Threats to validity and dealing with them

Question 1

Demand characteristics

Answer 1

• a cue that makes participants unconsciously aware of the aims of the study which leads them to doing things that helps the researchers when it comes to their findings e.g being over co-operative and behaving artificially
• essentially want to be helpful and pay attention to the cues in the experiment that may guide their behaviour

e.g everyday demand characteristics
- when watching a football game at home you sit quietly whereas at a football ground you chant and jump up and down
-different situations ‘ demand’ different behaviour

Question 2

Experimental demand characteristics

Answer 2

• participants are unsure about what to do and usually look for clues to how they should behave and these clues are demand characteristics
  For example: a participant is given two memory tests ( repeated measures) at different times of the day — leads to participant trying to guess why and correctly work out what the study is focusing on which can lead to participant truing to perform the same on each test
• participants do not behave as they would usually and have altered their behaviour as a consequence of cues in the research

Question 3

Researcher bias

Answer 3

• anything that an investigator does that influences a participants performance in a study other than what was intended — includes direct effects and indirect effects
• information other than the IV from a researcher that encourages certain behaviours in the participant which may lead to a fulfilment of the investigator expectations

Question 4

How to deal with this?

Answer 4

Single blind design
- where the participant is not aware of the research aims or what condition they are partaking in - prevents participants seeking cues

Double blind design
- both the participant and person conducting the research are blind to the aims and hypotheses — leads to the Ps not seeking out cues as much

Experimental design
-the researcher makes an experimental take more engaging so the participant only pays attention to the task and not the fact that they are being observed