AQA Psychology - Research Methods

What is a general statement about what the researcher intends to study; the purpose of the study?

aim

What is a precise, testable, measurable statement that states the relationship between variables?

hypothesis

What are the three types of hypothesis?

directional, non-directional and null hypotheses

Which type of hypothesis only simply states that there will be an effect but does not state which way that effect will go.

non-directional (hypothesis)

Which hypothesis states that there will be an effect and states which way that effect will go?

directional (hypothesis)

What is a negative version of the research hypothesis, a statement which predicts there will be no effect?

null hypothesis

What is the condition/variable that is manipulated in an experiment?

independent variable (IV)

What is the variable that is changed as a result of changes in the independent variable?

dependent variable (DV)

What are the variables or conditions that are kept the same throughout the experiment?

control

What is something other than the IV that could influence the DV or the result if not controlled?

extraneous variables (EV)

What is the process of clearly defining variables so that they are measurable and testable; making the variable specific?

operationalisation

What is an extraneous variable that have already affected the result; they can be controlled but was overlooked or cannot be controlled at all?

confounding variable

Name the four types of experiment.

lab, field, natural and quasi

What is a type of experiment takes place in a highly controlled, artificial setting?

lab experiments

What is an experiment takes place in a natural setting?

field experiment

What type of experiment involves researchers taking advantage of a pre-existing IV?

natural experiment

What type of experiment involves the IV being a pre-determined characteristic that are different between people, the IV is not manipulated?

quasi experiment

What is the difference between natural and quasi experiments?

The IV in natural experiments vary naturally whereas in a quasi, it does not vary at all

What are the three experimental designs?

independent measures design, repeated measures design, matched pairs design

Which type of experimental design involves participants being matched into pairs based on a characteristic and then each member of the pair takes part in a different condition?

matched pairs

What are individual differences between participants, usually affect the internal validity of an experiment called?

participant variable

Which type of experimental design involves all participants completing all conditions of the experiment?

repeated measures

Which type of experimental design involves participants being placed in separate groups and complete only one condition of the experiment?

independent groups

What happens when performance is affected by conditions that the participant experienced first like practice effect or boredom effect?

order effects

How can participant variables be controlled?

use of random allocation

How can order effects be controlled?

(use of) counterbalancing

What is the extent to which the results can be generalised to real life?

ecological validity

What is the extent to which the results of a study can be generalised over time?

temporal validity

What is validity within the experiment, whether the researchers tested what they expected to test?

internal validity

What EV is the study suffering from when participants in a study being aware that they are taking part in a study and act unnaturally to satisfy the researcher?

demand characteristics

What is the extent to which findings from a study can be generalised to other contexts: ecological and temporal validity are examples of external validity)?

external validity

What is the morality of the experiment?

ethics

What are the five ethical issues?

deception, lack of informed consent, lack of rights to withdraw, lack of protection from harm, lack of confidentiality

What is the solution for deception?

debriefing participants at the end

What is the solution for lack of informed consent, if deception was used?

use of presumptive consent

What is happening when participants are deliberately misled about the nature of the study; they are not told the true aims of the study?

deception

How can researchers ensure participants' rights to withdraw?

constantly remind participants that they have the right to withdraw at any point, even after the experiment is over

How can researchers ensure that participants are protected from harm?

ethics board or ethical committee (can decide whether the experiment can take place); researchers can abandon the study

How can researchers ensure confidentiality?

use of pseudonyms (when referring to participants in reports)

What type of research analyses the strength and direction of a relationship between two co-variables?

correlations

Which type of data are measurable and are often numerical data?

quantitative data

Which type of data are often more difficult to analyse since it is descriptive?

qualitative data

What are the three main types of correlations?

positive, negative and no correlations

What can't correlations establish?

cause-and-effect

Which type of research methods can establish causal relationships?

experiments

What is the number that represents the strength and direction of the relationship between two co-variables?

correlation coefficient

What is the correlation coefficient for a perfect negative correlation?

-1

What is the correlation coefficient for a perfect positive correlation

+1

What is the correlation coefficient needed to say that there is a strong correlation between two co-variables?

