The task : You need to create a set of slides to use as your evaluation tools

1. The task:You need to create a set of slides to use as your evaluation tools Once created please print them out 2 to a sheet and bring to your lesson. We will cut them up and make them into a pack Use images where you can 

2. You will need a slide similar to the one that follows this one. • This slide reminds you to start off an evaluation by making a clear point about the strength or weaness of the research

3. What is your point ? e.g. A weakness of Milgram (1963) is that it is unethical

4. G R A V E • Next you need to make one slide for each of the evaluation issues. • Each slide simply needs to name the issue – try to find an image to represent each issue if you can.

5. Generalisability

6. Next….. Generalisability Means…. This could mean you need to look up the evaluation issue either online or in your text book – to ensure accuracy. You need to write a full definition of each evaluation issue on another slide

7. The Sample representative? …how many ppts were used? Task mundane realism? ..answering some questions? Electrocuting a stranger? Insulting a job applicant? Setting ecological validity?..in a hospital ward? In a laboratory? RememberGeneralisability could refer to one of 3 different things

8. For example if you were writing about Consider………. What does ‘application’ mean? Is the study useful? How can the findings/conclusion be applied? E.g. LOP theory is useful as knowing about adding meaning to notes could improve the chances of remembering them. So it is useful for students revising for their exams Application

9. What type of validity are you referring to? How do you know an experiment is valid? ..the only thing affecting the DV is the IV…extraneous variables were controlled. How do you know if a questionnaire is valid? How do you know if a case study is valid? ValidityInternal?External? (Ecological)

10. See the following slide – I have made a separate one for ecological validity. I could make one for mundane realism; Demand characteristics; The advantage of using repeated measures or independent measures designs for example You may find you need to make more than one slide for each issue

11. Ecological Validity is the degree to which the behaviours observed and recorded in a study reflect the behaviours that actually occur in natural settings. In addition, ecological validity is associated with "generalisability". Essentially this is the extent to which findings (from a study) can be generalised (or extended) to the "real world". In virtually all studies there is a trade-off between experimental control and ecological validity. The more control psychologists exert in a study, typically the less ecological validity and thus, the less they may be able to generalise. For example, when we take people out of their natural environment and study them in the lab, we are exerting some control over them and, as a result, possibly changing the way they behave, thus limiting how much we can generalise the findings to how people behave in natural settings.

12. DRIPP big C Laid down by the BPS and APS to protect participants and prevent psychology as an academic subject being discredited Does the experiment respect participants and protect their well being? Is the psychologist competent? Ethics

13. Ethics refers to the way psychologists treat participants during research. At stake here is the safety and dignity of the participants. It’s up to the researcher to make sure both of these are preserved. Several ethical questions are posed by psychological research. Are participants protected from physical and emotional harm? Do they have the opportunity to withdraw midway through the study? Have they given informed consent to be studied? Are they protected from deception? Do they receive a through debriefing after the research? Plenty of researchers are prepared to answer ‘not really’ to some of these questions in the interests of finding out more about behaviour. Consequently ‘ethics’ is a particularly fruitful area for evaluation.

14. Additional evaluation issues could include:Reductionism?Scientific or Not?Objective; Falsifiable, Reliable?Nature/nurture?Ethnocentrism?Determinism?Think beyond the GRAVE

15. ethnocentrism "the use of our own ethnic group (beliefs and values) as a basis of making judgments about other ethnic groups". We have a tendency to view our beliefs etc. as normal and superior to those of other groups. Psychologists assume that the way we behave in the developed western world is ‘the norm’ against which other people are compared.

16. You will need a couple of slides that remind you to use evidence to support the point you are making – see the slides that follow this one for examples. • I have used evidence bags – can you think of a better image?

17. Support your point with appropriate evidence from the study or theory The evidence should come from the piece of research you are evaluating. Try and find something specific that clearly illustrates the point you are making.

18. Support your point with appropriate evidence from the study or theory Sometimes you need more than one piece of evidence.

19. You need a slide to remind you to include something specific and unique about the study you are evaluating to ensure you have clearly linked your evaluation issue back to the study. • What is the experiment’s • Unique • Strength • point?

20. What is the experiment’s Unique Weakness point?

21. For example • If you tell me that a strength of Craik & Tulving’s LOP experiment (1975) is that the findings are reliable – then you need to explain what reliable means. • Reliability means………. • Next you need to show me evidence from this particular experiment that demonstrates why/how it is reliable. • E.g. – each word was presented for exactly the same time using a tachistoscope. This means the procedure was standardised meaning it was the same for all ppts. This makes the experiment easier to replicate. • An additional point could be…..Craik& Tulving repeated variations on their basic experiment 12 times and achieved similar results every time. Therefore we know their findings about LOP are reliable.