• a lab experiment 


  takes place under controlled conditions in an artificial environment IV manipulated effect on DV measured
• strength of lab experiment 


  experimenters control all variables IV and DV precisely operationalised replication is possible - check reliability can establish C and E because if all variables are controlled any change to DV must be due to IV
• weakness of lab experiment 


  lack ecological validity artificial setting is unlike real life and participants may not behave naturally know theyre being watched
• a field experiment


  takes place in participants natural environment IV manipulated a effect on DV measured
• strength of field experiment


  high ecological validity because participants are in their natural environment task/ situation reflects real life= natural behavior participants may be unaware theyre taking part in a study so less demand characteristics
• weakness of field experiment


  lower reliability because cannot control the environment completely harder to replicate to check consistency extraneous variables may affect DV due tO lack of control
• natural experiment 


  IV not manipulated, changes naturally effect on DV measured
• quasi experiment


  can take place in lab or natural setting IV changes due to being characteristic of participant i.e. age, gender, ethnicity
• strength of natural and quasi 


  allow research where IV cannot be manipulated for ethical reasons can study real life issues such as effect of disaster on mental health - high EV
• weakness of natural and quasi 


  cant demonstrate cause and effect because IV is not manipulated random allocation is not possible so there could be uncontrolled confounding variables affecting DV impossible to replicate a natural experiment
• extraneous variable 


  any variable other than IV that could affect DV need to be controlled and to stay constant across all conditions and between participants
• confounding variable


  a variable that varies systematically with the IV hidden variable systematically affects the DV i.e. first 10 to arrive at experiment are extroverted
• three ways to control extraneous variables


  1- standardisation - participants have same experiences i.e. instructions, time, researcher

  2- randomisation - randomly allocated participants to the conditions so intelligence is not a confounding variable

  3- counter balancing - if everyone is doing all the conditions: half do condition one first and other half do condition two first to avoid order effects
• three situations do demand characteristics occur in

  1- appear normal

  2- behave how they think researcher wants them

  3- social desirability
• five clues help participants guess aim of study


  1- communication during i.e. instructions and implicit clues that indicate what is expected of them

  2- prior knowledge of study/ heard about it from other participants

  3- how they are approached and asked

  4- how the researcher behaves i.e. formal, relaxed, physical characteristics, ethnicity

  5- setting i.e. lab gives more clues
• what three ways can the researcher unconsciously influence the study


  1- physical characteristics - people may be more confident to admit something to same sex

  2- tone of voice i.e. stern = scare participants

  3- biased in their interpretation of results based on preconceived ideas
• how can investigator effects be overcome 


  double blind randomisation - reduce influence from researcher i.e. words on word list randomly ordered so researcher cannot try and lead results by putting hard words at end to reduce recall standardisation - researcher cannot change adjectives to effect participants
• Strength of independent groups

  No order effects Don't know other condition
• weakness of independent groups 


  Participant variables
• strength of repeated measures 


  No participant variables because there is one group that is compared against itself
• weakness of repeated measures


  Order effects may be a problem as get better across trials/ get worse due to fatigue
• strength of matched pairs


  No order effects or participant variables as one similar group is used
• a weakness of matched pairs


  time consuming
• strength of correlational research 


  doesnt require manipulation of variables so can be used where it would be unethical to use an experiment
• Three weaknesses of correlational research 


  1. cannot show cause and effect (just a relationship) because another intervening variable could affecting DV
  2. extraneous variables can affect cause and co variables
  3. only measure linear relationships
• observational techniques 


  watching and recording behaviour a way of measuring DV used alongside other methods different types of observation and they vary in degree they reflect natural behaviour
• strengths of observational technique:


  controlled - take place in lab with some aspect of environment manipulated naturalistic - take place in a real life natural environment where behaviour usually takes place. no manipulation and everything left normally overt
• weaknesses of observational technique:

  not aware being observed, hidden researcher, disguise, secret camera participant

  - part of group non participant

  - watch from distance
• observational design

  how you intend to record the data needs to be planned in advance to avoid bias researchers need to be clear about what is being recorded
• behavioural categories

  used to reduce observer bias because same behaviour can be recorded differently behaviour is operationalised so observations can be made efficiently target behaviour broken down into components that are observable and measurable affection = hug, kiss, smile
• event sampling 


  recording number of times a behaviour occurs frequency of behaviour
• time sampling


  record when each behaviour occurs used when order of events is important record behaviour in fixed time frame
• inter observer reliability 


  M- single observers may miss important details and only record those confirming their opinions

  B- introduces bias so 2 researchers are needed

  S- they should be consistent and check they measured the same thing
• four things can be used to achieve inter-observer reliability


  familiarise themselves with behavioural categories

  observe behaviour at same time, maybe pilot study

  compare data and discuss differences

  analyse data and check correlation
• three strengths of questionnaires 


  -cost effective and time efficient way to collect large amounts of data

  -when completed privately they provide honest data which improves validity --reduced involvement of researcher reduces extent to which they influence participant behaviour
• three weaknesses of questionnaires 


  -response rate can be poor and responses can be hard to generalise as those who reply are psychologically different

  -hard to phrase questions that are not leading

  -participants may lie or give socially desirbale answers especially if socially sensitive topic
• 3 types of scales used in questionnaire

  likert: indicates agreement 1-5

  rating: identify a value that represents strength of feeling

  fixed choice: options, box tick
• evaluate open questions 


  provide own answers - qualitative data can provide unexpected answers so we gain new insight collects very valid data as participants are free to express themselves rather than being forced into a box less literate people may be put off at prospect of wordy answers difficult to analyse data
• evaluate closed questions


  have a predetermined range of answers i.e. multiple choice produces quantitative data that is easy to analyse using graphs and statistics data may lack validity as participants can be forced to give an answer which doesn't really reflect them response bias where participants select 'don't know'
• two strategies/ important things in questionnaires


  1- clarity of questions - questions need to be written so that the participants understand what is being asked - avoid jargon. questions cannot be leading pilot study could be used to check participants understand questions

  2- filler questions - distract participants from aim of questionnaire - reduce demand characteristics