Research methods

• Laboratory experiment

  • in controlled environment
• Field experiments 

  • in a natural environment 
• Independent Variable

  • Is manipulated or changed by the experimenter
• Dependent Variable

  • Is affected by the change in the IV and measured by the experimenter
• Hypothesis 

  Null 

  • any effect is due to change, there is no relationship/ difference 

  Alternative

  • states there will be a difference due to manipulation of IV
  • Can be referred to as an experimental hypothesis 
  • Can be one tailed/ directional or two tailed/non directional 
• Independent measures 

  • different participant are used in each condition
  • Done randomly to ensure that each participant has equal chance of being assigned to each group
• Repeated measures 

  • same participants takes pry in both conditions 
  • Means each condition of experiment includes same group of participants 
• Matched pairs

  • pairs of participants are matched in terms of key variables such as age
  • one member of each pair is placed in the two different conditions