YEAR 1 SPECIFICATION BREAKDOWN

  • Experimental methods. Types of experiment, laboratory and field; natural and quasi-experiments
  • Observational techniques. Types of observation: naturalistic and controlled; covert and overt observation; participant and non-participant observation
  • Self-report techniques. Questionnaires; interviews, structured and unstructured
  • Correlations. Analysis of the relationship between co-variables. The difference between correlations and experiments

SCIENTIFIC PROCESSES

  • Aims: stating aims, the difference between aims and hypotheses
  • Hypotheses: directional and non-directional
  • Sampling: the difference between population and sample; sampling techniques including: random, systematic, stratified, opportunity and volunteer; implications of sampling techniques, including bias and generalisation
  • Pilot studies and the aims of piloting
  • Experimental design (independent groups, repeated measures, matched pairs)
  • Observational design: behavioural categories; event sampling; time sampling
  • Questionnaire construction, including use of open and closed questions; design of interviews
  • Variables: manipulation and control of variables, including independent, dependent, extraneous, confounding; operationalisation of variables
  • Control: random allocation and counterbalancing, randomisation and standardisation
  • Demand characteristics and investigator effects
  • Ethics, including the role of the British Psychological Society’s code of ethics; ethical issues in the design and conduct of psychological studies; dealing with ethical issues in research
  • The role of peer review in the scientific process
  • The implications of psychological research for the economy

DATA HANDLING AND ANALYSIS

  • Quantitative and qualitative data; the distinction between quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques
  • Primary and secondary data, including meta-analysis
  • Descriptive statistics: measures of central tendency - mean, median, mode; calculation of mean, median and mode; measures of dispersion; range and standard deviation; calculation of percentages; positive, negative and zero correlations
  • Presentation and display of quantitative data: graphs, scatter grams, tables, bar charts, histograms
  • Distributions: normal and skewed distributions; characteristics of normal and skewed distributions
  • Analysis and interpretation of correlation, including correlation coefficients

INFERENTIAL TESTING

  • Introduction to statistical testing; the sign test

Methods and Techniques

Experimental Methods:

The term experimental method refers to the method used to carry out the experiment. There are four main types of experiment – lab, field, natural and quasi.

Fill in the table below:

Research Method / Definition: / Advantages / Disadvantages
Laboratory experiment
Field experiment
Natural experiment
Quasi experiment

For each of the following examples identify which experimental method is being used.

  1. A researcher wanted to find out the effects of caffeine on memory. The researcher had two groups of participants. One group drank strong coffee and where then given a list of words to recall. The second group were given a warm caffeine free drink and were given a list of words to recall.

Answer: ______

  1. Researchers were interested in different levels of aggression in primary aged children between those who had and hadn’t attended day care. They produced a sheet of behavioural categories including typical aggressive behaviours and studied children in a primary school playground. The children did not know they were being observed.

Answer: ______

  1. Researchers were interested in attachment styles and created a scenario within a room. The children were brought into the room with their parents and then the parent left them alone with a stranger. The researchers watched this behaviour from a two-way mirror.

Answer: ______

  1. A researcher wanted to see if people would help someone on the tube. They set up a situation where a confederate would collapse during a tube journey. The confederate appeared drunk in one condition and sick in the other condition. The researchers observed the behaviours of the passengers witnessing the event.

Answer: ______

What might be the ethical considerations associated with each method?


Self-Report Techniques

Interviews and Questionnaires:

One of the easiest ways to elicit information from people is to ask them. Psychological research likes to make use of questionnaires and interviews as an efficient and easy way of gathering data.

Complete the diagrams to show the factors which need to be taken into consideration when designing a questionnaire and interview:


Design Issues:

Sometimes questionnaire design can go drastically wrong. Look at the questionnaire below and identify the main errors Fraud and Fakedata have made.

Main Flaws: / Problems they cause: / How to control them:

Case Studies

When a researcher conducts a case study, he or she is looking to gather in-depth information on an individual or small group of people. The people being studied are normally pretty unique and are studied with the aim of uncovering answers the scientific world needs.

  • Name one person studied through the use of a case study.
  • What were the main findings of the study?
  • What are the strengths of using this method?
  • What are the limitations?
  • Are there any ethical issues which should be considered before/during the case study?


End of section assessment questions:

1)Name one advantage of conducting a lab experiment.

2)Define the term “natural experiment.”

3)List three ethical issues which might arise during a field experiment.

4)Explain how you would control for these issues.

5)What is the difference between a questionnaire and interview?

6)What are the strengths of conducting a case study?

Investigation Design

Creating Aims and Hypotheses:

What is an aim?

What is a hypothesis? How is an aim different to a hypothesis?

Aims are normally very straight forward and broader than a hypothesis. From the research questions below, what might the aim and hypotheses be?

  1. Does background noise affect memory?
  1. Do students who revise perform better in AS exams?
  1. Are blondes really dumb?

