Research designs Flashcards
What is a research design?
“refers to the overall strategy a researcher chooses to investigate the research problem and test their hypothesis. The research design a psychologist chooses may have an effect on the validity of the study.
What is a Independent measures ( between-subjects) design?
Members of the sample are randomly allocated to one condition of the experiment
What is a repeated measures (within-subjects) design?
One sample of participants receiving each condition of the experiment (all participants do both conditions)
What is a matched pairs design?
People are not randomly allocated to conditions
People are usually pre-tested with regard to the variable
They are ‘matched’ based on trait
E.g.
People’s memory pre-tested
Poorest memorisers allocated into one condition
Best memorisers allocated into the other condition
What are participant variables?
“These are extraneous variables that are related to individual characteristics of each participant that may impact how he or she responds
E.g. mood, anxiety, background differences, intelligence, and other characteristics that a unique to a person
What is an order effect?
“Refers to differences in research participants’ responses that result from the order (e.g. first, second, third) in which the experimental materials are presented to them.
These can be affected by such factors as boredom, practice, or fatigue.”
How do you eliminate an order effect?
By counterbalancing which is the systematic variation of the order of conditions in a study”
What are demand characteristics?
“Refers to a subtle cue that makes participants aware of what the experimenter expects to find or how participants are expected to behave. This may subconsciously change their behaviour to fit in with their interpretation.
What is the demand characteristic expectancy effect?
“a form of reactivity that occurs when a research subject expects a given result and therefore unconsciously affects the outcome, or reports the expected result.”
What is the demand characteristic the screw-you effect?
“the participants attempts to discern the experimenter’s hypothesis
What are Confounding (extraneous/third) variables?
“An ‘extra’ variable that the researcher didn’t account for. It influences both the dependent variable and independent variable, causing a spurious association. It can ruin an experiment and give invalid results.” e.g. external noise not part of the experiment
What is internal validity?
The extent to which the effects observed in a study are due to the manipulation of the independent variable and not some other factor
What is construct validity?
The degree to which a test or instrument is capable of measuring a theoretical concept or trait
What is inter-rater reliability?
Measures the agreement between subjective ratings by multiple observers
What is ecological validity?
A measure of how test performance predicts behaviours in real-world settings
