Psychology

• Sample - Who they are, list the participants
• Sampling technique - how they were obtained
• Experimental design - how you split up your participants into conditions of the experiment
• Independent measures - participants only fo 1 condition
• Independent measures strengths : no order effects e.g. pracfice, fatigue

  Lower demand characteristics
• Independent measures weaknesses : more participants needed compared to repeat measures so costs more in time and money

  Does not control for participant variables
• Repeated measures - participants do all conditions
• Repeated measures strengths : less participants needed compared to independent groups

  Controls for participant variables (independent differences)
• Repeated measures weaknesses : order effects

  Higher demand characteristics
• Matched pairs - participants do 1 condition only but are prematched to each other
• Matched pairs strengths : no order effects

  Lower demand characteristics

  Controls participant variables
• Matched pairs weaknesses - more participants needed so costs more in time and money

  Does not fully control participant variables
• Demand characteristics - all the curs which convey to the participant the purpose of the experiment
• Validity - are we measuring what we think we are measuring?
• Confounding variable - eliminate or balance/control -> they affect the measurement
• Reliability - consistency, is it replicable?
• Concurrent validity - observation

  Self report
• Construct validity - is how well a test/measure represents the construct
• Ecological validity - is it true to life?

  How artificial is it?

  Is it realistic?

  Would the participant behave in the same way in a real life similar situation where they were not being studied?
• Ecological validity - consider : environment

  Mundane realism (the task set)

  Emotional aspects -> demand characteristics (behaviour may change if participants realise the aim of the study)
• Population validity - can we generalise the results (to other people we did not test)
• Population validity - consider : sample features (diversity)

  Sampling technique ( random, opportunity, self-selecting, smowball)

  Size of sample
• Face validity - on the surface

  Does it appear/seem to be a valid way to carry out a measurement/task/variable
• Cognitive approach - how the mind works
• Developmental approach - observing children to understand why they become the person they will
• Physiological approach - behaviour is a product of biology
• Application - a real life use of the area
• British psychological society ethics - responsibility, integrity, respect and competence
• Responsibility - protection of participants

  Debrief
• Respect - informed consent

  Right to withdraw

  Privacy and confidentiality
• Integrity - deception
• Competence - competence
• Laboratory experiment - experiments carried out in a controlled setting like a lab
• Field experiment - carried out in the participants natural setting
• Natural experiment - the independent variable occurs naturally
• Two tailed hypothesis - there will be a difference between condition 1 and 2 as measured by the dependent variable
• One tailed hypothesis - condition 1/2 will be higher and 1/2 will be lower
• Null - nothing will change, no significant difference
• Control variables : participants

  Experimentor

  Structional
• Control variables participants - people change themselves and their personalities in order to seem 'good people'