research methods

• a hypothesis is something you can test eg do all teenagers own a phone?
• a sample are the people you are using for your experiment or to test your hypothesis
• a closed question has a fixed answer
• an open question could garner any response
• reliability is if you could repeat your experiment and if so could the same results be produced
• validity is how truthful is your data
• quantitative data is numerical data
• qualitative data is any data other than numerical data
• primary research methods is any data you gather yourself
• secondary research methods are when you use secondary data to test your hypothesis
• interviews, focus groups, questionnaires and observation are all examples of primary research methods
• the study of official statistics and documents is secondary research methods
• covert observation is observation done without the participant knowing they are being observed
• overt observation is when the sample knows they are being observed
• PET stands for practical , ethical and theoretical
• practical refers to the worry of how to execute the idea rather than the idea itself e.g. how much money will it cost to do how long will it take and how will they get the participants etc
• ethical refers to concerns about how morally conscious your experiment is eg: informed consent, deception, privacy
• theoretical refers to the idea of your experiment: what data will you need, is it representative, will the data be valid, is it reliable