Experimental Method

• what is primary data

  data collected directly by the researcher, only for their investigation
• what are positives of collecting primary data

  researcher has control over the design, data collection and can be designed specifically for their aim

  considered more trustworthy- greater validity
• what are negatives of collecting primary data

  can be expensive- has to organise material, find participants, run study etc

  limited to the time, place and number of participants
• what is secondary data

  information that has been collected previously by someone else other than the researcher, not specifically for the purpose of the investigation
• what can secondary data be (2 types)

  qualitative and quantitative
• examples of qualitative data

  diaries, newspapers, gov reports
• what is quantitative data

  numerical data
• what is meta-analysis


  combination of results of multiple studies addressing a similar research question (quantitative)
• positives of meta analysis (4)

  a lot of secondary data is available, often easier to work with

  sometimes documents and official statistics are the only means of researching the past

  official statistics could be useful to make comparisons over time

  identify outliers
• negatives of meta analysis

  limited to whats available

  subject to the original researchers biases

  docs might not represent the wider population

  the way things are measured change over time
• what does quantitative data involve

  the process of objectively (by urself) collecting and analysing numerical data to describe, predict or control variables of interest
• what are the goals of quantitative research

  to test causal relationships between variables, make predictions and generalise results to the wider populations
• what does qualitative data represent

  info and concepts that arent represented by numbers
• how is qualitative data often gathered

  interviews, focus groups, personal diaries, lab notebooks, maps, photos, observations etc
• what is the aim of a study

  a statement of what the researcher wants to investigate
• what is a directional hypothesis

  indicates a direction in the prediction, often caused by previous research that supports the prediction
• what is a non-directional hypothesis

  indicates no direction in the prediction, often because of no previous research- doesnt know what will happen
• what is an independent variable (IV)

  the variable that the researcher manipulates, which has a supposed effect on the DV
• what is a dependent variable (DV)

  the variable that is measured after manipulating the IV

  this is the data collected
• how can you be confident on the causality of manipulating an IV

  additional variables should be controlled
• when is a causal relationship established

  if the IV is found to directly influence the DV
• types of research methods (7)

  correlation

  observation

  questionnaire

  interviews

  content analysis

  experiments

  case study
• what is operationalisation


  clearly defining variables in terms of how they can be measured (specific and measurable)
• positives of collecting quantitative data

  less likely to be bias
• negatives of collecting quantitative data

  takes a long time to collect

  outliers can effect results

  doesnt show a reason for the data
• positives of collecting qualitative data

  more detailed

  no bias

  validity
• negatives of collecting qualitative data

  researcher bias influences results
• what is a hypothesis

  a prediction of outcome which can be verified or disproved by an experiment
• what are extraneous variables

  variables the arent the IV but MAY affect the results of the experiment
• what is a situational variable

  aspects of the environment that may affect the participants behaviour
• examples of situational variables

  noise, temperature, lighting conditions
• what is a participant variable

  different characteristics of an individual that may affect the DV
• examples of a participant variable

  concentration, mood, intelligence, anxiety, nerves
• what is a confounding variable

  if extraneous variables arent controlled they become confounding variables, as they go on to create the same results as the IV
• what are the 3 types of experimental designs

  independent group design

  repeated measures

  matched pairs
• what is an independent group design

  group of participants are recruited and randomly divided into 2 groups

  1 group does the task for IV1, 2nd group does the task for IV2

  DV is measured, and results are compared
• what happens in a repeated measures design

  a group of participants are recruited, and they all do the task for IV1

  the same group of people do the task for IV2

  DV is measured and results are compared
• what is the matched pairs design

  a group of participants are recruited and within the group, participants are 'matched' together based on a relevant factor (e.g. age/gender/health condition)

  the rest of the experiment is treated like an independent group design : each participant is randomly allocated to separate groups to do a different IV
• what is an experimental condition

  a level of the IV is manipulated by the researcher in order to assess the effect on a DV
• what is a control condition

  a factor in the experiment that doesnt involve exposure to the thing under study