Issues In Research

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Issues In Research

• This is part of the Research Methods topic of
  the course and will tested in PYB5 section C.

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In this section you need to be able to-

• Explain the advantages and disadvantages of the
  following methods of research
• Lab., Field Natural Experiments
• Interviews, Questionnaires, Case Studies
  Observation studies.
• Explain the difference between Qualitative and
  Quantitative research and discuss the
  advantages and disadvantages of each.
• Explain the meaning of Reliability and
  Validity in the different research methods.
• Explain the main ethical considerations for
  psychological research and how these should be
  dealt with, and be able to give an example of
  unethical research from a variety of areas of
  psychology.

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How would you investigate the following?For each
one identify the method or research you would use
and identify 2 advantages and 2 disadvantages of
the method.

• There is a difference in the body language used
  by males and females in that females tend to
  minimise their personal space whereas males tend
  to maximise their personal space.
• There is a relationship between stress and
  illness.
• The development of gender identity is purely
  learnt behaviour and is not influenced by the
  biological sex of a person.

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• People are more likely to assist a person if the
  person is smartly dressed rather than if they
  look unkempt.
• Students attitudes to safe sex practices are
  affected by a recent poster campaign around the
  university.
• Participants perception of words presented very
  rapidly, via a tachistoscope is affected by
  whether the words used are taboo or neutral.
• The introduction of a new computer programme to
  teach spelling significantly improves the
  spelling age of 7 year old children.

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• Think about the psychological research you
  are familiar with.
• Identify 2 topics that could be investigated
  using an experimental approach. Justify your
  choices
• Identify 2 topics that could be investigated
  using interviews. Justify your choices.

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What you need to do for revision of this topic
before the end of unit test and summer exams-

• Read pages 281 285 in the Pennington text book.
• Look back at the AS notes we made on Research
  Methods.
• Learn at least 2 advantages and 2 disadvantages
  of each Method of Research.
• Write out a short discussion of each research
  method using the advantages and disadvantages you
  have chosen to learn.

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Qualitative and Quantitative Research.

• Can you identify the different types of data
  (quantitative qualitative) in the following
  piece of writing?

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• The young woman entered the office and sat down.
  She was slim and attractive with black hair and
  brown eyes. She smiled nervously at the
  interviewing panel. The admissions officer
  glanced at her application form. Her A level
  grades were excellent 2 As and a B. She was
  also a talented musician If her distinction in
  grade 8 piano was anything to go by. In her
  personal statement she described herself as
  outgoing, self disciplined and reliable which
  seemed to be backed up by a 100 attendance
  record from school. She certainly met the basic
  requirements for becoming a firefighter being
  170cm tall, and 56 kg in weight and could, by all
  accounts perform 20 dips on the parallel bars.
  She also looked like the sort of person who
  wouldnt take any nonsense and clearly had a lot
  of determination since she had just completed the
  Pennine Way on her own.

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• The young woman entered the office and sat down.
  She was slim and attractive with black hair and
  brown eyes. She smiled nervously at the
  interviewing panel. The admissions officer
  glanced at her application form. Her A level
  grades were excellent 2 As and a B. She was
  also a talented musician If her distinction in
  grade 8 piano was anything to go by. In her
  personal statement she described herself as
  outgoing, self disciplined and reliable which
  seemed to be backed up by a 100 attendance
  record from school. She certainly met the basic
  requirements for becoming a firefighter being
  170cm tall, and 56 kg in weight and could, by all
  accounts perform 20 dips on the parallel bars.
  She also looked like the sort of person who
  wouldnt take any nonsense and clearly had a lot
  of determination since she had just completed the
  Pennine Way on her own.

10
Look at the two activities below and make a list
of the differences between them in the way they
would be tackled.

• A geologist has been given the job of finding oil
  in a particular region. He has detailed
  geological maps available and knows what
  geological features are likely to be associated
  with underground oil.

• An explorer has been given the task of finding
  out more about an area of South American rain
  forest. It is overgrown and can not be easily
  seen from the air. There are rumours that an
  ancient civilisation used to inhabit the area,
  but there is no clear cut evidence that this is
  the case.

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• Quantitative Research
• concerned with measurement, convert information
  gathered into numbers.
• E.g. counting or sorting into categories this
  is the process of quantification.
• Traditional scientific research is quantitative
• From a Theory hypotheses are formed to be
  tested, variables are identified which are to be
  measured, data is gathered about the variables
  and then analysed using statistics.

