Research methods (non-experimental) Flashcards
What is a survey?
Kalex, a large amount of data by asking lots of people questions, either face-to-face, or by a questionnaire
What is a questionnaire?
Questionnaires are a preset list of questions, used to obtain both quantitive and qualitative data about the topic
What is quantitative data?
Information gathered from questions that can be written in numerical form and analysed mathematically
What is qualitative data?
Information gathered from questions that is rich, detailed and descriptive
What is a closed question?
Questions that are answered with a fixed response
What is an open question?
Questions that allow more details answers and opinions
What does it mean if somebody gives a socially desirable answer?
They are not giving an honest answer
What is a low response rate?
When researchers have problems getting questionnaires back
How many people make a representative sample?
50+
What is a structured interview?
A formal setting where preset questions are asked face-to-face
What is it unstructured interview?
A more informal setting where questions are developed during the course of the interview based on previous answers given
What is the interviewer affect?
The appearance of the interviewer can affect the interviewees response
Name the types of observation methods
- Time sampling
- Point sampling
- Event sampling
What is observer bias?
The observer may consciously or subconsciously only record information to prove the hypothesis to be correct
What is a participant observation?
The research you get involved in the study/task they are observing. This can be done covertly or overtly
What is non-participant observation?
The research does not get involved in the study/task they observe from afar
What is overt observation?
Participants are aware they are being observed
What is covert observation?
Participants are on the way they are being observed
What is natural observation?
Watching and recording people in the usual, real-life settings
What is a controlled observation?
Watching a recording people in a lab setting
What is a case study?
It’s an investigation of an individual or small group of people longitudinally, which provides qualitative data
What does ‘longitudinal’ mean?
Research carried out over a long period of time
What is a problem with a small/individual sample?
Low external validity - unrepresentative samples of results can’t be generalised to the rest of the target population
What is a correlation?
Correlations look for a relationship between two variables
What is a positive correlation?
As one variable increases, so does the other
What is a negative correlation?
As one variable increases the other one decreases
What does zero correlations mean?
That there is no relationship at all
How are correlations expressed?
In the form of a scatter graph
