Research Methods

• Indepedant Variable


  the variable that is changed
• Dependant variable


  the variable that is measured
• Directional hypothesis


  states the direction of the experiment (eg. higher, lower, slower, faster)
• Non-directional hypothesis


  states a difference, but no direction
• operationalisation


  clearly defining variables and making them specific
• extraneous variables


  any variable that you are not investigating that could potentially affect the outcomes of the study
• confounding variables


  variables that counfound the indepedant and dependant variable
• demand characteristics


  participants acting in a way that they think is expected (overperforming to please the experiment, or underperforming to sabotage the results)
• investigator effects


  where the behaviour of the researcher effects participating behaviour (smiling at certain responses, leading questions)
• social desirability bias


  participants acting in a way that makes themselves look better to others
• experimental design


  the way in which participants are arranged in an experiment
• independant groups


  participants separated into different groups, does 1 condition each
• repeated measures


  all participants take part in all conditions
• counterbalacing

  half the participants experience the condition in one order and the other half in the opposite order
• matched pairs

  similiar participants (eg age, gender, IQ) are paired and split into different conditions
• experimental methods

  the way the experiment is carried out
• lab experiments

  conducted in highly controlled environments, researcher changes IV, high control over extraneous variables
• field experiment

  IV is manipulated by researcher in a natural every day setting (participants usual environment)
• natural experiment

  researcher has no control over IV and cannot change it (someone/someone else controls it)
• quasi experiment

  the IV is based on existing differences that cannot be controlled (age/gender)
• random sampling


  obtain everyone in population, lottery method, take names out of hat
• systematic sampling


  the nth person, list everyone in alphabetical order, sampling system nominated (eg, every 5th person)
• stratified sampling


  reflects proportions of certain people in society. identify subgroups that make up population (eg. gender, age), proportions worked out, participants in each subgroup randomly chosen
• opportunity sampling


  selects anyone who is available and convenient
• volunteer sampling


  participants select themselves to be in the sample
• pilot study


  small-scale run study, (trying out questions, identifying any potential issues, modifying design/procedure)
• single-blind procedure


  participants unaware of aims of study, will be revealed at end of study, to control demand characterstics
• double-blind procedure


  neither participants or researcher told aim of study, usually third party conducts experiment
• naturalistic observations


  watching behaviour in a setting it usually occurs in
• controlled observations


  watching behaviour within a structured setting
• covert observation


  participants being observed without them knowing
• overt observation


  participants know their behaviour is being observed
• participant observations


  researcher becomes a member of the group
• non-participant observations


  researcher remains outside the group
• self report techniques

  ways of gaining info.
• questionnaires


  a pre-list set of questions to ask participants
• open questions


  do not have fixed set of answers, gains a variety of answers, takes time to sort through, more rich qualitative data,
• closed questions


  have a fixed number of answers (eg. yes or no answers/scale of 1-10 answers) produces quantative answers, easier to produce conclusions, less rich data
• structured interviews


  pre-determined set of questions asked in a fixed order, easier to compare data, less rich data
• unstructured interviews


  certain topic discussed, participants can elaborate on answers, gives richer detail, requires trained interviewer