research methods

• overview of random sampling?


  -picking a random target population out of a total population

  -use lottery method (random selection of names on a list)

  -free from researcher bias

  -time consuming

  -can be a unrepresentative sample

  -some participants might refuse to take part
• overview of systematic sampling?


  -create a sampling list and pick out every nth number

  -free from bias

  -represented sample

  -time consuming

  -some participants might refuse to take part
• overview of stratified sampling?

  -composite of sample reflects proportion of people in subgroups in a target population (must identify subgroups) then work out proportion of each group represented

  -bias free

  -representative sample -time consuming -complete representation is impossible
• overview of opportunity sampling?


  -select anyone willing to take part

  -saves money and time

  -only certain types of people apply so unrepresentative
• overview of volunteer sampling?


  -advertisement product and participants self select

  -easy saves time

  -experimenter may pick certain people and show bias

  -volunteer bias as only certain types of people volunteer

  -unrepresentative
• how to evaluate a sample?


  -how representative?

  -bias?

  -time taken?

  -easy?
• what is a population?


  large group of individuals a researcher is studying
• what is a target population?


  subset of overall population where sample will be taken from
• what is a sample?


  people who take part in the research, it’s representative of the target population it’s drawn from
• what does representative mean?


  has equal characteristic from all different aspects of target population where sample was taken from
• what is generalisation?


  the extent to which finding can be broadly applied to the population
• overview of a pilot study?


  -small scale experiment that takes place before the real experiment is conducted

  -aims to check procedures, materials and measuring scales beforehand

  -for method only data discovered is irrelevant
• strength of a pilot study?


  -prevents mistakes in real study to save time and money in long run

  -collects valid data to clue experimenter on what to expect

  -allows researcher to practice complex procedures
• weaknesses of a pilot study?


  -need extra participants because they can only be used once

  -pilot participants may tell real ones the true aims and invalidate the results

  -waste of time and money if the experiment had no issues
• what to always do when answering exam questions?

  specify IV and DV
• what is the naturalistic observation technique?


  -watching behaviour in an environment it naturally occurs

  -aspects of the environment vary

  -high external validity

  -lack of control

  -hard to replicate

  -less reliable
• what is the controlled observation technique?


  -watching or recording behaviour in a controlled environment

  -can observe very specific findings

  -findings lack generalibity
• what is the covert observational technique?


  -participants are watched without consent and knowledge

  -natural behaviour

  -can get retrospective consent

  -no informed consent

  -breaks ethical guidelines
• what is the participant observational technique?


  -researcher becomes member of the group they are watching

  -increases insight

  -less objectivity
• what is the overt observational technique?


  -participants are watched and recorded with knowledge and informed consent

  -can give informed consent

  -cause unnatural false behaviour
• what is the non participant observational technique?


  -researched observes the group without interacting with it

  -more objectivity

  -no insight
• overview of a laboratory experiment?

  -takes place in controlled environment it’s manipulated

  -researcher manipulating IV and records affect on DV

  -controls extraneous variables

  -easy to replicate

  -no extraneous variables causes high eternal validity, more aware of cause/effect -low external validity and low mundane realism (not realistic)
• overview of field experiment?


  -takes place in natural everyday setting

  -IV manipulated and record affects on DV

  -higher mundane realism

  -low internal validity

  -no control of extraneous variables

  -authentic and valid
• overview of natural experiment?


  -takes place in natural setting

  -IV not manipulated as it would change regardless of experimenter

  -record affects on DV

  -higher mundane realism

  -high external validity

  -low internal validity

  -hard to replicate
• overview of quasi experiment?


  -takes place in natural setting

  -a study similar to experiment but no one determines IV variables just exist (e.g being young or old)

  -type of natural experiment IV based on difference between ppl

  -can’t control

  -easy to replicate

  -confounding variables

  -hard to observe change in IV
• what is ecological validity?


  how applicable the experiment is to other conditions (lab is low cos so fake)
• what are 4 types of data?

  -primary

  -secondary

  -qualitative

  -quantitative
• overview of primary data?

  -collected by researchers for their specific study

  -e.g., experiments and observations
• overview of secondary data?

  -data collected from 3rd parties and may not be directly linked to research question

  -second hand data

  -e.g., published studies
• overview of quantitative data?

  -numerical values (counting reaction time)

  -displayed in charts, graphs from descriptive data stats

  -mean and range collected from experiments
• overview of qualitative data?

  -thoughts feelings and behaviour in words

  -uses content analysis to make it quantitative

  -e.g., interviews or questionnaires
• what type of data did milgrams study use?

  quantitative and qualitative, numerical values (65% of participants went to 450v) and thoughts and feelings on impacts and reasons for study
• evaluation of types of data?

  -strenth, primary is specific to question and increases validity, controls data and minimises extraneous variables

  -limitation, primary is time consuming and expensive because self conducted

  -strength, secondary is quick and easy to access, cheap

  -limitation, secondary not specific enough so less validity and more confounding variables
• what are measures of dispersion?

  -how values differ from eachother based on a spread of data values
• what is standard deviation?

  -a measure of disperse

  -a larger SD means the participants were affected more differently by the IV
• evaluation of range 


  -easy to calculate

  -shows good spread of data

  -only looks at most extreme scores
• evaluation of SD


  -precise measure of dispersion

  -affected by extreme values
• evaluation of mean?


  -representative of data as a whole

  -disturbed by extreme values
• evaluation of median?


  -less sensitive to a range of values and misses small important details

  -not affected by extreme scores
• evaluation of mode

  -

  -easy to calculate

  -can be multiple so no always useful

  -data may be too simple