Research Methods (PAPER 2)

Question 1

(AO1) What are the 3 main types of experiment?

Answer 1

Lab, Field, Natural.

Question 2

(AO1) What is a lab experiment?

Answer 2

Highly controlled, artificial setting.

Question 3

(AO3) What’s a strength and limitation of lab experiments?

Answer 3

✔ High control → replicable
✘ Low ecological validity → artificial tasks

Question 4

(AO1) What is a field experiment?

Answer 4

Conducted in a natural setting, but with some manipulation of IV.

Question 5

(AO3) What’s a strength of field experiments?

Answer 5

Higher external validity than lab studies.

Question 6

(AO1) What is a natural experiment?

Answer 6

IV is naturally occurring (e.g. comparing boys/girls); no manipulation.

Question 7

(AO1) What is a naturalistic observation?

Answer 7

Watching behaviour in a natural environment without interference.

Question 8

(AO1) What’s the difference between overt and covert observation?

Answer 8

Overt = participants know; Covert = they don’t.

Question 9

(AO1) What’s the difference between participant and non-participant observation?

Answer 9

Participant = researcher joins in; Non-participant = observes from the outside.

Question 10

(AO3) What’s a major issue with covert observation?

Answer 10

Ethical issues — no informed consent.

Question 11

(AO1) What are the 3 experimental designs?

Answer 11

Independent groups, Repeated measures, Matched pairs.

Question 11

(AO3) What is a weakness of repeated measures?

Answer 11

Order effects (e.g. fatigue or practice).

Question 12

(AO3) How can order effects be reduced?

Answer 12

Counterbalancing (e.g., AB/BA method).

Question 13

(AO1) What are 5 types of sampling?

Answer 13

Random, Opportunity, Volunteer, Stratified, Systematic.

Question 14

(AO3) What’s a limitation of opportunity sampling?

Answer 14

May be biased — not representative of target population.

Question 15

(AO3) What’s a strength of stratified sampling?

Answer 15

Ensures representative subgroups — better generalisability.

Question 16

(AO1) What are the 4 major ethical principles?

Answer 16

Informed Consent, Deception, Protection from Harm, Confidentiality.

Question 17

(AO1) What’s the role of a debrief?

Answer 17

To explain the true aims after the study and restore participants to their original state.

Question 18

(Application) Milgram’s study broke which ethical rules?

Answer 18

Deception, protection from psychological harm, right to withdraw (discouraged).

Question 19

(AO1) What’s the difference between qualitative and quantitative data?

Answer 19

Qualitative = words/meaning; Quantitative = numbers/statistics.

Question 20

(AO3) Strength of qualitative data?

Answer 20

Rich and detailed — insight into thoughts and feelings.

Question 21

(AO3) Limitation of quantitative data?

Answer 21

May lack depth or context — more superficial.

Question 22

(AO1) What is primary vs secondary data?

Answer 22

Primary = collected directly by researcher; Secondary = pre-existing data.

Question 23

(AO3) What is a strength of using the mean?

Answer 23

Takes all scores into account.

Question 24

(AO1) What are the 3 measures of central tendency?

Answer 24

Mean, Median, Mode.

Question 25

(AO3) What’s a weakness of using the mean?

Answer 25

Affected by extreme values (outliers).

Question 26

(AO1) What are 2 main measures of dispersion?

Answer 26

Range and Standard Deviation (SD).

Question 26

(AO3) Why is SD preferred over range?

Answer 26

SD is more accurate — considers all values in the data set.

Question 27

(AO1) When do you use a bar chart vs histogram?

Answer 27

Bar = discrete data; Histogram = continuous data.

Question 28

(AO1) What does a normal distribution look like?

Answer 28

Symmetrical bell curve — mean, median, mode all the same.

Question 29

(AO1) What’s a skewed distribution?

Answer 29

Data that leans to one side — positive skew = tail on right; negative skew = tail on left.

Question 30

(AO1) What is the difference between directional and non-directional hypotheses?

Answer 30

Directional = predicts the direction of effect (e.g. increase); Non-directional = just predicts a difference.

Question 31

(AO1) What is a null hypothesis?

Answer 31

Predicts no effect or difference between conditions.

Question 32

(AO1) What is internal validity?

Answer 32

Whether the study actually measured what it intended to.

Question 33

(AO1) What is ecological validity?

Answer 33

How well findings generalise to real-life settings.

Question 34

(AO1) What is reliability?

Answer 34

Consistency of a measure — over time or between observers.

Question 35

(AO3) How can you improve reliability in observations?

Answer 35

Use multiple observers and calculate inter-rater reliability.

Question 36

(AO1) What are the 3 criteria for choosing a stats test?

Answer 36

Type of data, Design, Difference or Correlation?

Question 37

(AO1) What’s the test for correlation with ordinal data?

Answer 37

Spearman’s rho.

Question 38

(AO1) What’s the test for difference, repeated measures + ordinal data?

Answer 38

Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

Question 38

(AO1) What does p < 0.05 mean?

Answer 38

Less than 5% probability that results were due to chance — statistically significant.

Question 39

(AO1) What is peer review?

Answer 39

Independent assessment of research by other experts in the field.

Question 40

(AO1) Why is peer review important?

Answer 40

Ensures validity, quality, and prevents bias in published research.

Question 41

(Application) How can psychology impact the economy?

Answer 41

CBT reduces costs of long-term mental health treatment → fewer sick days, higher productivity.