Research Methods Definitions Flashcards
Controlled Observations
participants observed in a lab, so increases control and reliability but decreases ecological validity
Correlation
The extent to which two variables are related to each other.
Covert observation
Participants do not know they are being observed
- reduces demand characteristics
- raises ethical concerns
experiment
A research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process
Field Experiment
conducted in real life setting
- reduces control on extraneous variables
- increases ecological validity
Interviews
Self report method where participants answer questions in face to face situations
Lab experiment
conducted in a controlled
- can control extraneous variables
Natural Experiment
independent variable already exists is tested in its natural environment
- reduces control on extraneous variable
- allows experiment of variables that cannot be ethically be created
Naturalistic Observation
Participants observed in their natural environment
- increases ecological validity
- decreases control over extraneous variables
Non-participant observation
when the researcher observes Behaviour without participating in that behaviour
- reduces insight that could be received with participant
- allows higher objectivity
Observation
type o data collection in which participants’ behaviours are being watched
Overt observation
Participants know they are being observed
- increases demand characteristics
- increases chance of screw you or please you effect
- informed consent taken
participant observation a
research method in which investigators systematically observe people while joining them in their routine activities
- highly valuable qualitative data can be collected
- reduces objectivity of the researcher
Quasi experiment
An experiment in which investigators make use of control and experimental groups that already exist in the world at large. Also called a mixed design.
‘ natural experiment’
Questionnaires
self report techniques in which participants are given pre decided questions, allows anonymity
Structured Interviews
interviews in which all applicants are asked the same set of standardized questions, usually including situational, behavioral, background, and job-knowledge questions
- consists of closed questions
- repeatable
unstructured interview
no fixed set of questions and no systematic scoring procedure
involves asking probing questions to find out what the applicant is like
Aims
purpose of the experiment
Behavioural categories
Used during observations in which participants behaviours are operated into more specific components
confounding variables
a type of extraneous variable that is related to the independent variable
Counterbalancing
makes half of the participants go through the conditions of the experiment in one order and the other half go through the conditions in the opposite order
Demand Characteristics
changes in the participants behaviours to either go with or against the researchers hypothesis
Event sampling
used in observations when the researcher records every time the participants behave a certain way or an event occurs
Extraneous variables
variables other than the independent variable that have an effect of the dependent variable
hypothesis
prediction of outcome of the experiment
independent groups
different participants involved in different conditions
investigations effects
unconscious changes to the investigation behaviour to comply with the hypothesis
matched pairs
participants in different conditions are matched on certain variable to reduce the effect of participant variables
operationalisation
clearly stated or objectifies the variables
opportunity sampling
obtaining a sample of people from the population who are willing and available at the time of collecting the sample
peer review
work assessed by other people with similar expertise of the field
pilot studies
mock study to ensure clarity of the investigation
repeated measures
same participants undergo all the conditions of the experiment
stratified sampling
establishing sub groups within the population and picking participants to create a representative sample
systematic sampling
to pick participants evenly distributed throughout the population
time sampling
observer records specific behaviours in specific time intervals
volunteer sampling
using participants that volunteer to take part in the study
one-tailed test
A hypothesis test in which rejection of the null hypothesis occurs for values of the test statistic in one tail of its sampling distribution.
for directional hypothesis
two-tailed test
A hypothesis test in which rejection of the null hypothesis occurs for values of the test statistic in either tail of its sampling distribution
for non directional hypothesis
Mean
Most sensitive, representative and can be easily distorted by anamolies
Median
Not affected by extreme values but is less sensitive than the mean
Mode
Easy to calculate but is crude and unrepresentative
Range
Easy to calculate but may be unrepresentative of the whole data set
Standard deviation
Much more precise than the range but can be easily distorted by extreme values
Peer review
Funding, validation, improvements
Correlation coefficient
Represents strength ad direction of relationship
Case studies
Detailed analysis of an unusual individual or event
Content analysis
A form of observation in which communication is studied indirectly
Internal validity
The extent to which something measures what it was deigned to measure
External validity
Whether findings can be generalised
Ecological validity
Whether findings can be generalised from one setting to other settings
Temporal validity
Whether findings hold true over time
Face validity
Wether a test measures what it is suppose to one the face of it
Concurrent validity
Whether results match with a previously established test
meta analysis
the process by which the researcher collates a wide rage of previously conducted research in the specific area and is reviewed together
