Research methods

• What is a strength and weakness of time sampling?

  STRENGTH

  - Observer has to record what they have seen

  WEAKNESS

  - Some behaviours will be missed outside the intervals meaning observations mightn't be representative.
• What is a strength and weakness of Event sampling?


  STRENGTH

  - Behaviour will not be missed outside of time frames because you are always looking out for behaviours.

  WEAKNESS

  - If too many observations happen at once it may be difficult to record everything.
• What is an un-structured observation?

  Researcher records all relevant behaviour but has no system as they use continuous recording of behaviour.

  Researchers may use this when there is no prior research into the subject before.
• What is a structured observation?

  Choose behavioural categories before starting the main observation session.

  Sample the behaviour in a consistent manner using a sampling method.

  - Time samples - recording behaviour within a pre-established time frame

  - Event Sampling - concentrating on specifics behaviours and recording each time one of the behaviours are observered.
• What are strengths and weaknesses of non-participant observations?

  STRENGTHS

  - This type of observation is mor likely to be objective as the researcher is not involved in the group so can see behaviour from an outside POV

  WEAKNESSES

  - This often means that you do not get participants insight as you are not involved with the participants activity.
• What are strengths and weaknesses of participant observations?

  STRENGTHS

  - It can allow more in-depth information on your participants behaviour meaning the data is more likely to be valid

  WEAKNESSES

  - This observation may have ethical issues as it most likely will be covert as well but if not, participants may notice someone new and show demand characteristics
• What are strengths and weaknesses of Covert observations?

  STRENGTHS

  - Produces more natural behaviour as participants do not feel a pressure from the observer to act a certain way therefore reducing the chance of investigator effects

  WEAKNESSES

  - They are unethical as participants are not informed, they are being study and van often be difficult collecting consent afterwards especially when in a natural environment.
• What are strengths and weaknesses of Overt observations?

  STRENGTHS

  - Allow participants to gain informed consent from participants meaning the study is ethical

  WEAKNESSES

  - Participants may act differently to normal and might show social desirability bias.
• What are strengths and weaknesses of Controlled observations?

  STRENGTHS

  - The study allows for a high level of control because it can focus on a particular aspect of behaviour in a more precise way

  WEAKNESSES

  - This leads to observations feeling unnatural meaning participants are more likely to show demand characteristics.
• What are strengths and weaknesses of a naturalistic observation?

  STRENGTHS

  - Gives a realistic idea of how people behave in real-life situations therefore this increases the ecological validity

  WEAKNESSES

  - This means there is less control over behaviour because other people or things can happen which cannot be controlled therefore lowering the internal validity
• What is the difference between Participant and non-participant?

  Participant observation is when the observation is made by someone participating in the activity that is being observed.

  WHEREAS

  Non-participant observation is when an observed is separate from the people who are being observed
• What is the difference between overt and covert?

  Covert is an observation where the participants are unaware they are being observed

  WHEREAS

  Overt is when participants are aware they are being observed AND the observer is clearly visible to participants.
• What is the difference between naturalistic and controlled observations?

  Naturalistic observations are carried out in an everyday setting and the observer does not interfere with this in any way they just observe

  WHEREAS

  Controlled observations are when behaviour is observed under conditions where certain variables have been organised by the researcher.
• What are strengths and weaknesses of interviews?

  STRENGTHS

  - When a structured interview results can be checked for reliability as the study in repeatable due to the standardised instructions.

  - When an unstructured interview is used lots of detail can be collected into a specific question.

  WEAKNESSES

  - In all types of interviews social desirability bias can take place as participants may behaviour in a way ensuring that they are not being judged by the researcher.

  - Unstructured interviews have negative economic implications as the person who carries out the interview has to be highly trained.

  - Structured interviews often use closed questions and this means they often have a lack of detail. If a participant says something unusual to the interviewer, they cannot dig deeper into this.
• What are the differences between the three types of interviews?

  Structured - This technique has pre-determined questions so is essential a questionnaire that is spoken aloud.

  Semi-structured - This technique has some pre-determined questions, but they may ask extra extension questions to get detail in areas where they don't think they are getting enough.

  Unstructured - This technique has one main question or a couple smaller question that needs answering but the response of the individual leads the researcher to come up with new questions to ask.
• What are strengths and weaknesses of closed questions?

  STRENGTHS

  - Closed questions have a limited number of answers and produce quantitative data which means it is easier to analysis.

