Studied by 1 person
Experimental Method
Involves the manipulation of the independent variable to observe its effect on the dependent variable. Experiments may be lab, natural, field or quasi.
Aim
A general statement of what the researcher intends to investigate, the purpose of the study.
Hypothesis
A clear, precise, testable statement that states the relationship between the variables to be investigated. Stated at the outset of any study.
Directional Hypothesis
States the direction of the difference or relationship.
Non-directional hypothesis
Does not state the direction of the difference or relationship.
Variables
Any ‘thing’ that can vary or change in an experiment. They are generally used in experiments to determine if changes in one thing result in changes of another.
Independent Variable (IV)
The variable that is manipulated or changed in an experiment to observe its effect on the dependent variable.
Dependent Variable (DV)
The variable that is measured in an experiment to assess the effect of the independent variable. Any change to this variable should be the result of the manipulated IV.
Operationalisation
Clearly defining variables in terms of how they can be measured.
Extraneous Variable
Any variable, other than the independent variable that may effect the dependent variable.
Confounding Variable
A type of EV that systematically changes with the IV making it impossible to tell if the change in the DV is due to the IV or a confounding variable.
Demand characteristics
Any cue from the researcher or research situation that may be interpretated by the participant as revealing the purpose of the study. This may lead to a participant changing their behaviour.
Investigator Effects
Any effect of the investigator’s behaviour (conscious or unconscious) on the DV.
Randomisation
The use of chance methods to control for the effects of bias.
Standardisation
Using the exact same formalised procedures and instructions for all participants in a research study.
Experimental Design
The difference ways in which participants can be organised.
Independent Groups Design
Participants are allocated to different groups where each group represents one experimental condition.
Repeated Measures
All participants take part in all conditions of the study.
Matched pairs design
Pairs of participants are first matched on some variable(s) that may affect the dependent variable. Then one member of the pair takes part in condition A while the other takes part in condition B.
Random Allocation
An attempt to control for participant variables in an independent groups design which ensures that each participant has the same chance of being in either condition.
Counterbalancing
An attempt to control for the effects of order in repeated measures design: half the participants do the conditions in one order while the other half of participants do it in another order.
Limitations of independent groups
Twice as many participants needed which uses more time and money to be used on recruiting participants.
Participants who occupy the different groups are not the same in terms of participant variables.
Strengths of Independent groups design
Order effects are not a problem that this design faces.
Limitations of repeated measures
Order effects
Takes longer - could cause participants to become bored
By experiencing both conditions it is more likely that demand characteristics will occur.
Strengths of repeated measures
Participant variables are controlled.
Fewer participants are needed.
Limitations of matched pairs
If a pre-test is required to match participants a lot of money and time will be used before the study has even begun.
Participants will never be completely the same.
Strengths of matched pairs
No order effects and a reduced risk of demand characteristics.
Lab experiment
An experiment that takes place in a controlled environment within which the researcher manipulates the IV and records the effect on the DV whilst maintaining strict control of extraneous variables.
Lab experiment - strengths
High control of confounding and extraneous variables.
High level of control makes the study easy to replicate.
Lab experiment - limitations
May lack generalisability- unusual setting may cause unusual behaviour. (low external validity).
Highly likely for their to be demand characteristics.
Field Experiment
An experiment that takes place in a natural setting within which the researcher manipulates the IV.
Field experiment - strengths
High mundane realism causes more realistic behaviour (high external validity).
Field experiments - limitations
Lack of control over confounding and extraneous variables.
If participants are unaware that they are being studied there is ethical issues as they are unable to consent.
Natural experiment
An experiment where the change in IV is not caused by the researcher but would have happened even if the researcher was not there. All the researcher does is measure the effect on the DV.
Natural experiment - Strengths
Provides opportunities for studies that would otherwise not have been possible/ethically allowed.
Very high external validity.
Natural experiment - limitations
Might be hard to find the naturally occurring event.
Hard to be certain if the IV is what caused the DV to change.
Quasi-experiments
A study that is almost an experiment but has an IV that has not been determined by anyone as it is naturally occurring.
Quasi-experiments - strengths
Carried out under controlled conditions which means there is a lack of extraneous variables.
Quasi-experiments - limitations
Cannot randomly allocate participants.
We can’t know for sure if the change in DV is linked to the IV.
Population
A group of people who are the focus of the researcher’s interest, from which a smaller sample is drawn.
Sample
A group of people who take part in a research investigation.
Sampling techniques
The method used to select people from the population.
Bias (in the context of sampling)
When certain groups are over or under represented within the sample selected.
Generalisation
The extent to which findings and conclusions from a particular investigation can be broadly applied to the population.
Random sample
People in a population are given a number and selected by their number being pulled out a hat or with a random number generator.
Systematic sample
Where every nth number of a population is selected.
Stratified sample
Sample made from particular proportions of subgroups.
Opportunity sample
Where researchers just randomly select anyone who is available and willing.
Volunteer sample
Where participants self-select themselves to take part in a study.
Pilot study
A small-scale version of an investigation that takes place before the real investigation.
Aim of a pilot study
To make sure the procedures run smoothly before money and time is used. After a pilot study a researcher can make any needed modifications.
Naturalistic observation
Watching and recording behaviour in the setting within it would naturally occur.
Controlled observation
Watching and recording behaviour in a controlled environment.
Covert observation
Where the participants behaviour is watched and recorded without their knowledge and consent.
Overt observation
Where participants behaviour is watched and recorded with their consent.
