Psychological Investigations : Psychological Investigations Re-cap of Research Methods
Research Methods : Research Methods Match the method to the definition. Watching behaviour directly or indirectly.
Asking people about their attitudes or beliefs.
Analysing two factors to see if they are connected.
Testing the effect of one factor on another factor.
Which of these is NOT a Research Method? : Which of these is NOT a Research Method? Focus Group
Interview
Participant Observation
Repeated Measures Experiment
Stratified Participants
Correlation
Questionnaire
Self Reports: Describing : Self Reports: Describing Interview Questionnaire What is the difference between an interview and a questionnaire?
Self Reports: Evaluating : Self Reports: Evaluating Interview Questionnaire What are the strengths / weaknesses of these methods?
Self Report: Example : Self Report: Example Scenario: A researcher wants to find out how religious young people are these days. To investigate this, she designs a self report questionnaire consisting of a series of closed, rated and open questions. Possible Questions Identify a question that could be used:
Closed
Open
Rated
Suggest one strength and one weakness of the question you would ask.
Suggest an alternative way that the researcher could conduct this investigation and give one implication of this.
Check Your Learning… : Check Your Learning…
Observations: Describing : Observations: Describing OVERT COVERT PARTICIPANT DIRECT EVENT SAMPLING TIME SAMPLING
Observations: Evaluating : Observations: Evaluating OVERT COVERT PARTICIPANT DIRECT
Observation: Example : Observation: Example Scenario: A researcher wants to investigate the different behaviours of younger and older visitors to a local library. He decides to conduct a series of observations, during which he records the length of visit, the number of books borrowed and whether they use the computers. Possible Questions What is event sampling?
Suggest one strength and one weakness of how event sampling was used in this study.
What is time sampling?
Suggest one way in which time sampling could be used in this study.
Identify one ethical issue that might arise in this study and how you would address this.
Check Your Learning… : Check Your Learning…
Experiments : Experiments We’ll be doing this a bit differently…
Google:
Matched pairs
Repeated measures
Independent measures
For each of the above, provide a definition and an example.
Best 3 responses win this imaginary bag of no longer legal tender!
Experimental Designs : Experimental Designs Null and Alternate Hypotheses
IV and its conditions
DV and how it was operationalised / measured
Formal, Quasi and Field
Independent, Matched Pairs and Repeated Measures
Controls, Validity and Causality
Reliability and Replication
Experiment: Example : Experiment: Example Scenario: A researcher conducts an experiment to find out whether high sugar foods produces a ‘sugar rush’. He selects 10 participants from the common room of his 6th form, 5 who have eaten sweet snacks and 5 who have not. He then asks them to complete a self report on their energy levels. Possible Questions How was the sample selected for this study?
Identify one strength / weakness of this sampling method.
Identify the experimental design used.
Suggest an alternative experimental design and outline the effect this might have on the results.
Check Your Learning… : Check Your Learning…
Correlations: Describing : Correlations: Describing Co-variables
Correlation NOT Causality
Scattergraphs
Positive, Negative, No Correlation
Correlation: Example : Correlation: Example Scenario: A researcher wants to know whether there is a correlation between the number of slides in a presentation and how much information is retained. To do this, she asks a number of teachers to test their students’ knowledge following a presentation in class. This produces an average score for each class, along with the number of slides. Possible Questions You could be given data and asked to sketch a scattergraph – what does it need to include?
Identify strengths / weaknesses of the way data was collected.
Suggest alternative data collection method and outline how this might affect the results.
Check Your Learning… : Check Your Learning…
Conclusion : Conclusion How confident are you on each of the 4 methods?
Rate them here!
Self Reports
Observations
Experiments
Conclusions
What further help do you need with this?
Questions on the VLE – look in the Files section! – Share / Psychology / AS Level / G541 / Revision