Control & Demand Characteristics

• In research, demand characteristics are cues that might indicate the aim of a study to participants.
• These cues can lead participants to change their behaviours or responses based on what they think the research is about.
• Presence of demand characteristics in a study suggest that there is a high risk that participants will change their natural behaviour in line with their interpretation of the aims of a study.
• Participants may try to please the researcher by doing what they have guessed is expected of them.
• Participants might deliberately try to skew the results in one way or other, such as attempting to do the opposite of what they think is expected (i.e. the 'screw you' effect).
• A repeated measures design is more likely to present the problem of demand characteristics, as participants will be taking part in all conditions of the experiment.
• Lab experiments are at greater risk of demand characteristics as participants are entering an artificial environment.
• The social desirability effect is similar to demand characteristics, but here people change their opinions to appear socially acceptable/ normal.
• Demand characteristics are when people change their behaviour to please the researchers.
• Control in research is essential to maintain reliable results.
• There are several ways in which research can be controlled to eliminate extraneous variables.
• Random allocation is one way control can be maintained in research studies.
• Random allocation can decrease any procedural bias, so individual differences in responses or ability are far less likely to consistently affect results.
• In order to assess the effect of one variable on another, all variables other than the variable to be investigated need to be controlled.
• In experimental research extraneous variables should be controlled to ensure the effects on the DV are a direct result of the manipulation of the IV.
• Randomisation is used in the presentation of trials to avoid any systematic errors that the order of the trials might present.
• It is important to control all variables because they can confound the results and make it difficult to determine the true effect of the variable of interest.
• Controlling extraneous variables is important in experimental research to ensure that any observed effects are truly due to the manipulated IV and not influenced by other factors.
• Randomisation is used in the presentation of trials in experiments to ensure that participants are assigned to different groups or conditions in a way that is unbiased and free from any potential confounding factors.
• Standardisation refers to the process in which procedures used in research are kept the same. This is to ensure a fair test for all participants.
• Investigator effects occur when a researcher unintentionally, or unconsciously influences the outcome of any research they are conducting.
• Investigator effects can be non-verbal or verbal.
• Investigator effects can occur in the interpretation of the results.
• Investigator effects can influence the outcome of research by introducing bias or influencing participant behaviour through their own beliefs, expectations, or actions.
• Counterbalancing is a technique used to deal with order effects when using a repeated measures design.
• Counterbalancing is a control used in repeated measures designs to reduce order effects.
• With counterbalancing, the participant sample is divided in half, with one half completing the two conditions in one order and the other half completing the conditions in the reverse order (AB, BA).