Research Methods

• What is meant by aims?


  Aims are developed from theories. They are general statements that describe the purpose of an investigation.

  sentence starter: ‘To find out……’ ‘To investigate…’
• what is meant by hypothesis?

  Hypothesis is a statement of prediction, made at the beginning of an investigation that is testable and clearly states the relationship between the variables under investigation
• What is an independent variable?

  What the researcher changes?
• What is a dependent variable?

  What the researcher measures
• What is meant by a directional hypothesis?

  It is a one tailed hypothesis, they predict the direction (positive or negative..better or worse) it is used when there is previous research. It gives a more specific answer.
• What is meant by a nondirectional hypothesis?

  A two tailed hypothesis-there is no direction of results predicted for example ‘ that will be a relationship/ there will be a difference’ it is used when there is no previous research and it is less specific
• What is a null hypothesis?

  States that there is no relationship between two variables being studied. There will be no changes in the dependent variable due to the manipulation of the independent variable.
• What is meant by operationalising variables?

  Turning abstract concepts into measurable observations, for example, if you were trying to measure anxiety, you would measure the heart rate.
• How would your hypothesis be if there was an experiment?

  Hypothesis would show that there would be a difference in the results
• How would your hypothesis show if there was a correlation in the question?

  There would be a positive or negative correlation/relationship between the results
• What is meant by extraneous variables?

  A variable other than the independent that might have an effect on the dependent variable. They must be controlled, so they not become confounding variables. (a variable that changes systematically with the independent variable). Failure to do this will lead to inaccurate results.
• Give some examples of (extraneous) situational variables:


  * time of day

  * noise

  * temperature

  * demand characteristics

  * order effects

  * investigator effect
• Some examples of extraneous personal characteristics:


  * age

  * IQ

  *motivation

  * gender

  * experience
• What are demand characteristics?


  Clues in a research setting that may influence participants to respond in a certain way, potentially biasing the results of the study. (People could act differently to help the research to find out what they’re looking for.)
• How would you control demand characteristics?


  * use an independent group design (people only take part in one condition - so they are less likely to get the aim of the research)

  * using deception (misleading the people about the study)

  * single-blind procedure (people don’t know the aim of the study)
• What is meant by investigator effects?

  Any unintentional or intentional influence of the researcher behaviour on participants towards the results. For e.g the Researcher acting a certain way
• Give some examples of what the investigator effect could be due to:

  * how the researchers communicate with people

  * how they have selected the participants (friends?classmates?family?)

  * how they have allocated participants to conditions

  * researcher characteristics (their gender, age, race etc)
• How can you control investigator effects?

  Use a double blind technique, where researcher and participants both don’t know the aim
• What is meant by randomisation?

  The use of chance to minimise the research as influence on the study. For example, randomly allocating participants to group/tasks (random name generator).
• Get some ways to do randomisation:

  * using standardised scripts and procedures, therefore communicating with all participants in the same way

  * use the same researcher for all participants
• What is meant by standardisation?


  Keeping the procedures within an investigation, the same for all participants. For example, everyone is given the same task. This should prevent changes in the procedure becoming extraneous variables.
• (experimental design) what is independent group design?


  Participants only take part in one condition of the experiment
• (experimental design) What is repeated measure design?


  Participants take part in both conditions of the experiment the same participants for condition A are the same as condition B
• (experimental design) what is matched pairs design?


  Participants are matched on characteristics that may influence their performance e.g intelligence, gender, extroversion etc. one from each pair is randomly allocated to each condition. For example, 2 males and one takes part in condition and the other condition B
• (experimental design) What are the strengths of independent group design?


  * no order effects (boredom, practice and fatigue effects as participants only take part in one condition)

  * demand characteristics are less likely as participants only take part in one condition

  * the same test/stimulus material can be used
• (experimental design) What is meant by order effects?


  It refers to the order of conditions having an effect on the participants behaviour. For example, performance might be worse in the second condition because they are tired or bored which is the fatigue effect.
• (experimental design) What are the limitations of independent group design?


  * participant variables, the difference in performance in both conditions may be due to individual differences of the participants. Random Allocation helps to reduce this problem.

  * less economical as twice as many participants are needed to produce the equivalent data
• (experimental design) What are the strengths of repeated measures?


  * no participant variables as the same participants take part in both conditions

  * more economical as each participant contributes a result or data to both conditions so less participants are needed. It also takes less time to recruit participants.
• (experimental design) limitations of repeated measures


  * order affect can occur as participants take part in both conditions

  * demand characteristics are more likely as participants take part in both conditions are more likely to guess the aim of the experiment

  * a different test/stimulus may be needed
• (experimental design) What is counterbalancing


  1/2 of the participants do condition A, FIRST followed by condition B.

  1/2 of the participants do condition B, FIRST, followed by condition A
• (experimental design) What is the purpose of counterbalancing?


  * it controls the impact of order effects

  * allows order effects to be distributed evenly across both conditions

  * making each condition of IV occur as the first task and the second task equally
• (experimental design) What are the strengths of matched pairs?


  * participants only take part in one condition so order effects and demand characteristics are reduced

  * the same test/stimulus can be used

  * participant variables are reduced as they have been matched on certain criteria
• (experimental design) What are the limitations of matched pairs?


  * matching pairs can be time-consuming and difficult

  * participant variables still exist - the participants won’t have absolutely everything in common

  * less economical as each participant only takes part in one condition. Therefore more participants are needed.
• What are laboratory experiments?


  conducted in highly controlled environments, with a researcher, changes, the independent variable and record the effects of the dependent variable. Participants are randomly allocated to conditions. Therefore this is considered a true experiment.
• What are the strengths of laboratory experiments?


  * high control over, extraneous variables, meaning cause and effect can be established

  *Replication can be possible due to the high-level of control. This means results can be checked for reliability.
• What are the limitations of laboratory experiments?

  * participants are often aware of being tested - possible demand characteristics

  * artificial environment means it may lack ecological validity

  * investigator effect may occur
• What are field experiments?


  The research are still manipulates, the independent variable and records the effects of the dependent variable, but the experiment is conducted in a real life setting
• What are the strengths of field experiments?


  * high ecological validity, due to being conducted in real life setting

  * behaviour is likely to be more valid and authentic (less demand characteristics)
• What are the limitations of field experiments?


  * less control of extraneous variables

  * it is harder to replicate them completely, because they tend to be less controlled

  * possible, ethical issues if participants are unaware they’re being studied
• What are Natural Experiments

  Events or situations that occur naturally in the environment, allowing researchers to study the relationship between variables without actively manipulating them.