Research Methods

• independent variable: the variable that is manipulated by the researcher to see how it affects the dependent variable
• dependent variable: a variable that measures the effect of the manipulation of the independent variables and is numerical
• hypothesis: a prediction
• null hypothesis: predicts no difference between variables
• alternate hypothesis: predicts there will be a difference between variables
• one-tailed hypothesis: know which IV is going to perform better
• two-tailed hypothesis: don't know which IV is going to perform better
• two-tailed alternate hypothesis: there will be difference in the DV between IV1 and IV2
• two-tailed null hypothesis: there won't be a difference in the DV between IV1 and IV2
• one-tailed alternate hypothesis: IV1 will perform better DV than IV2
• one-tailed null hypothesis: IV1 won't perform better DV than IV2
• informed consent: the process of obtaining permission from participants to take part in a study
• deception: researcher's shouldn't mislead to the participants although it may be needed
• confidentiality: the right to privacy and the right to keep information about oneself private
• debriefing: participants must be given feedback from the research at the end to check for psychological harm
• right to withdraw: participants must be allowed to pull out of the study at any time
• protection of participants: no participants should be caused psychological harm, distress or psychological
• independent measures design

  -different participants take part in each condition of the IV

  strengths:

  -less likely to get demand characteristics (ppts figure out aim)

  -no chance of order effect

  limitation:

  -individual differences
• repeated measures design:

  -all of the participants take part in both conditions of the IV

  strength:

  -less likely to have individual differences

  limitations:

  -higher chance of having demand characteristics

  -chance of having order effect
• target population: the people or groups that are the focus of a research study.
• sample: a subset of the population that is used to represent the whole population
• opportunity sampling:

  -ppts are chosen by the researchers who are convenient at the time of the study

  strengths:

  -easiest, quickest and most economical way to obtain ppts

  limitations:

  -likely to produce a biased sample
• random sampling

  -everyone in target population has an equal chance of being chosen

  strengths:

  -least biased method

  limitations:

  difficult and time consuming
• self-selecting sampling:

  -ppts volunteer to be chosen

  strengths:

  -gives wide range of access, ethical if it leads to informed consent

  limitations:

  -biased sample as only people interested will join
• laboratory experiment:

  -researcher directly manipulates the IV within a highly controlled environment

  strengths:

  -greater control over extraneous variable, more reliable

  -very objective due to the nature of the controls

  limitations:

  -low in ecological validity

  -greater chance of demand characteristics
• field experiment:

  -researcher directly manipulates the IV, takes place in a naturally occuring environment

  strengths:

  -will get more natural behaviours by ppts

  -higher in ecological validity

  limitations:

  -harder to address ethical issue of consent without the ppts finding out aim

  -less control over extraneous variable which affects reliability
• quasi experiment

  -isn't directly manipulating by the researcher and is naturally occuring

  strengths:

  -more ethical as nothing is being manipulated

  limitations:

  -difficult and time-consuming for researcher to match up ppts
• validity: a measure of how true or accurate something is
• reliability: a measure of how consistent or replicable something is
• ecological validity: a measure of how generalisable to a piece of research is to the real world
• extraneous: a variable that isn't an IV that could affect the DV through lack of control
• objectivity: free from bias and generally more scientific and not open to opinion
• closed questions:

  -questions with a pre-determined set of responses

  strengths:

  -gives more quantitative data so it'll be easier to identify patterns and trends

  limitations:

  -lack construct validity so can't know why they rated
• open question

  -don't have pre-determined responses

  strengths:

  -high construct validity so can know why they rated something

  limitations:

  -gives quantitative so it'll be harder to identify patterns and trends
• naturalistic observation

  -take place in the ppts natural environment of real life setting

  strengths:

  -high in ecological validity as it takes place in natural environment

  limitations:

  -lack of control over extraneous variables making it difficult to establish cause and effect
• controlled observations

  -ppts are observed in a contrived setting

  strengths:

  -high level of control therefore less chance of extraneous variables

  limitations:

  -lack of ecological validity, situations can be artificial so people don't behave naturally
• covert observations

  -ppts are unaware they're being watched

  strengths:

  -people will behave more naturally as they don't know they're being watched

  limitations:

  -ethical issues as it's very difficult to obtain informed consent
• overt observations:

  -ppts are aware they're being watched

  strengths:

  -more ethical due ppts giving informed consent

  limitations:

  -increases the chances of observer effect as the ppts know they're being watched
• non-participants observation:

  -researcher doesn't take part in the activities the ppts are doing

  strengths:

  -researcher can be more objective if they stand back

  limitations:

  -easier for researcher to miss details of an activity
• participants observation

  -researcher takes part in the activities the ppts are doing

  strengths:

  -researcher can gain experience of situation from ppts's POV

  limitations:

  -difficult to record data without being dicovered