Research Methods Flashcards
What is an aim?
2 things it should seek to do
Inviolves deciding the purpose of the investigations.
- describe what the investigation is finding out
- be clear and uncomplicated
what is a variable?
something that can change or vary in amount or type and is measureable
what is an independent variable
variable that is changed to measure the effect on the dv
what is a dependent variable
what is observed or measured
what type of relationship does the iv and dv have
cause and effect relationship
what is an extraneous variable?
any variable other than the iv that MAY cause a chgange in the dv which affects results
what is a confounding variable?
a type of extraneous variable that DID cause an affect on the DV
what are controlled variables?
variables that may influence the DV so needs to be held constant to remove potential effects
what is a hypothesis and what are 3 things it should include
a hypothesis is a testable prediction of how the IV will effect the DV
- events that can be tested
- expected direction
- clear and defines
what is a theory and model?
theory - a general explanation of a set of observatons or findings about behaviours and mental processes which seem to be related.
model - represebts how behvauour or mental precoess could occur
what is random sampling?
1 strength and limitation
every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected.
- minimises differences in partiicpant characteristics
- can only be done if a complete list of population is available
what is stratified sampling
identifying all of the people within each strata of the research interest, then randomly selcting samples of proportionate size within each strata
- time consuming and expensive
what is random allocation?
every participnt has an equal chance of being in either the experimental or the control group
what are three sources of error
- random errors: occur randomly and are hard to predict
- systematic errors: produced by a factor that consistently favours one condition rather than the other
- personal errors: mistakes made by the researcher
what are order effects?
a type of extraneous varibale that occurs during within subjects’ experiments
the performance on the DV can be influenced by the specific order in which the experimental task are presented.
what is a within subjects design
1 advanatge and disadvantage
all subjects participate in all experiemental conditions
- a lower # of participants is needed
- - time consuming