Key Science Skills

• Fieldwork: involves observing and interacting with people in an environment to determine a correlational relationship
• (Fieldwork) Questionnaires collect data quickly and privately; natural environments will result in more realistic behaviours
• (Fieldwork) Qualitative data is more difficult to analyse; responses may be inaccurate; observations are subjective
• Controlled experiment: investigation of the relationship between one or more IVs on a DV, controlling other variables
• Controlled experiments follow strict procedure that reduces EVs and CVS. Highly controlled setting may influence participant's behaviour
• Between-subjects: each participant in the sample is randomly allocated to the experimental or control group
• Advantage of between-subjects design: time-efficient as both groups can be tested at the same time + lower withdrawal rate due to participant only being involved in one condition
• Disadvantage: less control over participant variables , therefore require more participants
• Within-subjects: every participant in the sample is involved in both the experimental and control conditions
• Advantage of within-subjects: participant differences do not need to be controlled for as the same participants are involved in both conditions

  Fewer participants are needed compared to a between-subjects design
• Disadvantages of within-subjects design: more time-consuming than a between-subjects design as participants can't be tested at the same time

  The validity of the results may be lowered due to practice/boredom due to participants being involved in both conditions
• Mixed design: both a between-subjects design and a within-subjects design is implemented.
• Advantage of mixed designs: helps researchers to determine the effect of an IV on a DV as well as changes over time
• Disadvantages of mixed designs: higher rate of participant withdrawal compared to a between-subjects design
• Internal validity: the extent to which a study measures what it claims to be measuring
• External validity: the extent to which the results can be applied to similar individuals in different settings