Research Methods

Question 1

What are the 3 types of experimental design?

Answer 1

Independent groups, repeated measures, matched pairs

Question 2

What is an advantage and disadvantage of independent groups?

Answer 2

:) No order effects

:( Participant variables may affect the results

Question 3

What is an advantage and disadvantage of repeated measures?

Answer 3

:) No participant variables as the participants in both conditions are the same
:( Order effects could be shown as participants have to do both conditions

Question 4

What is an advantage and disadvantage of matched pairs?

Answer 4

:) No order effects

:( Not always successful matching; participant variables may still be present

Question 5

What is the process of counterbalancing?

Answer 5

Half the participants complete condition 1 and then condition 2; other half complete condition 2 then condition 1

Question 6

What does counterbalancing do?

Answer 6

Removes/reduces order effects

Question 7

What is randomisation?

Answer 7

Using chance to produce an order for a procedure e.g. the order of a list of words pulled out a bag

Question 8

What are the advantages of experiments?

Answer 8

• controls EVs so the cause and effect can be easily identified
• objective because the procedures are set up so that researcher biases aren’t present

Question 9

What are the disadvantages of experiments?

Answer 9

• can be very artificial so can lack in ecological validity

- participants may know they’re in an experiment so show demand characteristics / social desirability

Question 10

What are the 4 sampling methods? Briefly outline what each one is.

Answer 10

Random: pulling names from a hat etc
Opportunity: choosing people who are members of the target population and are available and willing to take part
Systematic: selecting every nth person from the target population
Stratified: subgroups identified, proportion of the target population that the group represents is selected

Question 11

What is an advantage and disadvantage of random sampling?

Answer 11

:) No researcher bias

:( Not always representative

Question 12

What is an advantage and disadvantage of opportunity sampling?

Answer 12

:) Quick and easy

:( May have researcher bias, not likely to be representative

Question 13

What is an advantage and disadvantage of systematic sampling?

Answer 13

:) No researcher bias

:( May not be representative

Question 14

What is an advantage and disadvantage of stratified sampling?

Answer 14

:) Very representative

:( Very time-consuming

Question 15

What are the advantages and disadvantages of questionnaires?

Answer 15

:) Quick method to collect a large amount of data

:( No way of checking if the answers are true so the results could be misleading

Question 16

What are the advantages and disadvantages of open questions?

Answer 16

:) Allow people to explain their answers so the researcher knows why each answer has been given
:( Hard to find correlations between individual responses as each answer is different

Question 17

What are the advantages and disadvantages of closed questions?

Answer 17

:) Easy to score so lots of data can be analysed quickly
:( Respondents don’t have the opportunity to explain their answers so the researcher doesn’t know why they chose that particular response

Question 18

What are the advantages and disadvantages of interviews?

Answer 18

:) Produce large amounts of data and provide information about thoughts and feelings that cannot be found from observations
:( Researcher can’t always be sure the interviewee is telling the truth so the data may not be accurate

Question 19

What are the advantages and disadvantages of structured interviews?

Answer 19

:) Data can be collated and analysed easily
:( Lack detail and can be frustrating for the interviewer and interviewee as they can’t ask more questions or explain answers further

Question 20

What are the advantages and disadvantages of unstructured interviews?

Answer 20

:) Data is detailed and can have ecological validity

:( May be difficult to collate and analyse

Question 21

What are the advantages and disadvantages of observations?

Answer 21

:) High in ecological validity and record whole behaviours rather than single actions
:( Researchers don’t know why a certain behaviour was shown etc or an observer might make a mistake / miss some behaviour when recording
:( Ethical issues

Question 22

What is inter-observer reliability and what does it entail?

Answer 22

• two observers have a copy of the same record sheet and watch the same behaviour at the same time for the same period of time and then the two sheets are compared
• when these records match or are very similar they have established inter-observer reliability
• if the two cards are different, they are discarded

Question 23

What are the advantages and disadvantages of case studies?

Answer 23

:) Provide detailed information about individuals and records behaviour over time so the changes in behaviour can be seen
:( Can be very subjective as the method relies on the individual remembering events which may not be accurate and the psychologist’s interpretations of these events could be biased therefore making the case study unreliable

Question 24

What are the advantages and disadvantages of correlations?

Answer 24

:) allows a researcher to see if two variable are connected in some way so that they can carry out an experiment etc; can be used if an experiment would be impossible or unethical to carry out
:( doesn’t indicate which of the two variable caused the relationship to occur as it is sometimes the case that other variables are the cause of the pattern; also needs to be a large amount of data for it to be informative