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• Qualitative Research
• Concerned with the meanings people attach to
  events and peoples experiences.
• Usually theories tend to come after the data
  collection rather than before.
• Qualitative research is generally seen as being
  hypothesis generating rather than hypothesis
  testing.

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• Read the handout on Qualitative Research.
• Lets try to summarise what it is saying-
• Early psychological studies were qualitative
  studies - e.g. Wundts introspection Piagets
  work
• Recent dissatisfaction with quantitative research
  has revived interest in qualitative research.
  Some psychologists suggest that a new paradigm
  has emerged that respects human consciousness.

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• During the late 60s and 70s lab experiments were
  criticised as dehumanising people. It was
  proposed that a new way of investigating people
  was needed.
• 6 major problems with quantitative research
• Ecological Validity.
• Demand Characteristics.
• Volunteer Characteristics.
• Experimenter effects.
• Ethical issues
• Overlooks the ability of humans to use language
  and make meaning research is not carried out in
  silence.

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• Changes in psychological research as a result of
  a re emphasis on qualitative research.
• Studies of the self interviews rather than
  questionnaires and inventories.
• Studies of memory looking at how cognitive
  processes operate as a form of joint action
  between people.
• Language is seen as the object of study in
  investigations of thinking and memory.
• Participant are treated with respect and will
  often help to devise the research questions.
• The researchers role in the research is
  reflected upon, they are not seen as a neutral
  observer.
• The participants contributions and reflections
  are considered as a vital part of the research
  giving the research findings higher ecological
  validity.

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• There is now a new way of thinking about
  reliability and validity which may seem very
  unscientific to traditional researchers.
• Qualitative studies are less controlled and
  materials used open to different interpretations
• But is this a bad thing?
• The material used is richer, the reports written
  more interesting and the work as a whole has more
  meaning to those who participate in it.
  Participants often get a copy of the report.

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• In the 80s researchers began to emphasise how
  language was organised structured and how
  language was linked to forms of power.
• Traditional quantitative research ignores
  experience. Feminists have suggested that
  quantitative research that involves attempting to
  predict control individuals as well as trying
  to master human nature is a masculine way of
  looking at the world. They acknowledge that it
  has its uses but qualitative research is needed
  to discover about peoples experiences.

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• The recent focus on using qualitative research to
  investigate language has given rise to the
  suggestion that things we once thought were
  hidden in peoples heads (e.g. memory) can be
  seen in the language they use.

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What you need to do for revision of this topic
before the end of unit test and summer exams-

• Read pages 286 288 in the text book
• Summarise in your own words the last paragraph on
  page 286 going onto page 287.
• Summarise in your own words the Evaluative
  comment on pages 287 288.
• Learn at least 2 strengths and 2 weaknesses of
  both qualitative and quantitative methods of
  research.
• Learn from your notes/book an example of
  psychological research that uses a qualitative
  approach and an example that uses a quantitative
  approach to be able to quote in the exam.

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Reliability and Validity(Consistent and True)

• Reliability of research refers to the extent to
  which research findings can be repeated.
• The reliability of an instrument is a measure of
  the extent to which the instrument will give the
  same reading when measuring the same thing on
  different occasions.

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Think about the following problem

• Amys parents are concerned that her reading
  ability is not as good as her number skills.
  After a discussion with her teacher they arrange
  for her to see an educational psychologist. The
  psychologist gives Amy a test that aims to assess
  her reading ability. After the test the
  psychologist tells Amys parents that she scored
  75 out of 130 which is about average for girls of
  her age.
• How confident can Amys parents be that the test
  score accurately reflects Amys reading ability?
• How could we investigate whether or not the test
  is accurately measuring Amys reading ability?

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Different types of reliability in psychological
research

• External Reliability refers to how consistently
  a method measures over time when repeated.
• How can we test for it?
• Test-Retest Reliability use the measuring
  tool on a group of participants on two different
  occasions and see if there is a correlation
  between the two sets of scores. For a tool to
  be accepted as reliable we would usually expect a
  correlation coefficient of 0.7 or higher.

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• Internal Reliability this refers to how
  consistently a method measures within itself, for
  example with a ruler dose the distance between 0
  and 5 cm measure the same as it does between 5
  and 10cm.
• How can it be checked?
• Split-Half technique this is used to check
  internal reliability of psychological tests. The
  tests is divided into two halves, the same
  participant does each half, the scores on the two
  halves are compared- if the test is reliable the
  scores should be similar.

