research methods

• what is operationalism?

  exact definition of aim of study
• what is the EV and its affects?

  Ev means extraneous variable

  this means anything other than the IV that can affect the DV

  if not controlled can confound results

  this can lead to low internal validity
• what is a confounding variable?

  An uncontrolled EV
• give a control method other than standardisation

  randomisation
• what are investigator affects?

  when the investigator unintentionally has influence which affects the participants natural behaviour
• what is a quasi experiment?

  When the IV (cause) is naturally occurring and the DV is measured in a controlled setting
• give 3 types of consent a briefly explain them

  -presumptive

  asking someone similar to participant if they would take part in the study and based of their answer they assume if participant would or not

  -prior general

  reveal some aspects of study to participant and ask them if they're willing to take part

  -retrospective

  giving a debrief at end and asking them if they still consent
• what are the 6 areas of the code of ethics?

  Confidentiality

  Deception

  consent

  Withdrawal

  protection
• what type of question is quantitive?

  closed
• what type of question is qualitative?

  open
• definition of population

  group of people of the researchers interest
• define sample

  group of people selected from population to take part in investigation
• what is a bias?

  when a group is under or over represented
• what is generalisation?

  extent findings can be generalised to population
• what is opportunity sampling, give an advantage and disadvantage

  -anyone who's willing to participate

  +not time consuming to select

  -unrepresentative of population
• what is volunteer sampling? give an advantage and disadvantage

  -members that volunteer to take part

  +not time consuming selection

  -unreprrsentative
• what is random sampling? Advantages and disadvantages?

  -randomly selected either manually or by computer

  +no researcher bias

  -time consuming
• what is systematic sampling, advantage and disadvantage

  -select every nth number from list of participants

  +no researcher bias

  -time consuming
• what is stratified sampling advantage, disadvantage?


  -select from subgroups in target population

  +representative

  -time consuming
• independent groups design? + and -

  -different people used for each condition

  +no order affects occur

  -time consuming
• what is counter balancing

  ABBA, reduces practise fatigue and boredom
• repeated measures design + and -

  -using same people in all conditions

  +less time consuming

  -order affects can occur
• matched pairs design? + and -

  -participants matched on variables then each go to separate conditions

  +less time consuming

  -difficult to match participants
• what is a hypothesis?

  prediction of what is going to happen
• what is the difference between a directional and non directional hypothesis?

  directional is specific ''participants who..'' whereas a non directional is more general ''there will be..''
• what is a null hypothesis?

  when the researcher assumes nothing will happen
• what is small standard deviation?

  when scores around median are close to median meaning they weren't affected by individual differences
• what is a large standard deviation?

  scores around median are far from the median so they were affected by individual differences
• what is primary data? + and -

  -data collected first hand by researcher

  +provides greater insight

  -more time consuming
• what is secondary data?

  -pre-existing data collected from another study

  +less time consuming

  -lacks detail
• what is meta analysis?

  -technique that combines and analyses secondary data

  +high external validity as collected from large population

  -low internal validity, the studies could have different sampling techniques
• what is a controlled observation?

  -when participants are observed in controlled environment

  +control over extraneous variables

  -demand characteristics
• what is a covert observation?

  -when researcher is hidden from participants

  +no demand characteristics

  -unethical as participants dont know theyre taking part
• what is an overt observation?

  -researcher not hidden from participants

  +not unethical as participants are informed

  -demand characteristics could occur
• what is a participant observation?

  -researcher becomes one of the participants

  +more insightful

  -more investigator bias can occur
• what is a non participant observation?

  -researcher remains outside group

  +less investigator bias

  -less insight
• how would you describe a scatter gram?

  -strength (strong or weak correlation)

  -direction (+ or -)

  -describe trend
• what is operationalism?

  -when researches pre decide the behaviour they're looking for in the experiment and list it in behavioural categories
• what is a pilot study?

  a small scale version of the real study to check if its worth doing
• + and - of behavioural categories?

  + easy to collect as its quantitative

  -some behaviours not recorded