Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
In preparation for your exam you should be confident that you can do the following:
Section 1: Methods and techniques
Case study:
Correlational studies:
Observational studies:
Describe what is meant by observational techniques
Collect data from observational studies
Know the strengths and weaknesses of carrying out observational research
Self report techniques:
Know what is meant by self report techniques (including questionnaire and interview)
Know the strengths and weaknesses of self report techniques
Know when it is appropriate to use self report techniques
Section 2: Investigation design
Aims:
Know the purpose of an Aim
Identify the aim of a study
Write a suitable aim for a study
Hypotheses:
Know the difference between directional (one tailed) and non-directional (two tailed)
hypotheses
Explain why you would use a directional hypothesis
Write fully operationalised hypotheses
Identify the hypothesis from a given study
Explain the difference between an alternative hypothesis and a null hypothesis
Write a null hypothesis
Experimental design:
Variables:
Extraneous Variables:
Be able to identify extraneous variables
Identify order effects, participant variables, situational variables and investigator
effects
Know why it is important to control variables
Know the difference between an extraneous variable and a confounding variable
Pilot study:
Validity:
Understand the concept of validity
Recognise the difference between internal and external validity
Identify threats to internal validity
Identify threats to external validity
Explain what is meant by the term demand characteristic
Be able to identify demand characteristics in a study
Know how to deal with demand characteristics
Explain the terms investigator effect
Know how to deal with experimenter/ investigator effects
Know how issues of validity affect research findings
Know the difference between ecological, population and historical validity
Validity issues in self report techniques: social desirability bias, interviewer bias,
leading questions, content validity
Know how to assess validity
Reliability:
Ethics:
Awareness of the BPS code of Ethics
Describe ethical issues and know how to deal with them
Identify relevant ethical issues associated with information in the question stem
Be able to explain in what way it is an issue for the given study (ie relate the issue to
the context)
Understand why ethical issues need to be considered and dealt with
Discuss the strengths and limitations of psychological research that raises ethical
issues
Know what should be included in a debriefing
Sampling:
Know why it is desirable to select a representative sample
Know that all sampling methods aim to be representative of the target population
Understand the concept of bias samples
Describe different sampling methods (Random, opportunity and volunteer sampling)
Know how a researcher would obtain each type of sample
Describe the strengths and weaknesses of each sampling method
Suggest a suitable sampling method based on information provided in a question
stem
Justify the use of a particular sampling method
Know which sampling method is most likely to be biased
Qualitative analysis
Quantitative data
Correlational analysis