definitions

Question 1

aim

Answer 1

general statement about the purpose of an investigation

Question 2

hypothesis

Answer 2

precise testable statement about the expected outcome of an investigation

Question 3

directional hypothesis

Answer 3

specifically states the direction of results.also known as one-tailed hypothesis as predicts nature or direction of the outcome

Question 4

non-directional hypothesis

Answer 4

direction of results not predicted, known as to tailed hypothesis as direction not specified, could go in either direction.

Question 5

null hypothesis

Answer 5

tends to state will be no difference relationship between the variables.used as makes very precise prediction (nothing will happen) that can be disproved thereby supporting the alternative hypothesis.

Question 6

dependent variable dv

Answer 6

variable changes due to changes in the iv

Question 7

independent variable iv

Answer 7

variable changed to measure the dv

Question 8

extraneous variables

Answer 8

any variables other than the iv that might affect the dv, where important enough to provide alternate explanations become a confounding variable.

Question 9

confounding variables

Answer 9

not the iv but which varies systematically with the iv. changes in the dv may be due to the confounding variable rather than the independent and therefore the outcome is meaningless

Question 10

demand chararcteristics

Answer 10

cues in the environment that help the participant work out what the research hypothesis is, can lead to social desirability effects where the participant behaves in a way that will be supported or the screw you effect where the participant purposefully disrupts the research.

Question 11

solving demand characteristics

Answer 11

single blind technique- procedure in an experiment where the participants do not know the hypothesis and do not know what condition they are in.

Question 12

investigator effects

Answer 12

the influence of the researcher whereby their expectations of what the outcome should be could lead to a self fulfilling prophecy. the research at an unconscious level behave in such a way to bring about their prediction.

Question 13

operationalising

Answer 13

the process of devising a way of measuring a variable

Question 14

pilot studies

Answer 14

small scale trial run of a research design before doing the real thing. done in order to find out if certain aspects of the design do or dont work, like participants may guess what experiment is about, or not understand instructions or get bored or too many tasks.

Question 15

meta analysis

Answer 15

way of analyzing data used. produces an effect size as the dependent variable in order to access overall trends

Question 16

+ of meta analysis

Answer 16

+reviewing the results from a group of studies rather than just one study can increase the validity of the conclusions drawn because they are based on a wider sample of participants.
+often a group of studies on a similar topic produce rather contradictory results. a meta- analysis allows us to reach an overall conclusion by having a statistic to represent the findings of different studies.

Question 17

• of meta analysis

Answer 17

research design in the different studies may also vary considerably, which means that the studies are not truly comparable putting them all together to calculate the effect size may not be appropriate and thus conclusions are not always valid.