Psychology - Research Methods - (terms)

what is a lab experiment?

carried out in a highly controlled environment, an unnatural setting​

advantages of a lab experiment?

procedure controls extraneous variables making it more replicable and standardised

can be confident that IV affected DV

disadvantages of a lab experiment?

lack of ecological validity (unrealistic behaviour)

presence of researcher can lead to demand characteristics

what is a field experiment?

natural environment, still manipulates variables

advantages of a field experiment?

true behaviours likely to be seen - ecological validity

less demand characteristics than lab

disadvantages of a field experiment?

less confidence that IV affected DV as less control of extraneous variables

what is a quasi experiment?

IV is not directly manipulated (may be unethical to do so or may be naturally occurring e.g. age)

advantages of a quasi experiment?

ethical, socially sensitive

rare cases

disadvantages of a quasi experiment?

difficult to replicate and standardise

what is an aim?

what researchers want to find out about a particular phenomenon or topic

what is a hypothesis?

a specific, testable prediction of how one variable in an experiment will affect another variable

what is a null hypothesis?

a hypothesis that predicts that the IV has no effect on the dependent variable

what is an alternate hypothesis?

a hypothesis that states there is a significant relationship between the two variables being studied and that the results were not due to chance, therefore supporting the theory being investigated

what is a one-tailed hypothesis?

a hypothesis that predicts the exact direction of which the independent variable will affect the dependent/ measured variable (it will have x effect)

what is a two-tailed hypothesis?

a hypothesis that predicts that an effect will occur between the independent and dependent variable, but not in a specified direction (it will have an effect)

what is a type-1 error?

the rejection of a true null hypothesis (accepting the alternate when you should accept the null)

what is a type-2 error?

failing to reject a false null hypothesis (accepting the null when you should accept the alternate)

what is opportunity sampling?

gathering a sample from the target population by asking people who are available and consenting at the time of the research

advantages/disadvantages of opportunity sampling?

quick

open to researcher bias - not necessarily representative

what is self-select sampling?

participants choose themselves to take part in the study through response to recruitment offers

advantages/disadvantages of self-select sampling?

less chance of participant attrition - can gain a large sample quickly

chance that not many people will see the advert and respond - may be bias within participants

what Is participant attrition?

participants dropping out of the study mid-way

what is snowball sampling?

collecting a group of participants, and gaining the rest of the sample through recruitment from these participants themselves

advantages/disadvantages of snowball sampling?

allow access to people that may otherwise be difficult to recruit (e.g. addicts)

can be biased/unrepresentative

what is random sampling?

collecting a sample by ensuring each member of the target population has the same chance of being selected as any other member

advantages/disadvantages of random sampling?

representative without bias (however could end up with a disproportionate sample of a particular characteristic)

time-consuming

not everyone selected will consent

what is stratified sampling?

all types of members of the population are represented proportionally by selecting different numbers of participants from all strata

advantages/disadvantages of stratified sampling?

representative, without bias

difficult - costly - time-consuming

what are the four areas of ethical considerations?

respect, responsibility, competence and integrity

what comes under ‘responsibility’ in ethical considerations?

protection from physiological or psychological harm

debrief

what comes under ‘respect’ in ethical considerations?

informed consent (including the right to withdraw)

confidentiality

what comes under ‘competency’ in ethical considerations?

provision of information regarding training of experimenters where necessary e.g. considering skills necessary to run experiment like interviewing

what comes under ‘integrity’ in ethical considerations?

deception

what is the independent variable?

the measure you change

what is the dependant variable?

the measure the conclusion depends on (what you measure)

what is a control variable?

an extraneous variable that is isolated and controlled

what is an individual variable?

variances in each person that cannot be fully controlled

what is a confounding variable?

an uncontrolled extraneous variable that affects the dependent variable

what is an independent measures design?

different participants take part in each condition, which will vary according to the independent variable

advantages/disadvantages of an independent measures design?

less participant fatigue, easier to establish cause and effect

impossible to control all individual differences, large sample necessary (time-consuming)

what is a repeated measures design?

an experimental design in which the same participants take part in each condition.

advantages/disadvantages of a repeated measures design?

lowers effect of individual differences, doesn’t need a large sample

demand characteristics, participant fatigue

what is a matched pairs design?

different participants take part in each condition, however, each participant is matched according to certain characteristics with another participant in the other condition.

advantages/disadvantages of a matched pairs design?

less participant fatigue/order effect, unlikely they’ll guess aim of study (less demand characteristics)

difficult and time consuming, there will still be some differences between participants, shared characteristics may affect people differently

what is concurrent validity?

the extent to which a new measure is valid against an existing measure of known validity

what is construct validity?

the extent to which a test measures the underlying concept accurately (method aligns with conclusions)

what is face validity?

the extent to which a test appears relevant to the variable its dealing with (aims align with conclusions)

ecological validity?

the extent to which a test is representative of real-life

temporal validity?

the extent to which a test holds up over time (e.g., does it have questions only relative to 2020)

predictive validity?

does the test predict later performance on other criterion

internal reliability?

are all elements of the test answered the same by a participant? how precise the results are - consistent to each other

external reliability?

do participants respond the same at different points? how precise the results are - consistent across uses of a test.

variance?

used to show how much the values in a dataset vary from each other

standard deviation?

show how far apart the values in a dataset are from the mean - can identify outliers