Research Methods

• hypothesis?

  clear, precise statement which clearly states the relationship between the variables being investigated
• aim?

  general statement made by researcher telling us what they plan on investigating; the purpose of their study
• directional hypotheses

  states the kind of relationship/difference expected between 2 conditions
• non-directional hypotheses

  predicts that there will be a difference/relationship between 2 conditions. There is NO previous research on the topic
• IV? DV? OP?

  IV- what's being changed

  DV- what's being measured by the researcher

  OP- clearly defining the variables in terms of HOW they are measured
• extraneous variables

  any variable that we are not investigating; they need to be controlled as they may affect the DV
• confounding variable?

  a type of extraneous variable that is related to the IV; they were not controlled so have effected the results
• situational variables

  aspects of the environment that might affect the participants behaviour(must be controlled) e.g noise, temp
• participant variable

  ways in which each participant varies from the other, and how this could affect the results e.g mood, nerves, intelligence
• experimenter effects

  experimenter unconsciously conveys to the participants how they should behave (experimenter bias)
• demand characteristics

  clues in the experiment which convey to the participant the purpose of the research
• what can demand characteristics lead to?

  • acting unnaturally due to social desirability bias
  • "screw you affect"- guessing the purpose&giving wrong results to annoy researcher
  • guessing purpose&giving "right" results to please researcher,
  • acting unnaturally out of the nervousness/fear of evaluation
• how can investigator effects occur?

  • physically characteristics may influence; age/ethnicity
  • accent/tone
  • investigators may be unconsciously biased in their interpretation of data and find what they expect to fine
• ways of dealing with extraneous variables ?

  • single blind design
  • double blind design
  • experimental realism
• single blind design?

  participant is not aware of the research aims and/or of which condition of the experiment they are designing
• double blind design?

  participant and the person conducting are blind to the aim/hypothesis
• experimental realism?

  researcher makes task efficiently engaging = participant pays attention to task and not how they're being observed
• overcoming investigator effects- standardisation

  standardised instructions must:

  • be written so that they can be read out(verbatim format)
  • include a check at the end that the participants understand what they have to do
• what is validity?

  the extent to which a study measures what it intends to measure
• internal validity?

  whether the effects observed in a an experiment are due to manipulation of the IV and not another factor
• external validity?

  how well you can generalise from research participants to people, places and times outside the study
• ecological validity?


  how well you can generalise a study to different settings or situations; extent to which the research tells us what we want to know about
• population validity?

  how well the sample used can be used to generalise to a population as a whole
• temporal validity?

  the extent to which the findings and conclusions of study are valid when we consider the differences and progressions that come with time
• pilot studies?

  small-scale practice investigations, carried out prior to research to identify potential problems with the design/method
• confederates (stooges)?

  using another person to play a role in an experiment/investigtaion
• repeated measures design?

  • one single group of people perform all of the conditions of the experiment
  • comparison is made between a single participants score on one condition to the other group in another condition
• advantages of repeated measures?

  • no participant variables; as participants are used in same condition
  • fewer participants needed which makes economically beneficial
• disadvantages of repeated measures?

  • demand characteristics are likely as both conditions are seen which affects validity
  • potential order affects; making the results invalid due to practice, fatigue and boredom
• dealing with limitations- repeated measures

  • counterbalancing method(ABBA); divide participants into 2 groups
  • group 1 does condition A then B, group 2 does condition B then A so order effects 'cancel each other'
• independent groups?

  • different group of ppl who each perform only 1 condition of the IV
  • scores from each condition are compared with each group
• advantages of I.G

  • less demand characteristics
  • no order effects; no prior knowledge to what they conditions are
  • no practice/fatigue as only tested once
• disadvantages of I.G

  • participant variables are evident; results differ due to diff ppl
  • more participants are needed than in a repeated measures design
• dealing with limitations- IG

  • random allocating: every1 has equal chance of being selected
  • minimises bias in deliberately picking ppl for a specific condition
  • minimises chance of participant variables affecting the study
• matched pairs?

  • pairing participants up on a certain quality(e.g same intelligence)
  • each person from a pair does one condition and results are compared to their partners condition
• advantages of M.P?

  • less demand characteristics & order effects; only completed once
  • less participant variable; people are closer & similar in characteristics so easily comparable
• disadvantages of M.P?

  • expense will be high; finding ppl with similar characteristics
  • time consuming; hard to decide what to match pairs on
  • more participants needed
• dealing with limitations-MP

  • conduct a pilot study; to consider key variables that may be important
  • restrict number of variables to match on to make it easier
• experiment?

  there is a IV that is changed so that the effect on the DV can be observed
• laboratory experiment?

  lab experiments are conducted in a deliberately constructed and controlled environment

  ppl are randomly allocated to a condition and know they're in a study