Resarch Methods Flashcards
Interviews evaluation
Strengths:can be flexible, can tackle sensitive topics
Weaknesses: lots of time, effort and money, limit on responses
Interview
Face to face questions to produce qual data, questions may be decided on the spot
Opportunity sampling
Selecting participants because of their ability
Independent group design
Each participant selected from 1 group
Matches pair designs
2 desperate groups of people who are matched on a 1 to 1 basis-individual differences:(
Repeated measure design
Same participants for both groups-might be order effects :( less concern for individual differences :)
Volunteer sampling
When participants volunteer to be part of the experiment
Random sampling
When every person has equal chance of being picked-coin toss, hat pick
Case studies
In depth study of a case usually taken from small group. Mainly gathered through obs and int,
Case studies evaluation
Strengths:not much intervening and no demand characteristics
Weak:researcher doesn’t control experiment so they can lose control
Protection from harm
Participants should not experience greater degree of harm than they expected
Field experiment
Experiment done in everyday environments of the participants
Field evaluation
:) reflects real life, less likelihood of demand characteristics
:( less control over extraneous variables so it’s hard to repeat
Independent variable
The variable you manipulate in order to effect the dv
Natural experiment
Experiments in natural environments
Natural experiment evaluation
:) Reflects real life, less likely hood of demand characteristics
:( may be time consuming, no control over extraneous variables
Right to withdraw
Participants should be given the right to leave the experiment at any given time and have the right to withdraw their data
Qual data
Data presented to describe in word form
Deception
Deceiving participant should be avoided to not infringe the rights of participant
Lab experiment
Experiment controlled in laboratory
Lab experiment evaluation
:) easy to replicate and control IV’s
:( lacks mundane realism, demand characteristics
Informal consent
Participants should be able to know what the study is and give consent before they take part
Privacy
Participants identities should remain anonymous
Dependent variable
Variable you measure
Observation
When behaviour is observed and recorded with no attempt to influence behaviour
Observation evaluation
:) it can identify the correct hypothesis, it can see if lab findings apply outside a lab
:( lack of control, observer effects, hard to generalise
Questionnaire
Series of questions to gather info in certain areas
Questionnaire evaluation
:) simple, quick, researchers don’t influence participants
:( misinterpretations, social desirability, bad response rate
