Word count: Date: 20/01/2011 Quantitative and Qualitative Research Method questions Question 1: What are Quantitative data

and Qualitative data?

Li Chun Ho (Alvin) IB Psychology HL

Quantitative data refers to numerical data that can be measured and analyzed with statistics. On the other hand, qualitative data refers to data that tend to be open-ended and with descriptive details. Question 2: What is the independent variable and dependent variable? The independent variables are variables researchers change with all other factors staying constant. It is also the variable that affects a change in the other variables. The dependent variables are variables that are measured after the manipulation of the independent variable. Question 3: What is the name for the variables that may affect the Dependent Variable if they are not controlled? They are the confounding variables. Question 4: What is the function of a control group in an experiment? The control group is the group that is not subjected to the treatment or condition of the experiment. This aims to see if there is a different effect which are not know to them. Question 5: What is the single greatest advantage of the experimental method? Experiments help identify the cause and effect relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable. Question 6: Give one advantage and one weakness of laboratory experiments. As an advantage, researchers are able to have strict control over the different variables in laboratory experiments, therefore increasing the accuracy of the experiments. However, the weakness is that due to the artificial surroundings, participants may show demand characteristics as they know they are being observed and are participants of an experiment.

Word count: Date: 20/01/2011 Quantitative and Qualitative Research Method questions Question 7: Who manipulates the IV in field experiments?

Li Chun Ho (Alvin) IB Psychology HL

They are the researchers, who still have some control over the different variables of the experiment. Question 8: Give one advantage of using a natural experiment. Demand characteristics as well as other confounding variables are unlikely to be present because the natural experiment is naturally occurring. Because of this, they are likely to reach a higher degree of validity and have more reliable results. Question 9: What is the major weakness of the natural experiment? Because natural experiments occur naturally, such as child abuse and the Chilean miners rescue, it is possible that the experiment on them are too in-depth that they cannot be generalized into other situations, suggesting it may not reach a high degree of validity. Question 10: When is correlation analysis used?

Question 11: In what way are correlational findings often misinterpreted?

Correlational findings do not identify a cause-and effect relationship but only describes the phenomenon, such as behavior. Question 12: Give one ethical concern raised by using naturalistic observation. Because of the fact naturalistic observations take place in the natural surroundings to prevent the presence of confounding variables, it is likely the participants would not have acknowledged or consented to being subjects observed by observers and researchers of the experiment. Therefore the ethics guideline might have been broken in order to prevent any other variables affecting the relationship between the independent and dependent variable.

Word count: Date: 20/01/2011 Quantitative and Qualitative Research Method questions Question 13: Give one advantage of using naturalistic observation.

Li Chun Ho (Alvin) IB Psychology HL

By using naturalistic observations, researchers can prevent confounding variables from appearing because the participants are observed in a natural setting, such as scenes in their ordinary lives. Question 14: What is a repeated measures design? A repeated measures design utilizes the same group of subjects in each condition in the experiment so that the characteristics of the subjects are not changed. Question 15: Give one advantage and one disadvantage of a matched participants design. By using a matched participants design, the researchers can receive better statistical tests as the different group of subjects is similar to each other. However, to match the subject and to ensure similarity is time consuming and requires great man power. Question 16: Name two ways that behavior can be sampled for investigation in an observation study. The first method involves using participant observation, where the participants do not know they are being observed. Here, behavior can be sampled as the researcher infiltrates the social group. The second method through non-participant observation is where the researchers can observe the behavioral interaction between two or more members of the same social group. Question 17: What is a pilot study and what is its purpose? A pilot study is a preliminary and generally small scaled study that takes place before a major study in order to calibrate measures, run through procedures and act as a dress rehearsal with the aim to perfect and improve in the real major study which would take place in the near future. Question 18: Name two ways in which the reliability of a test may be assessed.

Word count: Date: 20/01/2011 Quantitative and Qualitative Research Method questions Question 19: What does it mean if research findings are externally valid?

