Research Methods Flashcards
What is random allocation?
assigning participants to experimental and control groups randomly to be fair
What is a questionaire?
a set of questions designed to collect self report data
What is a research hypothesis?
a prediction on how variables will interaction with eachother
a testable theory
What is a variable?
a measurable thing than can change in type and quantity
What is a confounding variable?
any variable but IV that has an unwanted effect on the DV
makes it hard to determine what variable changed the DV
What is an independent groups design?
where participants are randomly allocated to two or more separate conditions
Whats a matched participants design?
where participants in each condition match or have similar characteristics to the participants in other conditions
What is an independent variable?
a variable manipulated/changed by the researcher
tests the effects on the DV
What is external validity?
the extent of how well the results of the experiment can be generalised to the population
population includes sample and outer community
What is convenience sampling?
selecting participants who are readily available without attempting to make a sample of greater population
harder to generalise
What is population?
the large group from which the sample is selected from
results will be generalised to that particular population
What is sampling?
process of selecting participants from population
What is qualitative data?
Data about qualities or characteristics of participants experiences of the study
What is a repeated measure design?
each participant is in both experiment and control groups
What is an experimental group?
participants are being tested/exposed with the IV
What is a representative sample?
a sample that approximately is similar to the targeted population
What is generalisation?
how widely the results of an experiment can be applied to the targeted population
What is stratified sampling?
dividing population into 2 groups, then dividing those groups again to achieve a sample
What is the mean?
the mathematic average of all the scores in the results
What is research merit and integrity?
refers to research that is worthwhile scientifically and conducted with genuinely for scientific commitment
What is quantitive data?
numerical data on the quantity of whats being studied
What is internal validity?
how accurate the results are because of the variables that were tested
What is reliability?
how consistent, stable, and dependable the results are
What is validity?
how well the procedure used to research measured what they wanted to study
What is an extraneous variable?
any variable other than IV than can change the DV and create unwanted results
What is the control group?
the group in an experiment not tested on/exposed to IV
used for comparison for experimental group
What is the dependant variable?
the variable that changes because of the IV
used to measure the effects
What is the conclusion?
a decision made about the meaning of the results
What are measures of variation?
a score indicating how widely scores are spread in reference to a central point
What is random sampling?
giving every member of population an equal chance of being selected as a participant
What is operationalising?
explaining how to use procedures to measure IV and DV
What are standardised instructions?
identical instructions are given to participants
What is a placebo?
in fake substance or treatment designed to make people think they’re getting treated for real
What is the experimenter effect?
unwanted influence on the results because of the research themselves
What are standardized procedures?
use the of the same procedures for participants
What is counterbalancing?
changing the order or treatment/tasks in a balanced way to counter unwanted effects on performance in conditions
What is an observational study?
collecting data by watching or recording behaviours of participants
subjective measure
What is a self report
the writing or spoken responses to questions/statements from participants
subjective and can be biased
What is an interview?
questions asked by a researcher to get self report data
can be structured or semistrcutered, maybe not at all
What is naturalistic observation?
observing a behaviour in its natural state/environment
What are inferential statistics?
mathematic procedure to interpret results
whats a double blind procedure?
when the participants and the researcher involved with them are unaware of the conditions they’ll be experimented on
what is a single blind procedure
a procedure where participants arent aware of what condition they’re part of and what experimental treatment they’ll have
What is standard deviation?
describes how far a set of scores are set out or deviate from the mean of those scores
What are descriptive statistics?
mathematical procedures that analyse, summarise and present results
What is the cohort effect?
the participants thoughts/feelings/behaviours that attribute to age specific or population wide experiences
What is a cross sectional study?
the selection and comparison of groups of participants on specific variables?
What is the order effect?
when participant responses alter the DV because of the specific order the experiment was conducted
What is a measure of central tendancy?
The central value of all the scores
What is a biased sample
a sample where certain people were selected so may not represent population as fairly
