Research Methods Flashcards
What is the purpose of research?
-Understanding why something happens
-Finding how prominent an issue is (how much it is happening),
-Finding out more,
-Making change-
E.g. Policies, Procedures, Diagnosis.
What is a lab experiment?
Takes place in a controlled setting, such as a laboratory.
What is a field experiment?
The experiment is conducted in the field which is often outside of a controlled environment.
The field: a place relevant to the study.
For example- a study on teaching methods might be carried out in a classroom/school.
What is a natural experiment?
When a phenomena occurs naturally, providing the opportunity for researchers to find out more about something they would not ordinarily have access to study.
What is a quasi experiment?
An experiment where groups of participants are naturally assigned.
For example, in a study on the effects of caffeine in humans under 20 in comparison to those over 20, participants would be naturally assigned to groups by age.
This differs to the bobo doll study, where children were randomly assigned to their group.
What is the independent variable in a study?
Changes
What is a dependent variable?
what being is measured
Name a benefit to a natural experiment
-Take place in the real world and so have high ecological validity.
-Participants might not know they are being studied or what for, lower chance of demand characteristics.
Name a benefit to a lab experiment
-Has high internal validity- having a controlled environment reduces the risk of extraneous variables.
-Easy to replicate, and therefore hold high reliability.
Name a benefit to a field experiment
-Take place in the real world and so have high ecological validity.
-Participants might not know they are being studied or what for, lower chance of demand characteristics.
Name a benefit to a quasi experiment
-Easier to generalise than randomised groups,
Name an issue to a natural experiment
-Hard to control, so have higher risk of extraneous variables,
-Rarely occur and so are often impossible to replicate and so results can be unreliable.
Name an issue to a quasi experiment
-No cause and effect as randomisation is not possible.
Name an issue to a field experiment
-Hard to control, so have higher risk of extraneous variables,
-Harder to replicate and so results can be unreliable.
Name an issue to a lab experiment
-Can be prone to demand characteristics, and researcher bias,
-Do not hold ecological validity as a controlled environment does not often reflect real life.
