Research Methods

Question 1

What is qualitative data?

Answer 1

any type of information that can be observed and recorded that is not numerical and can be in the form of written or verbal communication

Question 2

Strength of qualitative data

Answer 2

Hollistic - Allows participant to give an meaning and individual opinion

Question 3

Weakness of qualitative data

Answer 3

Hard to analyse - Hard to compare
Time consuming - Method of collection can be lengthy

Question 4

What is quantitative data?

Answer 4

Numerical data

Question 5

Strength of quantitative data

Answer 5

Objective - Cant be manipulated
Easy to compare - Inferential tests

Question 6

What is primary data?

Answer 6

First hand data collected for the purpose of the study

Question 7

Weakness of quantitative data

Answer 7

Reductionist - Participants can only answer specific words or numbers (yes/No), can’t expand

Question 8

weakness of primary data

Answer 8

Subjective - May be bias to what you have collected, to fit hypothesis

Question 9

Strength of primary data

Answer 9

Reliable - Know procedure, can replicate

Question 10

What is secondary data?

Answer 10

information collected by someone other than the person who is conducting the research (taken from journals)

Question 11

Strength of secondary data

Answer 11

Generalisable - More participants as multiple studies are used

Question 12

Weakness of secondary data

Answer 12

Representivness - Not representative of target population

Question 13

What is random sampling?

Answer 13

when every person in the target population has an equal chance of being selected

Question 14

Strength of random sampling

Answer 14

No bias - Everyone has an equal chance

Question 15

Weakness of random sampling

Answer 15

Not representative of target population - minority groups

Question 16

Strength of stratified sampling

Answer 16

Representative of target population - Minority groups included

Question 17

What is stratified sampling?

Answer 17

when you identify the subgroups and select participants in proportion to their occurrences.

Question 18

Weakness of stratified sampling

Answer 18

Time consuming - Process is lengthy

Question 19

What is volunteer sampling?

Answer 19

where participants pick themselves through newspaper adverts, noticeboards or online.

Question 20

Strength of volunteer sampling

Answer 20

Easy to gather sample - Quick as participants put themselves forward

Question 21

What is opportunity sampling?

Answer 21

uses people who are available at the time the study is carried out

Question 22

Weakness of volunteer sampling

Answer 22

Participants may share characteristics - As they are all volunteering for the same study, shown intrest into the topic area

Question 23

Strength of opportunity sampling

Answer 23

Easy to gather sample - Pick people who are available at the time to take part

Question 24

Weakness of opportunity sampling

Answer 24

Not representative - Share characteristics - Same place/Same time

Question 25

What is a directional hypothesis?

Answer 25

One tailed - State the specific direction the researcher expects the results to go in

Question 26

What is a non-directional hypothesis?

Answer 26

Two tailed - these state that a difference will be found between the conditions of the independent variable

Question 27

Strength of open question

Answer 27

Provide rich data

Question 28

Weakness of open question

Answer 28

Hard to analyse - Alot of data

Question 29

What is a structured interview?

Answer 29

The interview is standadised - Uses a fixed set of questions - Given to each participant in the same order

Question 30

Strength of structured interview

Answer 30

Standadised set of questions - increase validity - more accurate

Question 31

Weakness of structured interview

Question 32

What is a semi-structured interview?

Question 33

Strength of semi-structured interview

Question 34

Weakness of semi-structured interview

Question 35

what is an unstructured interview?