The hypotheses of a study should include both the thing being manipulated (independent variable) and the thing being measured (dependent variable). These variables should be operationalised.

What might the operationalised IV and DV be for the above studies?
Operationalising Variables:

It is very important to operationalise the variables to be studied, otherwise the researcher will not know what they are looking for and this can reduce the validity and reliability of their data.

How might the following variables be operationalised?

  • Speed
  • Memory
  • Aggression

Extraneous Variables:

What is an extraneous variable and why is it important to control for them?

What is the difference between an extraneous and a confounding variable?

Identify the extraneous variable in each of the examples below:

  1. The researchers were interested in the effects of time of day on memory recall. They put all the young people in the morning condition and all the older people in the evening condition.
  1. The researchers were interested in the effects of age on memory recall. They tested all the young people in the morning and all the old people in the evening.
  1. Researchers were looking at the effects of noise on concentration. There were two conditions and participants were either in the noisy or quiet condition. When the researchers were conducting the quiet condition the thermostat broke on the radiator and the room was very stuffy and airless.

NB: Extraneous variables can also include things such as demand characteristics and investigator effects.

Hypotheses:

There are two different types of hypothesis:

  • One tailed (directional)
  • Two tailed (non-directional)

A directional hypothesis states which direction the results will go in and usually contains the words “there will be…” A non-directional hypothesis is less clear of the direction the results will go in and tends to use the words “there will be a difference…”

Write one directional and one non-directional hypothesis below for the following research question:

Does background noise affect memory?

Directional:

Non-Directional:

Null:

When do you use a directional hypothesis?

When do you use a non-directional hypothesis?

Experimental Design:

Once the researcher has chosen the experimental method which best suits the nature of the study, they then have to choose what type of design it will have. The choices are repeated measures, independent groups and matchedpairs.

Fill in the table below:

Experimental Design: / Strengths / Weaknesses
Repeated measures:
The same PPs are used in both conditions.
Independent Groups:
PPs are randomly allocated to different groups which represent the different conditions.
Matched Pairs:
Pairs of PPs are closely matched and are then randomly allocated to one of the experimental conditions.

Which design is being used here?

1)Researchers wanted to find out whether a new teaching method could improve verbal reasoning ability in 5 year olds. In one condition the children weretaught the new method and in the other they were taught a traditional method. Each participant in the new method group was matched with a participant from the other condition.

2)Researchers were looking at whether people remembered more in the morning or evening. They gave one set of participants free recall tests in both the morning and evening and compared their results to the control group who only took the test in the morning.

3)A researcher enrolled 20 participants into their experiment. All participants completed a musical task and then a written task. Their abilities to perform under pressure were compared.

Sampling Techniques

So you’ve worked out your experimental design, but how are you going to get your participants? These 5 ways are the ones you need to know:


Observational Methods:

A researcher might decide to conduct an observation instead of an experiment. There are two types of observational method to chose from – a naturalistic observation or a controlled observation. Both of these methods tend to look for evidence of a relationship between two variables (a correlation). Be careful not to confuse a naturalistic observation with a natural experiment - the two are different.

Fill in the table below:

Definition: / Strength: / Weakness / Example:
Naturalistic Observation:
Controlled Observation:

Observations can further be divided into sub-categories of types/features of design:

  • P______based
  • N____- P______based
  • C______
  • O______

Which form of observation is being described below?

Behavioural Categories:

A behavioural category is a specific type of behaviour which is defined before the study takes place. It allows researchers to focus their investigation on a specific behaviour in order to gather the most valid and reliable data. Carrying out an observation without the use of these would not be a clever idea!

Which behavioural categories would you expect to be looking out for when conducting a naturalistic observation of aggressive behaviour in a nursery?

Category:

Define:

Event sampling:

Time sampling:

Reliability and Validity:

Once a research method has been chosen the researcher needs to consider how useful the data is going to be. The main considerations are whether it will be reliable andvalid.

The term reliability refers to how consistent the results are. In other words, if the experiment is repeated, will the same or highly similar results occur again? If they answer is yes, the study can be said to possess high reliability.Fill in the diagram below.

Validity on the other hand, is a slightly more complex concept. Fill in the boxes below to identify the different types of validity.

Any extraneous variables can reduce the internal validity of a study. These include:

  • Demand Characteristics
  • Investigator Effects

Remember: extraneous variables can be categorised into:

Participant variables:

Situational variables:

Give examples above. Which type of experimental design is NOT affected by participant variables? Why?

Both of these potential threats can be controlled using either a single or doubleblind technique. In a single blind technique, the researcher knows the aim of the study but the participants do not. In a double blind technique, neither the researcher nor the participant knows. The latter technique involves a research assistant carrying out the data collection on behalf of the experimenter.

Improving Validity - Pilot Studies:

Designing a pilot study is often one of the best ways to check that everything in your actual experiment will run smoothly (as much as possible!).

