Research methods

• Aim


  A general statement of what the researcher intends to investigate. The purpose of the study.
• Alternate hypothesis


  A testable statement about the relationship (difference, association etc.) between two or more variables. Opposite to a null.
• Confidentiality


  An ethical issue concerned with a participant's right to have personal information protected. They should not be identifiable from the research and their results should not be made public. This is dealt with by using participant numbers or pseudonyms.
• Confounding Variable


  This is a variable other than the IV that has affected the dependent variable.
• Co-Variables


  The two measured variables in a correlational analysis.
• Demand Characteristics


  This is where participants form an idea about the purpose of the study which affects their responses. Possibly being more helpful in order to please the researcher, or purposely trying to ruin results by acting the way they think the researcher does not want them to.
• Dependent Variable


  The variable that we claim to be measuring.
• Directional Hypothesis


  An experimental hypothesis which predicts the direction of how the independent variable will affect the dependent variable. Known as one tailed.
• Double blind


  Both the participant and the person conducting the experiment are 'blind' to the aims of the study. Therefore the person conducting the investigation is less likely to produce cues about what he or she expects and participants are less likely to show demand characteristics.
• Extraneous Variables


  This is any variable other than the IV that has the potential to affect the dependent variable.
• Hypothesis


  A prediction of what the researchers believe a study will find. Can be either one or two tailed and also must include a null version saying there will be no difference or correlation.
• Independent Variable


  The variable we are manipulating to see if it affects behaviour.
• Informed Consent


  An ethical issue / guideline where participants must be given comprehensive information about the nature and purpose of the research and their role in it, so that they can make an informed decision about whether to participate.
• Investigator Effects / bias

  Anything the investigator does that has an effect on a participant's performance in a study other than what was intended. E.g. the way they interact with participants, or the way they've designed the study
• Meta Analysis


  A researcher looks at the findings from a number of different studies and produces a statistic to represent the overall effect
• Non Directional Hypothesis


  An experimental hypothesis which does not predict the direction of how the independent variable will affect the dependent variable.
• Null Hypothesis


  A hypothesis which states there will be no significant effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable, or that any affect will be due to chance.
• Objective


  This is the opposite of subjective, the term would be used to describe a study or method that is not influenced by personal feelings or opinions and is instead measures scientifically.
• Operationalise


  This is when you clearly specify/ define a variables so that it can be more easily and accurately measured. E.g. 'educational attainment' is too vague, but GCSE grades in Maths is clearly defined and so can be easily measured and replicated.
• Participant Variables


  Anything specific to the individual that might influence results e.g. age, intelligence. It's to do with the characteristics of the individual ppts not the study as a whole.
• Pilot Study


  A small-scale trial run of a study to test any aspects of the design, with a view to making improvements. It can show up any problems with procedure, materials, measurement scale, timings etc.
• Random Allocation


  Each participant has the same chance of being in one condition as any other. This is done as an attempt to control for participant variables in an independent groups design.
• Randomisation


  The use of chance in order to control for the effects of bias when designing materials and deciding the order of conditions
• Social Desirability Bias


  A tendency for respondents to answer questions in such a way that presents themselves in a better light.
• Standardised procedures


  A set of procedures that are the same for all participants in order to be able to repeat the study.
• BPS Code of Ethics


  The BPS publishes this to ensure that participants are treated with respect and are protect from harm. This is a document that instructs psychologists what behaviours are not acceptable, built on 4 principles: respect, competence, responsibility and integrity.
• Concurrent Validity


  A means of assessing the validity of a method such as a questionnaire by comparing it to an existing and previously validated test. If participants score similarly then the new method is likely to also be valid.
• Cost-benefit analysis


  A systematic approach to estimating the negative and positive impact of any research.
• Debriefing


  Informing participants of the true nature of the study and to restore them to the state they were in at the start of the study. Checking they aren't upset and offering support if they are.
• Deception


  An ethical issue, where a participant is not told the true aims of a study and thus cannot give fully informed consent. Very occasionally it will actually involve the provision of false information, i.e. lying.
• Ecological validity


  When findings can be generalised beyond the particular setting in which it is studied, to other settings. For example, are the findings of a lab experiment applicable to the 'real world
• Ethical guidelines (code of conduct)

  A set of principles designed to help professionals behave honestly and with integrity.
• Ethical issues


  Concern questions of right and wrong. They arise in research where there are conflicting sets of values between researchers and participants.
• Ethics Committee


  A group of psychologists who consider the potential costs and benefits of a piece of research, and decide whether an experiment/study is ethically acceptable.
• Event Sampling


  An observational technique in which a count is kept of the number of times a certain behaviour category occurs. These are normally tallied off on a premade behavioural categories list.
• External Validity


  A measure of whether the findings can be generalised beyond the experiment e.g. to different settings or people. Types of this include - Ecological validity, population validity etc.
• Face Validity


  The extent to which a method looks like it is measuring what it claims to measure. For example if a questionnaire on happiness has questions asking how happy you are it would be said to have face validity.
• Generalisable


  This refers to whether the results of the study can be applied to the target population. If they are representative then we can hopefully apply them to the target population, and they are said to be this.
• Internal Validity


  A measure of whether an experiment is measuring what it claims to measure - the effect of the IV on the DV rather than an extraneous variable.
• Mundane realism


  Whether the task involved in a study's procedure reflects real life. For example, remembering random trigrams is not a task we complete day-to-day. If a study lacks this it will contribute to it lacking ecological validity. .