+0.8

What is an advantage of using a correlational analysis?

easy to analyse, prompt new lines of research

Are observational techniques experimental or non-experimental?

non-experimental

Which type of observation involve the observation being carried out in the natural setting, and the researcher does not influence the situation?

naturalistic observations

Which type of observation involves the observations being carried out in a regulated setting?

controlled observations

What are some strengths of naturalistic observations?

high ecological validity, low demand characteristics

What are some strengths of controlled observations?

high internal validity, easy to replicate and check for reliability

In which type of observations are participants aware that their behaviour is being watched and recorded?

overt observations

In which type of observations are participants not aware that their behaviour is being watched and recorded?

covert observations

Which ethical code of conduct are covert observations violating?

lacked of informed consent

What is a strength of covert observations?

lower chance of demand characteristics

In which type of observations are researchers part of the group that they are observing?

participant observations

In which type of observations are researchers not part of the group they are observing - they observed as an outsider?

non-participant observations

What is a strength of participant observations?

having first-hand insights, clearer details, higher internal validity

What is a weakness of participant observations?

investigator effects, researcher bias, low internal validity, lose objectivity

What is the term used to describe when observer's expectations influence what the researcher sees or hears or even the data that they recorded?

observer bias

What is the technique of choosing which behaviours to observe and record that records behaviour at specific time intervals?

time sampling

What is the observation technique that involves continuously watching a certain behaviour and counting the number of times that even occurs in the targeted group?

event sampling

What is a strength of event sampling?

infrequent behaviours can be recorded

What is a strength of time sampling?

easy to carry out due to a reduced number of observations

What is a set of specific, observable, clearly operationalised behaviours that is created as a subset of a target behaviour called?

behavioural categories

What is a set of written questions on a topic to assess participants' thoughts, feelings and opinions?

questionnaires

What type of question is used in a questionnaire that offers a fixed number of responses and produced quantitative data?

closed questions

What type of question is used in a questionnaire that does not have a fixed range and collects qualitative data?

open questions

What is a weakness of using closed questions?

response set bias (where they would respond in similar way at the same end of the rating scale)

How can we chance whether the questions on the questionnaire is ambiguous or not?

use a "pilot study"

What will the research suffer from if participants are not honest when answering, and would answer differently to put them in a more positive light (seen as right)?

social desirability bias

What is a solution to social desirability bias?

ensure confidentiality

What is a self-report technique that involves asking participants questions face-to-face or over the phone on a topic to assess participants' opinions and thoughts?

interview

What are the two types of interviews?

structured and unstructured interviews

What the type of interview that is a mixture of both structured and unstructured interviews?

semi-structured

Which type of interview is made up of a pre-determined set of questions that are asked in a fixed order, similar to designing a questionnaire?

structured interviews

Which type of interview allowed more free-flowing conversations with no set questions and questions will be developed as the interview progressed?

unstructured interviews

What is a strength of structured interviews?

easy to replicate, quick, cheap

What is a strength of unstructured interviews?

rich and more detailed, give insights, able to observe body language

What is a weakness of structured interviews?

social desirability bias, restrictive (no elaboration), lower generalisability

What is a weakness of unstructured interviews?

interviewer bias, interviewers need to be trained, social desirability bias

What type of question is allowed in semi-structured interviews?

follow-ups

What is a type of non-experimental study that involves an in-depth investigation of a single, unusual individual, group, institution or event?

case studies

What are some famous examples of case studies?

Genie, Clive Wearing, KF, PM

What techniques can be used in case studies?

observations, interviews, tests (IQ), experiments

What is the word used to describe studies that go on for a long period of time?

longitudinal

What is the word used to describe the use of a variety of different research methods?

triangulation

What are some advantages of case studies?

detailed data, allows rare/usually-unethical behaviours to be studied

What are some disadvantages of case studies?

lack population validity, raises ethical issues

What is defined as a large group of individuals who share specific characteristics that a research is interested in studying?

(target) population

What is the process of drawing out a representative group from the population?

sampling

Which type of sampling technique involves selecting anyone who is willing and available to take part at the time?

opportunity sampling

Which sampling technique involves selecting individuals who have put themselves forward to take part in research?

volunteer sampling

Where do researchers advertise in volunteer sampling?

newspapaers, posters, in universities

What is an advantage of opportunity and volunteer sampling?

quick, convenient, economical

What is a disadvantage of using volunteer and opportunity sampling?

can be biased and unrepresentative