Research Methods Flashcards
Advantages of Questionnaires
- Highly replicable
- Time and Cost efficient; Large sample, more data
- Less investigator effects; Researchers don’t need to be present, improves validity
Disadvantages of Questionnaires
- May modify their answers, reduces validity
- Biased towards more literate people; reduces population validity
- Participants are unable to ask for help with unclear questions
Advantages of Interviews
- Appropriate for dealing with sensitive topics
- Since researcher is present, any issues can be cleared up
- Lots of data gathered
Disadvantages of Interviews
- Time consuming to prepare, conduct and analyse
- Demand characteristics/ Social Desirability bias, reduces validity
- Low inter-rater reliability between interviews
Case Study
An in depth study of just one individual.
Allows researchers to investigate unique cases in a lot of detail.
Advantages of Case Studies
- Rich and Interesting Data
- Unique cases can challenge existing ideas and theories
Disadvantages of Case Studies
- Only a limited number of people are investigated
- Difficult to generalize and replicate
- Data may be unrealiable due to subjective/ biased recall by the researcher
Advantages of Observations
- High ecological validity
- Allows researchers to investigate topics that might be unethical to experiment
Disadvantages of Observations
- If participants are aware, behaviour might be unnatural; Lacks ecological validity
- Ethical issues ( Informed consent, Confidentiality, Right to Withdraw)
- Low reliability; difficult to replicate
Advantages of Content Analysis
- Easy to replicate; findings are reliable
- High ecological validity because it’s based on results gathered in natural settings
- Easy to present qualitative data in an easy way
Disadvantages of Content Analysis
- Low validity
- Extremely time consuming
- Ethical issues
Disadvantages of Correctional Analysis
- Can’t establish cause and effect between variables
Advantages of Lab Experiment
- Controlled environment so it’s easy to replicate; check reliability
Disadvantages of Lab Experiment
- Demand characteristics
- Cannot be applicable to real life situations; Highly artificial
Advantages of Field Experiment
- Higher ecologility validity due to real life setting; Generalisable
- Low demand characteristics
Disadvantages of Field Experiment
- No control over the participants
- Less control over IV and measuring DV
- Cannot be generalized
Advantages of Natural Experiment
- Reduced demand characteristics
- Investigator doesn’t intervene
Disadvantages of Natural Experiment
- Investigator doesn’t control the IV
- A cause/ effect relationship is difficult to establish
- Ethical issues (Confidentiality, Right to Withdraw)
Experimental Designs
1) Independent Groups
2) Repeated Measures
3) Matched Pairs
Advantages of Independent Groups
- Each participants only takes part once
- Order effect, such as boredom, tiredness and learning is reduced; Increases validity
Disadvantages of Independent Groups
- A lot of participants needed hence expensive
- Individual differences may negatively effect the results
Independent Groups
Using different participants for each condition of the experiment
Repeated Measures
Same participants are used in both conditions
Advantages of Repeated Measures
- Fewer participants are required; cost effective
- Individual differences
