research methods

• the aim of a study is the purpose of an experiment, it determines what the researcher is trying to investigate
• a hypotheses is a prediction of what the researcher thinks is going to happen in the study, it is written in a clear precise and testable way
• a directional hypotheses states exactly the kind of difference you expect to occur between 2 conditioned of participants
• a non directional hypotheses states there will be a difference between two conditions of participants but doesn't specify a direction
• an independent variable is the variable that is manipulated by the researcher
• a dependant variable is the variable that is being measured by the researcher
• an operationalised experiment states clearly and exactly what variables are being manipulated and measured in their experiment
• a cause and effect relationship suggests that changes to the IV direct leads to changes in the DV
• extraneous variables are any extra variables other then the IV that may have an effect on the DV if it was not controlled
• confounding variables are any variables other then the IV that would definitely have an effect on the DV if it was not controlled
• a target population is the entire group of people that the researcher is interested in studying and wishes to draw conclusions on
• a representative sample is a group of participants that closely match the characteristics of the target population as a whole
• generalisability is the extent to which findings and conclusions form a sample can be applied to a overall population
• opportunity sampling is using people who are the most available at the time and place where the study is being conducted
• random sampling is when each member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected using name drawing or lottery style methods
• volunteer sampling is a self selected sample as researcher advertises for participants on notice boards or newspapers and people put themself forward for the study
• systematic sampling is a pre determined system to select every nth participant form an obtained list of names, e.g every 4th person
• stratified sampling is when subgroups within a population are selected which represents the same proportion too their occurrence within the population overall
• one strength of opportunity sampling is that it is convenient because it uses whoever is available at the time so it is less time consuming for the researcher and less expensive as they don't have to pay people to take part or pay for advertising
• one limitation of opportunity sampling is that the sample is prone to researcher bias as the researcher directly controls who is selected to take part so is likely to choose the same type of people for the study so the sample is less representative
• one strength of random sampling is that it is not effected by researcher bias as they have no control over who is selected so it is often a more generalisable to the whole population
• one limitation of random sampling is that it is very time consuming and difficult to cary out as you need a list of everyone in a target population so researchers are less likely to choose this method as it requires a lot more time and effort to carry out
• one strength of volunteer sampling is that ps are more likely to engage with the study this then through other methods as they have chosen to take park to they are more interested in the study, so they are more likely to try in the study
• one limitation of volunteer sampling is that there is a problem with volunteer bias as you tend to get a certain type of individual applying eg very motivated people, so the sample is not representative of the population, so you have a difficulty generalising results
• one strength of systematic sampling is that it tends to avoid researcher bias because the researcher has no direct influence on who is selected so the sample is more likely to be reflective of the whole population
• one limitation of systematic sampling is that it can still be affected by freak samples eg all female samples could be produced therefore the sample wouldn't reflect the population so results would be less generalisable
• one strength of stratified sampling is that it should produce the most representative sample out of all methods due to the use of subgroups so it has a high generalisability
• one limitation of stratified sampling is that it is often not 100% perfect as the identified groups aren't always completely representative of the target population as they can't identify all the ways that populations differ
• the main ethical issues are informed consent, deception, right to withdraw, protection from harm and ensuring confidentiality and privacy
• informed consent is when participants must be given enough information about the purpose of the research to they can decide weather or not the want to take part, there alternative ways of getting consent, retrospective which is where you ask for consent after the study has taken part, and presumptive which is where you dont get consent form the p themself but from a similar group who are told the full aim, and if they say yet it is presumed consent
• you deal with informed consent by giving participants a consent form which gives information about the study in order to help the participant decide if they want to take part or not
• deception is when the researcher should avoid outright lying, misleading, or withholding information about the study form a p in any way, they are often mislead about the aim of the study to avoid them changing their behaviour
• you deal with deception by giving participants a debriefing form after the study has ended where you state the full aim of the study and explain all details that were not given to them before the experiment
• the right to withdraw is when participants have the right to leave the study at any time if they begin to feel distressed or uncomfortable, and the researcher must not prevent them from doing so, they should be reminded of this at the start, during, and end of the study
• to deal with right to withdraw you should ensure participants are fully swear before they start that they can drop out at any time without penalty, if they look distressed you should remind them and at the end give them the option to withdraw their data
• protection from harm is when a researcher must ensure that all participants are protected from physical and physiological harm like embarrassment during a study
• to deal with protection from harm, you should give ps a thorough debriefing, and reassure them that their behaviour was normal, if needed you can offer counselling
• ensuring confidentially and privacy is when a researcher should not disclose any personal information about their participants , they mis also respect a participants privacy
• to deal with confidentiality and privacy you ensure anonymity by using numbers instead of names and ps are reminded of this before and after the study, and you would not ask any unnecessary personal questions
• steps of a consent form:

  1. some information about what they will be doing in the study
  2. informing them that they don't have to take part and can withdraw at any time without penalty
  3. tell them that their data will be kept confidential and anonymous
  4. a place to sign if they give their consent to take part