B Group 2 - B then A this is still a repeated measure deign even though there are two groups of ppts as comparison will be made for each ppt and their performance on the two conditions Way 2 of counterbalancing (ABBA) all ppts take part in each condition twice trial 1: conditioning A trail 2: condition B trail 3: condition B trail 4: condition A compare 1 and 4 and 2 and 3 Conducting research online allows researchers to be able to access ppts via the internet or on social networking tools often questionnaires Advantages of online research - access to large groups, creating a diverse sample, reduces bias - cost effect, often free or very cheap - data analysis is quicker as ppts have transcribed their responses Disadvantages of online research - tend to be limited to questionnaires - ethical issues may become more difficult to deal with as most people don't read T&C, is this valid consent - difficult to debrief What is an natural quasi experiment? those with an IV what is difference study for quasi? no IV Natural experiments when it is not possible to deliberately manipulate an IV, therefore it is said that the IV varies naturally - the DV may be tested in a lab Difference studies the apparent IV is naturally occurring and the DV may be measured in a lab the IV may not been made to vary by anyone. It is simply a difference between people that exists (gender) Evaulation, why researchers cannot draw cause-and-effect - Manipulation of the IV - Random allocation - unique characteristics of ppts Manipulation of the IV (quasi) cannot say for certain that any change in the DV was caused by the IV, uncontrolled confounding variables Random allocation (independent groups design) not possible in a quasi or natural, this means there may be biases in different groups of participants, uncontrolled confounding variables Unique Characteristics of ppts the unique characteristics of the sample mean that the findings can't be generalised to other groups of people (low population validity) Unique characteristic of ppts example those who volunteer are going to be less violent when watching something violent, this can't be generalised to everyone though Demand characteristics cues in an experiment that tell the participant what behaviour is expected Orne, demand characteristics - those who were told about the panic button became more distressed then the blind group What is researcher bias? anything that an investigator does that has an effect on a participant's performance in a study other than what was intended What is a direct researcher bias? as a consequence of the investigator interacting with the ppt What is an indirect researcher bias? as a consequence of the investigator designing the study What are participant variables? any characteristic of individual ppts, these are not the same as participant effects. This is a type of extraneous variables only if an independent group deign is used, there are controlled in matched pairs Example of participant variables? - age - intelligence - motivation - gender What are situational variables? features of a research situation that may influence behaviour, thus acting as an EV or a CV Example of a situational variable order effect, a ppt performance may improve due to practice rather than the IV What is opportunity sampling? produced by selecting people who are most easily available at the time How does opportunity sampling work? an example, is people walking by you in the street or students at a school Advantage of opportunity sampling The easiest method, as one just uses the first suitable participants one can find, meaning it takes less time to locate a sample than if using another technique. Disadvantage of opportunity sampling Highly likely to be biased, either because the researcher selects unrepresentative participants or because volunteers have specific characteristics - e.g. they are unusually compliant What is quota sampling? similar to stratified sample except ppts are not selected from strata using a random sampling technique What is random sampling? a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion Name a random sampling technique? random number generator - number every member - using a software that can randomly pick numbers e.g excel What is an advantage of random sampling? unbiased, all members of the target population have an equal chance of selection What is a disadvantage of random sampling? maybe time-consuming as you have to list of all member of the target population and then contact all of those selected What a sampling frame? the source material from which a sample is drawn What is self-selected sampling? Sample consists of participants who volunteer to take part. relies solely on volunteers Self-selected, how? advertise in a newspaper or on a noticeboard or on the internet Advantage of self-selected gives access to a variety of ppts which may make the sample more representative and less biased Disadvantage of self-selected biased in some ways as ppts are likely to be more motivated to help or have extra time on their hands, this results in volunteer bias What is snowball sampling? Existing ppts recruit other ppts from among their peers and acquaintances. Advantage of snowballing sampling? enables a researcher to locate groups of people who are difficult to access less time-consuming Disadvantage of snowballing sampling? the sample is not likely to be a good cross-section from the population because its friends of friends Stratified sampling? produced by identifying subgroups according to their frequency in the target population ppts are then selected randomly from the subgroups