Question 36

Strength of unstructured interview

Question 37

Weakness of unstructured interview

Question 38

Strength of lab experiment

Answer 38

Standadised - controlled setting - more valid

Question 39

Weakness of lab experiment

Answer 39

Lacks ecological validity - Artifical settings - Increases demand characteristics

Question 40

Strength of field experiment

Answer 40

Ecologically valid - naturalistic setting - prevents demand characteristics

Question 41

Weakness of field experiment

Answer 41

Not standadised - Cant be controlled - extraneous variables

Question 42

Strength of covert observations

Answer 42

Valid - natural setting - prevents demand characteristics

Question 43

Weakness of covert observations

Answer 43

Lacks ethics - participants unaware they are being observed

Question 44

Strength of overt observations

Answer 44

Ethical - participants are aware they are being observed

Question 45

Weakness of overt observations

Answer 45

Lacks validity - as they are aware of observations - may act in a certain way to fit in - social desirability bias

Question 46

Strength of participant observations

Answer 46

Spend more time with participants - get a more indepth understanding of participants behaviour

Question 47

Weakness of participant observations

Answer 47

Social desirability bias - participant is aware of observations - act differently

Question 48

Strength of non-participant observations

Answer 48

More natural - observer can observe the situation more naturally - prevent demand characteristics

Question 49

Weakness of non-participant observations

Answer 49

Aware they are being observed - social desirability bias

Question 50

Strength of naturalistic observations

Answer 50

Ecologically valid - prevent demand characteristics

Question 51

Weakness of naturalistic observations

Answer 51

Lacks contol - cant be standadised - lacks validity

Question 52

What is controlled observations?

Answer 52

behaviour is observed under controlled laboratory conditions (Bandura’s Bobo doll study).

Question 53

Strength of controlled observations

Answer 53

Controlled setting - increases validity - standadised

Question 54

Weakness of controlled observations

Answer 54

Lacks ecological validity - This is because its set in a lab - not natural

Question 55

What are participant variables?

Question 56

What are situational variables?

Question 57

What is extraneous variables?

Question 58

What are confounding variables?

Question 59

What is an independent group design?

Answer 59

each participant is selected for only one group

Question 60

Strength of independent group design

Answer 60

No order effects - as each participants has a different condition - prevent demand characteristics

Question 61

Weakness of independent group design

Answer 61

Participant variables - all participants are different

Question 62

What is repeated measures?

Answer 62

each participant appears in both groups, so that there are exactly the same participants in each group

Question 63

Strength of repeated measures

Answer 63

Prevent participants variables - as each participants carries out all conditions

Question 64

Weakness of repeated measures

Answer 64

Prevents chance of order effects - as the participant could discover what factor the researcher is looking for

Question 65

What is matched pairs?

Answer 65

each participant is selected for only one group, but the participants in the two groups are matched (e.g. ability; sex; age).

Question 66

Strength of matched pairs

Answer 66

Reduces participant variables - dependent on what they are matched on

Question 67

Weakness of matched pairs

Answer 67

Time consuming - can be hard to match participants

Question 68

What is a content analysis?

Answer 68

- An observation - Indirect, through magazines and TV programmes - Analyse qualitative data -

Question 69

How do you carry out a content analysis?

Answer 69

1. Data collected 2. Examine data 3. Identify themes 4. Data analysed and placed in categories 5. Tally of how much a theme/category appears

Question 70

Strength of content analysis

Answer 70

- Ecologically valid, this is because the data is collected from observations - Easy and not time consuming

Question 71

Weakness of content analysis

Answer 71

- The data may be subjective, because of researcher bias, may interpret the observations differently

Question 72

What is correlational research?

Question 73

What is longitudinal analysis?

Question 74

What is cross cultural analysis?

Question 75

What is cross sectional analysis?

Question 76

What is a meta-analysis?

Question 77

What is counterbalancing?

Answer 77

To prevent order effects - split the group into sub-groups - one sub-group does the experimental condition first - the other sub-group does it the other way round.

Question 78

What are order effects?

Answer 78

This is when the participants experience every condition which can cause the participant to figure out the purpose of the study

Question 79

What is social desirability bias?

Answer 79

When participants answer based on what they think will make them look better to others, fit social norms

Question 80

What are demand characteristics?

Answer 80

When participants figure out the aim of the study and change their behaviour to fit

Question 81

What is grounded theory?

Question 82

What is a thematic analysis?