Planning + Conducting Research

Question 1

what is a null hypothesis?

Answer 1

predict there will be no difference or relationship found between to variable and if there is it is due to chance.

Question 2

What is an alternate hypothesis?

Answer 2

predicts there will be a difference or relationship between two variables.
“There will be a significant relationship between alcohol (10 units, water) and reaction times in seconds”

Question 3

What is a one-tailed hypothesis?

Answer 3

Predicts the direction of what researchers think they might find.

Question 4

what is a two-tailed hypothesis?

Answer 4

Predicts that there is going to be a difference though no sure to which direction.

Question 5

What is random sampling?

Answer 5

every member of the target population has an equal chance of being selected.

Question 6

strength of random sampling?

Answer 6

Most unbiased and representative as everyone has an equal chance of being selected and there is no influence of researcher bias. Means results from the sample are more likely to be representative of the target population and can be generalised to explain behaviour.

Question 7

weakness of random sampling?

Answer 7

Difficult to access to everyone’s names and is very time consuming

Question 8

what is opportunity sampling?

Answer 8

When people who are avaliable at the time of the study are approached and asked if they would like to take part

Question 9

what is opportunity sampling?

Answer 9

When people who are avaliable at the time of the study are approached and asked if they would like to take part

Question 10

strength of opportunity sampling?

Answer 10

Quick and convenient as participants are already readily avaliable.

Question 11

weakness of opportunity sampling?

Answer 11

All participants are likely to be from the same place and is likely to be biased in terms of ethnicity and culture and so is unrepresentative of the target population as it would lack population validity.

Question 12

what is self-selected sampling?

Answer 12

researcher will place an advertisement about the study and wait for participants to respond.

Question 13

strength of self-selected sampling?

Answer 13

Quick and convenient way of obtaining participants as they volunteer themselves. Participants are more likely to be interested in the study and wish to take part and so are less likely to drop out.

Question 14

weakness of self-selected sampling?

Answer 14

Could be a low response rate and could end with a small sample and so would be unrepresentative of the target population and so results are less generalisable to explain behaviours.

Question 15

what is snowball sampling?

Answer 15

when a researcher recruited a participant who fits their target population to take part in their research. This participant is then asked to ask their friends if they want to take part.

Question 16

strength of snowball sampling?

Answer 16

Convenient and cost affective.

Question 17

weakness of snowball sampling?

Answer 17

the researcher may struggle to find one participant needed for the snowball sample to start, likely to be biased as it will be unrepresentative of the target population.

Question 18

what is a repeated measures design?

Answer 18

All participants take part in all conditions of the IV and then their results from each condition are compared against themselves.

Question 19

strength of repeated measures?

Answer 19

Practical as less participants are needed as you don’t need to recruit separate groups.

Question 20

weakness of repeated measures?

Answer 20

Order effects and demand characteristics are more likely as participants complete all conditions and so could preform better on the final one due to practic or worse due to fatigue and boredom.

Question 21

what is independent measures design?

Answer 21

participants only take part in one condition of the IV and their results are compared to another participant who took part in the other condition.

Question 22

strength of independent measure design?

Answer 22

effective and avoids order affect and minimised demand characteristics as participants only take part in one of the conditions.

Question 23

weakness of independent measures?

Answer 23

Less practical as a separate group of participants is required for each condition of the IV and so is more time consuming. Also a chance of participant variable affecting the DV

Question 24

what is a matched pairs design?

Answer 24

Participant only takes part in one condition of the IV and their results are compared to another person who took the part in another condition who is matched with them.

Question 25

strength of matched pairs?

Answer 25

Affective as it avoids order effect and minimises demand characteristics as participants take part in only one condition of the IV. Also minimises the effect of participant variables.

Question 26

weakness of matched pairs?

Answer 26

Very time consuming to match up participants and it could be argued that it is not possible to fully match participants and so there will still be some effect of participant variables on the measurement of the DV

Question 27

what is an open-question?

Answer 27

allow participants to provide as much or little detail as they wish in response to a question.

Question 28

strength of open questions.

Answer 28

More likely to find out the reasons for behaviour and so in this way are more valid. participants are also less likely to become frustrated when answering questions. They are a more realistic type of question.

Question 29

weakness of open questions?

Answer 29

Difficult to analyse as qualitative data takes alot of subjective interpretation and so researcher bias may affect the validity of results

Question 30

what is a closed question?

Answer 30

allows participants to select from options that are pre-determined and so they produce quantitative data.

Question 31

strength of closed questions?

Answer 31

answers are easier to analyse and compare between participants as data collected is objective so researcher bias is less likely to affect the validity of results .

Question 32

weakness of closed questions?

Answer 32

data has a narrow range as it lacks the quality of open ended data as participants are restricted to a number of pre-determined options, participants may be forced into an option.

Question 33

what is a questionnaire?

Answer 33

set of questions about a topic under investigation.

Question 34

strength of questionnaire?

Answer 34

effective and convenient at collecting large amounts of data relatively quickly, usually produce quantitative data so results are easier to analyse and compare between participants as it is objective and so less likely to be affected by researcher bias.

Question 35

weakness of questionnaire?

Answer 35

participants may give socialy desirable answers and so data is not representative of what they actually think and so is invalid