Behavioural categories
When a target behaviour is broken up into components that are observable and measureable.
Event sampling
Where a target behaviour or event is established first and the researcher then records this event every time is occurs.
Time sampling
Where a target individual or group is established first and then their behaviour is recorded and observed for a specific pre-set period of time.
Qualitative data
Data that is expressed through words
Quantitative data
Data that is usually given in numbers as it can be counted.
Reciprocity
A description of how two people interact. Caregiver-infant interaction is reciprocal in that both caregiver and baby respond to each other’s signals and each elicits a response from the other.
Interactional synchrony
Caregiver and baby reflect both the actions and emotions of the other and do this in a co-ordinated way.
Schaffer and Emerson (1964)
Stages of attachment study
Stage 1 in the stages of attachment
Asocial stage
What happens in Stage one
Stage one is the first few weeks of their life where babies show signs that they prefer to be with other people.
Stage 2 in the stage of attachment
Indiscriminate attachment
What happens in stage two
Stage two is from between 2-7 months and is when babies behaviour becomes more obvious and observable.
No separation anxiety or stranger anxiety shown at this stage.
Stage 3 in the stages of attachment
Specific attachment
What happens in stage 3
From around seven months babies start to show signs of anxiety towards all bar one person (their primary attachment figure).
Likelihood a babies primary attachment figure is their mother
65%
What is stage 4 in the stages of attachment
Multiple attachments
What happens in stage 4
Shortly after stage three babies begin to become anxious around less people. They form multiple attachments with secondary attachment figures who they see often and trust.
Klaus Grossman et al. (2002)
Longitudinal study.
Followed babies until they were teens.
Looked at parents behaviour and the child’s quality of relationship later in life.
Klaus Grossman et al. (2002) - findings
The quality of the father’s play with the babies related to the quality of adolescent attachments. Father’s role more about play and stimulation rather than development.
Lorenz (1952)
Imprinting with geese
Lorenz (1952) - procedure
He set up a classic experiment where he randomly divided a clutch of goose eggs. Half were hatched in a natural environment and the other half were hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz.
Lorenz (1952) - findings
The incubator group followed Lorenz whereas the control group followed the mother goose even when the groups where mixed up the geese still followed the same one.
Lorenz identified a critical period in which imprinting needs to take place and if imprinting does not occur with a certain period of time Lorenz found that the chicks never attached themselves to a mother figure.
Harlow (1958)
Observed newborn monkeys. Importance of contact comfort with something soft.
Harlow (1958) - procedure
He made fake mothers to be locked in a cage with monkeys. In one condition the wire mother dispensed milk but in the other condition milk was dispensed by a cloth covered mother.
Harlow (1958) - findings
The baby monkey’s cuddled the cloth-covered mother and preferred it to the wire one and sought comfort from the cloth mother when they were scared by loud noises regardless of which mother was dispensing the milk.
Maternally deprived monkey’s as adults
Harlow followed the monkey’s from his experiment and found that early maternal deprivation lead to more aggressive, antisocial and abnormal behaviour.
When these monkey’s became mothers they often neglected their young and in extreme cases they attacked they children and killed them.
Bowlby (1958, 1969)
Monotropic theory
Monotropic theory
Bowlby’s theory that a child has one particular caregiver who they form a strong bond with.
Bowlby’s principles that clarify his monotropic theory
The law of continuity that stated that the more constant and predictable a child’s care, the better quality of their attachment.
The law of accumulated separation stated that the effects of every separation from the mother add up.
Social releasers
Behaviours that Bowlby suggested babies are born with. He described them as ‘cute’ behaviours that they did when they desired adult attention.
Internal working model (IWM)
The mental relationship a child forms with their primary attachment figure. The child will then use this mental representation to act as a base for all future relationships.
Bailey et al. (2007)
Study supports Bowlby’s internal working model.
She assessed the relationship between 99 mothers and their babies and found that the way that a child attaches to their mother will likely be the same as how they will attach to their future children.
Strange situation
A controlled observation designed to test attachment security. (Ainsworth 1970)
Types of attachment
Secure attachment (TYPE B) Happily explore but also show proximity seeking and secure-base behaviour.
Insecure-avoidant attachment (TYPE A) Explore freely but don’t seek proximity and make little effort to contact the caregiver when they return to the room.
Insecure-resistant attachment (TYPE C) Show very high levels of stranger anxiety and separation anxiety.
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research (1988)
Located 32 studies of attachment where the strange situation had bee used. The data was meta-analysed.
Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation
The emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and their mother or mother-substitute. Bowlby proposed that continuous care from the mother is needed for normal psychological development.
Bowlby (1944) - 44 thieves study
All ‘thieves’ were interviewed and there parents were as well to see if their feelings and actions can be traced back to an extended period of separation from their mothers.
Institutionalisation
A term for the effects of living in an institutional setting such as a hospital or an orphanage.
Rutter et al. (2011)
Followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans and their lives after being adopted by families in the UK.
Short term memory (STM)
The limited-capacity memory store. In STM, coding is mainly acoustic (sounds), capacity is between 5 and 9 items on average and duration is around 18 seconds.
Long term memory (LTM)
The permanent memory store. In LTM coding is mainly semantic and it has an unlimited capacity store.
Coding
The format in which information is stored in the various memory stores.
Capacity
The amount of information that can be held in a memory store.
Duration
The length of time information can be held in memory.
Duration of STM research
Peterson and Peterson (1959)
Tested 24 students in 8 trials.
Recall letters and numbers while counting to prevent rehearsal.
