year 2

• what is a correlation

  a mathematical technique which measures the relationship between 2 co-variables
• what are correlations plotted onto

  a scatter graph where each axis respecting one of the variables being investigated
• what are the 3 types of correlations

  1. negative correlation
  2. positive correlation
  3. no correlation
• what is a negative correlation

  high scores on 1 variable tend to go with low scores on another variable
• what is a positive variable

  high scores on 1 variable tend to go with high scores on another variable
• how can correlations be analyzed

  using statistical tests
• what are the 2 types of statistical tests for correlations

  1. pearsons product moment test
  2. spearman's rho test
• what is correlation coefficient

  tells us the direction and strength of relationship between the co-variables between +1 and -1
• what is a perfect positive correlation

  +1
• what is the perfect negative correlation

  -1
• when are correlations the strongest

  the closer the co-efficient is to +1 or -1 the stronger the relationship between the co-variable is the closer to 0 the weaker the relationship is
• what does the letter 'r' stand for

  correlation coefficient
• what is a case study

  an in-depth investigation, description and analysis of a single individual, small group of people, institution or event
• what do case studies involve

  analysis of unusual individuals or events such as a person with a rare disorder or the sequence of events that led to the 2011 London riots
• what is an example of a case study

  Clive wearing was studied due to his individual with a rare disorder
• what do researchers construct for case studies

  a case history of the individual concerned using interviews, observations, questionnaires or a combination of all of these
• what do case studies usually produce

  conducting a case study usually involve the production of qualitative data although not exclusively
• what may case studies be subject to

  it is possible that the person may be subject to experimental or psychological testing to asses what they are capable of and this may produce quantitative data
• what is the name of a long period case study

  case studies may take place over a long period of time are called longitudinal study
• what are 2 strengths of case studies

  • case studies offer rich, in-depth detail about behaviour that might be unusual or difficult to study using an experiment which increases validity
  • may generate hypotheses for future study and one individual case studies that contradicts research may lead to the revision of an entire theory
• what are 2 limitations of case studies

  • you cannot generalize the findings from a case study to the whole population
  • case studies can be low in validity due to it being a subjective research method, researchers are analyzing qualitative data and all research are based on the interpretation of the research and therefore is entirely subjective
• what is content analysis

  an indirect observation of behaviour within the media and can produce both qualitative and quantitative data
• what are some examples of media where context analysis can be conducted

  • newspaper
  • books
  • journals
  • news
  • social media such as Instagram
  • tv programme
• what is content analysis a type of

  observational research
• how are people studied in content analysis

  indirectly via the communications they have produced
• what does content analysis study

  studies material rather than people directly
• what types of material does content analysis include

  • spoken interactions such as speech and conversations
  • written form such as email and texts
  • examples from media such as books, magazines and tv
• what are the 6 stages of content analysis

  1. identify your research question
  2. collect your sample of materials
  3. researcher reads thought the materials, making themselves familiar with it
  4. then categorize what you are analyzing the material for and this will be your coding system
  5. you then read through the materials again and tally every time a theme is identified in your coding system is obserbed in the material
  6. may also involve generating qualitative data, such as thematic analysis, themes may only emerge once the data has been coded
• what does a theme

  any idea that is recurrent (keeps cropping up) as part of the communication being studied
• what are examples of coding units that could be used to qualify how males and females are represented in media 


  • males - strong, aggressive, money earner, sporty and disorganized
  • females - sexualized, pretty, domestic roles, shy and organized
• what is the initial stage of content analysis

  the chosen media is categorized into meaningful units
• what may the initial stage involve

  counting the number of times a particular word or phrase appears in the media to produce quantitative data
• what is the difference between content analysis and thematic analysis

  content analysis deals with quantitative data whereas thematic analysis deal with qualitative data
• what are 2 strengths of content analysis

  • less ethical issues with content analysis because the behaviour that a psychologist want to investigate is already in the public domain as it is a form of media
  • can produce both qualitative and quantitative data as it is a flexible approach that can be adopted to the aim of the research
• what is a limitation of content analysis

  may be subjective because the media is investigated indirectly so the context in which the media was produced might be misinterpreted by the researcher, the researcher may attribute motivations to the speaker or writer that were not intended, subjectivity can lead to researcher biased which makes this unscientific and therefore the validity maybe questionable
• what is reliability

  a measure of consistency
• how do we check is a study is reliable

  if a test/study is repeated and the same results are obtained then that study/test is said to be reliable
• what do studies/tests which are reliable produce

  a study/tests that produces consistent results over time is said to be reliable
• what are the 2 ways of assessing reliability

  • test-retest
  • inter-observer
• what does test-retest involve

  • administering the same test or questionnaire to the same people on different occasions
  • if the test or questionaries is reliable then the results obtained are should be the same or at least very similar each time they are administered