A pilot study is a ______scale study conducted on a small sample. It helps the researcher to identify any ______problems with the ______method, design, ______given to participants and so on. Pilot studies can also check items on a ______to make sure that they are easy to answer and unambiguous.

Imagine you have been asked to carry out an experiment into the effects of music on the ability to recall words from a list.

Why is it important to carry out a pilot study before conducting the actual experiment?

What elements of the experiment would you test in the pilot study (e.g. duration/volume of music playing)?


Ethical Issues:

Fill in the spider diagram below with the main ethical issues you studied in Year 12.

.

Questioning Ethics:

1)What is the purpose of ethical guidelines?

2)Why are they important to follow?

3)When can research be excused for not following some of these guidelines?

4)How would you, as a researcher, control for the following ethical issues:

  • Deception
  • Informed Consent
  • Protection from Harm
  • Right to Withdraw
  • Confidentiality

End of section assessment questions:

1)What is a directional hypothesis?

2)Is the independent variable in an experiment measured or manipulated?

3)How might the variable of time be operationalised?

4)Why is it important to control for extraneous variables?

5)How does an independent groups design differ from a repeated measures design?

6)What is a random sample?

7)What is the difference between a controlled and naturalistic observation?

8)How do internal and external validity differ?

9)What are investigator effects?

Summarising Quantitative Data (in graphical form)

Graphs are a useful way of summarising data which enable psychologists to easily see trends or patterns in data. Three graphs which are commonly used to display quantitative data are:

Histograms

Bar Charts

Scattergrams

Task: Fill in the gaps below.

The bars on a ______are joined together and are all of an identical ______.

A histogram is commonly used to show ______(e.g. IQ or test)

Bar charts are a useful way of showing measures of ______.

Bars on a bar chart are not ______together because the scale is not ______.

Scattergrams are used to show the ______and ______of correlations.

Correlations can either be ______, negative or have no correlation.

Analysis and interpretation of quantitative data:

Measures of central tendency tell the researcher where the average is in a set of data. The three measures of central tendency you need to know well are the mean, median and mode.

Complete the sentences below:

  1. The ______is known as the ______average. It is calculated by adding up all the scores in a set of data and then ______them by the total ______of scores.
  1. The ______is the middle value of a data set. It is calculated by putting the data in ______and finding the ______score. If there is an ______number of scores, you should add the two middle scores together and ______by ____.
  1. The ______is the most ______occurring score. It is the easiest to calculate – simply put your data in ______and work out which one occurs the ______.

Calculate the mean, median and mode for the following:

1a)Data from a Psychology quiz:

1,2,3,7,10,20,30,43,47,48,50.

Mean = Median=Mode=

1b)The number of faces recalled out of 12 in a free recall task:

1,1,5,2,3,7,6,5,2,1,8,7,9,5,4,3,2,5.

Mean=Median=Mode=

1c)Scores on a questionnaire (out of 25).

20,30,25,16,13,14,25,26,28.

Mean=Median=Mode=

In addition to wanting to know the statistical average of the data, researchers occasionally want to work out how much variability there is in a data set. This is known as a measure of dispersion. One way of calculation the measure of dispersion within a data set is to calculate the range. This incredibly easy method involves subtracting the lowest score from the highest score.

What is the range for the following data sets?

a)5,4, 1,2,1,2,3,4,5,6,8,7,2.

b)9, 11, 16, 4, 6, 17, 22, 35, 2, 12, 13.

c)3, 4, 5, 8, 11, 14, 12, 16, 1, 9, 15, 17.

Standard Deviation

Standard deviation is the measure of the spread of scores around the mean (in other words, it tells us how far the scores are scattered around the mean). It is the most powerful measure of dispersion as it takes all scores into account. As a result, it is often used my researchers who want to know more about the dispersion of their data. Below is an example of how a standard deviation might look.

Distributions

Normal

This plots the spread of scores on certain variables (e.g. height of students in the college). A normal distribution is symmetrical and thus, forms a bell-shaped curve. The mean, median and mode all occupy the exact middle of the curve, with fewer people at the extreme ends – for example, the mean height for UK women is 162cm but very few women would be taller than 175cm. The horizontal axis (x) shows the value of the score and the vertical axis (y) shows how many times that value occurred.

Skewed

Some distributions will not be symmetrical and produce a distribution that leans to the left or the right (i.e. the data clusters to one end). This means that the distribution of data around the mean is skewed. Skewed distributions are caused by extreme values (outliers).

Positive skew:

Negative skew:

Good News! You will not be asked to calculate a standard deviation in the exam. However, you may be asked what the standard deviation tells you about a set of data and why it is used.

  • If the standard deviation is ______it tells us that many of the data points are far away from the mean. This means that there is great individual variation in results; i.e. participants results are not consistent
  • If the standard deviation is small, it tells us that the data was ______clustered around the mean. This means that there is less individual variation in participants scores and that their results are more consistent.

No standard deviation tells us that all data values were the same – and there was no variation at all! This happens when all the data points are equal (i.e. SD = ______.)