****Evaluation Paper 2 Flashcards
Strength of using a random sample
- unlikely to be biased, because no control over who is in sample
- all menders have equal chance of being chosen
Weakness of using a random sampling
- take a long time, especially if the target population is large
Strength of using an opportunity sample
- convenient, as sampler selects people who are there
- quick and easy
- likely to be ethical
Weakness of using an opportunity sample
- less representative, results are less generalizable
Strength of volunteer sampling
- pps are motivated, less chance to withdraw
- quick and easy
- access to a wide variety of people that you normally would not have access
Weakness of volunteer sampling
- mostly similar
- more likely to demonstrate demand characteristics
Strength of a controlled observation
- standardised procedure,collects reliable results
- helps eliminate extraneous variables as the environment is controlled
Weaknesses of a controlled observation
- demand characteristics, as they know they are being watched and tested
- lacks ecological validity, as artificial environment
- experimenter bias
- might lack reliability
Strength of a naturalistic observation
- high validity, as observed in realistic situation, behaviours can be applied to real life
- will not miss any behaviour that is important, not restricted to the list
Weaknesses of a naturalistic observation (control, researcher, covert overt)
- difficult to record all activities accurately and many may be irrelevant
- researcher needs to be trained to be able to recognise aspects of a situation that are psychologically significant
- overt observers produce less valid findings, as pps behaviours may be altered due to being watched
- covert observers causes ethical issues, because of deception, this could invade privacy and causes distress
Advantage of using over observation
- ethical, fully informed
Disadvantage of using overt observation
- demand characteristics
Strength of using covert
- no demand characteristics
- high validity
Weakness of using covert
- data collection is more difficult as hidden far away
- this potentially reduces validity and reliability
- ethical issue involved because pps can give informed consent, if work out experimenter’s role can be distressed
Strength of using participant
- good for structured observation, more detail
- large variety of data
- longitudinal data can be produced
Weaknesses of using participant observation
- may not be able to observe everything
- difficult to record information as you need to blend in
Strengths for using non-participant observation
- less demand characteristics
- researcher wont be able to affect the results, less researcher bias, more objective
Weaknesses for using a non-participant observation
- less valid, risk of missing out information
- less in depth observations
5 strengths of using case study
- Ideal when it is difficult to gather a large sample, rare or unique behaviours can be studies in detail
- Participants can be studied over a long period of time, developmental changes can be recorded. This is longitudinal, it often means that data gathered are detailed
- Ecological validity is high, as studied as part of everyday life
- Sample may be self-selecting
- Rich and detailed data gathered
4 weaknesses for case study
- May not produce enough quantitative data for statistical testing, means little more than anecdotal evidence
- Lacks objectivity, as involves quite intense relationship between the researcher and the participant
- Lacks generalisability
- Participants may be unique in some way, researchers may not know how to proceed, might draw false conclusion