Research Methods

what is a population?

people you want your findings to apply to ->(biggest level is everybody everywhere)

what is a sample?

refers to how we choose the people studied on. Sample is used to infer a characteristic about everyone from the whole population. 

What is volunteer sampling? 

Involves participants selecting themselves to be part of the sample- they self-select 

E.g. Adverts or ask for volunteers  

What are the positives of volunteer sampling? 

• Keen and willing to do the study 

• Quick, easy, low effort for the researcher  

• Easy to reach a wide cross section of your population.  

what are the negatives of volunteer sampling?

• People may not actually be the target demographic  

• Volunteer bias – personality types, may try to be helpful which would lead them to change their natural behaviour, if you are short of money  

• It depends where you advertise whether it is biased or not 

what is validity?

the extent to which an observed effect is genuine- does it measure what it was supposed to measure, can it be generalised beyond the experiment environment 

what is external validity? 

the extent to which the observed effect (the findings) can be generalised beyond the research scenario in which it is observed.  

what is ecological validity?

• the extent to which the findings can be generalised beyond the setting and scenario which it was observed in  

• To what extent the setting/situation used in the representation of the settings/situations that the behaviours occur in in everyday life  

what is mundane realism?

the extent to which the task in the study is representative of the kind of tasks that are carried out in everyday life  

what is population validity? 

The extent to which the findings can be generalised beyond the sample used in the research study  

what is temporal validity?

The extent to which the findings can be generalised beyond the time period that the study was conducted in

why do ethical issues arise?

when there is conflicts between researchers and participants

what is informed consent? 

P- Have a right to be informed about the: aims, procedures, their rights, what their data will be used for

R- demand characteristics, participants no longer act natural, makes research meaningless

how do you deal with informed consent?

• Participants right to know what they are agreeing to  

• Written consent form  

• Under 16's- parent consent  

• Presumptive consent  

• Prior general consent  

• Retrospective consen

what is deception?

 deliberately misleading/withholding information from the participants  

• P- unethical, prevents informed consent  

 

• R- sometimes necessary to make studied meaningful, withholding info=reasonably acceptable, deliberately misleading= less acceptable  

deal: ethics comittee and debrief

what is protection from harm? 

Physical or psychological harm  

• P- nothing should happen in the study that might cause them harm, no more risk than in their daily lives, (psych harm= embarrassment, inadequate, stress or pressure), should leave the study in the same state as they entered it  

 

• R- important topics may require the participants to be exposed to some level of harm, difficult to predict the outcome of some procedures

stop if harm is evident of suspected

what is the right to withdraw?

• P- need to stop if uncomfortable or stressed  

 

• R- can caused biased results if the participants leave in the middle of the study- biased sample, longitudinal research can be especially problematic  

 

should be stated in the beginning and end, no persuasion or coersion

what is confidentiality?

Right to anonymity 

• P- GDPR makes confidentiality a legal right, do not what to be identified as taking part in the study  

 

• R- difficult to protect, especially if written reports are published  

how do you deal with confidentiality?

• Follow GDPR  

• Remove anything that identifies the person –E.g. name, school, location 

• Use initials rather than name

what is privacy?

Zone of inaccessibility 

• P- right to not have privacy invaded, do not expect to be observed in some situations  

 

• R- can be difficult not to invade privacy in some scenarios (e.g. covert observation)  

get consent

what is the aim?

what they are trying to find out

what is a hypothesis? 

what the researcher expects to find

what is a directional hypothesis?

states the direction of the relationship or difference

what is a non-directional hypothesis?

• does not state direction, just states that there is a difference or a relationship

what is a dependant variable? 

what is being measured

what is the independant variable?

the variable being changed

what is operationalisation

clearly defining variables in terms of how they will be measured or changed/manipulated

what is nominal data? 

• categorical data 

• one item can only appear in one category

what is ordinal data?

• has a natural order

• does not have equal intervals between each unit

• subjective

what is interval data?

• numerical scales with equal, precisely defined size

what is an extraneous variable?

