Mock exam

• Interview types


  • structured

  • semi-structured

  • unstructured
• Structured interview definition


  Pre-determined questions

  Questionnaire delivered face-to-face (or over the telephone) with no deviation from original questions

  Conducted in real-time
• Semi-structured interview definition 


  Less structure

  New questions are developed during the course of the interview

  Interviewer may begin with general aims and possibly a few pre-determined questions but subsequent questions develop on the basis of the answers that are given
• Unstructured interview definition


  Informal, open-ended chat or conversation

  Interviewer may use a list of headings as guides or prompts for questioning but many of the questions will follow on from what the subject has said

  Aims to get the interviewees to lead the discussion
• Advantages of a structured interview


  • can be easily repeated because questions are standardised

  • comparable answers

  • easier to analyse than an unstructured interview because answers are more predictable
• Disadvantages of a structured interview 


  • comparability may be a problem if the same interview behaves differently on different occasions

  • different interviewers behave differently

  • this means it will have low reliability

  • interviewer’s expectations may influence the answers the respondent gives (investigator effect - interviewer bias)

  • all interviewers have to be skilled to prevent interviewer bias
• Advantages of a semi-structured interview


  • more detailed information can generally be obtained from each respondent

  • gets deeper insights into respondent’s feelings and thoughts
• Disadvantages of a semi-structured interview 


  • requires interviewers with more skill than a structured interview because interviewer has to develop new questions on the spot

  • more likely to lack objectivity than pre-determined one’s because of their instantaneous nature, with no time to reflect on what to say

  • more expensive to require specialist interviewers
• Advantages of an unstructured interview 


  • social reality

  • high validity data

  • easy to gain informed consent

  • trained interviewer remains objective and not let their bias influence the findings
• Disadvantages of unstructured interviews


  • can be effected by social desirability bias

  • may have an intrusive nature in some questions

  • researcher’s bias may creep in the research process

  • conversational nature makes it hard to repeat by other psychologists and gain similar results

  • time-consuming

  • sample size may be restricted
• Experimental design types


  • independent measures

  • repeated measures

  • matched pairs
• Independent groups definition


  Participants are allocated to two or more groups representing different levels of the IV

  Allocation is usually done using random techniques
• Repeated measures definition


  Each participant takes part in every condition under test, e.g. Each level of the IV
• Matched pairs definition


  Pairs of participants are matched in terms of key variables such as age and IQ

  One member of each pair is allocated to one of the conditions under test and the second person is allocated to the other condition
• Strengths of independent groups


  • avoids order effects - e.g. there will be no practice effect because each participant only does one condition

  • won’t guess the purpose of the experiment

  • not time consuming as there is no need to match participants

  • avoids boredom effect
• Disadvantages of independent groups 


  • researcher cannot control the effects of participants variables e.g. The different abilities or characteristics of each participant - confounding variables

  • needs more participants than repeated measures design in order to end up with the same amount of data
• Advantages of repeated measures


  • controls effects of participant variables

  • has enough participants than independent groups
• Disadvantages of repeated measures


  • the order of conditions may affect performance (an order effect)

  • participants may do better on second test because of a practice effect

  • participants may do worse on second test because of being bored with doing the same test again (boredom effect)

  • may guess the purpose of the experiment in the second test and so may affect their behaviour
• Advantages of matched pairs


  • fewer participant variables

  • no order effects

  • lower risk of demand characteristics

  • same tests/ materials can be used in all conditions
• Disadvantages of matched pairs

  • participants cannot be matched on every level and therefore there are some participants variables

  • matching is difficult and time consuming

  • more participants required than with other designs
• Types of data


  • qualitative and quantitative data

  • primary and secondary data

  • levels of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio data (NOIR)
• Qualitative data definition


  information in words that cannot be counted or quantified

  Qualitative data can be turned into quantitative data by placing them in categories and counting frequency
• Quantitative data definition


  Information that represents how much or how long or how many etc.. there are of something I.e. behaviour is measured in numbers or quantities
• Primary data


  Information observed or collected directly from first-hand experience

  Data collected by the researcher for the study currently being undertaken
• Secondary data definition


  Information collected for a purpose other than the current one

  Researcher could use data collected from another study by themselves or collected by another researcher

  Might use government statistics or hospital data etc
• Nominal data


  Data in separate categories, such as grouping people according to their favourite football team
• Ordinal data


  Data ordered in some way, for example asking people to put a list of football teams in order of liking

  The difference between each item is not the same, I.e. the individual may like the first item a lot more than the second, but there might only be a small difference between the items ranked second and third
• Interval data 


  Data measured using units of equal intervals, such as when counting correct answers or using any public unit of measurement

  Many psychological studies use ‘plastic interval scales’ where intervals are arbitrarily determined and we can’t therefore know for certain that there are equal intervals between the numbers

  However such data may be accepted as interval for analysis purposes
• Ratio data 


  There is a true zero point as in most measures of physical quantities
• Measures of central tendency


  Mean

  Median

  Mode
• Mean - calculation and definition 


  • calculated by adding up all the data items and dividing by the number of data items

  • used with ratio and interval data
• Median - calculation and definition


  • middle value in an ordered list

  • data items must be arranged in order and the central value is then the median

  • if there is even number of data items there will be two central values - add the two data items then divide by two

  • media can be used with ratio, interval and ordinal data
• Mode - calculation and definition


  • value that is most common data item

  • with nominal data it is the category that has the highest frequency count

  • with interval and ordinal data it is the data item that occurs most frequently

  • to identify this the data items need to be arranged in order

  • modal group is the group with greatest frequency
• How to carry out case studies: methodology 


  • detailed study of single individual/institution/event

  • uses information from range of sources, eg from person concerned, also from family/friends

  • many research techniques - people interviewed/might be observed while engaged in daily life

  • psychologists use IQ tests/personality tests/different kinds of questionnaire to produce psychological data about target person/group of people

  • use experimental method to test what target person/group can/can’t do

  • findings organised to represent individuals thoughts, emotions, experiences, abilities
• Sampling techniques


  random

  Opportunity

  Stratified

  Systematic

  Volunteer
• Random sampling definition


  Each item in a target population has an equal chance of being selected

  Various random techniques used to obtain a random sample

  e.g. Lottery method and random number generators
• Opportunity sampling definition

  Recruit those people who are most convenient or most easily available at time of the study, for example people walking by you in the street or students at school
• Stratified sampling definition


  Subgroups within a target population are identified according to their frequency

  Participants are obtained from each of the strata in proportion to their occurrence in the target population

  Selection from the strata is done using a random technique
• Systematic sampling definition


  Use a predetermined system to select participants, such as selecting every 6th, 14th, 20th person from a phonebook

  Numerical interval is applied consistently

  Can be a random sample if first person is selected using a random method
• Volunteer sampling


  sample of participants that relies solely on volunteers to make up the sample (self-selected sample)