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• Inter-Observer Reliability In observational
  research where there is more than one observer
  involved it is important that they are all using
  the rating scales or codes in the same way. It
  is possible to test this by getting the observers
  to rate the same behaviours and then to check the
  rating scores to see if they correlate. If there
  is a strong positive correlation between the
  rating scores then we can say there is
  Inter-observer reliability.

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• Validity - refers to whether a technique can
  achieve the purpose for which it was designed
  it is measuring what it is supposed to measure?
• There are two forms of validity in psychological
  research.
• Internal Validity
• Is it really the independent variable that is
  responsible for the changes in the dependent
  variable?
• Is the test/tool we are using actually
  measuring what it claims to measure?

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• External validity
• Can we generalise the findings to other
  populations?
• Can we generalise the findings to other
  situations?
• Can we generalise the findings to other measures?
• Can we generalise the findings to the past or the
  future?

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Concepts of Reliability and Validity applied to
different methods of research.Experiments-

• Is the procedure replicable?
• Does it produce the same results?

• Can the results be generalised to real life or
  are they a product of the experimental situation?
• Has the IV caused the change in the DV or was it
  some extraneous variable?

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Questionnaires (and tests)

• Would you get the same scores on different
  occasions?

• Is it asking the questions you think it is or
  measuring what you think it is ?
• Is it asking the right questions?

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Observations

• Inter-observer reliability ?
• Is behaviour being recorder in the same way on
  different occasions ?

• Are the categories used to record the behaviour
  actually measuring the behaviour you think it is
  measuring?

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Correlation studies
are often used to assess reliability
(test-retest method)are often used to test
validity (e.g. correlate A level grades with
class of degree obtained)

• Would you get the same correlation coefficient on
  another occasion?

• Not valid to establish a cause effect
  relationship.

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What you need to do for revision of this topic
before the end of unit test and summer exams-

• Read pages 288 289
• Learn from these notes.
• Look at psychological research you know and ask
  yourself questions about the reliability and
  validity of the studies.

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Ethics in Psychological Research

• In this section you need to remind your self of
  the work we did on ethics from last year The
  BPS ethical guidelines.
• Can you remember the 7 main guidelines?
• 1)
• 2)
• 3)
• 4)
• 5)
• 6)
• 7)

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Lets play A Question of Ethics.

• Rules of the game
• Two teams
• Choose a number from the grid
• The word revealed is a clue to the question
• Answer the question get it right your team
  gets a point.
• Get it wrong and the other team get a chance to
  answer it.
• The team with the most correct answers is the
  winning team Chocolate prizes perhaps!

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• Ethics is not just a matter of following the
  guidelines as we have seen. Sometimes
  participants may have to be deceived for
  example, if the ultimate end is for the good of
  humankind. Sometimes Informed Consent is not
  practical to obtain, and debriefing may be
  impractical.
• So, how do psychologists decide when to go
  against the guidelines?

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CostBenefit Analysis

• Costs
• Participants may be distressed at finding out
  something about themselves they would rather not
  know.

• Benefits
• The results may make us more aware of our own and
  others behaviour and raise consciousness about
  important issues.

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CostBenefit Analysis

• Costs
• Participants may feel they have been tricked or
  lied to, they may have a lower self-esteem as a
  result of taking part. They may not have had the
  opportunity to give their own informed consent.

• Benefits
• The study may result in people taking more
  responsibility for their own actions, to
  challenge group norms, to stand up for their own
  beliefs and those of others.

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CostBenefit Analysis

• Costs
• May bring the psychological profession into
  disrepute.

• Benefits
• The research may give insights into behaviour
  that will eventually help people to improve their
  lives.

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Cut and stick

• The aim of the cut and stick activity is to
  consider problems in applying ethical
  considerations to psychology research with
  reference to examples and to look at attempts to
  resolve these issues.
• Join the two halves of each sentence with the
  word BUT.
• Use A3 paper to illustrate your chosen sentence.

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What you need to do for revision of this topic
before the end of unit test and summer exams-

• Read pages 289 292 in the Pennington textbook.
• Look back at the ethics work we did in Y12.
• Make sure you know the main ethical guidelines
  and can suggest a way in which each one could be
  dealt with.
• From your AS and A2 work identify several
  unethical studies that you could explain in the
  exam. Be able to discuss the cost-benefit of such
  a study (PS The social Influence studies are good
  ones for this). Continued . . . .

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• Look at each research method studied at the
  beginning of this topic. For each method identify
  one or two potential ethical issues specific to
  that method.
• Finally look on the AQA website at past exam
  questions, mark schemes are also there for you to
  see what the examiners are looking for.