Psychology : Research Methods

• what are the strengths of a field experiment?

  • has high levels of mundane realism as participants are in a naturalistic setting
  • demand characteristics are less likely to arise as participants are in a natural setting, so they’re unlikely to guess the aim and change their behaviour
  • has high ecological validity as it’s a real life setting
• what are the strengths of a laboratory experiment?

  • has high control so cause and effect can be easily identified and extraneous variables can be controlled
  • they use standard procedure so it’s replicable which increases reliability
  • has high internal validity because extraneous variables are controlled
• what are the limitations of a laboratory experiment?

  • lacks ecological validity as it’s an artificial environment
  • demand characteristics may occur due to the participant guessing the sim and changing their behaviour
  • they often lack mundane realism so you can’t generalise the it to real world behaviour
• what is are the limitations for a field experiment?

  • harder to control extraneous variables, which could change how you measure the dependent variable results due to the reduced control experimenters have over them in non-artificial environments,
  • ethical principles have to be considered, such as the lack of informed consent; if participants are not made aware of their participation in an experiment, privacy must be respected during observations and participants must be debriefed appropriately when observations come to an end
• what are the strengths of a natural experiment?

  • High ecological validity because it's done in a natural environment e.g your house, resulting in many real world applications.
  • Very little bias from sampling or demand characteristics
• What are the limitations of a natural experiment?

  • Difficult to infer cause and effect due to lack of control and no direct manipulation of the IV.
  • Extremely difficult to replicate - difficult to test for reliability.
• what are the limitations of a quasi experiment?

  • randomisation is not used with the samples. This limits the study's ability to draw a causal association between cause and effect but also rule out confounding variables which are more likely to occur.
  • using non-random samples is this increases the possibility of having groups that are not comparable due to significant differences in the samples. the study may lack internal validity and may not be measuring what they intended to.
• what are strengths of quasi experiments?

  • it allow comparisons between different groups of people e.g gender or age
• What are the strengths of participant and non-participant observations?

  • participant observation may provide special insights into the behaviour from the 'inside' may not be gained otherwise
  • non-participant observation is more observers are likely to be more objective because they're not part of the group being observed
• what are the limitations for a participant and non-participant observation?

  • participant observation is more likely to be overt and thus having issues of participant awareness
  • non-participant observation is more likely to be covert, which can lead to ethical issues
• what are the strengths of overt and covert observations?

  • in covert participants will act more natural
• what are the limitations of an overt and covert observation?

  • overt : participants are aware they're being watched and may lead to demand characteristics
  • covert : there are ethical issues e.g. the individuals that are being observed can't give consent
• what are the strengths of a naturalistic and controlled observation?

  • naturalistic : has high ecological validity
  • controlled : observer can focus on particular aspects, there will be less extraneous variables
• what are limitations of naturalistic and controlled observation?

  • naturalistic : little control, extraneous variables may effect the data that is gathered by the observer
  • controlled : low ecological validity because it takes place in an unnatural environment
• One strength of a structured interview is that that it's very easily replicable because the questions are standardised. Therefore the answers from different people is easily comparable.
• Another strength of a structured interview is that they are easier to analyse compared to unstructured interviews because the answers are more predictable.
• A limitation of an unstructured interview is that it requires a skilled and well-trained interviewer. As they need to be able to come up with questions the spot, this requires more money.
• a strength of an unstructured interview is that they can get more detailed information from the interviewee. This is because the interviewer tailors further questions to specific responses.
• a limitation for an unstructured interview is that because the questions asked to the interviewees aren't the same, comparisons are harder to asked between the interviewees responses.
• a limitation of a questionnaire is that it can be distributed to to large numbers of people relatively cheaply and quickly. So the researcher can attain a large sample of data quickly.
• a limitation of a questionnaire is that it can only be filled out by people who can read and write. Therefore, the sample is biased.
• the strengths of a closed question are?

  • responses are easier to count up therefore easier to analyse
  • they're easier and faster for participants to answer making them more likely for participants to take part. Therefore, making it more representative
• what are the strengths of open questions?

  • respondents can expand on their answers making the detail of the information collected more rich.
  • the answers are more representative of participants feeling rich means the data has more validity.
• what are the limitations of a closed question?

  • respondents may be forced to select answers that aren't representative of their feelings or behaviours so the data can lack validity
• what are the limitations of an open question?

  • it's difficult to compare because it's not quantitative data so it's more difficult to analyse
• what are the limitations of repeated measures design?

  • order effects may arise : they may do better on the second condition because of practise effects, or they may do worse because of boredom or fatigue
  • participants may guess the aim of the study and change their behaviour accordingly : 'please you and screw you effect'
• what are the strengths of opportunity sampling?


  its the easiest and most convenient.
• what are limitations of opportunity sampling?

  sample is biased because the ample is drawn to a small part of the population.
• what are the strengths of random sampling?

  no researcher bias as the researcher has no influence on who is picked.
• what are the limitations of random sampling?

  time consuming as the researcher need to have a list of all members of the population and contacting them takes time.
• what are the strengths to stratified sampling?


  likely to be more representative because they're proportionate and randomly selected representation of subgroups.