Key terms

• Subjective

  Research that is based on feelings and interpretations, can be biased
• Objective

  Research that is based on observable facts, free from bias. Research is not influenced by opinions, feelings or subjective interpretation
• Quantitative data

  (numerical data) Represents how much, how long, or how many there is of something
• Qualitative data

  (Non-numerical data) Words that cannot be counted or quantified. quantified by being put in categories and count frequency
• Primary Research

  Collected by researcher first hand
• Secondary research

  taken from secondary source, e.g. books, articles, internet
• Researcher bias

  Anything the researcher does that has an effect on participants performance, can be concious or unconscious
• Extraneous variable

  Variables that are not the IV and not measured in the study, can become confounding variable if left uncontrolled
• Confounding variable

  Variable that is not IV but may confound the results and make unreliable
• Participants variables

  Characteristics of indiv participants (e.g. age, intelligence) that may influence outcome of study
• Situational variables

  A factor in the environment that could affect the DV (e.g. noise, time)
• Demand characteristics

  A cue that makes participants unconsciously aware of the aims of a study/ helps participants figure out what researchers expects to find
• Social desirability bias

  Distortion in the way people answer questions, to look more socially acceptable
• Mundane realism

  How a study mirrors the real world/ real world events.
• Internal validity

  Have we measured what we set out to measure?
• External validity

  To what extent can we generalise findings to different groups of people, situations and measures
• Population validity

  Form of external validity, the extent to which the findings of a study can be generalised to other groups
• Ecological validity

  Form of external validity, we can generalise findings from research to real life situations (high ecological validity = high mundane realism)
• Historical validity

  Form of external validity, can the results be generalised to different time periods?
• Internal reliability

  The consistency withing the method/the extent to which the method of measurement is kept consistent
• External reliability

  Consistency of results overtime
• Standardised procedures

  A set of procedures that are the same for all participants in order to be able to repeat the study and ensure all participants behaviours are measured the
• Operationalisation of variables

  Ensuring that variables are in a form that can be easily measured
• Test re-test

  Method used to check external reliability, the same test or interview is given to the same participants on two occasions to see if the same result is obtained
• Split-half method

  Method of assessing internal reliability by comparing two halves (e.g. psychological test to see if they produce same score)
• Inter-rater reliability

  Extent to which there is an agreement between two or more observers involved in observation of behaviour