Research Types Flashcards
What are the types of extraneous variables?
- Participant
- Situational
- Experimenter
What are some key features of experimental designs?
- Researcher purposely manipulates independent variable
- Random allocation of participants to control group and experimental group
- Comparison of control and experimental group to see if there has been an effect
What are the types of groups in an experimental design?
- Experimental group
- Control group
- Random Allocation
What is the experimental group in a research design?
Are exposed to the independent variable (receives the “treatment”). The treatment (IV) is the hypothesised cause of any variation in the dependent variable.
What is the control group in an experimental design?
Are not exposed to the treatment (that is the independent variable is absent) They provide baseline data against which the experimental group data can be compared.
What is the random allocation group in a research design?
If allocation is by random assignment, experiments allow conclusions about cause.
What are some experimental design advantages?
- The experimenter attempts to eliminate unwanted extraneous variables
- Control over extraneous variables is usually greater than in other research methods
- Experimental design involves manipulating the IV to observe the effect on the DV and comparison between experimental and control groups. This makes it possible to determine a cause and effect relationship.
- Because of strict conditions and control the experimenter can set up the experiment again and repeat or ‘check’ their results.
- Replication is very important as when similar results are obtained this gives greater confidence in the results, increasing reliability
What are some experimental research design disadvantages?
- Elimination of extraneous variables is not always possible
- Experimental situation may not relate to the real world (low ecological validity)
- It may be unethical or impossible to randomly assign people to groups.
What are some key features of an observational design?
- Independent variable already exists and naturally varies (pre-existing data)
- Observing behaviour in natural environment
What are some advantages of an observational design?
- Quantitative Observational designs allow variables to be investigated that would be unethical, impossible or too costly under an experimental design.
- Some kinds of behaviour can only be observed in a naturalistic setting (eg unethical to deprive children in early life to observe effects later in life)
- High ecological validity (is true to real life situations)
What are some disadvantages of observational designs?
- Cannot infer such a strong cause and effect relationship because there is a greater chance of other variables affecting the results (extraneous variables) due to low control.
- Cannot replicate the findings as the same situation will not occur naturally again
- Observer bias may influence the results
What are some key features of focus groups?
- 8 to 10 participants
- Note taker and facilitator are very important
What are some focus group advantages?
- Rich verbal data can be collected
- Open ended complex problems can be studied
- Useful for collecting information from people who are unable to read or write (illiterate)
- May allow formation of further ideas for more specific research
What are some focus group disadvantages?
- People may not feel comfortable expressing opinions in front of others
- A few people may dominate the discussion
- Interviewer bias may contaminate the results
- Cannot establish causation
- The data from a focus group should not be interpreted to be representative of the entire population
What are some key features of the Delphi Technique?
- A series of questionnaires sent out to a group of people asking their opinion on a complex problem
- From step 1, opinions are grouped into themes and reorganised. Questionnaires redistributed.
- Usually repeated until consensus is reached
