Planning and Conducting Research

Question 1

research aim

Answer 1

statement that points out what the research aims to accomplish and desired outcomes

Question 2

research question

Answer 2

asks what the study intends to investigate

Question 3

null hypothesis

Answer 3

predicts there will be no difference or relationship between the variables being studied and any results are due to chance and not significant

Question 4

alternative hypothesis

Answer 4

predicts there will be a difference or relationship between the variables being studied and the results are not due to chance and are significant

Question 5

one tailed hypothesis

Answer 5

predicts the direction of the effect of the IV on the DV, or the direction of the correlation

Question 6

two tailed hypothesis

Answer 6

predicts that the IV will have an effect on the DV but not in a specific direction

Question 7

type 1 error

Answer 7

incorrectly rejecting the null hypothesis
or incorrectly accepting the alternate hypothesis

Question 8

type 2 error

Answer 8

incorrectly rejecting the alternate hypothesis
Incorrectly accepting the null hypothesis

Question 9

target population and sample

Answer 9

the group of people the researcher is interested in and the sample is drawn from

Question 10

random sampling

Answer 10

• selecting participants in a way where everyone has an equal chance of being selected
• no bias in who is chosen so sample is likely to be representative

Question 11

snowball sampling

Answer 11

• relies on initial participants recruiting additional participants
• unlikely to be representative, but easy to gather a specific sample

Question 12

opportunity sampling

Answer 12

• selecting people who are readily and easily available
• unlikely to be representative but quick to gather participants

Question 13

self selected/ volunteer sampling

Answer 13

• asking people to volunteer for the study
• unlikely to be representative but participants will be willing and cooperate

Question 14

repeated measures design

Answer 14

• each participant takes part in all levels of the IV

Question 15

strengths of repeated measures

Answer 15

• fewer participants needed
• individual differences will be controlled
• easy to compare different conditions

Question 16

weaknesses of repeated measures

Answer 16

• participants may suffer from order effects, boredom
• lead to poorer performance on tasks

Question 17

independent measures design

Answer 17

• participants only take part in one level of the IV

Question 18

strengths of independent measures

Answer 18

• no order effects or boredom
• less likely to deduce the aim

Question 19

weaknesses of independent measures

Answer 19

• participant variables - people have different abilities
• large sample needed
• time consuming

Question 20

matched pairs design

Answer 20

Different participants used in each condition, but researcher attempts to make the two groups as similar as possible

Question 21

strengths of matched pairs

Answer 21

• Participants only have to be tested once
• Participant variables are reduced

Question 22

weaknesses of matched pairs

Answer 22

• time consuming
• harder to find participants that match
• large number of participants needed

Question 23

behavioral categories

Answer 23

• objective measure used in observations
• categorizing behaviors and counting them

Question 24

coding frames

Answer 24

• predetermined list of behaviors to attempt to cover all the behavior you will see

Question 25

time sampling

Answer 25

• recording pre-determined behaviours at regular intervals

Question 26

event sampling

Answer 26

• counting number of behaviours in a specified time period

Question 27

likert scale

Answer 27

• indicates how much they agree or disagree

Question 28

semantic differential scale

Answer 28

• choose between two extremes
• opposing descriptive words

Question 29

strengths of rating scales

Answer 29

• easy to respond to
• quantitative data easy to analyse
• tested for reliability (test retest)
• validity can be improved b y reversing the sides to avoid bias

Question 30

weaknesses of rating scales

Answer 30

• only quantitative data lacks detail;
• risk of response bias
• points on the scale are ordinal, can’t use stats tests

Question 31

open questions

Answer 31

• allows participants to give a range of detailed answers
• no set response

Question 32

strengths of open questions

Answer 32

• open questions produce qualitative data which provide greater detail
• analysis retains the detail of participants’ answers so variation in response is not lost through averaging

Question 33

weaknesses of open questions

Answer 33

• time consuming to analyse
• analysis is subjective
• findings are individual so less generalisable

Question 34

closed question

Answer 34

• gives participants set responses to choose from

Question 35

strengths of closed questions

Answer 35

• easy to respond to so data is more reliable/generalisable
• easy to analyse

Question 36

weaknesses of closed questions

Answer 36

• lacks detail
• risk of response bias
• only mode can be calculated as total is nominal data