Li Chun Ho (Alvin) IB Psychology HL

When research findings are declared to be externally valid, this means that the conclusions of the results of the empirical investigation remain true when using different form of research methods and groups of participants as opposed to using the original research methods within the experiment itself. This would be the second stage of validity, also known as external validity.

Question 20: What is a clinical interview? A clinical interview involves health professionals meeting with clinics and patients in order to conclude a diagnosis the patient is suffering from. Through the course of the interview, treatment plans as well as drug treatment may be suggested from the doctor or psychiatrist. Question 21: What is meant by a closed question in a questionnaire? A closed question contains a definite answer, such as Yes or No. Closed questions are easier for researchers to graph statistics and analyze the data. Question 22: Give one weakness of questionnaire surveys. If participants do not understand the question, they are unable to ask the researchers or relevant people responsible for creating the questions of the questionnaire surveys. Question 23: Write the null hypothesis to accompany this alternative hypothesis: Eating cheese before going to bed causes people to experience dreams. The correction would be, Eating cheese has an effect on peoples experiences of dreams. Question 24: Is the following hypothesis directional (one tailed) or non-directional (two tailed)? Leading questions will affect the accuracy of memory It is non-directional because it does not exactly state the effect on the participant as it only suggests there is an impact on another variable, which in this case is the accuracy of memory.

Word count: Date: 20/01/2011 Quantitative and Qualitative Research Method questions Question 25:

Li Chun Ho (Alvin) IB Psychology HL

Give one advantage and one disadvantage of the independent groups design in experimental research. Because the researchers use different set of participants, the same test can be used, implying higher time and man power efficiency. However, because there are different set of participants, confounding variables, such as participant variability, may have an effect on the dependent variable as the participants are not similar. Question 26: Why do researchers try to select representative samples of participants?

Not only does this ensure all forms of different characteristics of participants are covered, researchers try to prevent participant variability, where the characteristics of the participants affect the dependent variable. Because of this, researchers would take steps to ensure representative samples of participants are taken. Question 27: Give one reason why random samples are seldom used in psychological research. Because of the expenses needed in order to carry out a census and to identify the whole of the population, it is not economical to use random samples as all members of the population need to be identified. In addition, these figures may change over time; therefore the results obtained may be unstable and does not reflect the true present performance of the current society.

Question 28: What is a double-blind procedure and why is it used. A double blind control aims to counteract the problem of researcher/observer bias, where the experimenter sees what they are looking for, suggesting that their expectation affects the results they find. Here, double blind control prevents this problem from arising by not telling the aims of the experiment to the observers or experimenters. They are briefed about the aims of the experiment after the collection of the results.

Question 29: Give two advantages and two difficulties of using qualitative data. By using qualitative data, researchers are able to receive more in-depth information that would be more descriptive than numerical data. In addition, these data are able to describe in detail about different forms of experiment in great detail, such as in a participant observation.

Word count: Date: 20/01/2011 Quantitative and Qualitative Research Method questions

Li Chun Ho (Alvin) IB Psychology HL

However, it is possible that researcher bias may have affected the report since these data may be affected by subjective ideas and particular mindset of different people. Moreover, because the data is quite in-depth, much time consumption is needed to collect such information at this type of scale. Question 30: Name and describe three measures of central tendency. The three measures are the mean, the mode and the median. The mean is the numerical average of the set of numbers, the mode is the most frequent number from the set, and the median is the middle number of the whole set when placed from the order of lowest to highest. Question 31: Calculate the range for the following set of numbers: 3 6 9 12 2 37 Highest number Lower number = 37-3 = 34. Question 32: Give one disadvantage of using the range of as a measure of dispersion.

Question 33: Name one other measure of dispersion. One other measure would be the absolute measure of dispersion. Question 34: What are the correlation coefficients of a perfect positive correlation between two variables, and a perfect negative correlation between two variables?

Question 35: What are the differences between a histogram and a bar chart? In a bar chart, it shows categorical data that are independent on itself for each column. For a histogram, the data is continuous. Furthermore, it is possible that histograms and bar charts are differently drawn; most bar charts have bars separately cut with spaces.