Variables

What are extraneous variables?

a variable, other than the IV that might impact the results (DV)

What are confounding variables?

a kind of EV but a key feature is that a confounding variable varies systematically with the IV. Therefore we can’t tell if any change in the DV is due to the IV or the confounding variable

What are the six types of extraneous variables?

• participant variables/individual differences

• situational variables

• investigator effects/researcher bias

• order effects

• demand characteristics

• social desirability

What are participant variables?

the differences between the people who take part in the study e.g age, personality, etc

What are situational variables?

these are factors, conditions or characteristics of the external environment that can influence someone’s behaviour or performance. They might be physical (e.g location, weather), social (e.g presence of others, group dynamics) or abstract aspects (e.g time pressure)

What are investigator effects?

an unwanted influence of the investigator on the research outcome. This might be an unconscious thing in which the researcher influences the results of the study unintentionally

What are order effects?

an extraneous variable that arises from the order which conditions are presented

What are demand characteristics?

when participants work out the aim of the study and change their behaviour accordingly. Participants might over-perform to please the researcher or might deliberately under-perform to sabotage the results

What is social desirability?

when participants give dishonest answers in self-report methods (interviews, questionnaires) that make them look like a better person