Reaserch Methods

Question 1

What is an experimental method?

Answer 1

Manipulating the IV to see the effects to the DV

Question 2

What are the 4 types of experimental methods?

Answer 2

Quasi
Field
Lab
Natural

Question 3

What is a quasi experiment?

Answer 3

An experiment where the IV is the individual differences of the participants

Question 4

What is a laboratory experiment?

Answer 4

Highly controlled environment (little extraneous variables), researcher manipulates IV to see effects on DV

Question 5

What is a field experiment?

Answer 5

Natural setting where the researcher manipulates IV to see effects on DV

Question 6

What is a natural experiment?

Answer 6

IVs are not manipulated by researcher but DV is measured (e.g) earthquake

Question 7

What are the 4 experimental designs?

Answer 7

Independent groups design
Random allocation
Matched Pairs design
Repeated measures design

Question 8

What is the independent groups experimental design?

Answer 8

Participants are put into groups and only represent one condition of the experiment

Question 9

What is the Matched pairs design?

Answer 9

Participants are matched with a relatively similar counterpart biased on a certain variable (e.g iq) and labelled A and B both assigned different conditions

Question 10

What is the repeated measures design?

Answer 10

Participants take part in all different conditions of the experiment?

Question 11

What is the random allocation design?

Answer 11

Where participants take part in one condition but are chosen at random

Question 12

What are the 6 types of observations?

Answer 12

Naturalistic
Controlled
Covert
Overt
Participant
Non-participant

Question 13

What are positives and negatives to naturalistic observations?

Answer 13

-don’t establish a cause effect relationship
-lack control, extraneous variables
-can’t replicate/ give reliability
+high external validity, generalisability

Question 14

What are positives and negatives to controlled observations?

Answer 14

-don’t establish cause/effect relationship
-less natural so less generalisable
+reduces extraneous variables so replication is possible

Question 15

What are negatives and positives of a covert observation?

Answer 15

Participants are unaware they are being observed
-ethical issues (no informed consent)
+increased internal validity (normal behaviour presented)

Question 16

What is internal and external validity

Answer 16

Internal
-research conducted without bias
External
-results are able to be generalised

Question 17

What are positives and negatives of an overt observation?

Answer 17

Participants are aware they are being observed and give their consent beforehand
+avoids ethical issues
-more demand characteristics present from participants

Question 18

What are positives and negatives of a participant observation?

Answer 18

Researcher joins the group
+first hand account of findings, increased insight, increased external validity
-often impractical/impossible
-might lose objectivity

Question 19

What are positives and drawback on a non participant observation?

Answer 19

Researcher remains outside of the group
+ more objective
- removed from experience

Question 20

What is inter-observer reliability?

Answer 20

More than one observer being present, to ensure no important detail is being missed, increased reliability
-observers familiarise themselves with behaviour categories
-observe same behaviour at same time
-compare, and analyse data & calculate inter-observer reliability via correlation of results

Question 21

What are the different observational designs

Answer 21

Unstructured
-Write everything down (detail rich)
-qualitative data,researcher bias
Structured
-looking for specific behaviour
-quantitative data, easy to analyse& compare

Question 22

What are the 2 types of sampling?

Answer 22

Time sampling
Recording behaviour in intervals, predetermined times
+reduces number of observations needed
-my not represent behaviour correctly, if the behaviour happens in between
Event sampling
Counting how many times a certain behaviour happens (tally chart) over a whole activity
+helpful with less frequent events e.g sneezing