• Any variable which is not being investigated but has the potential to affect the outcomes (results and conclusions) of the research  

• e.g. weather, time of day, season – all might affect behaviour  

what is a confounding variable?

• Any variable which is not being investigated but affects the outcomes (results and conclusions) of the research  

• e.g. Monday morning traffic – in august  

what is reliability? 

the consistency of the research study- repeat and get the same results

what is an observational study?

• Researcher watches or listens to participants engaging in whatever behaviour being studied 

• Allows researcher to study behaviour within a natural or controlled setting  

• Observations recorded in some way- e.g. tally chart  

• Non-experimental- no direct manipulation of behaviour  

• Can be used within an experiment to measure the dependant variable  

what are the strengths of an observational study?

• Capture what people actually do  

• Unexpected or spontaneous behaviours  

• High internal validity- shows if behaviour is solely affected by the dependant variable – cause and effect relationship  

what are the weaknesses of an observational study?

• Risk of observer bias – researchers interpretation may be affected by expectations and previous experiences 

• Cannot demonstrate causal relationships (unless in expt)

what is a naturalistic observation?

• Take place in the setting/context where behaviour would normally occur  

• Environment is free to vary  

• Everything left as normal- no interference  

what are the strengths of naturalistic observations?

• High external validity – can be generalised to situations outside of research environment  

• More likely to see spontaneous activity  

• More generalisable  

what are the weaknesses of a naturalistic observation? 

• Low control  

• May be uncontrolled variables (EV's and CV's)  

• More difficult to detect patterns in behaviour  

• Difficult to replicate- low reliability  

what is a controlled observation?

some variables in the environment are controlled by the researcher

what are the strengths of controlled observations

• Can focus observation on certain aspects of behaviour  

• Replication is easier as EV's and CV's are minimised

what are the weakneses of controlled observations? 

• Low external validity  

• Environment not as natural  

• Causes behaviour to not be as natural

what is a covert observation?

• Undercover  

• Participants unaware they are being observed  

• MUST be public behaviour and happening anyway- ethical issues if it wasn’t public  

what are the strengths of covert observations?

• Demand characteristics (expected to behave in a certain way) are reduced 

• Behaviour is more natural  

• Increases internal and external validity  

what are the limitations of covert observations? 

• Ethical issues- invasion of privacy and consent?  

• e.g. watching people shopping = okay  

• Finding out amount of money spent= invasion of privacy  

what is an overt observation?

• Participants are aware that they are being observed  

• Have given consent beforehand  

what are the strengths and weaknesses of overt observations?

Strengths: 

• More ethically acceptable 

 

Limitations:  

• Demand characteristics increased 

• Change behaviour when know your being watched 

• Reduces internal validity  

what is participant observation? 

• Researcher becomes part of the group they are observing  

• being undercover  

what are the strengths of participant observation?

• Can lead to greater insight and understanding of the target behaviours 

• Researcher experiences the same situation that participants do  

• Enhances external validity  

 

what are the weaknesses of participant observation?

• Possible loss of objectivity  

• Researcher may identify too strongly 'go native'  

• Threatens internal validity  

what is non-participant observation? 

• The observer remains separate from the group being studied  

• Sometimes not possible to be participant  

• e.g. female researcher in a boys school  

what are the strengths of non-participant observation?

• More objective  

• Less chance of observer bias  

• Increased internal validity  

what are the weaknesses of non-participant observation?

• Loss of insight  

• Too far removed  

• Reduces external validity- could be too far removed to understand what is actually going on  

what is a piolet study? 

• A small scale test run of the trial before doing the actual study 

• Done to find aspects of the planned study that don’t work  

• The researcher can then use the findings of what didn’t work to improve the study for when they carry out the actual thing  

• Allows the researcher to eliminate EV's to improve the validity  

what is a correlation?

a systematic association between two variables

what are co-variables?

• the variables that are measured in a correlational study

• they are not referred to as IV and DV

• they must be continuous

what is one weakness of correlational studies? 

it doesn’t allow us to see causations.

what is one strength of correlation studies?

preliminary tools can be used to assess trends in the data.