  WEAKNESSES

  - Respondents may be forced to choose an answer that does not replicate how they actually feel

  - Participants may select awnsers that sit in the middle which is not informative and therefore is unhelpful.
• What are strengths and weaknesses of open questions?

  STRENGTHS

  - Respondents can expand on their answer which means the data collected is quite detailed

  - It gives unexpected answers which give researchers new insight into people's thoughts, feelings and attitudes.

  WEAKNESSES

  - Many respondents will avoid giving long answers potentially due to fatigue or boredom effect therefore researchers don't get detailed data

  - Produces qualitative data that's difficult to analysis without bias occurring.
• What is a self-reporting technique?


  A technique that is a non-experimental way of collecting data by asking participants to report their own thoughts and feelings. This includes questionnaires and interviews.
• What are the four types of questions?

  - Closed questions

  - Open questions

  - Likert-style questions

  - Rank questions
• What is a negatively skewed Distrubutions?

  This is when the scores are skewed towards the right. The highest point on the graph is the mode than median than mean.
• What is a positively skewed distributions?


  This is when the scores are skewed towards the left. The highest on the graph is mode then median then mean.
• What is normal distribution?

  When the mean, median, and mode are equal
• What are scattergrams?

  - They are used for correlation

  - No IV or DV only co-variables

  - Dot are not joined up
• What are line graphs?

  - Continuous data on the X-axis

  - Y-axis should be frequency

  - The points are joined up
• What are histograms?

  In this graph the bars touch each other which shows the data is continuous rather than discreet like a bar chart.

  - The X-axis is made up of equal-sized intervals of a single category

  - The Y-axis represents the frequency within each interval
• What are bar charts?

  - These charts use discrete data

  - The IV goes on the X-axis

  - The DV goes on the Y-axis

  - These charts are also used when the DV is nominal
• What are strengths and weaknesses of the mean?

  STRENGTHS

  - It is the most sensitive as it takes into scientific all values of the data

  WEAKNESSES

  - The sensitivity of this measure of central tendency can be distorted by one extreme values and this end up being misrepresentative off the data as a whole
• What are the strengths and weakness of the range?

  STRENGTHS

  - This is easy to calculate

  WEAKNESSES

  - The js affects by extreme values because it only takes into account two values
• What are strengths and weaknesses of the median?

  STRENGTHS

  - This measure of central tendency is appropriate for ordinal data and is easier to calculate than the mean

  WEAKNESSES

  - This is not as sensitive a measure of central tendency because the exact values are not reflected in the middle value
• What are strengths and weaknesses of standard deviation?

  STRENGTHS

  - This js a precise measurement of dispersion as it takes into account all the values so is more representative

  WEAKNESSES

  - This measure of dispersion may be distorted by a single extreme value as all do the data are taken into account.
• What are strengths and weaknesses of the mode?

  STRENGTHS

  - This measure of central tendency is not affects by extreme scores so can be useful under such circumstances

  WEAKNESSES

  - This measure is easy to calculate however is a very crude measurement and can end up being very different from the median and mean
• What are measures of dispersions?

  - Range

  - Standard deviation
• What are measures of central tendency?

  - Mean (interval)

  - Median (ordinal)

  - Mode (nominal)
• What is interval data?

  Data are measured using units of equal intervals

  example : time taken to sort cards into categorises
• What is ordinal data?


  Data are ordered in some ways

  examples : participants self-worth on a scale of 1-10
• What is nominal data?

  Data are in separate categories such as grouping people according to their favourite football time or food.

  example : peoples choice of favourite newspaper from the sun, times and guardian
• What are strengths and weaknesses of quantitative data?

  STRENGTHS

  - Easy to analysis using descriptive statistics test as it is numerical

  - The data is objective meaning it is accurate as it cannot be misinterpreted or affected be bias

  WEAKNESSES

  - May over simplify reality
• What are strengths and weaknesses of qualitative data?


  STRENGTHS

  - Gives rich detailed data about peoples experience meaning we can understand behaviour better

  - Provides unexpected insight meaning we can understand individual difference in people behaviours

  WEAKNESSES

  - It's complexity makes it difficult to analysis and draw conclusions form as the data is hard to analysis and it could be misinterpreted
• What is the difference between quantitative and qualitative data?

  quantitative uses numbers and qualitative uses words
• What should be included in a debrief form?

  - True aim of the study

  - If independent groups has been used than participants should know what happened in all conditions

  - Ask participants if they have any questions

  - Any relevant ethical considerations

  - Offer someone that they can talk to if they are distressed

  - Thank participants