RESEARCH METHODS Flashcards
Robert conducts research into long-term memory. He uses a questionnaire. Outline one advantage of using a questionnaire.
One advantage is that large amounts of information can be gathered fairly quickly and cheaply from a large number of respondents within a fairly short period of time.
What does the term quantitative data mean?
This is data which is represented in numerical form.
Using the same format as the example below, name a further two more sampling methods and provide one strength and one weakness for each method.
Sampling Method: Opportunity
Strength: Less time-consuming to find participants
Weakness: Biased - likely to be drawn from a small part of the population
Sampling Method: Random
Strength: This sampling method should eliminate any sampling bias or experimenter bias. Each member of the target population has the same probability of being chosen.
Weakness: It can be time-consuming and by chance the researcher may end up with an unrepresentative sample. Some of the chosen participants could simply refuse to take part in the study.
Sampling Method: Volunteer
Strength: It is quick and economical. More ethical, as participants will have approached the researcher of their own accord.
Weakness: Those who respond to adverts all tend to display similar characteristics, e.g. more helpful, confident and caring than those that do not apply. Therefore, it can be unrepresentative.
An experiment investigates whether drug A makes you more sleepy than drug B. Group 1 was given drug A whereas a different group of participants (Group 2) was given drug B. There was also a control group (another group of participants) who didn’t receive either drug A or drug B. What experimental design was chosen for this experiment?
Independent measures design, as different participants experience each condition. Therefore, each group of participants will only experience one condition.
Explain one strength and one weakness of Independent measures design.
One strength of this design is there are no order effects. Order effects can either cause an improvement or a deterioration in performance.
A weakness is that there are greater participant variables as participants will have different backgrounds, different personalities, different beliefs, etc.
These are called individual differences.
What is the strength of a natural experiment?
A strength of a natural experiment is that it allows the study of things that can’t be manipulated for ethical or practical reasons.
With reference to the data below,
work out the mode and explain how the mode is calculated.
12, 9, 14, 11, 10, 9, 10, 13, 3, 20
The mode is the number which occurs most often in a set of data.
Sometimes there can be more than one mode.
There are two modes - 9 and 10 - therefore this is bi-modal.
What is a normal distribution?
This is the bell-shaped frequency distribution in which the mean, median and mode are very similar or the same.
Identify the IV and DV in the following study: Robert and his friends conducted a study to determine whether how long a student sleeps affects memory scores.
IV is length of time sleeping and DV is the memory test score.
What is the difference between internal and external validity?
Internal validity is whether the measures used in a test genuinely test what they were designed to test, whereas external validity is whether the findings are generalisable to the target population.
What is a meta-analysis?
A. A type of case-study
B. A type of experiment
C. A procedure to merge and analyse findings from a number of studies
D. A procedure to observe behaviour
C. A procedure to merge and analyse findings from a number of studies
What is Qualitative data?
A. Descriptive data e.g. words or pictures
B. Data that has to be discarded
C. Data collected for a specific purpose
D. Numerical data
A. Descriptive data e.g. words or pictures
What is the x-axis?
A. The horizontal line along the base of a chart/graph
B. The title of a scatter diagram
C. The vertical line at the side of a chart/graph
D. A graph which shows correlation
A. The horizontal line along the base of a chart/graph
Which of the following is an open question?
A. Using a scale of 1-10 how positive is your attitude towards video games?
B. What are your feelings about video games?
C. Do you go to the gym regularly?
D. Do you think there should be more speed cameras?
B. What are your feelings about video games?
What is the IV?
A. It is the variable you control in an experiment
B. It is the variable which is measured in an experiment
C. A variable that the researcher fails to control or eliminate
D. A variable that the researcher did not intentionally study
A. It is the variable you control in an experiment
